iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Seen on Facebook, think it’s the work of a Graham McInnes.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My father was a butcher, looked nothing like Healey. Nor does my butcher.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The only reason he can hear the birdsong near the base today is that the astonishingly noisy US bombers must be taking a break from business because of the incident. I was there earlier in the month, lovely little town frequently under a waterfall of jet engine noise.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I no longer fly, alas. But I can offer you Sandwood Bay in exchange, on one of the most remote bits of the British mainland, just south of Cape Wrath. Pic taken 40 years ago.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

In the good old days a class of art students would have incorporated the stones into their work, in the way these Edwardian visitors managed.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

My mother measured out her married life (1946-2012) in washing machines & then fridges/freezers--nothing else came close. Started out in a cottage that didn't even have inside plumbing, with three young kids. Coal-fired "copper" for heating water, dolly tub & posser for washing, wringer. Hard labour

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I wore my cycling trousers on Saturday for the first time this season. Today probably back to shorts. Over on FB have had a nice convo with the old owner/designer of Karrimor about my late 70s panniers, still going strong. Made with mountaineering fabric, apparently. They show very little wear.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Something the spoilsports stop you doing with Pentre Ifan nowadays — photo is of an Edwardian outing, Sunday School from Fishguard I think.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Might interest people who are into Solar PV -- @johnspringford.bsky.social? 4 Kw Solar PV (12 years old, so somewhat degraded) & 10 KwH battery combo. 2-pensioner household, elec principally cooking, refrigeration, other appliances, supplementary heating but NOT central heating, hot water.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

The North East coast seems to be absolutely littered with miniature shrines — hardly a bench without its plastic flowers etc.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

You can see, on the local planning website, the cable routes. And if you look at individual applications you can see how long they took to get a decision, e.g. planning.agileapplications.co.uk/pcnpa/search... 24 April-5 July 2020.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

/2 of a beautiful beach in a national park, through a protected dune system as well as Dobby's ****ing Grave. Thank *** we are no longer in the 1950s & 60s, when you cd build four oil refineries & a ****ing oil-fueled power station on the Milford Haven & sod the National Park. Get out of town a bit.

My own old pic of the beach from the north on a wild day.

Freshwater West from the south, by "Explore the Pembrokeshire Coast"on Flickr

Freshwater West from the north, by "Explore the Pembrokeshire Coast"on Flickr, showing the beach and some of the dunes which the Greenlink project might have affected.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Why? All they had to do was change their working method (to horizontal drilling rather than trenching) in order to bring their cables ashore smack in the middle of a fantastically beautiful unspoiled beach in a national park. You "build it anywhere" nutters are a good argument for planning control.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Is there any information about how far the new interconnector landing point will be from what they wanted, & at what extra cost? What they wanted was smack in the middle of a beautiful, unspoilt beach in a national park, ffs. Convenient for the developers, maybe. It's not the 50s & 60s any longer.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Mr Elliott, David has already seen this, but here’s a hill that’s worth a trip to Northumberland to ride down — from the hamlet of Ryal. About 400 feet of straight descent (slight undulations but no curves) in a mile or so, and a great view towards the Cheviots. The brave do it at almost 60 mph.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

@jamesomalley.co.uk & @johnspringford.bsky.social -- both of you, I know, solar PV enthusiasts. Here's my chart of 2026 so far in what is, in winter, a gas-heated household (2 pensioners, quite large detached house). Still in the summer sweet spot, nicely negative in terms of consumption AND cost.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

These are not my pics -- downloaded from time to time, without photgraphers' attributions sorry, exc the first [Paul Kingston] -- but they are terrific. The footplate b&w, with Coal Age filthy air, is 1957. I used to live in one of those terraced houses in the third shot.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Hi David, totally agree but this is 100% off-point: look at this wonderful downhill on yesterday's ride in Northumberland -- it's a perfect roller-coaster, over a mile long and downhill all the way.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

This evening on the Costa South Shields — 27 degrees, cloudless sky, little breeze, small waves, loads of people swimming, partying etc. It’s not always Grim Oop North, @oldtrotter.bsky.social — such a nice vibe too, so much quieter than anywhere comparably urban on the south coast.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

No index-linked, final-salary pensions in those days, poor sod, but no managerial bullshit either. That’s why he had to work 52 years at teaching, but also why he was indefatigable, until he died at least. Nice wall memorial in Stamfordham Church, Northumberland.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Saw this bit of folk art while riding through a nearby ex-mining settlement, called Toronto. This guy lets everbyody, including the cops, know what he thinks.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

