Pete Ashton

Wrote about my illness. 72.peteashton.com/the-state-of... This took me a couple of weeks to write and partly in lieu of me being able to stay in touch with a number of friends and family. Chronic fatigue is a fucking arse, but I'm slowly learning how to manage it.

Notes and links from 25 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/26/notes-and-links-from-oct.html There’s been some storms of late, but thanks to us being in the centre of this island they didn’t cause much, if any, damage locally. Still, one of the fence posts started showing a bit of wobble s...

Notes and links from 23 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/23/notes-and-links-from-oct.html Spent a couple of days turning the first couple of years of blogging (2000-2002) into monthly pages for the forthcoming archive site. Back then I was using Blogger and it was pretty much a status—u...

Notes and links from 19 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/20/notes-and-links-from-oct.html The last few days of computer action have been spent on the big blog archive project. I’ve been knocking the Art Pete blog into shape, fixing image links and reminding myself what happened during a...

Notes and links from 16 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/16/notes-and-links-from-oct.html Item! ## My number finally came up on the bowel screening lottery and the vial with instructions appeared in the post this week. Pretty simple stuff, except I’ve can’t remember the last time I had ...

Notes and links from 15 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/15/notes-and-links-from-oct.html Mostly a rest day today. After posting last night I was overcome with brain fog, which hopefully explains any dullness in my prose and the fact that I didn’t correct typos til this afternoon. Visib...

Notes and links from 14 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/14/notes-and-links-from-oct.html One of the original functions of Notes & Links was to make the most of my sofa-bound internet surfing by making it into a writing exercise, and that is dependent on me doing that, hence some days t...

Notes and links from 10 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/10/notes-and-links-from-oct.html Friday we had a visit from a couple of 11 year old girls and their mum to see the rabbits. I realised I haven’t been in the company of 11 year old girls for quite a while and they’re quite odd, gig...

Notes and links from 7 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/08/notes-and-links-from-oct.html Yesterday I popped to the allotment with my sister for a bit. Had fun getting the scooter to go up the muddy hill — it’s really not an off-road vehicle, but it made it. Was a nice sunny afternoon af...

Notes and links from 6 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/06/notes-and-links-from-oct.html The weather this last few days has been notable. It’s not been hot exactly but it certainly hasn’t been October-typical. I did put a thick jumper on the other day but then today I was in a t-shirt. ...

Notes from 4 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/05/notes-from-oct.html I didn’t really feel like blogging yesterday, so I didn’t. Not much caught my eye in the feeds and I didn’t do much of note (although I did briefly pop out on the scooter) so when it came to the end of the day and my t...

Notes and links from 3 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/03/notes-and-links-from-oct.html Went to visit my sister briefly today on the scooter, thus normalising the whole “going out on the scooter” thing, and when I returned Fiona informed me that Lav had been furiously digging out Wally...

Notes and links from 2 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/02/notes-and-links-from-oct.html A fairly nondescript day. Pottered around a bit and didn’t accidentally start a project, so that’s good. Conserving energy and resting properly. Bit bored though. Trying not to get wound up about th...

Notes and links from 1 Oct: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/10/01/notes-and-links-from-oct.html My local park on October 1st One of my goals as set by the CFS occupational therapist is to go to a social space once a week. I’ve picked The Cloak and Dagger on Stirchley High Street as somewhere ...

Notes and links from 30 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/30/notes-and-links-from-sept.html A quiet day, although I did finally receive a couple of widgets I’d accidentally ordered from China on eBay (hate it when that happens, not so much for the shipping time as for the wrongness feel...

Clearing the tabs: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/30/clearing-the-tabs.html I need to declare browser bankruptcy so to mark the end of September here is bundle of links I haven’t read in full but think might be of interest to what passes for my readership demographic. Click with caution an...

Notes and links from 29 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/29/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Psychotherapy day today, alongside a need to rest, so mostly pottering in the garden. Sister came over to borrow something from the shed so we had a brief catch-up. I mentioned my therapy had mov...

Notes and links from 28 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/28/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Nothing much to report today. Bit of a fuzzy head so a rest day, all in all. Not overly happy with my link-notes below. Can’t seem to get the phrasing right, but also my judgement might be off an...

Notes and links from 27 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/27/notes-and-links-from-sept.html So yeah, it’s been a week since I last posted. I had a major chronic fatigue crash on the 19th, the likes of which I haven’t experienced for a long time, maybe since Christmas? It wasn’t nice and...

Fox thief in the hedgehog cafe: youtu.be/73PQQrxL4T0 After the mouse heist over the weekend we noticed the bowl had been moved from it's normal position at the end of the tunnel and appeared to have been licked clean. Turns out the hedgehog cafe is not as fox-proof as we'd like. Time for a rebuild!

Mouse thief in the hedgehog cafe www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz4a... Not much hedgehog action this last month but we've noticed the food has slowly continued to go down. Turns out we have a thief who is ferrying the dry cat food to their nest.

I have at least six versions of Eddie Campbell's early Alec stories. Possibly more. (Escape magazine, Escape collection, ACME/Eclipse collection, Bacchus magazine, self published collection, Top Shelf collection.)

