Cycles: 20260113-20260118

A few weeks ago I was wearing orange snowboarding salopettes in my work office in an attempt to stay warm. Today I had the door open, sure it was nippy but it felt almost felt like spring. I think about these micro weather cycles and what we’ll be experiencing in a decade.

I was determined to get out in the garden this weekend, if only to poke at a few things and get my hands dirty. Writing this on a Sunday, I’m content that my plans were met.

I started with the raised beds that sit alongside a sun-soaked out-building and opposite my garden work shed. Made from the reclaimed remains of our neighbour’s fence, they’ve survived two years in their current state and a mid-point relocation from one side of the garden to the other. It’s safe to say they’re days are numbered.

Last year they were overloaded with tomato plants, so much so that the Japanese squash struggled for attention from me or the sun’s rays. I’ve learned my mistake and won’t be defeated again this year.

In preparation of a new build I sorted the large chaotic pile of wood I’ve been collecting for such an occasion. Some of it is destined for the same fate as the beds but there’s probably enough for at least one, possibly two replacements.

Like a budget Monty Don, I was joined by Major, our lovable by doofus cat. This single braincell antics are endearing until he get a whiff of biodiversity, then out come the murder mittens. On several occasions I had to intervene with his instincts but whatever it was gave the slip to us both. Clever girl!

We’ve been deep in analysis and synthesis all week which doesn’t leave much headspace at the end of the day for being creative with words. My work hours have changed recently and I’ve been starting an hour earlier. This has afforded me a good hour or two to crack on with some deep work before Slack’s side panel lights up with greed dots. I’m work better in the morning so this works better for me, it’s still a challenge on these January mornings.

I’ve been using BBC micro:bit as a pomodoro timer these last few weeks in an attempt to timebox my day and sustain focus throughout day. The inbuilt five by five LED grid conveniently maps to a twenty five minute cycle; full display flash (start me), turn on one LED every minute, shake to restart. Over the weekend I updated it to scroll a message of ‘hydrate’ and ‘move’ after one cycle to encourage me to do both.

It really came into use when I was conducting thirty minute interviews. The continuous flashing at the twenty five minute mark was a useful visual notification for me to think about wrapping things up. I can see myself using this more often and customising the display for topics of conversation in my discussion guide.

I’ve not really been following January’s Grand Sumo but I did get around to building my Sumo Kaboom bingo card. I’d love to automate updating the data for this project from the official sumo website but I don’t have bandwidth for it right now. I have so many ideas for projects yet so little time.

I’ve tried several years to complete an entire year’s One Second Everyday but either started too late or finished too early. As I was starting up some new habits in the new year and wanted to have an excuse to get out of the house and start using my digital camera more I decided to give it a go.

This has been great motivation for me to get on my bike over lunch. Especially as my subject for my daily one second is the number of that day of the year. I’m currently on eighteen and I’ve already had some late-night treasure hunts around the house for the corresponding number. I’m trying to be as honest as I can. For me, that’s part of the challenge and adventure. I’m finding myself exploring side-roads I’ve never even noticed and looking in places I’d never thought to.

So if you’ve been wondering what the images are that have been accompanying this year’s cycles, now you know.