Category: Garden Bay

I read a couple of books this summer with the goal of understanding the psychology of aging as I had another birthday. “Being Mortal° was first, a very useful read, but I wanted more. Then I read The Mature Mind and the author’s emphasis on the importance of creative activities rang true.

“Creativity with a ‘little c’ is grounded in the diversity of every-day activities and accomplishments.”

For example, I feel good when designing in the garden or doing some project. For me the lesson was to seek out opportunities to be creative when I’m feeling bored. Even programming fits the bill and this post is the culmination of many weeks of technical challenges.

It started with my hosting provider being purchased by another and the migration of my website. The migration required a few tweaks to my applications and I started to think of improvements, became engrossed in the implementation, and one thing led to another. In brief (for fellow geeks):

• refactored my LAMP applications to share code and finally implemented version control (git)
• improved the OO model for DB access
• improved the UI for my first application which was primitive
• improved the integration of the stocktool and ledger apps
• setup the LINUX development environment on a Chromebook, installed LAMP, and migrated my applications
• configured a free domain with dynamic DNS and my router to be able to access the Chromebook web server from the Internet
• tried to migrate my WordPress blog internally but access was really slow, so it was migrated to a free plan on ashworthdavidg.duckdns.org/wordpress/
• redirected my domain ashworthdavidg.ca to the new blog

I no longer need a web hosting service and will not be renewing in March, and the cost savings are a bonus.

I have just started this summer’s project, which is the creation of a wildlife pond especially for frogs

When I bought the property there was a circular area of paving stones in the middle of the front lawn surrounded by lavenders. I wanted a goldfish pond and bought the circular stock tank shown in the photo (2022) for that purpose. I figured out a way of adding plants and received a bounty of free mature goldfish one summer. However, the fish did not survive the winter and this summer the plants were struggling as well.

So I’ve given up on having goldfish and on using the stock tank as a pond feature. I looks more natural already. Next step is to design the build details and start digging. I am having fun!

Progress Photos

Mistakes, I’ve made a few

So I have a sterile, muddy puddle that is waiting for a wildlife invasion. I dream of the pond filled with healthy water plants, interesting aquatic insects, and of course frogs and tadpoles.