vital functions
Apr. 5th, 2020 10:20 pmReading. This week I have got very tentatively started with The Story of my Life, Helen Keller, because it was available for immediate loan from the library while I was browsing ebooks and it felt more appealing than any of the other non-fiction I have on the go.
Watching. Planet Earth: ice worlds. ( Read more... )
Listening. WE ARE UP TO DATE ON TMA. I want to launch into a relisten; I think I'll enjoy it much more on the second run-through, and despite having been more than somewhat spoiled there's a lot of detail I am wanting to have another go at.
Synchronous chat is generally the best way to get me to shout about the thing but I'm going to try to go back and yell at![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rydra_wong some more, too.
I have also, this week, been listening to more music than usual, on the grounds that I had a bunch of tedious data-entry to do and that goes Better with Obnoxiously Upbeat Music.
Cooking. Notably: candied ginger jarred up with its syrup; roast onion & celeriac soup. The latter did not end up quite as I'd envisaged -- it was roast garlic, and the celeriac roasted with onion and nigella seed, plus veg stock -- and while it was very tasty (to my mind) beige, I clearly needed to put Another Flavour in it. (Also: another round of puttanesca; some slightly disappointing sea-spicy aubergine, where I suspect mostly I just didn't cook the aubergine for long enough because we were Hungry; lots more Things With Rice.)
Creating. Vieussieuxia fugax finished! I'm finding the results decidedly dissatisfactory when viewed up close, but oddly enough if I go away for a while and then glance over from the sofa I'm much more favourably disposed.
Technical aspects I'm particularly pleased with: I mixed all of these greens; none of them came as A Green Pencil. I used two sizes of brush, my Series 16 #3 and my rather ratty Series 12 #000 (both acquired at a charity shop), and was beginning to get the hang of the #000 by the time I ran out of flowers, I think. With the #000, I got particularly good use out of wetting both the brush and the tip of the pencil, picking up pigment, brushing off excess on a convenient thumbnail (to pick up later!), and then applying it.
And, of course, I kept going after getting thoroughly disgruntled with myself over the leftmost stems. That counts too.
Most of this was done while listening to TMA.
( +1 )
Growing. Sown today, Sunday: two types of pea (Serpette Guilloteau and Sugar Magnolia); one bean (Greek 'Gigantes'); two types of summer squash (dwarf bush courgette Verde di Milano/Black Beauty and Pattison Blanc). I'm working up to some brassica (purple sprouting and calabrese both).
And apparently the tray of leeks was only put together earlier this week as well, gosh (Bleu de Solaise).
I've moved the lemon (still has two leaves!), the walnut (growing away enthusiastically) and the oak (... affected by... something) outside. I've unwrapped the fig. The tomato seedlingsare spending some of their time outside in the sun, and putting forth some proper grown-up leaves.
I have, also laid out for imminent sowing, several types of lettuce; carrot, parsnip, root parsley, and beetroot; two types of cucumber; some more brassica (cabbages and sprouts various). I need to (1) work out where to put them in an immediate sense, (2) fetch in some more coco coir from the garage, and (3) have some more of a go at working out where I'm going to actually put them at the plot, which is a problem all of its own.
Observing. A heron! I think. I was attempting to do some Pilates on the living room floor, ergo lying on my back staring at the sky, when... Something flapped by overhead. "That's a bloody big seagull," I thought, "with bloody long legs. It's an awfully... pointy seagull." I don't think I'd ever previously seen a heron in Enfield, so this is very exciting!
Playing. Some excellent PoGo luck: incense has netted me a 100% IV Trubbish and a (kinda terrible IVs but) shiny Sudowoodo. Also feat.: bonus shiny Beldum.
A round of Splendor with A on Sunday lunchtime.
