The apple harvest is in! I picked the apples in our apple tree, and pruned the tree while I was at it. About a bucket and a half of apples. Way more than last year which had a very dry spring. Sour in taste though, because of the relative little sunlight they captured this summer. Applie pies lie in our near future I suspect.
A regular week, with ongoing nice weather. This week I
did some additional invoicing, discussed a project proposal with a client, and saw another proposal accepted
visited Amsterdam for a conversation with two businessowners I know through Mensa, about connecting business activities to the SDGs
removed more Flickr embeds from this blog
helped prepare a series of 4 sessions within a ministry on data usage, to take place late next month
reviewed a client project both internally, and with the client, and came to the conclusion we’ll not be continuing it.
paid the monthly salaries
worked on a wiki for the upcoming EU legal framework on digital and data matters
Talked to the board of the Dutch ‘data union’, which seeks to represent citizens against big tech, and offered them a session on how the proposed EU legal framework for data ties to the different aspects of their mission
went out for lunch with E, to chat and hang out with the two of us
had an extended conversation about the work being done at the Dutch Navy’s hydrographic services and how it’s connected to my work on the EU data framework
enjoyed the great weather during the weekend with E and Y, going out for lunch, cycling, a walk in the woods, and spotting beaver tracks and gnawing marks
picked the apples from our tree
Passing by an old farm’s field. Duist used to be a municipality, which was dissolved in 1857
This week felt a bit sluggish, but was otherwise ok. The sluggishness was caused by participating in a client’s group event on Monday afternoon and evening and Tuesday all day. With the pandemic measures relaxed as of last week, this event was face to face. This turned out to be remarkably intensive for me, clearly I had to get used again to having a room full of people and especially their conversations around me. After Tuesday I much needed time to rest which left limited time for other things.
This week I
spent two days on a client’s all hands meeting
learned that I will be a speaker at the FOSS for Geo Netherlands conference in a few weeks
worked on a proposal for a client to submit to their client
had planned to attend an in-person event of the Medinge Group, of which I used to be a member for a decade, but in the end decided against it based on a slightly runny nose and the intensity of the event at the start of the week
got lots of positive feedback on my work on the EU legal framework for data, including an additional small assignment to match the new framework against a specific pilot project on data architecture
had the usual weekly client meetings
got asked to participate in a podcast session on note taking tools
checked with the EC on the progress w.r.t. the EU High Value Data list, which turned out to currently stalled
had an interesting conversation about knowledge .management with a client that saw significant growth in their team. This led me to resurfacing some projects I did 2000-2010 which I feel still have meaningful lessons to be taken from them, and writing notes about them
talked about non-fiction book writing with E, which she suggested might be a useful thing for both herself and me. I find I feel a lot of resistance against the notion. Upon closer inspection this is based on a) mistrusting the (PR-)objectives of a lot of authors of non-fiction books, b) the notion that many such books are anecdote padded ideas that themselves would fit on a few pages, ideas usually more intuited than researched, and c) not seeing a topic that shouldn’t also belong on the heap of books that needn’t be written. At the same time I buy loads of non-fiction books, so there’s some paradox there to further explore.
worked on a series of 4 sessions and workshops for a Dutch Ministry later this month
had a conversation with colleagues at the World Bank about a potential assignment for digital transformation work in Jordan
worked on the 2020 bookkeeping in preparation for doing the 2020 tax returns for both E and me
did some preparation for a session on (open) data for anti-corruption efforts, which I will be presenting next week
did some work in the garden, removing summer items such as parasols, and prepare for the next season
gave most our apple harvest away to four neighbours, keeping enough for baking an apple pie for ourselves during the weekend
The apple harvest of 2022 is in. We had plentiful potential apples after the blossoming, but heat, lack of rain and then a surplus of rain took their toll. This is what was left.
The apples I picked from our small tree
Previous harvests 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.