Recap April 2024

Hey everyone,

April has been a month of contrasts, filled with diverse activities and unexpected turns. Let’s get into the highlights of the month:

Activities

April kicked off with attending my wife’s Line Dance championship and indulging in the freedom of mountain biking. The weekend also brought a hiking trip with friends, a rare treat that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The following weekend, we finally went on a long-awaited hike to explore a path known to pass by a natural sulfur spring. The journey, facilitated by public transport, unveiled a lovely long hiking day and the unmistakable smell of the said sulphur spring. A very positive surprise was the quality of the public transport! The next day, a leisurely cycling loop provided a perfect balance of relaxation for our legs and some physical activity, bathed in sunny weather (which almost gave us our first sunburn of the year).

However, the weather soon took a turn for the worse, with freezing temperatures, snow, and relentless wind dominating the landscape for nearly two weeks. Despite the challenging conditions, we spent the time with indoor activities and I seized the opportunity to get into video editing – a project that I procrastinated for … a while (read more about it here).

The last weekend, weather suddenly went sunny and warm again. We dedicated the weekend to cycling our MTBs once more and had two wonderful 40km loops. I can just repeat that I really missed cycling!

Photography

April proved to be a modest month for photography, with cycling and inclement weather dominating the scene. Nevertheless, I dedicated myself to revisiting unpublished photos, finding solace in the memories they held.

A highlight of the month was receiving a print of one of my wife’s favorite photos, adorning our home with cherished memories from our travels in Ireland. I ordered one large copy placed in a frame on the wall and another A4 sized copy for my own collection. It is an amazing feeling to hold a memorable photo in your own hands. On thick quality paper with nice structure. It really makes a difference to “just” seeing a phtoo on a screen.

Website

One of the significant decisions this month was bidding farewell to the newsletter after the sign-up form was abused. I struggled with the newsletter for quite a while anyways, due to its modest success. And the abuse just finalized my decision that it didn’t justify the effort. I wrote a bit on the blog about it.

But not all was bad this month regarding the website! A friend of mine inspired me to work on the start page of the website and make it clearer, simpler and … just better – in my eyes.

Blogging, & Video Channel

Social media fatigue also crept in, with Instagram engagement dwindling. However, the occasional feedback served as a heartening reminder of the community’s support and encouragement. Actually, it felt like I was very lazy with blogging / posting but just looking at my recap it looks like I wasn’t as lazy as I thought! Down here are the posts of this month:

Finally, I took the plunge and gave PeerTube another chance. Attracted by the platform’s decentralized nature and newly discovered auto-sync feature, I’m eager to explore its potential as an alternative to YouTube. Especially as it feels like the people on Mastodon prefer it over YouTube.