Notes and links from 18 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/18/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Didn’t sleep too well, pretty tired today. This has definitely been a recovery week. What ME/CFS is, and how it’s wrecking me

Notes and links from 17 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/17/notes-and-links-from-sept.html More pottering today, thought I appear to have accidentally gestated a couple of plans so I guess my brain is over the fatigue? The first is to extend the water harvesting to the shed roof and pi...

TIL Michael McIntyre and Macklemore are not the same person.

Notes and links from 16 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/16/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Rest day, mostly pottering in the garden and making the finishing tweaks to the rabbit run water harvesting system. I’m happy that it’s now good enough to run through the winter and save up enoug...

Notes and links from 15 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/15/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Ideally this would have been a rest day but Tuesday is psychotherapy day so no rest just yet. The session went well but afterwards it was clear my battery was exhausted and I got a bit stress tri...

Notes and links from 14 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/14/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Rest day, and much needed. Lots of sleeping, not much doing.

Notes and links from 13 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/13/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Today was the Birmingham Honey Show at Winterbourne Gardens, which means Winterbourne Gardens is free entry and also there’s honey. Plus one of my Birmingham-based cousins developed a beekeeping ...

Notes and links from 12 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/12/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Very much a rest day today. Was hoping to pop along to the Woodland Games but nope, no energy available.

Notes and links from 11 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/11/notes-and-links-from-sept.html We went on a relatively big adventure today, driving out to Compton Verney with my sister and bro-in-law. I think it’s the furthest I’ve been since December? Fi gave me loads of opportunities to ...

Notes and links from 10 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/10/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Made it out to the hardware store on my wee scooter, the first time it’s been out for quite a while. (My goal is to go out weekly…) Managed to get there, ask a guy about plumbing tape, buy it and...

Notes and links from 9 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/09/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Had a visit from my sister this afternoon which was very welcome. It would have been our mum’s 80th birthday this week so we’re going to try and spend a bit of time with all the family photos she ...

Notes and links from 8 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/08/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Psychotherapy today, which took up all of my energies really, so the rest of the day was mooching and pottering. Feeling much better though so the crash is over. Going to cautiously resume engagem...

Notes and links from 7 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/07/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Another rest day. Had a go at fiddling with the water butts and quickly got prickly sweat on my forehead despite doing fuckall really, so hit that on the head. Have mostly been watching the telly...

Notes and links from 6 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/06/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Nope, nothing happening today. Still crashed. Recovery in progress.

Notes and links from 5 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/05/notes-and-links-from-sept.html And lo, the chronic fatigue crash did finally come. All the usual bullshit — tired, impatient, sore, grumpy, irritable, aching, fuzzy head, can’t read, can’t think. It’ll pass, it always does. Was...

Notes and links from 4 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/04/222056.html Had my 6-weekly occupational therapy session for my chronic fatigue today which went well and was pretty useful. But otherwise quite tired after yesterday. No proper crash though, which is very pleasing. Might have ...

Notes and links from 3 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/03/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Another long night-and-morning’s sleep with no weird stress dreams, so that’s nice. I might have some tomorrow though as I fear I might have overdone it this afternoon. My sister and bro-in-law w...

Notes and links from 2 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/02/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Definitely a rest day. Slept right through to 1pm with very little mental disturbance, then Fi came home with great-neph M for an hour before taking him home after which I went back to sleep for a...

Notes and links from 1 Sept: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/09/01/notes-and-links-from-sept.html Psychotherapy day today. For the last couple of weeks we’ve actually been talking about this blog. Despite it being a big part of my life for 26 years I still sort of think of my online emissions ...

Notes and links from 31 Aug: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/08/31/notes-and-links-from-aug.html A bit of a rest day after the weekend’s exertions. I feared a bit of a crash when I woke early in the morning to a rapid-fire slideshow of random imagery behind my eyelids, the sort of thing I woul...

Notes and links from 30 Aug: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/08/30/notes-and-links-from-aug.html Another doing-things-away-from-the-computer day in which I might have overdone it but I tried to be careful about pacing so we will see. Fingers crossed for no big crash tomorrow. Things involved g...

Notes and links from 29 Aug: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/08/29/notes-and-links-from-aug.html I’d planned for today to be a computer-based writing day, given the rain forecast, but when I sat down to do some computer-based writing nothing was happening. Wrote a couple of sentences, deleted ...

Notes and links from 28 Aug: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/08/28/notes-and-links-from-aug.html Spent a reasonable amount of time pottering around in the garden today, along with a trip out to the local building supplies barns. While the dome water collection scheme is clearly a dumb thing to...

Notes and links from 27 Aug: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/08/27/notes-and-links-from-aug.html There was a thing a few years ago, back when wildfires were rare and noteworthy, where people were noticing that their cameras weren’t taking accurate photos of the red skies, shifting the white ba...

Have a feeling I’m going to have to declare tab bankruptcy soon.

Notes and links from 26 Aug: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/08/26/notes-and-links-from-aug.html A few days ago I was mulling over using our garden geodesic dome as a rainwater collection conduit. Not because it’s a particularly practical idea (the house roof is just over there and has gutteri...

Notes and links from 25 Aug: https://notes.peteashton.com/2026/08/25/notes-and-links-from-aug.html While this post is mostly about Lav she wasn’t very camera friendly today, while Wally-the-tart went and did this. So here’s Wally. Lavander is much better. She recovered about 10pm last night, tak...

Name your favourite "Bob"