El Perro Negro

My brand new smartwatch arrived today. Garmin, Apple, Coros, Google, Fitbit? Nope. A Colmi P81. Unbelievably it only cost me €22. Yes, that includes shipping from the mysterious far-east warehouse where watches go to become… functional.

Just been setting it up. You know what? It does the job. Look, it doesn't have the bells and whistles of the fancy brands. Or really any whistles. But here's the thing: it works.

Tells time ✓ Sets alarms ✓ Tracks heart rate, blood pressure, sleep, exercise ✓ Even bluetooths with my phone if I suddenly decide I need notifications everytime somebody rings or emails me (n.b I don't). Even IP68 waterproof in case it ever rains again. And no, I'm not getting any commission for this!

So far so good. It hasn't exploded, cursed me in another language, run out of charge after an hours use, nor convinced me to buy a premium feature 🤣

A large earthquake of magnitude 5 shakes Granada: material damage, rescues and emergency activated.

Happened just after 1am. Some friends up the hill felt it but I was away with the fairies. Felt nothing 🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️🤣

Then thunder and lightning this morning but very little precipitation. Is the world falling to bits?

GranadaHoy Newspaper article

Looking up the Dilar valley to the Alayos range, Trevenque and the Cerro Huenes group. Behind are the Sierra Nevada. Taken during yesterdays a partial eclipse.

Taken from the peak of Boca de la Pesca in the Cumbres Verdes range near Granada yesterday evening

Bit of a disappointing trip. Nice ascent & quiet summit, picnic + wine, until 50+ others joined us with music, shouting etc. We headed off to an adjacent hill. Difficult to get shot during eclipse as no filters, but towards the end, as we were descending, we were rewarded for our efforts by the sun dropping into the evening haze near Granada.

Next year we'll do more research in advance and maybe know a bit more about how to shoot these things 😂

Some time ago I ordered a couple of Linux development handhelds that should be arriving late 2026 or early 2027. The tiny Cardputer Zero from M5Stack and a proper handheld the, interesting looking, Mecha Comet.

Given "enshittification", high prices etc I don't see myself ever buying a "proper" phone again. For me the future seems to be leading to a cheap "slop" phone (only for banks, govt ID etc) and a linux-based handheld reserved for my stuff only. Hopefully PostmarketOS on my OnePlus 6 will also be daily drivable by then, but if not, just maybe the Mecha Comet will fit the bill

A shout out here to Kev Quirks's, simple CMS blogging platform ... Pure Blog.

If, like me, you move your website platforms around a bit, after some 20+ years my website might just have found a more permanent home. Pure Blog is simple, does the basics well and avoids clutter. Best of all for me, it is easily installed on shared hosting.

Being able to create social micro blogs and integrate into the Fediverse means that both Blogs and Social Feeds can be created and shared from the same platform. This has made me change my workflow mindset into a website-first strategy. Everything I write now starts on my website.

My wife has subsequently moved her website over to Pure Blog and is also finding writing more of an enjoyment than a chore.

Give it a try but remember that this software is available at no cost ... if you can please try and support the developer.

Features (from Pureblog website):

• Flat-file content using Markdown and front matter.
• Clean, distraction-free admin dashboard for writing and organising posts/pages.
• Draft previews so you can check your work before publishing.
• Optional tags and tag archives for grouping related posts.
• Automatic pagination when your post list grows long.
• An RSS feed so readers can follow along however they like.
• Built-in search across post titles, descriptions, and content.
• A settings page that allows you to customise and configure your blog.

I guess it's "Caturday" so I should add this image of one of our Cats (Sweep) chilling out in the cool of the morning.

Been installing TrailMate on my old Lilygo T-Deck Plus (LoRa). This is an interesting project which supposedly helps hikers and field groups stay oriented when cell service is gone: browse offline maps from SD, send LoRa messages, check GPS health, and keep team movement visible on compact handhelds.

