kaberett | vital functions (Reply)

Reading. All Systems Red, Martha Wells. Second re-read inspired by the series. Yes Good.

A Handful of Flour, Tess Lister. Cover-to-cover, as part of indexing it for EYB. I spent the majority of it going "... what" (things that are apparently "quick" and involve "almost no washing up": bread rolls that you disembowel; stuff with grilled bacon or pancetta, grated Gruyère, béchamel sauce that you have just made from scratch, and an egg; wrap in foil; and then bake for half an hour) and then (and I am very aggrieved about this) got to the cakes section and remembered why I bought it.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte, in progress. Introduction and part of chapter 1 with A, as a Shared Reading Activity. Really enjoying the experience of reading this with someone else to discuss it with as we go!

Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh, in progress. About which the main thing I have to say is: look. LOOK. It was really funny then, and it's really funny now, BUT with the benefit of another fifteen or so years of, like, therapy and antidepressants, I am even more going "... oh sweetheart. oh DARLING." (We are also reading this a chapter at a time as a Shared Activity; I have never read it in its entirety.)

The Age of Seeds, Fiona McMillan-Webster. A little more slow progress; currently I am at crop domestication. I think I haven't mentioned that the author is Australian and drawing heavily on Australian examples in general? She is, for the benefit of those of you to whom that is likely to be Particularly Interesting!

... I also technically started reading a little bit of Descartes, and more around Descartes, for the pain project -- but really not very much as yet.

Playing. A round of Hanabi with A & houseguest! We were playing with very different House Norms which led to some hilarious miscommunication, but A Good Time Was Had.

A good time was also had following the toddler around a playground, including some time On A Swing where we worked out How Legs Do. :)

Cooking. Several Questionable loaves of bread (mostly "too much liquid, ergo puddle"). Three more recipes from East, none of which were particularly interesting to us. (Piccalilli spiced rice; Sodha's variant on egg fried rice; a tempeh-and-pak-choi Situation.)

And Ribiselkuchen! I have been very very happily eating Appropriately Seasonal Ribiselkuchen.

Eating. A made us waffles for breakfast this morning. I had them with SLICED STRAWBERRIES and SLICED APRICOT and MAPLE SYRUP and also LEMON JUICE and VANILLA SUGAR and I was very happy about all of this.

Making & mending. It is Event Prep Week. There are so many potions.

Growing. ... I got some more supports in for my beans? I have just about managed to break even on the sugar snap peas this year (should NOT have eaten the handful I did...) and might yet manage to do a little better than that, with luck.

Squash starting to produce female flowers (yes I was late starting them). More soft fruit (which desperately needs processing; I will be sad if I wind up needing to just compost the jostaberries that have been sat in the fridge for ...a while, now). Many many tomatoes, none of which were actually ripe yet last time I actually made it to the plot...

Observing. Peacock butterfly at the plot! Tawny owl (audio only)! Bats (ditto)! The Teenage Magpie Persists!

Also a variety of awkward teenage waterfowl in Barking Park, along with a squirrel who was most unimpressed when our attempts to feed it mostly involved accidentally handing it an empty half-peanut-shell. It made it very clear (well before any of us had independently noticed The Issue) that it understood we were willing to feed it but that we were doing a terrible job at this and Should Try Harder. I was delighted.