vital functions

Reading. JRRT, The Silmarillion. I am Taking Notes.

I have also read A Lot more about My Special Interest Of The Week.

And, um, I opened my library app for the first time in A While and promptly... borrowed one book and put holds on two more, w h o o p s. I'm not sure "big chunky heavy non-fiction" is the best possible companion to the Silm... we will see how this goes.

(Work-related reading: making my way through a pile of literature on the concept of volcanoes as distilleries. Copious notes are being made...)

Watching. Orphan Black S05E04. I love them all so much.

CXG S03E06. OH GOODNESS. ( Read more... )

Playing. STABS with cousins.

Playing. Last week -- the one before the one just gone -- I had a powerful craving for pad thai that it was not possible to satisfy with what we had in, so during last weekend's online shop I requested The Necessaries. We spent the first half of this week eating pad thai in the last few days before the rain started and it was glorious and exactly what I wanted.

Also! I dug some egg white out of the freezer and made meringues! Which means (1) there is more freezer space not occupied by egg white, and also (2) there is more freezer space not occupied by raspberries, which is good because we are about to get a whooooole lot more of them.

Creating. I have been having a lot of fun this week playing around with handwriting, and looking at ~bullet journal inspiration~, and working out some things I want to try in next month's set-up.

And I have bleached and dyed A, for the first time since Major Thesis Crunch, and he is much happier for being bright colours again. <3

Making & mending. I cleaned and sharpened and repaired my secateurs! ... and then they disintegrated on me again and I had a panic, but A sat down with me and worked through What Was Happening, and I have now both identified my preferred retailer for purchase of replacement parts and have e-mailed the UK ... enactors ... of the lifetime warranty, in the vague hope that they'll either provide it cheaper or, ideally, send it me for free. Fingers crossed.

Oh! And the fruit cage is most of the way to back in service, with the blocking point being more weeding, but I think I'm going to have to cut back on my Ideals for that in the absence of Working Secateurs, so. Maybe just finish reinstating it and worry about detailed weeding later.

Growing. Redcurrants definitely ripening, and the strawberries are starting to as well. I have... more jostaberry bushes than I know what to do with, in that my main one has self-layered enthusiastically, so I'm going to have to work out how to give those away. Figs are looking increasingly like figs, albeit not yet ready to eat. Artichokes ditto -- probably I get to start eating them in the next week or so.

What else, what else? Fennel seedlings are coming up; the single solitary rocket plant that actually did anything last year managed to go to seed, so I've now got four or five wee rockets going; greenhouse things plod along.

(And, having decreed the lemon Probably Dead, I... think it might not be after all. Goodness but it's going to need a lot of babying if it does pull through...)

Observing. The bat! The evenings are light enough, just for the next week or two, that when I'm doing last-minute physio before bed at the dining table... the bat is gloriously visible swooping back and forth over the garden. Excellent close-ups. Very happy.

I have also seen two jays, one at the allotment and one at home, along with the rest of our complement of birds.