I like the fact that the interface gives you a choice of using Meshtastic, Meshcore or Retriculum as a base protocol. I chose Meshcore as that is what I am used to. The UI is clear and the Lora messaging functions well. The mapping down to zoom 17 level (necessary for mountain navigation imo) is installed and so tomorrow I am going for a hike to test and see how accurate and helpful this UI is during hiking.

Today I discovered Cooklang, a simple, human-readable text format for writing recipes that can be understood by both cooks and computers. In another move to #selfhost I imported all my old recipes and set up the Coolang system on my existing Raspberry Pi 5. Very lightweight on resources, easy to import new recipes and it's accesible from anywhere on my Tailnet.

Of course I then had to go and prepare something using the new instructions. So here is a creamy Aubergine Curry

A photo of our cat with very strange ears, Sooty. Rescued from some waste bins with her sister way back in 2019. Full of character and quite affectionate, when she wants to be 😀

Some snaps from this week's "Arista del Campanitas" scramble.

Feeling inspired, I'm drafting a blog titled "Treading the Fine Line Between Scrambling and Rock Climbing" — exploring that gloriously confusing grey zone where our discipline labels overlap.

First image traces the approximate route; the rest capture the kind of scenery that makes you forget your legs are burning.

Route over Campanitas ridge

Initial ascent of the Campanario Pinnacle

Passing by the summit of Salon

Ascending the initial wall of Fidel Fierro

Shows an ascent of Veleta in Spain's Sierra Nevada mountains via the scrambling route "Arista de Campanitas"

What a day yesterday. Lasting memories of that one for sure. Las Campanitas ridge to Veleta. A complex, dramatic route done without fuss or drama. Here's one with Linda at the summit of Salón 3325m with other members of our group scrambling up the right hand ridge

“What will this house be like in a hundred years Dad?”

"It will be a ruin, I tell him, the roof burned off, the windows shattered, the stones scorched, blackened and split. The people of the town will be mostly gone and as far as the eye can see, there will be wind-turbines, as Spain’s hollowed out interior becomes a vast solar park and windfarm for the megacities of the coast and the continent beyond."

An interesting read from James Mcconachie as he struggles to answer his son and considers the past, present and uncertain future of "La España vaciada", Spain's hollowed-out interior, an area known for wildfires, hailstorms and abandoned dwellings.

https://dark-mountain.net/labyrinth-of-silence/

On those hot, sticky days nearing 40°C, when I dream of cool mountain air above 3000 meters, I instead lock myself indoors to wrestle with gadgets and tech. Today's victim? An ancient 2009 Asus EEE HA1005 32-bit netbook with just 1GB RAM.

Alpine Linux mostly works. Shockingly fast for something that should have been e-waste a decade ago. Now I'm deep in Flatpak troubleshooting hell because apparently, modern app ecosystems weren't built for machines this charmingly archaic. Going round in circles, but hey, that's half the fun, right?

Enjoyed spending the day installing Alpine Linux on an old laptop. Runs very quick even with old hardware, low resources and my familiar Gnome desktop. Had some problems connecting wifi, tailscale etc but more down to my lack of knowledge of Alpine. Generally really happy with the result.

Why? PostmarketOS (on my OnePlus6) also uses Alpine Linux as a base and I suspect quite a few future linux handhelds might do similar. Understanding the base system important.

It's #MountainMonday and a very hot humid afternoon in southern Spain, so I thought I'd drop this image. It's from a few years ago in the extreme cold and clear blue skies of the winter Picos de Europe. Peña Regalia (2219) and Pico de la Padiorna (2314) with the Collado de Liordes between. Oh how I wish to be transported there 🤣 Right now!

Just installed Solar Assistant on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and for the first time I think I am understanding fully my solar set up. Good piece of software this.

https://solar-assistant.io/

Where's my water? Arko, standing in a dry "acequia" channel, on this mornings early morning dog walk.

I broke from the norm, photography wise, yesterday. Instead of the usual 28-60 lightweight zoom, I took a 50mm prime lens. Meant I had to work a little harder for shots and crop in sometimes during post processing but overall enjoyed the change and pleased with the results.