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• Post #2006305

  New blog post: Merlin Bird ID If you’re out and about in nature a lot, then I can recommend the Merlin Bird ID app. It’s a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, part of Cornell University in New York State in the US. Its aim is to help you identify birds. What sets Merlin Bird ID apart from other bird-identifying … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/05/05/merlin-bird-id/

• Post #1909103

  New blog post: Nunnington Hall On Easter Monday, we took advantage of the nice weather on Easter Monday to visit Nunnington Hall. Yes, I am aware it has taken me a month to get this published. I’ve been to Nunnington Hall before, but it was many, many years ago. Such that I don’t really remember it, and certainly didn’t have … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/05/03/nunnington-hall/

• Post #1109839

  New blog post: Changing EV charger speed terminology Zapmap recently published updated guidance about EV charger speeds, and the names that we give the different types of chargers. The same guidance has been supported by the Department for Transport, and now categorises electric vehicle chargers into these four categories: I’ve put their infographic as the featured image above, and here’s how each category … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/04/09/changing-ev-charger-speed-terminology/

• Post #680953

  New blog post: Plug-in solar is coming to the UK On Sunday, the government announced the go-ahead for shops and supermarkets to sell ‘plug in solar’ kits. These are solar panels which don’t require a professional installation, and can be simply plugged in to a regular plug socket to power your home. Until now, plug-in solar panels haven’t been legal in the UK. If you … Rea https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/17/plug-in-solar-is-coming-to-the-uk/

• Post #568439

  New blog post: Heaton Park Somewhere that we go to regularly, but I have hitherto not blogged about, is Heaton Park in Manchester. It’s the largest public park in the north west of England, and, being in the north-east corner of Manchester, it’s only about half an hour’s drive from us. To give you some idea of how big Heaton … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/07/heaton-park/

• Post #537160

  @jtonline@mastodon.me.uk I don't think that's available for my car, unfortunately.

• Post #502250

  New blog post: Allowing IP ranges for a reverse proxy I run a few services on my Raspberry Pi, such as Mealie and Calibre-Web, which I want to be able to access when I’m away from home. I therefore use Nginx Proxy Manager to act as a reverse proxy, to make them available outside of my home network. However, in doing so, I’m also exposing … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/03/allowing-ip-ranges-for-a-reverse-proxy/

• Post #467060

  New blog post: Marching onwards into March Whilst it’s been a wet start to 2026 for some, it’s definitely starting to feel more like spring now. As it happens, the photo above of some crocuses was taken 20 years ago, on a little Samsung point and shoot camera that I used to own. Apparently I don’t take many photos of crocuses, or … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/03/01/marching-onwards-into-march/

• Post #373179

  New blog post: Playlist of the month: Ska covers This month’s playlist comes from me discovering the band Skameleon. They’re a German band who specialise in covering pop songs in the third-wave ska style. I’ve long had a soft spot for ska music – a close friend of mine started to get into it when we were at college and so I passively listened … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/01/26/playlist-of-the-month-ska-covers/

• Post #373178

  Wow, I'm doing so well at growing my professional network on LinkedIn.

• Post #373177

  New blog post: Thackray Museum of Medicine A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds. It’s next to St James Hospital, and tells the history of medical care in the UK from the 18th century until the present day. History of the Thackray Museum The Thackray Museum first opened in 1997, so it’s just shy … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/01/28/thackray-museum-of-medicine/

• Post #373176

  New blog post: Mealie – self-hosted recipe manager I’ve been playing with Mealie recently. It’s a recipe manager, so you store all of the recipes that you have saved from various web sites and search them easily. You can also add your own recipes, including photos, and include a star rating. Mealie isn’t the first recipe manager that I’ve used. Until now, I’ve … Read https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/05/mealie-self-hosted-recipe-manager/

• Post #373175

  New blog post: An overview of other people called Neil Turner I suppose one problem with having a (relatively) common first name and surname, is that I’m not the only person called Neil Turner. If you do a Google search for ‘neil turner’, this blog is currently not the first result, although it has been in the past. When I first joined Facebook, almost two decades … Read m https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/07/an-overview-of-other-people-called-neil-turner/

• Post #373174

  New blog post: A Monday Meme It’s been a few weeks since I last did one of these. This is one that Dave2 posted to Facebook some time ago. https://neilturner.me.uk/2017/07/03/a-monday-meme/

• Post #373173

  New blog post: A return trip to Cannon Hall Farm Last weekend, we went back to Cannon Hall Farm, which is in the so-called ‘Tuscan hills‘ surrounding the town of Barnsley. We’ve been many times before, the most recent of which was in 2024, and I last wrote about it in 2017. Since that visit, Cannon Hall Farm has seen a number of developments. All … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/19/a-return-trip-to-cannon-hall-farm/

• Post #373172

  Did anyone else find that their iPhone alarm didn't work this morning, or was it just me?

