vital functions

[kaberett]

Reading. As mentioned: I Overcame My Autism ᴀɴᴅ ᴀʟʟ ɪ ɢᴏᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴛʜɪs ʟᴏᴜsʏ ᴀɴxɪᴇᴛʏ ᴅɪsᴏʀᴅᴇʀ, Sarah Kurchak. I almost unreservedly love this; my one minor quibble (this being something that has tripped me up Several Times over, say, the past year or so) is that she more-or-less presents special interests as an Unalloyed Good with None Downsides. I understand why she does so -- she's writing against a literature that considers them Inherently Bad with All Downsides -- but having (as I say) had multiple recent rounds of "I am miserably hitting refresh on the same four forums about my current Overwhelming Hyperfixation, and while I would consciously rather be doing pretty much anything else, attempts to stop are actually physically painful" I'm a bit sad that that particular community-internal nuance didn't get page time. Overall, though, lots of wry cackling, and heartily recommended.

One further excerpt (consisting of a footnote, in its entirety):

To my non-autistic readers: I want to warn you that the next handful of paragraphs are going to be a shift in tone. I've been tempering my natural autistic inclination to spew large amounts of information in a single burst up until now in an effort to keep you as comfortable, engaged and amused as possible. But I fear that I need to be a bit of a lecturing eccentric aunt on these key points. So few autistics are given any kind of platform to tell our stories at all, and fewer still have a chance to touch on love and sex. Most of the material that non-autistic people have produced on the topic strikes me as patronization, mockery, exploitation or fear-mongering. I have a fairly rare chance to attempt to shift the conversation in my own small way here, and I believe that I owe it to my fellow autistics to squeeze as much as I can as seriously as I can into this section.
To my autistic readers: You'll be fine. It's info dump and mildly pedantic argument-making time!

(Okay, one more quibble: she does not anywhere introduce the term "allistic".)

I cannot at all remember who it was that recced this (and utterly failed to make a note of that when noting the rec), but thank you very much for doing so!

Watching. Farscape S01E16. I am spending a steadily decreasing proportion of each episode going "... what the fuck". On the other hand, my reaction to Rygel being murdered was "I might not have to deal with him any more??? ..................... damnit no there's no way they're sticking to that." ALAS.

Playing.

Cooking. More East recipes! The beginning of the week featured pineapple: pineapple love cake, with the leftovers getting turned into chilli salt pineapple (minus the lime, which we had run out of, and which I think she describes not inaccurately as "less of a recipe, more of a serving suggestion"). This evening I did her peanut celery wontons (we were slightly short on celery, so I chucked in a punnet of chestnut mushrooms I'd been failing to get to...) AND THEY WERE EXCELLENT AND I AM DELIGHTED. We had other things to eat as well, so some got frozen and I'm going to make us another batch tomorrow (for lunch? as a starter? as yet unclear). In consequence of how unexpectedly delighted I was by these, I've moved "garlic chives" from the "maybe seeds?" to the "DEFINITELY SEEDS" list. (They're not included in this recipe, but it turns out this style of dumpling is in fact very easy at least if you are buying the wrappers??? a delight.)

The other undertaking, prompted by A asking on a bit of a whim in t'supermarket yesterday, was Ottolenghi's saffron and cardamom panettone pudding. It is extremely pleasant.

Making & mending. GLUB. Sort of. I have started referring to these as Penelope's Gloves? I have more-or-less tehcnically completed it (ish -- three stitches short of actually managing to bind off the thumb, having lost the game of yarn chicken) for a third time (for a grand total of Not Quite One Glove of the pair), and I've now confirmed that everything works in terms of what I want it to, the palm bind-off has loosened up enough with wearing it that it's not uncomfortable to type in any more.

... so I'm going to frog it again. Obviously. BUT probably only back as far as not-quite-finished back-of-hand: firstly I made a slightly untidy error picking up stitches on the way down the side, and more importantly (in that if that had been the only problem I was going to wheedle myself out of bothering, at least until I'd finished the right glove for the first time) I reckon that if I shape the very top of the mitt a tiiiiny bit more I can free up enough yarn to actually, you know, finish the thumb (in a single skein. yes I have plenty of spare. it's cotton and I don't want to have to faff with any more ends than I can possibly avoid.)

... at the cost of removing the Little Ears. I have just actually demonstrated the ears to Adam. The reaction was such that I am going to take a photograph for the class before I frog them.

(Bonus points: I have pressed one of my Traveler's Notebook-format inserts into service as Dedicated Repository Of Knitting/Crafting Notes, so I now have most of a page of veeeeery tiny handwriting on what's been working and what hasn't and reminders about which way various purl decreases lean...)

Growing. I have partially constructed the framework of a potential bean tunnel (with gratitude for inspiration)! I need to find a few more bits I'm happy to use as bonus supports on the sides, and having now experimented with putting the netting over it I have worked out what modifications I need/want to make to same, so that's a job for the... imminent-ish future.

I have also: pruned the jostaberry such that it is (or was, for at least five minutes) entirely within the fruit cage; distributed yet another layer of cardboard around the redcurrant (i.e. the site of the most frustrating weeds on my plot) on top of the existing woodchip-on-top-of-cardboard; planted beans and my remaining garlic; discovered that part of the reason last year's garlic harvest was so poor is that I missed several bulbs when digging them up (and now need to work out whether I think I can safely split the largest clump...); did a bit more misc weeding; and also made a tentative sowing of a first batch of spring onions (in a bed in the greenhouse).

There was a rainbow.

I have also: inventoried my seed collection; ordered two lots of seeds; got a bunch of tabs open for my Final Seed Order of the start of the year; failed to find the packet of Sugar Magnolia I'm sure is Around Here Somewhere.

Also, the lemongrass is doing well! I am very excited about my developing Clump Of Lemongrass.

I have not managed to get any of my nightshades started this week, but I am attempting to sneak up on the concept.

Observing. My mother has started seeing bats. I have not yet, alas, seen bats. BUT there are many MANY spring flowers (daffodils are actually out now!!!), and the days are getting longer and warmer, and it is definitely spring, and I love it.

Comments

Holy moly

[jesse_the_k]

that's a lot of a week!

I adored Kurchak's book, narrated by Zura Johnson in audio when it came out. Her title snagged my eye.

No bats...

[hairyears]

Bats are a active in Wanstead Flats and the Roding Valley!

But no bees, other than dazed and confused Bumblebee queens who are, I hope,going back to their burrows and hitting 'snooze' until the weather improves.

I am watching sheltered patches of flowering dead-nettles for the earliest of our solitary bees, the Hairy-Footed Flower Bee.

[cesy]

We have so many crocuses and daffodils here, it's great

[lunabee34]

Penelope's Gloves. Ha!

[umadoshi]

I cannot at all remember who it was that recced this (and utterly failed to make a note of that when noting the rec), but thank you very much for doing so!

Possibly me? Sarah's a friend, and she's marvelous.

(And to double up comments, re: your "some good things" post a few days ago, her pillow-fighting name still makes me grin every time I think about it. I wish I'd managed to actually see her fight at some point! It always sounded like fun.)

[numinousdread]

Hurray for daffodils!