Pete Ashton

Stirchley, Birmingham UK. Got the post-covid chronic fatigue bullshit and figuring out how life works now, online and off. Keeper of rabbits. Middle-aged autistic diagnosis. Very interested in composting.

Mostly crossposting from https://notes.peteashton.com

Me: http://peteashton.com
Blog: https://notes.peteashton.com/
Essays / Newsletter: https://72.peteashton.com
Composting newsletter: https://the.aerobicdigest.email

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Last Notes

2026-07-19 15:21:26 CEST

Our local #rabbit rescue, Fat Fluffs (https://www.fatfluffs.com/), is also a sanctuary for buns that, for medical or behavioural reasons, cannot be rehomed. They live in a big garden on site and are cared for by staff and volunteers (including us when we wanted to learn how to look after our buns properly). But when a new rabbit is introduced to the pack they need to be properly bonded. This involves putting all the buns into as small a cage as possible so their scents can mix and a new hierarchy can be established without any chasing, fighting and biting.
They recently bonded 19 #rabbits. Which is both a crushing indictment on the pet rabbit breeding industry (please always adopt, don’t shop, and only get a rabbit if you know what you’re doing) and also the most fucking cute thing ever. Via https://www.facebook.com/100064306315216/posts/1443076054512591/
#rabbitsOfMastodon
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/946/848/041/428/541/original/d13ebc918002faf2.jpeg

2026-05-24 15:06:40 CEST

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It did occur to me that they’re probably terrible for transportation and mass production. Thanks capitalism!

2026-05-24 13:43:12 CEST

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They 100% were a thing in the UK when I was a kid, but now I think about it I haven’t seen one in the wild for a time. Hmm…

2026-02-10 21:11:28 CET

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A finite Jess, not to be confused with the novel by David Foster Wallace.
I’ll get me coat.

2025-12-04 11:14:43 CET

My bank’s phone app just forced me to swipe through a “2025 wrapped” nonsense and then crashed. In hindsight, that feels about right for 2025.

2025-09-06 12:41:20 CEST

The Aerobic Digest is back! https://the.aerobicdigest.email/p/the-aerobic-digest-14-electric-compost-battery-test
After an enforced break I’ve figured out how to write my #composting newsletter again.
This issue: community composting in Birmingham and Machynlleth, a compost-powered computer in Manchester and a dead hedge.
Hope you enjoy it!
#compostodon #PermaCulture

2025-04-22 15:29:27 CEST

As someone who has been employed as a janitor I’m always struck by how the handwringing over the sanctity of gendered toilets never seems to consider the men who clean women’s loos and women who clean men’s loos. I suspect because cleaners are not considered real people.

2025-03-18 15:14:05 CET

We'll see how it pans out, but Liz Kendall was quite specific about the changes to #PIP and it would appear I will no longer be eligible for my disability benefit from 2026. I have post-viral chronic fatigue, barely leave the house and a trip to the supermarket sees me bedridden for 36 hours.
The #CFS specialist at Birmingham hospital reckons I'll be like this for 5 years and any recovery is predicated on minimal exertion, even if I feel capable. I cannot "work" even if I want to (and I do).

2025-02-16 19:58:31 CET

Thanks to some help from Laura’s muscles we started spreading the mature #compost onto the beds today. It looks great. I hate having chronic fatigue but it does mean my compost matures really well.
#composting #Compostodon #Allotment
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/015/096/376/326/568/original/fa4855a5021913a9.jpg
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/015/096/565/970/637/original/ab657b96559cb71c.jpg

2025-01-25 18:37:54 CET

Our shed blew over in the storm so the #allotment community rallied round to help us get it back up again. I was expecting a ship of fools, blind leading the blind farce but it all came together very professionally.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/890/208/838/142/831/original/ed7f68ba56f006c4.jpg

2025-01-16 20:01:52 CET

Desire Paths.
via https://tech.lgbt/@Natasha_Jay/113838211051675623
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/839/578/105/034/800/original/bf75f16b62d551aa.jpg

2025-01-13 19:07:39 CET

Compost Culture: An Introductory Film
https://vimeo.com/1046340414
A nice video about Birmingham’s community #composting project which I was involved with before long-Covid took me off the board. This features the three-bay structures I designed and co-built last year and it’s quite emotional seeing them in use.
#compostodon #compost #permaculture

2024-12-02 02:09:52 CET

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This is why we've never had more than three rabbits. Pack hierarchy dynamics can be brutal!

2024-11-19 18:04:31 CET

The Counterculture Switch: creating in a hostile environment
https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2024/counterculture-switch/
I’ve really appreciated and enjoyed @npub1hr7…jxyc's recent spate of posts and commend his writing to you. Here he points to lessons from how queer counterculture navigated persecution and pushbacks in anticipation of a reactionary right-wing resurgence.

2024-11-18 19:44:21 CET

People who use command line stuff very occasionally, how do you store your commands? I use FFMPEG and ImageMagick enough for them to be important but not for me to ever remember anything, so I have random documents in my notes apps on the off chance I remember to save them. Is there a better way? Or should I just get better at making notes.
macOS Terminal is my weapon.

2024-11-13 23:42:52 CET

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There was a wonderful moment on Flickr (back when Flickr was wonderful) where someone posted a classic Cartier Bresson to a critique-me group and so many people picked holes in it for being “bad”. Most people who think they know about photography don’t know shite.

2024-11-11 13:47:25 CET

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Thanks for writing this. I’ve been looking at a lot of counterculture materials from the 60s-90s and it’s useful to have the obscenity aspect articulated this way.

2024-11-05 23:30:16 CET

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If you collapsed at 30 seconds, what the hooting flip happened at 1:58???

2024-10-03 01:51:08 CEST

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I read that post as “we set this up using our standard systems and they are definitely not right for this, so we’re going to have to figure out a different system that fits and that’ll take a while, but we’ll get there.” But I’m just watching and enjoying the messy honesty of these posts, not necessarily understanding the details.

2024-09-19 20:27:05 CEST

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T-shirt from here: https://sineater.bigcartel.com/product/soil-wizard-charcoal #compostodon

2024-09-19 20:26:41 CEST

Birthday haul.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/165/624/748/272/732/original/538fd2b6c6e53b71.jpeg
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/165/624/946/147/909/original/30783c7fe7f06921.jpeg

2024-09-05 00:00:45 CEST

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I’m a big fan of Edible Acres’ chicken composting videos. Very thorough and always experimenting. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLihFHKqj6JerKruLfMcxdNKDRHkGxgwwz

2024-04-30 20:47:12 CEST

In further experiments in recording what's happening inside my #compost heaps, I stuck some microphones in all four of them today and uploaded the results. It's... interesting maybe? You can certainly hear the worms in the second one. Need to refine the process I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AFqW6rUjfM
#compostodon #composting