Pete Ashton

The state of Pete

I've been unwell, and will continue to be unwell for a while. This is an account of where that unwellness is at.

Newsletter

Pete's newsletter for the start of July

Got covid again, wrote some blog posts, watched some films, rabbit got ill, hedgehogs appeared in the garden, other stuff.

Politics

Reflections on the election

There was a general election in the UK. It was complicated.

Bugpowder Archive

Scanning the BugPowder zine archive

I have boxes containing thousands of zines. I've started scanning them. It's going to take a while. I have time.

Newsletter

Pete Ashton's new newsletter of news

Hello, The never ending task of figuring out how best to get my ideas onto the internet and send them to you continues, and this here is the first stab at the latest attempt. In short, it's a roundup of what I've put online in the

Cinema

Thoughts on Furiosa

There's something nihilistic about George Miller's fifth Mad Max movie and it's got me thinking...

Music

Peely, twenty years on

This autumn it'll be the twentieth anniversary of John Peel's death.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 13: Stay out of the sun

A big move of the heaps into the shade begins, and a curious piece of plastic is found.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 12: Thermo-messo-whatnow?

In this issue, understanding the thermic phases, recording the sounds made by the bugs in the compost heap, and three songs about worms.

The Weird

Defining the weird

In which I revisit my obsession with the concept of Weird having found a useful working definition.

Blogging

Blog posts I have not written

Given my burnout means I'm unable finish any writing I thought it might be useful to record the starts, if only to get them out of my head.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 11: Building a heap from scratch

I made a timelapse video of the compost bay being filled, and ponder the best way to bring life back to some dead soil.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 10: Biochar and red wrigglers

My compost brings all the worms to the heap, plus a deep-dive into making and using charcoal in your soil.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 9: Spreading on the beds

There's something very satisfying about seeing your compost spread across the allotment, ready to feed this year's crops.

Autism

Grief and autistic burnout - 2023 was a lot

This is a 2,000 word post about the last 18 months and what happened to me during them. It contains a lot, and I thank you for your indulgence.

Art

A Ralphie in Brighton

In January we went to Brighton for a week's holiday. Usually we go to the Welsh coast for a winter break but this year we had my niece, Isobel, to stay and thought Brighton might be a bit more interesting. One evening we met up with an old

Pete History

A tale of two volcanic tourist destinations

The above aerial photo of the volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula (taken from a Kottke post) is of interest to me because, in the blue circle, is the Blue Lagoon spa, which Fi and I went to on our honeymoon in 2015. The spa is obviously closed at

The Weird

Costumes and the erasure of self

A week or so back, someone asked Nick Cave, the musician, what he thought of Nick Cave, the artist who makes "soundsuit" costumes. He said: I have admired the work of the American artist, Nick Cave, for many years. In creating his soundsuits he famously and audaciously turned

Capitalism

Systems of Interest

I haven't seen The Zone of Interest yet but I very much intend to and have been following the reviews. I particularly liked Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's discussion which included some observations from Mayo who has a prior interest in Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss'

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 8: Stinky heap

In which I detail how I made compost last year, share a rather eccentric 1939 booklet on compost making, and showcase some art about the acoustic study of the soil biome.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 7: Back to the heaps

I got back to the allotment after some enforced rest, during which I collected a lot of cool things for you to watch and read. Scroll down for an inverted triangle.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 6: A light dusting of fungal snow

In this issue: a new fugal feature film, a how-to from a Brussels kitchen garden, a vivid explanation of the soil crisis, and some beautiful mushroom watercolour paintings.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 5: Of rats and shrooms

Scroll down for a food scraps grinder I want to identify.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 4: Compost as the story of your life

Scroll down for a big question about soil contact. And another cat.

The Aerobic Digest

The Aerobic Digest 3: Hexagonal composting is the future

Scroll down for a cat on a compost heap