Rev. Andy 🐺 🌿 @andy@mentalhealth.social

My #introduction toot!

I'm Andy and I'm the admin of mentalhealth.social.

My interests are covered in my profile. On #mentalhealth I've briefly known the Black Dog in the past and work hard to keep him on a leash. My wife lives with #BPD bundled with #anxiety and #depression (though has a grip on all of them) and her illnesses are one of the things that drive me to be so passionate about #MH support and care. Which is why I set up this Masto instance; a safe place to socialise and chat. 👍

10lb of beetroot harvested ftom the garden. That's half the crop. I've run out of jars before beetroot. 😂 I hope people like pickles. This lot gets added to the 4lb of green tomato chutney and 6lb of piccalilli I made a few weekends ago. #gardening #cooking #harvest

I started doing 16:8 IF at the weekend, and just finished my 5th fast. Not only is this a good use for the immense volume of vegetables we have growing in the raised beds, I feel SO good. More energy. Less bloated. I've lost half a stone in the first 3 days (admittedly, a chunk of that will be fluids) and I'm drinking 6-8 pints of water a day. No sugar or simple carbs, lots of fibre, fish, and white meat.

In between that and 416 days sober, shit is improving (and not just literally).

The weekend was challenging. We've had a death in the family. Without going into detail, a relative that lived in the US was murdered. It hit us hard and triggered the fuck out of me, dragging up trauma responses and putting me into full fight.

I was going to say "uncontrollably" but I've coped. I've got tools now. I'm present and aware of what I'm feeling and where I'm feeling it. So yeah, it's horrible and we're hurting but I'm not going to allow it to dominate. RIP buddy. 😥

Things I never thought I'd be doing a few months ago: picking my lunch from the garden at 6.45am, as I'm popping into the office today. 😁 #gardening #soberlife

I've been playing a lot of The Ascent this weekend, and I've gotta say, janky dual stick controls aside, it's a gorgeous cyberpunk experience. So many nods to the likes of Neuromancer, and a really cool Bladerunner, Shadowrun, and SLA Industries vibe.

Angular is the dumbest fucking framework I've ever had the "privilege" to use. I swear, I'm gonna put my fascist Senior Dev hat on one day and tell everyone we're using VueJS moving forwards and nothing else.

Enjoying John Mayer's new album. It's got that layered, '80s, John Mellencamp vibe going for it. Obviously jumping on the '80s synthwave bandwagon.

John Mayer falls into my weird ethical middle ground. As in, I can separate the art (I enjoy his music and I think he's a pretty solid songwriter) from the artist (somewhat of a whingy, narcissistic prick). There are certain artists, not just musical ones, that I refuse to support (typically, ones that are Nazi fucks). Fingers crossed, eh John?

I'm feeling pretty good at the moment, all things considered (all things being: eldest catching COVID, isolation at home, stupidly busy at work, etc.) A few years ago, I'd be managing this by self-medicating and feeling worse as a result. Short of a few intrusive thoughts, my brain reminding me that trauma never really goes away, life is good.

Latest garden project is vermiculture, starting with a wormery I set up last night. Lots of fun + helping close the loop on recycling.

So we thought stuff wasn't growing in the raised beds, so we ordered some plants to fill the gaps. Then everything started growing. Then the filler plugs arrived today. So I've spent two hours cramming chard, spinach, MORE LEEKS, mizuna, beetroots and some other stuff that @Jo dealt with. Tied up and pinched back the tomatoes, as they've gone full Jurassic Park on us now. And drilled holes on things. Hoping the weather will stay nice as I have some brickwork and pointing to do. #gardening

One year sober (and caffeine free). Woop woop, or something. 🎉 Same time next year? #sobriety #AlcoholFree

Oh, and the garden has erupted with vegetables and fruit. More on that when I can get outside (if the constant rain ever stops).

I've started work on the front-end of the app my team are currently working on. I despise Angular. All hail Vue.js.

350 days sober and treated myself to a new audio book: "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps".

I don't do AA. I don't like groups. Also, in part because of the horror stories I've read about; and, because no matter how you twist it, I don't subscribe to what is essentially a Christian recovery process based on bad psychology.

Touch wood, so far this is interesting, reflective and mirrors my own self-actualisation when it comes to sobriety and removing alcohol from my life.

Went to see the parents today and came back with more plugs. 😂 24 leeks, 6 Brussel Sprouts, and 6 somethings (PSB I think, though according to dad might be Summer Cabbage). @Jo planted out a load of seeds yesterday, just in time for last night's downpour. And the radishes are sprouting. #gardening We're getting there!

Tomatoes, chillis, lettuce x 18 (seed), marigolds (companion plant), radishes x 96 (seed), spring onions x 128 (seed) and strawberries at the back. Knackered now.

The soil is very warm at around 7cm (still fermenting and steaming), but all of the seeds are shallow planted, 1-2cm, so I'm not worried. We'll plant more out later in the week, assuming we dodge most of the rain. Plenty more seeds in the folder... #squarefoot #gardening

Autism-friendly, square foot (-ish) #gardening raised beds...done. I'm taking next weekend off. 😂

We also have compost to spare, surprisingly. That's in the region of 5,250 litres - about 2.5 tons.

A couple of days of watering in and then we'll start planting out our plugs, seedlings, and putting some seeds straight in.

Gratuitous "finished the first raised bed" selfie. #gardening

One pallet down. It really smells like shit. This is a good thing. I also smell like shit. This is less good. 😂