The rain stops long enough to take Jane and Davie a walk up the lochside.
AFTER breakfast I get the smoker going for tonight’s pork belly. Our pal’s Davie and Jane are coming for the night.
I also make a batch of Japanese BBQ sauce – we’ll have the pork belly win rice bowls with green beans as Jane is celiac and can’t eat gluten/wheat. Making the sauce I realise that there’s soy sauce in it which has wheat extract, so after the main batch I make a smaller amount of the same but using liquid aminos instead of soy sauce.
Mid-afternoon we’re all tidied and ready when they arrive. We chat over tea and coffee while the wind and rain howl outside. Later on the rain stops and things brighten enough to take our guests a wader up the lochside. It’s still really windy tho’!
Back home we chat and stuff until the pork is ready then I prepare dinner.
We have a grand night of food, drinks and chat – Davie is one of my long-time online guitar students (they’re based down in the borders) and Jane’s into a lot of outdoor stuff so there’s plenty to talk about.
UP EARLY to go to a climate action network meeting in Killearn. Margaret’s going in her role as secretary of the local community trust – I’m going as a director for the local community hydro scheme.
There’s a few folks I know there and we have a an interesting and informative morning with a brunch break mid-morning.
Back home we have another breakfast masquerading as lunch then I take a walk to Betty’s with a mock up of the audio point info panel I’ve been working on.
When I get back Catriona and the kids have arrived and we hag out for a couple of hours.
I have a new oline guitar student in Spain to book in for in a double session – I set it up on Zoom and fire off the meeting link. And my invoice.
I have a short nap on the couch then mix up some mince, peppers and a multitude of other ingredients (including ground coffee and baking powder!) to make tonight’s Dubai tacos – an unusual thing that I can only describe as a weird taco-cum-smashburger. They turn out great!
MARGARET’S off to dermatology appointment and, after breakfast, I have some West Highland Way Gifts’ merch to send out.
We have pals coming to stay on Sunday and I’m gonna smoke some pork belly…there’s a whole pork belly in the fridge outside which I cut into manageable slabs, trim up and put a couple of bits aside for Sunday. I vacuum pack the other slabs and put them in the freezer.
In studio I carry on trying to develop a fingerpicking guitar tune I’ve been putting together.
There’s a bit of video to be filmed – just worth my phone – and I realise that my lav mics are all mini jack or lightning connectors, not USB-C as on my new phone. Dammit. I don’t have any money and I can’t justify spending a fortune so after a bit of research and to-it ad fro-ing between possibilities take a punt on an old version of DJI’s wireless mic mini.
I finish off some draft artwork for an info panel to fit around the local audio point and make a mini mockup/model of how it could look.
The it’s time to go to Helensburgh for dinner qt our pals Alastair and Karen. Normally we stay over but we have n early event tomorrow (Saturday) and I’m aff the drink so we’re home soon after midnight having had a grand evening catching up over a lovely meal.
A LOT more social media and email stuff this morning..and some West Highland Way Gifts’ orders.
There’s an email in with a potential show booking – Margaret follows up and it looks like there’s be a nice Scottish show end of August. Watch this space!
We drive to the village for a swim and get back home in time for a late lunch.
I have a couple fo in person guitar students in the afternoon. Both go good then Margaret has a local community trust meeting…I chill and play some guitar 🙂
UP EARLY to get the sourdough in the oven then a morning of guitar lessons – first an online session then in-person – before I get busy with some merch production.
There’s a bunch of one-off ‘comes in many colours’ brass guitar pendants – while there’s a few of them, each has a unique colour pattern in the hexagonal inlays. It’s a fiddly job and takes a lot of time and attention.
We head into Glasgow late afternoon for a publishing event at the Scottish Music Centre then pick up some shopping and head for home.
WE’RE UP early (again!) – Margaret’s off to Edinburgh to meet Les and get her hair done…and I have an 8am start for my ‘speeding awareness’ course via Zoom. It’s three hours long and there’s a bunch of other folks on the session…some interesting stuff but the ‘tutor’ is trying to hard to be a comedy act and starts to get on my tits a bit.
Anyway, once done I get busy with emails and the routine stuff then get an Etsy merch order packed and in the post. There’s a few other merch items I need to finish off too.
After lunch I venture out for a wander through the wood. Crap weather and not long before it starts pishing rain.
I’m back in good time for a guitar student arrives then I prepare the magret duck breasts and marinade the meat for tonight’s brouchettes, Betty’s coming for dinner.
Having been premiered to the Wildcats’ last nights the Soul of a Man video goes live on Facebook, YouTube at 6pm. Hopefully it’ll get some traction. My evening guitar student arrives just before 6pm so I guess I’ll have to wait ‘til later to find out.
