iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Hired an electric car in France. Pretty cool to be in an actual nuclear-powered vehicle!

Nuclear-powered bus from the 1976 comedy film The Big Bus

Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

“Bus Stopping” indeed! The 94 down Oxford Street feels like it’s been a main axis for most of my life. I’m now making the journey for what may be the last time ever before pedestrianisation (laudatory)

Indicator board on a bus, reads rather prophetically “Oxford Circus Station - Bus Stopping”

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Fresh seafood BBQ at Shepherd Bush market is fantastic Choose your fresh fish at Brothers & Cousins fishmonger stall, take it to the Grill Masters stall to cook, visit Oasis juice stall while you wait Can’t recommend it enough

A red snapper fish, beautifully seasoned and grilled

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Hayward Gallery is a lot less gruesome once you realise how much it looks like really good sorbet

Anish Kapoor sculpture at the Hayward Gallery, London. Looks like a congealed mass of blood. Or does it…?

“Gelato”, Anish Kapoor, 2016. Mixed media - blackberry and sugar

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Beautiful evening to cycle through central London

Sunset view west along the Thames from Southwark Bridge in London

And east from the same place. The Shard and Tower Bridge, with a cyclist wizzing by

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

One more pic - this is looking down the line of the fence we built. One solitary old post still standing. On the left, inside the fence, the trees have grown up, on the right it’s still just bracken Simple measures work. No tree planting needed, just keeping out grazing sheep and letting nature go

The dividing line between forest regrowth and continued grazing. Fences work

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Also, you need to know about box struts! Wire fences are not just nailed to posts, they’re strained in tension from the corners (so climbing a fence with feet on the wire can ruin it!). It’s a clever & incredibly strong corner post - pull the top, and the strut pulls the bottom, keeping it upright

A box strut fencepost. The horizontal post and diagonal staining wire make this incredible strong. Image from https://www.wirefence.co.uk/brace-fence-post/

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

So now only one thing left now, which is to contact Ordnance Survey and ask them to correct their map Here’s our little square of fenced off woodland, roughly an acre. But it’s mostly oaks, so should be marked with the deciduous tree symbol not the coniferous one.

Our square of fencing and woodland on the OS 1:25,000 scale map. But wrongly marked as coniferous rather than deciduous woodland

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Exactly. No replanting, just keeping out the sheep and deer, and letting nature take over. Nearby there was a newer square fenced off, that’ll one day do the same

A new fence. So far it looks pretty much the same inside, just longer grass, but one day this will be woodland

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

So my new hip lasted the trip - the furthest I’ve walked in years. Hip replacement surgery is a genuine miracle. And the Aber Falls (Rhaeadr Fawr) at the end was lovely. Go to north Wales.

The waterfall was lovely, as was the weather

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

We built a fence to stop overgrazing and allow regrowth. Carrying heavy posts, wire and tools up the mountainside. Here’s what it looks like outside the fence, and what our fence posts look like now

Beautiful moorland, but this is not a natural landscape, sheep stop woodland growing

Rotten fencepost and wire on the ground. But it’s job is done now

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

We made it up there! And found the site. What was just boggy bracken back when we built a fence on the mountainside, has since regenerated into a lovely woodland of 40-year-old trees, filled with birdsong. The project worked, and these trees will outlast me by many lifetimes

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Well both Llandudno and Conwy Castle live up to their reputation. Very nice

The Llandudno seafront. A pretty row of buildings with a dramatic headland behind

View of Conwy castle from the tower. There’s a lot of it left

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The trip back then was fun but quite eventful (I ended up spending a night in Bangor hospital) This time round, the challenge will be my hip. Just three months ago I had a total hip replacement. Can I now climb a (small) mountain? Who knows - let’s find out!

X-ray of my new titanium hip. Recovery has been remarkably quick. But is it enough for hiking?

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I know we all love to hate Euston Station, but I do like the way the roof floats above the walls Squint and it’s a kind of grim version of Ronchamp

An underexposed photo of the interior of Euston. A narrow sliver of light separates the roof from the walls. Tbh not really anything like Le Corbusier’s chapel

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

They say the best time to plant a tree is 40 years ago… so I’m off on a mini adventure to fact-check that 40 years ago this summer, as a sixth-former, some friends and I volunteered on a conservation project in Snowdonia (Eryri) Now we’re heading back to climb a mountain and see whether it worked…

View down the tracks on an above-ground Tube platform. A lot of vanishing perspective going on - symbolic perhaps?

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Too be fair, and as a counterpoint, I’m now in a Chinese supermarket (in London), where the shelves marked “ethnic” have Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce and ketchup! So I guess it can work both ways…

Aisle of a Chinese supermarket in London, labelled “Oil, Spices, Sauces” and “Ethnic”

The “ethnic” shelf in this London store consists of ketchup, HP sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Caribbean hot sauce

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Can someone write a deep dive on what ends up in the “World Food” aisle vs just normal supermarket aisles, and how. Because at the moment it sometimes feels like we’re just “othering” East Asia, and I have questions…

Supermarket shelves on an aisle just called “sauces”. They are from, or styled from, many places including Mexico, Thailand, Caribbean, USA, South Africa…

Shelves in the same supermarket, in a separate aisle specially labelled “World Foods”. The sauces all seem to be from East or Southeast Asia

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Love how panicked these guys are when they see the time What are they late for?

A pedimental relief sculpture of rampant horses flanking a clock. The horses are absolutely terrified. Just swivel eyed and open mouthed, flailing in shock as they look at the clock. It’s at the Household Cavalry Barracks, Hyde Park, London

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

My phone tells me I’ve only ever had one minute of mindfulness. And it was five years ago Is this good?

