Permanent Tourist

The personal website of Mark Howells-Mead

  • Spring snow on Sigriswiler Rothorn

    Spring snow

    We had some late snow just recently and although it was lovely to look at, the temperatures were brought down. I’m done with winter and cold, now. I want the mountains to clear so I can get out walking again.

  • I have tons and tons of drive. When I get interested in something, I can easily go overboard and spend a lot of time thinking about it. I’m no genius by any means, but if I set to something which I’m passionate about, then I can usually get up to speed relatively well. My wife…

  • Delving for treasured albums amongst piles and piles of vinyl and CDs.

  • WordPress expert Mark Howells-Mead

    Using a constant to a Webpack build process for reusable components in your scripts.

  • Screenshot of the Hotel Aare website in Thun

    How to “move” single WordPress posts into the page hierarchy.

  • Do what you love for the happiness it brings

    Enjoying the things which make you happy in the time you have available.

  • Sgurr Mhairi from Ashaig

    Squalls in Skye

    To hell with warm, sunny days. Let the squalls come.

  • A cold walk on the shores of Lac de Neuchâtel, and some lovely pink post-sunset light.

  • Wetterhorn, Grindelwald

    A pleasant, mainly downhill walk in the Grindelwald valley.

  • Faulensee at sunset

    Time to start warming up for hillier walking…

  • Bern, 2024

    Taking a brain break by being where there are interesting scenes to ponder.

  • WordPress expert Mark Howells-Mead

    I ruminate on the advantages and disadvantages of using the WordPress Interactivity API.

  • Low water levels in Gwatt

    Exceptionally low water levels at Lake Thun, as part of a four-year routine.

  • Taking the Mini out for a drive through the hills to Emmental.

  • Second attempt

    The single arrival of the day from Merligen on the BLS winter cruise schedule. The captain had to reverse and re-dock at the ship jetty in Faulensee because he buggered up the approach.

  • The coffee cups at Ikea are half the size of regular mugs, but if you arrive at the café 15 minutes before closing time on a Saturday, there’s no time to take advantage of the free refills. On the other hand, you don’t have to sit amongst screaming kids and their minders, so…

  • A pleasant walk down from Allmendhubel through Blumental valley, into the shade cast by the mountain ridge, then back into the sun to slither our way down the ice-covered path to Mürren.

  • Beauty in the Melancholy

    I used to avoid Radiohead back in the 1990s, because my youthful inexperience made me think their songs were miserable. I’m so glad that I’ve grown up to hear the beauty in the melancholy.

  • WordPress expert Mark Howells-Mead

    How to work around PHP’s deprecation of dynamic class properties without refactoring your whole codebase.

  • Pool of light in the back lanes near Faulensee

    Reminding myself that although mountain hiking season is over now, there are still wonderful opportunities to walk and clear the mind.

  • WordPress expert Mark Howells-Mead

    Using Context in WordPress’ implementation of React.