Still adjusting to A being home all the time in terms of horn practice; I want to spend some concerted time retuning the thing, but I'd started to get into a workable habit of "bit of practice in the morning, bit of practice in the afternoon" that... isn't really terribly sociable when there's someone trying to, you know, do their Salaried Job in the same room. (I'm pretty sure the noise-cancelling headphones don't cut it. :-p)
Watching. Planet Earth: ice worlds. ( Read more... )
Listening. WE ARE UP TO DATE ON TMA. I want to launch into a relisten; I think I'll enjoy it much more on the second run-through, and despite having been more than somewhat spoiled there's a lot of detail I am wanting to have another go at.
Synchronous chat is generally the best way to get me to shout about the thing but I'm going to try to go back and yell at
rydra_wong some more, too.I have also, this week, been listening to more music than usual, on the grounds that I had a bunch of tedious data-entry to do and that goes Better with Obnoxiously Upbeat Music.
Cooking. Notably: candied ginger jarred up with its syrup; roast onion & celeriac soup. The latter did not end up quite as I'd envisaged -- it was roast garlic, and the celeriac roasted with onion and nigella seed, plus veg stock -- and while it was very tasty (to my mind) beige, I clearly needed to put Another Flavour in it. (Also: another round of puttanesca; some slightly disappointing sea-spicy aubergine, where I suspect mostly I just didn't cook the aubergine for long enough because we were Hungry; lots more Things With Rice.)
Creating. Vieussieuxia fugax finished! I'm finding the results decidedly dissatisfactory when viewed up close, but oddly enough if I go away for a while and then glance over from the sofa I'm much more favourably disposed.
Technical aspects I'm particularly pleased with: I mixed all of these greens; none of them came as A Green Pencil. I used two sizes of brush, my Series 16 #3 and my rather ratty Series 12 #000 (both acquired at a charity shop), and was beginning to get the hang of the #000 by the time I ran out of flowers, I think. With the #000, I got particularly good use out of wetting both the brush and the tip of the pencil, picking up pigment, brushing off excess on a convenient thumbnail (to pick up later!), and then applying it.
And, of course, I kept going after getting thoroughly disgruntled with myself over the leftmost stems. That counts too.
Most of this was done while listening to TMA.
( +1 )
Growing. Sown today, Sunday: two types of pea (Serpette Guilloteau and Sugar Magnolia); one bean (Greek 'Gigantes'); two types of summer squash (dwarf bush courgette Verde di Milano/Black Beauty and Pattison Blanc). I'm working up to some brassica (purple sprouting and calabrese both).
And apparently the tray of leeks was only put together earlier this week as well, gosh (Bleu de Solaise).
I've moved the lemon (still has two leaves!), the walnut (growing away enthusiastically) and the oak (... affected by... something) outside. I've unwrapped the fig. The tomato seedlingsare spending some of their time outside in the sun, and putting forth some proper grown-up leaves.
I have, also laid out for imminent sowing, several types of lettuce; carrot, parsnip, root parsley, and beetroot; two types of cucumber; some more brassica (cabbages and sprouts various). I need to (1) work out where to put them in an immediate sense, (2) fetch in some more coco coir from the garage, and (3) have some more of a go at working out where I'm going to actually put them at the plot, which is a problem all of its own.
Observing. A heron! I think. I was attempting to do some Pilates on the living room floor, ergo lying on my back staring at the sky, when... Something flapped by overhead. "That's a bloody big seagull," I thought, "with bloody long legs. It's an awfully... pointy seagull." I don't think I'd ever previously seen a heron in Enfield, so this is very exciting!
Playing. Some excellent PoGo luck: incense has netted me a 100% IV Trubbish and a (kinda terrible IVs but) shiny Sudowoodo. Also feat.: bonus shiny Beldum.
A round of Splendor with A on Sunday lunchtime.
Still adjusting to A being home all the time in terms of horn practice; I want to spend some concerted time retuning the thing, but I'd started to get into a workable habit of "bit of practice in the morning, bit of practice in the afternoon" that... isn't really terribly sociable when there's someone trying to, you know, do their Salaried Job in the same room. (I'm pretty sure the noise-cancelling headphones don't cut it. :-p)