Screen grab from phone health app, section titled “Mindful Minutes”, shows 1min, in August 2021

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Found this petrol ration book when clearing out my dad’s house So I guess I’m all set if the Strait of Hormuz stays shut

Motor fuel ration book:
MOTOR CAR (inc. Tricycle) not exceeding 1100 C.C. The coupons in this book authorise the furnishing and acquisition of the number of units of motor fuel specified on the coupons.

Coupon inside the ration book: 1ST MONTH
NOT TRANSFERABLE
This coupon is issued under the authority of the Minister of Power
One L1 Unit

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

I have the receipts ready in my defence, come at me:

Close-up of some roast potatoes. They were good.

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Enjoyed My Bloody Valentine, 35 years after first seeing them at the Town and Country Club Made more special this time by going with my adult son

View of the stage in Royal Albert Hall. To be honest you can’t see anything but a backlit red haze of smoke

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Feels like the Iran war is still only at stage two of this XKCD classic: xkcd.com/349/

An XKCD four-panel cartoon about an IT upgrade titled “AS A PROJECT WEARS ON, STANDARDS FOR SUCCESS SLIP LOWER AND LOWER.”

Panel 1: “0 HOURS - OKAY, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DUAL-BOOT BSD SOON.”

Panel 2: “6 HOURS - I'LL BE HAPPY IF I CAN GET THE SYSTEM WORKING LIKE IT WAS WHEN I STARTED.”

Panel 3: “10 HOURS - WELL, THE DESKTOP'S A LOST CAUSE, BUT I THINK I CAN FIX THE PROBLEMS THE LAPTOP'S DEVELOPED.”

Panel 4: “24 HOURS - IF WE'RE LUCKY, THE SHARKS WILL STAY AWAY UNTIL WE REACH SHALLOW WATER.
IF WE MAKE IT BACK ALIVE, YOU'RE NEVER UPGRADING ANYTHING AGAIN.”

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Lovely to see Sakura crowds and picnics in Ravenscourt Park

An avenue of pink cherry blossom in a park (Hammersmith, London). Crowds of people taking photos, and picnicking on the grass under the trees.

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

A productive day down the photon mines… Our rooftop solar generated twice as much electricity as our house used today (London)

A graph of electricity used (green line), and solar power generated (yellow line) over the course of today. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to, now would be a great time to install solar and a house battery

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Not sure I’d have been able to make out St Paul’s in this view today, without the help of Manhattan Lofts highlighting it in the background…

The viewing corridor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, from near the King’s Mound in Richmond Park. You really can’t see much, but across the road there’s a narrow gap in the trees. It’s there somewhere.

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

London’s weather has had enough of flags it seems

Tattered flags over London’s Oxford Street, half torn off. (These are actually official flags, rather than racist ones…)

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Hopefully soon they’ll be drinking this instead:

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

So THIS is what central government was using all these years whenever Leeds called asking for a metro system

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Son has no idea how expensive a hobby he’s just acquired…

Picture of a shiny new record player (sorry I mean a “vinyl turntable” or something) on a shelf

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Here it comes… www.lightningmaps.org

A map of southern England showing live locations of lightning strikes - a big storm coming into Kent from the Channel

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Can anyone guess what this conveyor belt carries…

A small conveyor belt passing through a hole in the wall. The hole is the exact size and shape of a wine bottle

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

I’ve given @octopus.energy control of my home battery. They pay us to use it to balance the Grid Fascinating to see it fluctuating on a windy/sunny day, when electricity prices sometimes went negative Would love them to give us a running narrative of what it’s doing and why

Graph showing home battery use yesterday, with multiple charging and discharging periods. Green line shows how full the battery is, on right hand scale. Blue shading shows the power going in or out, from or to the Grid

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Looks like I got a write-in vote in the New York primaries! Only second preference though, probably not enough…

A Bluesky post saying “I voted early”, then listing the Bluesky handle for three candidates. Except one of them is me. Apologies to Scott Stringer I guess

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

It’s finally all done. Gas meter removed (had to change the hob first), and solar export tariff set up. House is now net-zero-ready. Car next maybe…

Picture of an empty gas meter cupboard, with the meter removed

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Solar plus battery is great. But we need to find ways for it to work for rental properties and for flats Also need to get more tolerant of them in conservation areas. We’re used to, and barely notice, TV aerials - would the same happen if most roofs had solar?

A smart meter display saying “Cost now per hour £0.00”

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Our solar panels have been in a month now, and generated 650kWh of power, 50% more than we used (in a very sunny month) Battery has been enough to stay 90% on solar, including right through most nights. And it shows a cool Sankey chart of what it’s been doing

A Sankey chart, showing flows of power from Solar, Grid and Battery, to Home, Battery and Grid. Home consumption is mostly solar either direct, or from the battery. About 10% of consumption is from the grid, with much more than that exported back to the grid

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Now it slow cooks like this, covered, for a few hours

Casserole now full of meat and spices, very gently simmering. Some liquid now for cooking, but that will all dry up later

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Browning the meat next Controversially, I use wild venison. None of the climate-guilt of beef, and it’s tough enough for the slow cooking Works really well in rendang

Pan with diced red meat, nicely browning. This in only a third of it

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Time to make some rendang First step, a prodigious amount of spices

A casserole dish with a huge quantity of mixed finely chopped spices. Not telling you what spices (mother-in-law’s secret recipe), but from the colour it’s pretty obvious one of them is fresh turmeric

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Barney Stringer @barneystringer.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

They also seem to have installed a real-life, 3D version of the Windows 98 screensaver

A twisting arrangement of shiny copper pipes. Hope the plumber knows what they all do, but can’t help thinking they’re just showing off here

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