DIY, ice cream, and more!

Advanced Workshop Repair

It’s not terribly advanced in reality, but more cobbled together from a variety of bits of wood laying around.

There was a removable top over the sink in the workshop when we bought the house. It was fine for a temporary measure, but not that secure when working with anything sharp or heavy (most DIY is sharp and or heavy…)

With the aid of a Japanese saw I cut the cover in two then reinforced it at the rear edge. Then I screwed down the left hand side, allowing the right side to be opened and closed as necessary. The next step is putting up some shelves and a backboard for tools, working around the new heat pump plumbing.

On the air source heat pump front, we’ve just had the tank repaired so hopefully the issue with the Legionella cycle will have resolved.

Lens Upgrade

I have been toying with the idea of getting a new camera. My Panasonic Lumix GX7 has been a great companion, travelling with me all round the world, and has captured some great pictures and made entire movies. I bought it used in 2015 so surely eight years on there must be some improvements? Better resolution sensors. Improved image stabilisation and autofocus. All these things are nice, but how much difference does it make to photo quality? (and video, in well lit and organised shoots) Not as much as you’d hope is the real answer. The biggest difference comes with glass. And on that note, things haven’t really changed for me since 2015.

I bought my GX7 in readiness for my trip to Japan and South East Asia with the 14-42mm kit lens and a plan to pick up a fast prime once I landed in Tokyo. The used camera marketplace in Japan is filled with some excellent examples so it was easy to find a good condition Panasonic 20mm f1.7 pancake lens which became my go-to evening walkabout setup. After that, I left things pretty much as they were. I had a few experiments here and there with cheaper novelty lenses, and old Soviet ones, but I didn’t invest any serious money. I had my eye on a faster zoom kit lens equivalent for a while, but I couldn’t justify shelling out the same money as I spent on the camera body and lens for a lens alone. It might be alarming to people who aren’t into cameras, but its easy to spend much more on a lens than a body. Good glass doesn’t come cheap.

I had a chance to play around with my mother-in-law’s Olympus Pro lenses back in July and even on my ageing GX7, the difference was quite significant. The autofocus was noticably faster and even cursory snaps were looking great. The seeds were sown and the stage was set. I just needed a push. One that came in the form of a trip to Japan and Korea.

Bring the 5D Mk2 and some heavy lenses, or the GX7 and risk getting less than ideal quality video? DSLRs are heavy in general and a little cumbersome to bring on holiday, but it is full frame meaning a much bigger sensor and better low light performance. This year we’ll be travelling in the run up to Halloween, and over the day (or e’en) itself, which limits the amount of time we have to get a film together. I’m taking a gamble which could pay off, but it could equally leave us without a traditional Newforge Studios release which would be disappointing. Something that hasn’t happened since 2019, another year disrupted by travel and moving house. Come to think of it, we seem to travel for Halloween a surprising amount.

Long story short, I bought a used 12-40mm f2.8 and it is performing immaculately. It is a considerable upgrade from the kit lens, and although it is bulky, it’s not unwieldy. The focus ring is much better designed than the cheaper electronic ones on my other lenses, with a better level of control. Better build quality. Better glass. What’s not to like?

Autumn Baking

This has been a week of more baking than average. The season of the pumpkin spice latte is upon us, and with it a desperate scramble to make pumpkin a usable ingredient. I had some pumpkin frozen from last year (or the year before?) which made just shy of one cup of purée. I found a recipe for pumkin pie on allrecipes which sounded good, but needed two cups. I was tempted to try it with less but it felt wrong making a pumpkin pie with only a little pumpkin. Most American recipes use canned pumpkin purée but it’s not really that hard to make.

The carving pumpkins are grown for size rather than flavour but that didn’t stop me from trying. I quartered a pumpkin, scooped out the seeds and stringy bits, and covered the pieces with foil before roasting for an hour then letting cool in the oven. Then I removed the skin from the pieces and blitzed the flesh until smooth.

The end result? A rather pleasant pumpkin pie which was just the right amount of sweet to balance the vegetable notes, and the right amount of spice. My pastry left a little to be desired on the aesthetic front but it still tasted good. This pie was much better than my last attempt which lacked volume and sweetness. The new recipe uses condensed milk instead of cream and sugar, and is superior in my opinion.

The Fox and the Hedgehog (at Chapel Porth Beach)

Where would you rather be on a freezing Sunday morning than at the beach? I hear what you’re saying. You’d rather be at the beach with an ice cream! Chapel Porth is on the North Cornish coast close to St Agnes and offers sandy beaches, cliffs, and caves. Plenty of surfers were out making the most of the mid-Autumn sun and the car park filled up rather quickly from about 11am, and by the time we were leaving at lunch time there was a fight for every space.

It’s not just the dramatic locale that draws people to Chapel Porth beach. The National Trust run café serves up some unique ice cream creations which are worth trying if you’re in the area. There’s the Hedgehog, which is ice cream dipped in clotted cream then rolled in roast hazelnuts, or the Fox which uses flapjack crumbs instead of nuts. Decadent to say the least.

If there’s time after sampling some ice cream and the excellent French onion soup, you could take a dip in the water. 17 degrees doesn’t sound that bad on paper, but it feels chilly enough when you’re in it.