vital functions

[kaberett]

Reading. The Lost Orchard, Raymond Blanc. Technically not finished in that I have not yet read the recipes (I'm going to do that when I'm actually indexing), but happily I have since I last mentioned this looked up Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, thereby establishing that they fall foul of the Risotto Rule ("I don't care how many Michelin stars you have, I'm not paying more than £20 for a risotto"), so my desire to actually give them money for food has conveniently evaporated. ... still kinda want to go poking around the gardens, though.

Cool Layer Cakes, Ceri Olofson. EYB Indexing, into which I was tempted by the extremely cool rainbow layer cake on the front cover. Tragically I'm relatively uninterested in the majority of the recipes, which have a focus on Cool Things To Do With Fondant, but I am possibly being persuaded to reconsider my relationship with specifically Italian meringue buttercream. If you are interested in an introduction to layer cakes and a variety of decorating techniques, this is probably a good starting point! (The first handful of recipes are definitely Relevant To Our Interests, but probably not sufficiently relevant to justify giving it shelf space given the number of other cake recipes I have that I'm actively enthusiastic about; nonetheless lime and blackberry nonsense is tempting...)

Explain Pain, David S. Butler + G. Lorimer Moseley. The BL's copy is the 2003 first edition (well, the 2006 second printing of the 2003 first edition, with some very minor updates); I'm going to try to get my act together to write this up in more detail (possibly after having laid hands on a copy of the second edition) but suffice it to say for now that this annoyed me much less than I expected it to, would probably be my go-to recommendation for the time being albeit not without caveats, and... it still doesn't say a bunch of the stuff I want to say! So.

Touch, David J. Linden. Acquired from Oxfam as part of my "let's grab all the interesting-looking books on pain" spree, because it does have a chapter on pain, and so far I am about one and a half chapters in, learning a lot, and enjoying myself immensely. Would happily rec for general interest (with the minor caveat that there's a bit of Tedious Heterosexuality in evidence). Notably, has footnotes including "okay so this one study had results we like buuuut an attempt to replicate a year later... didn't", which gives me a certain amount of faith in the thing.

Watching. An episode of Farscape: S02E04 Crackers Don't Matter, which I note with mild alarm (given how "..." we were at it) is considered to merit its very own Wikipedia page?!

The Old Guard 2. I... might yet get around to writing up thoughts.

Cooking. An Salad. An improvised but definitely acceptable for its purposes (i.e. providing nutrition for someone who currently has some decidedly inconvenient dietary restrictions) chickpea curry.

Eating. BLACKBERRIES. Still. Also plums. Really enjoying the plums. So many tomatoes.

Also a box of Many Salads from Mel Tropical Kitchen, some mildly disappointing cookies and a Good raspberry pastel de nata, and another cardamom bun from buns from home. Hurrah for spending a day at the BL?

Exploring. Poking around the grounds of a new-to-me hospital, where I came across an Exciting Apple Tree that I totally failed to actually inspect more closely, and about which I am excited primarily because of just having read a book a solid, like, half of which was Reviews Of Heritage Apple Varieties. (I was a little sad that James Grieve got only a very passing mention.)

The BL! And Beckenham, a bit, while picking up a watering can.

Growing. LEMONGRASS HAS A ROOTLET. Having another go at rooting a bunch of supermarket tarragon.

Observing. We found BABY COOTS. At least five of them, possibly six, plus one egg. They are juuust at the stage where they are practising GOING INTO THE WATER and then rapidly deciding Don't Like That and retreating to the Warm.

Comments

[umadoshi]

They are juuust at the stage where they are practising GOING INTO THE WATER and then rapidly deciding Don't Like That and retreating to the Warm.

So very relatable. *g*

[flippac]

The thing about Crackers Don't Matter is that by the end of S2, rewatching it is guaranteed to be a totally different experience - but yeah, it's also the show's crew playing with how far they can temporarily push things and it can be a real miss the first time around, especially if it's on the older end of TV SF you've watched much of (which makes John's "superiority" far less funny than it was when it first broadcast because, well, change of cultural context)