Archive
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20 posts across 9 years. Jump to a year or scroll the timeline.
2026
3 posts- Smart Home
UniFi Protect 7.1.55: webhook shortcuts
UniFi Protect 7.1.55 added webhook shortcuts to the camera live view. I wired four to a single Home Assistant automation the same evening — one webhook, one query parameter, the room is sorted.
- Journal
A midweek table at Kallos, Salford
A stress-free Wednesday meze at Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar in Salford, with a sleeping toddler on my shoulder, a dome of blistered pita I now have to reverse-engineer, and a chickpea stew I'll be cooking for weeks.
- Journal
Fells, forests and family
L's first proper trip away — two nights in a Yorkshire cabin, off-grid, with Poppy, a fire pit facing the valley, and an unexpected film crew on the hillside.
2025
3 posts- Photography
Street art in an abandoned building
A Baby Yoda mural on a crumbling exterior wall, then inside: every surface covered in colour. Two images from a derelict find.
- Photography
Visiting Clarkson's pub, The Farmers Dog
Poppy, a pint of Hawkstone, and a farm gate with Cotswolds hills rolling out behind it. A visit to Jeremy Clarkson's pub near Burford.
- Journal
How I Fixed My Beloved Sage Oracle Touch Coffee Machine
Fixing a solenoid fault on my Sage Oracle Touch and the memories it preserves.
2021
2 posts- App Dev
Event access management Power App with external barcode scanning for passes
Building a kiosk Power App for event entry. External barcode scanners feed a hidden text input — fast, contact-free pass scanning for 500+ attendees.
- Smart Home
Smart dog training buttons
Smart pet buttons for our 8-week-old puppy Poppy. A Sonoff Zigbee button hidden inside a paw-embossed RF case, wired up to Home Assistant for text-to-speech.
2020
2 posts- Smart Home
Can you IoT an Airwick air freshener?
I IoT'd an Airwick. An ESP32, a 5V relay, ESPHome on the firmware, Home Assistant on top. Aesthetics non-negotiable; the unit had to look stock.
- Smart Home
Turn lights on and off with Windows Hello
Sit down at the desk, Windows Hello unlocks, the monitor backlight comes on. A Task Scheduler trigger calling the Home Assistant REST API, wired through one piece of 1990s VBScript.
2019
6 posts- Cooking
Delicate mushroom risotto
A delicate mushroom risotto in the spirit of Theo Randall and Marco Pierre White. Hot stock, careful stirring, a shaving of black truffle to finish.
- Photography
Little Moreton Hall
A weekend walk around Little Moreton Hall, a Tudor National Trust property in Cheshire that has settled, leaned and warped into a wonky timber masterpiece.
- Photography
Rutting Deer at Tatton Park
A misty autumn walk at Tatton Park turned into an unexpected wildlife shoot. Rutting stags, a Fuji X-T4, and a 500mm that wasn't quite long enough.
- Photography
Rufford Old Hall
An early-autumn walk at Rufford Old Hall, a Tudor National Trust property in Lancashire, with the canal towpath a few minutes away.
- App Dev
PowerShell to manage the modern SharePoint footer
180 SharePoint Online sites. 29 clicks each to configure the modern footer. That is 4,860 clicks. So I built a set of PnP PowerShell functions instead.
- Photography
Summer Snowflakes, not Snowdrops, at Dunham Massey
A spring walk at Dunham Massey turned into a botanical correction. What I had photographed as Snowdrops were actually Summer Snowflakes.