vital functions

[kaberett]

Reading. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (Oliver Sacks) showed up from the library. I am slogging through the introduction Very Slowly.

Today, though, I have mostly been reading the summer edition of the National Trust magazine. Highlight, from a short piece accompanying a photograph of sunflowers:

You'll notice that some of the sunflowers are facing the sunset. They're the younger ones. They've turned their faces to follow the sun -- a phenomenon known as heliotropism that is actually caused by different sides of the stem lengthening at different times of day. As the plants mature they mostly settle facing east -- possbily because bees are more likely to pollinate flower heads warmed by the morning sun.

Playing. Progress with Ori and the Will of the Wisps! Which I am mostly watching and passing comment on, because we reached the point at which keyboard controls were nooot adequate to the job, and there's more combat (in normal mode) than I am comfortable with (though it's not implausible that I might at some point replay it on story mode, or whatever they call it) and at this point I've just... skipped enough of the hands-on experience that I am going to be overwhelmed and frustrated by trying to pick up the controls now. So we're not doing that. But we are having fun!

Cooking. A New Thing: Meera Sodha's shiitake pho with crispy leeks. Will not bother with the crispy leeks again (probably) but pleasantly surprised by the effort-to-payoff ratio of an approach that doesn't involve First Scorch Your Onions.

Eating. FIRST ENGLISH ASPARAGUS OF THE YEAR.

Growing. PERSIMMON SURGERY: successful???

Observing. Did not attempt to aurora-watch (combination of "tired" and "London light pollution" and "scepticism"). Have enjoyed observing Fox. For some reason the bird feeders are currently going down very rapidly...

Comments

[watersword]

FIRST ASPARAGUS!!!! I am so excited to eat mine.

[lunabee34]

Asparagus yum!

[horselizard]

ooh, i happened to read the man who mistook his wife for a hat recently! found it very engaging, looking forward to hearing your thoughts. (content warning for period-typical language/attitudes around various disabilities/conditions, but i got the strong sense that sacks was admirably compassionate/progressive for his time, which helped me gloss over it <3)

[kaberett]

The edition I'm reading has a foreword (by Sacks) about the language used! Which is helpful.

[horselizard]

ooh, interesting! yeah, mine was too old to have that - i'm sure it would be helpful.