👁️ I was sat watching a movie last night and started getting a migraine aura. Within ten minutes the aura was interfering with my view of the screen.

The aura cleared and I waited for the pain of the headache. It did not come to much. I thought that maybe this time I am going to get off lightly.

This morning I have woken up to the dull thud of a migraine. Not the worst, but still making life uncomfortable. I’ve taken a tablet to try and take the edge off of the pain….that and a little more caffeine this morning. I have never found anything to completely remove these.

This migraine will probably be my companion for the next three days. That is the norm for me.

I think that all looks good with the Shortcut. I realized that there was one error that had me banging my head against the wall, but I think that that is fixed. So testing this Shortcut one more time…and I hope that that is it for now. 🤞🤞🤞

If a post had no category was not working properly, and so testing again.

OK, I have to do one other test. Will the Shortcut work and post to Micro.blog if I choose not to add a title?

Testing Title addition from a Shortcut

Testing my Tot to Micro.blog Shortcut to see if it works when I want to add a Title to the post. This post doesn’t need a title…but hey, I can test the title addition if I don’t try and add a title! 😝

The weather cleared this morning and the fire burning on the side of Haleakala is clearly visible. The good news is that forward progress of the fire has been halted, it is 50% contained, the size of the fire has been downgraded to 355 acres, and there have been no evacuation orders.

A lush tropical landscape with various palm trees is set against a backdrop of hills, with a plume of smoke rising in the distance.

🌄 It’s feeling warm before the sun is up. A warning of what is coming today? At least the Trade Winds are blowing.

Grilling two evenings ago.

A grill with a pan and skewers of meat and vegetables is set up outdoors on a grassy area with chairs in the background.

I feel very happy with myself today. I have managed to write a Shortcut which will publish to Micro.blog from Tot, allowing the selection of a category if relevant. The text of the short post is then saved as a text file. Writing, learning…from Tot.

🌧️ It has been a wet, wet, wet, wet day so far, and doesn’t look as though it is going to let up anytime soon. This is more like winter than summer.

Another fire on Maui, this time on Haleakala Crater Road, upcountry. There have been no evacuations so far though residents are encouraged to prepare for that potential. 500 acres last night, currently down to 420 acres. More information and updates here.

A second test of sending a post to my blog from The Iconfactory’s Tot app. This time trying with the Micropub API. If this works, a hat tip to Jarrod Blundy, @jarrod, for his Publish to Micro.blog shortcut which I lightly edited.

Testing sending a post to my blog from The Iconfactory’s Tot app.

Well I got the outside work done just in the nick of time. It looks as though we have rain for the rest of the day, though the weather forecast deems to differ. There are times when I really like a wet day or afternoon. It just feels right.

Green grass and bushes under a cloudy sky.

Monday 8th July, 2024 Newsletter letter

Monday 8th July, 2024 Dear Friends, Greetings from Maui. I pressed pause on this newsletter last week. I had returned to Maui a handful of days beforehand, and a combination of the travel and jet lag meant that I was exhausted, my body clock was all over the place and I had not shared much on my blog. So for those reasons I decided to give myself a break for a week.

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The Story Behind the Photograph: The Taj Mahal

While going through my mixed up and messily catalogued, that is a very generous term, slides, I came across these two images of the Taj Mahal. I am pretty sure that I have some more, but the state of my slide storage means that I am unlikely to come across them in a hurry, chance discoveries aside. So I scanned in what I had found with my rudimentary equipment and am sharing them here.

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A large egg has appeared outside of our front door.

A large stone sphere sits on a landscaped area with dark gravel, concrete pathways, and greenery in the background.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 89th Birthday Message

The Story Behind the Photograph: The Khunjerab Pass

This story started as an exploration of the speed of travel, but I decided that there was a story within that just about my traversing of the Khunjerab Pass. The Pass is closed for a part of the year simply because of snow, it sits at 4,693 meters (15,397 feet), and for the rest of the year is at the whim of politics. I made the journey in 1989, only a few months after the student protests in Tiananmen Square and the subsequent Chinese government crackdown.

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Cadaqués, Spain by day and by night.

A collage of two views of Cadaqués, Spain. On the left by day, on the right by night. Both are looking across the bay towards Cadaqués with boats in the bay and the town, backed by a church spreading around the bay and up the hill. Green Mountains surround the town.