Once done I get the grill and charcoal prepped outside, set the table and sort some other dinner stuff.
It’s 7.45pm when Margaret gets back – she’s also picked up a load of shopping in Edinburgh which we get put away before Betty arrives.
MARGARET has an early appointment with the audiologist so I’m up at a decent time and manage to get some work done before an online session with one of my guitar students.
An Etsy order came in for a pewter guitar pin that I don’t have in stock which means I need to get busy casting and stuff. I make an extra while I’m at it and get them all sanded and finished ready for an epoxy inlay.
After lunch I prep the epoxy then set some pins on the back of the wee guitar so I can get it I the post tomorrow (Tuesday). Next, some video stuff for my pal Duncan then my afternoon guitar students arrives.
I SPEND the morning in the office working on a stone engraved with a fossil. The end result is poor – I think the stone/rock isn’t the right type. I’ll look for some alternatives next time I take a walk up the lochside.
We’re running short on brass guitar pendants and pins so I start a wee production line to run while we go off to Doune to see Catriona – it’s her birthday today (46!) and we have a gift to drop off.
Leaving the office I almost stand on a toad. It’s that time of year when we get loads of frogs and toads 🙂
We spend a nice couple of hours out int he garden with everyone at Catriona’s then go into Stirling to pick up some shopping.
A surprise visit to Betty to play a couple of her favourite songs
AFTER spending most of the morning dealing with emails and socials while drinking coffee in bed. I was up early to get some dough ready for rolls and I onto the oven…but it’s good to let them cool a bit before breakfast.
I get the brisket I rubbed yesterday out the fridge one onto the smoker. Only a small piece of meat so shouldn’t take more than eight hours.
Margaret is on a mission to tidy the shed and some of the garden stuff…I hit the studio to finish editing the Soul of a Man video we shot on Thursday, nipping back to the garden to spritz the brisket every hour or so. I can monitor pit and meat temperatures on my phone so I don’t have to babysit the smoker.
Once the video work is done I leave the final files to render and go for a walk through the woods.
When I get back the video is done. I take it to show Margaret the results of her filming and check the brisket. It’s reached 165 farenheit so time to wrap then back in the smoker ‘til it reaches 203 degrees internal.
A bunch of folks, including our pal Jeanetta, are going to Betty’s for dinner tonight. Jeanetta contacted me last week to see if I could drop by for a surprise visit after dinner and play a couple of songs for Betty after dinner. Probably around 9pm.
The brisket reaches temperature round 8.30pm and should ideally rest for at least an hour…I get a message from Jeanetta saying they’ve finished eating and ready for my surprise visit. Margaret and I grab a guitar and banjo and wander along.
I’m a little worried as if feels a bit weird and I’m not exactly ‘the singing telegram’ but all goes to plan and we have a grand hour or so with a couple of tunes and a drink with the party 🙂
The brisket is well and truly rested by the time we get home and we enjoy it worth some BBQ I made earlier, veg and mash.
THERE’S some promo to be done for the upcoming Finland and Estonia shows then I try and work out why the video footage we filmed yesterday is out of sync with the main audio track.
Looks like something's been automatically ‘conformed’ during import to the FInal Cut project so I clear everything out and start again. Sorted.
The gimbal – a DJI RS4 Mini – wasn’t playing ball yesterday so spend some time re-balancing and updating firmware etc. I think I can rescue some of the footage tho’ and add various trackers and stuff to some of the clips to try and make the shots more consistent.
It’s another nice day and I take advantage by taking a wander up the lochside then get some pizza dough out the freezer to defrost for tonight.
There’s a letter in from Cumbria police following up my speeding notice. Caught doing 47mph in a temporary 40mph zone on the motorway at 1.30am on the way back form the Huddersfield show a few weeks ago. There’s an option to book (and pay for!) a speed awareness course rather than a £100 fine and three points. I do some online research and find I can attend he course online and the cheapest place is Hartlepool at £83. I book onto Tuesday’s three-hour course. Ah well, saved £17 and the points.
Back in the studio, the trackers and other adjustments have done their processing and I spend the next few hours trying to pull together a rough edit of Soul of a Man. It’s gonna need a considerable amount of ‘styling’ and colour grading, but it might turn out usable. At worst it’ll let us see if my ‘break all the rules’ approach of a long shot cut with extreme close-ups might work.
Eventually I get back to the house and fire up the pizza oven. The pizzas ain’t my best effort tho’ – partly, I think down to the last batch of dough I made which was a departure from my usual approaches.
