vital functions

[kaberett]

Celebrating. Birthday! Fairly quietly. :)

Reading. Very slowly: some progress with The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (Oliver Sacks).

I am also now up to date with Several Fic.

Watching/Playing. Ori and the Will of the Wisps. We have now finished. Unlike Filament, which I mention purely because it's the previous thing we played, I think the ending was coherent and internally consistent! But also I reject this canon and substitute my own. So there.

Eating. I had a frustrating medical appointment yesterday, on the way home from which we stopped at Ottolenghi. Four salads, one and a half cakes and some crackers later I am definitely feeling better about it.

There was an aubergine-with-apricot-chutney thing in particular where the apricot chutney was astonishing. I don't think the recipe is one that's been published, which is frankly a tragedy, and I am slightly feverishly trying to work out the optimum route to recreating it. (Buying lots more of the dishes containing it and making copious notes? E-mailing plaintively? THERE ARE MANY OPTIONS.)

Exploring. Poked around the New River Loop a bit (both birthday and day after) for the purposes of Observing Baby Waterfowl, and achieved Success.

Growing. Wound up de-hatting the persimmon, which was very exciting, but I am now Concerned about it both in terms of "have I got a sciarid fly population AGAIN" (nematodes resentfully ordered) and in terms of having... failed to water it for a few days... which I have now rectified, so we'll see i it's perked up by the morning.

Also Sorted the various Tomato Situations ongoing, though did not achieve either sowing replacements or taking extant ones to garden.

Did manage a bit of time at the plot but have alas let it get somewhat to Overwhelming. Let's see how this next week goes.

Observing. BABY BIRDS. Egyptian goslings (teenage), Canadian gosling singular (EXTREMELY SMALL AND YELLOW AND FLUFFY), coots (two teenage, five Tiny Shrill Balls). The Bat. A mallard's nictating membrane. The rhododendrons down by the war memorial are a little past peak but still spectacular.

Perseverating. Washi tape. I am in round two of Obsessive Perseveration About Washi Tape. To the point of having scrolled through over 60 pages of search results on Etsy, plus individual shops' entire stocks, and having started a list of things I want to exist that don't and contemplating minimum orders at custom printers. I have photos of multiple cultivars of holly. I have sent a whole entire e-mail to an Etsy shop based in the States to the tune of "... any way you can do me shipping for a bit less than sixteen quid?" I have developed a strong desire for decorative tape storage-and-cutter solutions to the point of somehow seriously considering this nonsense. I am sooort of hoping it will let go of me again soon, and somewhat grateful that the US Etsy shop hasn't got back to me yet so I am not having to make myself sit and wait and work out whether I actually want all nine things I currently have open in tabs from them...

Comments

[azurelunatic]

That tape box is much more elegant than my IKEA chopsticks stuffed through a takeout box situation!

[vass]

<333

[contrarywise]

Happyhappy Extended Birthday! (somehow I missed your post on the day, oops.)

Maybe check out Pinterest for washi tape storage for ideas? I agree, that nonsense is a bit of overkill, although it is attractive and functional. Surely there's an affordable and perhaps DIY solution for you somewhere.

[kaberett]

Part of the appeal of the nonsense is "cutting straight lines perpendicular to the length of the tape without needing three hands", I will confess...

[ewt]

That tape dispenser is ridiculous and gorgeous. I want one and I don't even really use washi tape much (having switched over to an e-ink notebook for bulletjournal purposes).

[lunabee34]

Apricot chutney!

[zasu]

Apricot chutney must be amazing. I bought and planted an apricot tree last year, because the weird thing about apricots, is that they're terrible from stores, but amazing picked from one's own tree. I second emailing plaintively. Either that or befriend someone who works there.

That Washi tape dispenser is a thing of beauty.

I loved the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. I learned so much from it. Increased my compassion for people with neurological issues (which I hadn't been aware of before - this was an awfully long time ago) ;)

[azurelunatic]

I'm intrigued by the apricot chutney in this recipe: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/aug/19/summer-stone-fruit-recipes-chutney-pork-chops-nectarine-salad-beetroot-plum-dressing-yotam-ottolenghi