I’m Steve. I work as an employment advisor, Wellbeing activity co-ordinator and volunteer co-ordinator for a large Deaf charity in Manchester, UK.
I was born profoundly deaf on my left side with much reduced hearing on my right. I was brought up mainstream (not Deaf-educated), and outside of the Manchester Deaf community. In recent years I’ve been introduced to the massive Manchester Deaf community, having started as a client in the Wellbeing group, progressing becoming a volunteer and then being offered the role that started my new career direction. It’s a completely different enviroment to the thankless I.T. sector that I previously worked for, and my d/Deafness is supported and celebrated instead of something to be ashamed of and embarrassed about. I now identify as d/Deaf and proud!
When I’m not working, I like to enjoy nature and the outdoors by way of:
- hill-walking,
- container and house-plant gardening,
- I’m an enthusiastic nature, wildlife and environmental photographer.
I also still like to tinker with technology. I self-host my own Mastodon, Pixelfed and Peertube Fedi instances. I’d like to host my own GitHub but I’m currently struggling getting Runners to work properly.
This blog is written in markdown, served up by Hugo by way of GitHub pages.
Quite a lot of my blog will revolve around the progress of my garden. Garden is a rather grandiose term for the 15’x11’ walled yard at the back of the house, but it’s an interesting challenge to work with, and it helps me live with the mental health issues that I carry. I find it soothing and I get a sense of peace and connection to the natural world. I also enjoy watching plants grow from seed to mature specimens that give me awesome flowers to look at, as well as being really useful to pollinting insects.