vital functions

Reading. Ended up consigning Feel Free to the Did Not Finish pile, because I was just... avoiding reading, when it was the thing I was going to read. Such is life.

Have started (shortly before it goes back to the library) Daring Greatly (finally). Having a lot of feelings about the first few pages; in particular, I think it will probably be useful to me on the general topic of How Do Friend, which is timely.

(Loaned a pile of books to godcousins: Dicebox, SFP vol 1, Kate Bornstein, Whipping Girl, ... something else.)

Watching. Yeah, I... started a rewatch of Elementary S1, or at least the first four episodes, because I Love Them, okay.

Also for bonus points: JUPITER ASCENDING, with my largest smallcousin and my godcousins, because none of them had seen it and I wanted an excuse to engage in fannishness and make people afternoon tea yes good.

In the process we also watched The Lost Thing, because I like introducing people to Shaun Tan, surprise.

Listening. The Indelicates played a gig! I went and listened to them! It was great.

We also showed my cousins various a bunch of P!nk music videos (because Channing Tatum Living His Best Life, and also P!nk's Extended Modern Dance Moment). And some other miscellaneous music videos.

Cooking. APRICOT AND SOURED CREAM ICE CREAM. Preliminary feedback v encouraging. Also: buttermilk! Succesfully turned some of the Spare Milk into An Enormous Jar Of Buttermilk, and thence into scones.

Also also: baby's first attempt at madeleines, which worked out remarkably well given that I looked at the requirement for demerera sugar, and looked at my cupboard which contained none of the above, and combined some muscovado and some golden caster. I note for myself that the recipe in the Leiths book makes two full trays, and that I might well wish to halve the quantities if I'm not preparing them for the purposes of Entertaining.

Growing. The carpet harvest is... bountiful. I have cleared all the carpet from beneath one raised bed (of seven, where I have things growing in three of them); finishing its adjoining raised bed is, hopefully, a job for this week, whereupon I will perhaps be able to put the first batch of edging in and then sow some stuff? Maybe?

The bin continues. We went to a garden centre pre-gig, and I acquired more Unterlagen for the patio plants. (A acquired more bird feeding devices.) There were several Excellent Succulents And Succulent-Adjacent Plants, none of which I purchased.

Expotitions. Wimpole, the Whipple, BAT SAFARI.

Observing. A Common Blue butterfly at the plot!

THIS FUCKING THING (Long-wattled Umbrellabird, Cephalopterus penduliger, I'm now considering starting a blog dedicated to unhelpful translations of binomials starting with "dangly head-wing").

Lots of misc farm animals and bats!