Barry M

Palm Springs. Just landed. 🤦‍♂️

Ok, this time for real, finally! We have a pilot on board.
Man, at just over 9 hours, this layover was as long as the first flight from Germany!

I’ve stayed awake for 24 hours just to post that on time!

lol, the first officer told us he’s waiting on a captain 😁 Seems there’s a lot of chaos due to weather here today.

I mean, I slept really badly the night before flying, but am now also 24 hours “officially” awake. 😁 Zombie time now… hope to snooze on this next flight

On board a plane, several hour late

Finally! Ugh….

Ugh… well, officially only have to start work just after midday.

Morning! Except I’m in Chicago en route to California, so times are all fucked up anyway 😁

Yep! 6 hours now but hope to be on the way in an hour. Ned for Sleep is overtaking the desire for beer.

Not there yet! Sadly

No shit, Sherlock!
Slept badly last night, and now body says what the fuck, it’s 4:38AM and you ain’t so young any more!

Yeah, popped in there. About the highest rated here!

A glass of Goose Island IPA at the back of a shitty corner “bar”

A glass of Negra Modelo at a decent enough food joint.

Still goin. Plenty of time to try various options. 🥴

Maybe it depends on the terminal. I find T1 not so comfy for a many hour stay… buffering expectations with alcohol now.

Are you here!? I maybe forgot that.
Been a long day.

Yeah, same as every year. Though less happy about being sent this year.

Real conversation just now after overhearing someone talking about deep fried burgers.
Me: oh, you have to go to Edinburgh, they deep fry everything, pizzas, Mars Bars…
Them: oh, I love Germany!

Me too.

I hope in about 7 hours by the time I get to a bed. Coasting on beer now, as my body says it’s 2:27am 😁

I haven’t been through here in over 10 years. It’s a shitty place to be stuck for nearly 8 hours. At least terminal 1 sucks. Next time I’m making sure it’s via Denver again. If I have to

Our 4 hour layover in Chicago has turned into 7 hours 40 minutes, and a 4.5 hour onward flight ahead of us. Gonna be brutal trying to work tomorrow. Remind me never to fly via ORD again. 🤦‍♂️

A plane at Frankfurt airport

No more morning walks with Anu for the coming week 😕

Timeline cleanse:
Baby tapir getting scritches for their itches.

If you want to scritch your very own tapir & you live outside of Central or South America or SE Asia, you'll need to visit a zoo.

But these little guys are (evolutionarily) from around here, in North America. Let's talk about it.

A vole

Also, later at the second Perry orchard, this little chap came out, wasn’t scared of me, I even got to poke him with my finger! Then he went into his hole under a pear tree.

Oh man!

A gravestone on the side of a hedgerow

The things you spot in forgotten corners when going off the beaten track here. No, Emil Zilling is not buried here, but after 25 years (I think) gravestones are removed from the graveyard and the grave reused for someone else. Quite different to what I’m used to! So family probably put it here

Pyrus Invictus – Barry’s CraftCon 2025 Keynote The text of Barry’s keynote address at CraftCon 2025, looking at the cultural heritage of cider and perry in central Europe, and his efforts to preserve tradition and biodiversity amid modern…

The original English version is here for those who don’t German 😜
But I’ve posted that on here before.

Finally, almost a year later, the text from my @3ccpa.bsky.social CraftCon 2025 keynote translated to German for those who prefer their long reads in that language 😁

I’ve seen this a few times here, craft breweries jumping on a perceived bandwagon, and then just making something fast, sweetened to fit the profile of mass-produced industrial cider. It’s a bit sad.

Nice! You know what to do 😁

Early morning view across a meadow in a shadow valley. The grass is slightly frosty and the sun is just about to breach the horizon.

Further along the journey on a trackway between farmland. The Sun has risen and it blurred by a hazy layer, a border collie across the track in front of me.

A large pear tree further along the same track. In fact you can see it in the distance in the previous photo. The sun is slightly less hazy. The border collie stands beside the tree. The background a cluster of trees can be seen, this is our Orchard.

Finally inside our orchard. The Sun is just about casting rays between the rows of trees.

“Walk ever towards the sun, the shadows will fall behind you.” That’s what it said on an old sundial in my parents’ garden, and that’s what the outbound part of this morning’s walk was like. Hit the old orchard and then the sun was pushing us home.