• Post #373146

  New blog post: Moving my email to Fastmail I’m now using Fastmail (referral link) for my email. My email address remains the same, but all email sent to it will go to Fastmail’s servers. Fastmail isn’t a new company; as per Wikipedia, it’s been around since 1999. That makes it older than Gmail, which was founded in April 2004. Moving away from Gmail … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/23/moving-my-email-to-fastmail/

• Post #349088

  New blog post: Just the Browser Do you sometimes feel like AI features are now just foisted upon us, whether we want them or not? It feels like almost every app now has some kind of AI feature added – even Notepad on Windows 11 isn’t immune, with Microsoft adding its Copilot to it. Most web browsers have some AI features … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/21/just-the-browser/

• Post #315641

  New blog post: Pancake day Today is Shrove Tuesday, which in Christian cultures falls the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the 40 days of Lent. We’re not Christians in our household, but we do like an excuse to have pancakes, and so Shrove Tuesday is known as pancake day in our household (and I’m sure many others). … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/17/pancake-day/

• Post #295366

  New blog post: Ponhog laptop backpack review I was in need of a new backpack that can carry a laptop, and so I bought this Ponhog laptop backpack (sponsored link) a few weeks ago. Here’s my review of it, but firstly a bit of background. I’m a hybrid worker, and when I go into the office I tend to commute by train. … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/15/ponhog-laptop-backpack-review/

• Post #295143

  Happy discount heart shaped chocolate day!

• Post #281283

  New blog post: Friday 13th Today is Friday 13th, and because it’s February and not a leap year, this is the first of three Friday 13ths that we’ll experience this year. The next one will be in March, and then again in November. It’s the first time since 2015 that we’ve experienced three Friday 13ths in one year. Indeed, last … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/13/friday-13th/

• Post #275577

  oh noooo https://www.polygon.com/epstein-files-pokemon-go-stop-little-saint-james-sundial-where-is/

• Post #255043

  New blog post: Olsen & Smith 1800W Smart Ceramic Heater Review My latest new smart home device is this little 1800W ceramic heater from Olsen & Smith (sponsored link). It’s only around 20 centimetres tall, but is able to output a decent amount of heat quite quickly. We bought it because our ten-year-old’s room is consistently colder than the rest of the house. I suspect it’s … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/11/olsen-smith-1800w-smart-ceramic-heater-review/

• Post #249101

  New blog post: How to: multiply two entities in Home Assistant Suppose you have two entities in Home Assistant, and you want to multiply them together to produce a third entity that always shows the product of these two entities. Here’s how I went about it. One of Home Assistant’s built-in integrations is Template. These Template entities derive their status from other entities in Home Assistant, … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/09/how-to-multiply-two-entities-in-home-assistant/

• Post #228653

  New blog post: GeekMagic SmallTV Pro & Home Assistant I recently bought a GeekMagic SmallTV Pro (sponsored link), which is a small, always-on desktop screen that runs on USB power. Out of the box, it can display the weather, a small range of photos, share prices and cryptocurrency prices. However, I’ve connected it up to Home Assistant to display a dashboard. There are two … https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/03/geekmagic-smalltv-pro-home-assistant/

• Post #206660

  New blog post: Flung into February Back in February 2024, my wife Christine described the preceding January as ‘the Januariest January that ever Januaried’. And whilst January 2025 was also something of a slog, for us at least, this January hasn’t been so bad. I think it’s helped that I had a few days off work at the start, and so … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/02/01/flung-into-february/

• Post #183050

  New blog post: Unblogged January I didn’t do one of these in December, although I think anything that I would have written about went into the 2025 review. Instead, here’s what I got up to in January that didn’t merit a full blog post. The Wolf Moon That photo of the moon at the top isn’t a stock photo – … Read more https://neilturner.me.uk/2026/01/30/unblogged-january/