It is good to celebrate destruction, even if you didn't intend to be a wrecker. It's creative. Were these your leaflets, btw? The graphic is certainly very graphic. The purest mendacious bigotry. We deserve any Brekshit damage that has happened because a majority of us believed this ****.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Some Father’s Day photos getting posted on here, so I’ll add some of mine — of William George Harris, 1919-1999, a thoroughly good man. In the Royal Engineers, 1940-46. Got him off the farm, out of the shop, & to Iraq. A good war, perhaps too good. Left him with a lasting weight problem.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

This is the view north up Beggars’ Reach from Lawrenny. Coedcanlas is the big house you can see just to the left of the big wooded hill on the right (east) side of the river. So it looks right down the Reach — probably why it was sited there.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Lucky man! I’m in the shire too — wonderful skies today; tomorrow not so promising…

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Have loads more — glad that somebody with a good camera & a good eye wandered around the place in 1955 and captured the place as I remember it. The Head had two passions, the sciences & cricket. We played it in all weathers. His son went on to be head of one of the science research councils.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

My village primary school in N. Wales, almost 70 years ago. A good place — 3 teachers, surprisingly mixed classes.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Me on the Loire, 50 years ago. Would love to go back, if I had a support vehicle.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

And here he is -- went to S. Africa, where he became a bicycle dealer in Cape Town. I also attach another nice early C20th S. African cycling story, Feb. 1905. Wrote about Uncle Reg here tinyurl.com/y3e4nn4x and mapped Van Wyk's ride tinyurl.com/5xhmdcmx.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Gives a new meaning to the word "pledges" --

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

My local MP is only 5’ and she isn’t — has written a good open letter to her constituents instead.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Existential crisis — Labour is on its deathbed. My MP — leftish but loyal.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

And if I index total motoring costs (relative to RPI and to average wages) the result is predictably different: in real terms, however you cook it, my motoring costs have declined, as indeed have everybody's since the Blair-Brown Fuel Crisis.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

You may have seen these already, but I am a record-keeper so I know the precise cost of my motoring for the last 20 years (at least) and the composition of that cost too. We have had _some_ inflation in motoring costs over this time, but I have seen none in fuel, mostly because of moving to diesel.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

What was your daily consumption in midwinter? Here's our 2026 so far -- 2 pensioners, at least one at home almost all day (esp. in winter), gas for CH & hot water, otherwise electricity. As you can see, we've gone from a peak of c. £10 a day down to net negative now (in ££), or from 120+ to 15 Kwh.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

My old friend of 54 years — talked to me about this book last time I met him, when he was doing the eulogy for John Walsh, Modern History Fellow at Jesus, our shared mentor, a couple of years ago. Even in 1972 when I had just started my D.Phil. Tom was my model of what a scholar should be. Fertile.

Tom & John on the top of Fairfield in the Lakes, Nov. 1972

Lawrie Freedman, Tom, & Tom’s then girlfriend at Nuffield, 1973.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

How can they not be Sidney & Beatrice?

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Bath time in my childhood. 1952, on our cottage doorstep. Running cold water, not sure if the tap was inside or outside, but that’s certainly where the loo was.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

My reward for carrying on digging until sunset this afternoon — seeing the magic minutes when the sun dropped below the clouds &, almost horizontal and due west, shone directly onto the Cathedral tower. Just a phone pic, & the colour isn’t right — the highlight was just TOO bright.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Yesterday! Planted new potatoes also. Our allotment (about a quarter of it, anyway) — a long day’s digging.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

My first visit to London was in Easter hols, 1963. Definitely exciting, but (1) the air stank, even tho it was almost a decade after the Clean Air Act, and (2) much of it that wasn’t still bomb-damaged looked quite Dickensian. This must be just about where the Wobbly Bridge is now. Trip to Greenwich

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Beautiful area. My wife was only saying yesterday that we ought to go back to a place we stayed on West Loch Tarbert. Wonderful sunsets.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Hi @gilesmacdonogh.bsky.social — saw a proper, old-school farm butchery this morning. Good to watch an expert at work. Local organic farm — _almost_ tempted to take out a mortgage & buy some steak. My father was a butcher — would have been impressed by the guy’s knife skills, & his meat display.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Beautiful time of year — trees still bare & skeletal, quality of light as good as summer.

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Howell Harris @trefeca.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I think they’re wonderful — and the great escalators down into them, particularly at the deeper stations.

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