vital functions
Dec. 26th, 2021 10:57 pmReading. The other night, in the throes of insomnia, I was poking fitfully at the library ebook app, and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow (Natasha Pulley) fell into my hands. I have all my usual reservations about Pulley's politics (see, for example, a discussion over at ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skygiants', lo these several years ago), but her prose is both easy and pleasant to read, and so I am, more or less, enjoying myself.
Watching. BBC Life - Amphibians & Reptiles. As ever, we greatly enjoyed ourselves; I think my favourite this episode was the pebble toad (CN spider), and it is only after the fact that I quite registered the extent to which their Commitment To No Humans made it very difficult to understand the scale on which this toad in particular is operating, even though they told us that it's only about an inch long.
Sound Effects Humans were having a brilliant time and I particularly appreciated their contribution to the canon; I also spent some time this morning, while we were contemplating getting up, doing dramatic readings of bits of the wikipedia entry on Komodo dragons to A.
( The liveblog. )
Cooking. Many things! A token quantity of mince pies; a rather less token quantity of cheese straws; Teebäckerei (I... really most post the recipe here one of these days) and Vanillekipferl; and, as I mentioned, I have been playing about with some Ottolenghi dishes.
( Noodling! )
And then a Big Roast, feat. veg haggis (pre-made), Yorkshire puddings, beetroot roasted with honey & thyme & shallots-from-the-allotment, cheesy leeks, braised red cabbage, roast potatoes & parsnip & celeriac & onion, and carrots and cauliflower. (The light returns.)
Growing. More progress at the allotment! Exuberant strawberry runners into the ground and covered in straw; three beds mostly-mulched; and I've started tearing down the horrible (falling to pieces) plywood edging surrounding the last big raised bed with carpet under it, in preparation for starting to move soil hopefully-next-week.
There is a risk that the small bed beyond it also has carpet underneath, but I'm going to cross that bridge when I come to it -- not least because having resigned myself to the saffron I stuck it in vanishing without a trace... it's all (or at least a lot of it) now come up! So in addition to the at-home saffron I have some at-the-allotment saffron, which also isn't flowering, but which it would be annoying to have to move.
It is feeling really good to be getting back to this.
skygiants', lo these several years ago), but her prose is both easy and pleasant to read, and so I am, more or less, enjoying myself.Watching. BBC Life - Amphibians & Reptiles. As ever, we greatly enjoyed ourselves; I think my favourite this episode was the pebble toad (CN spider), and it is only after the fact that I quite registered the extent to which their Commitment To No Humans made it very difficult to understand the scale on which this toad in particular is operating, even though they told us that it's only about an inch long.
Sound Effects Humans were having a brilliant time and I particularly appreciated their contribution to the canon; I also spent some time this morning, while we were contemplating getting up, doing dramatic readings of bits of the wikipedia entry on Komodo dragons to A.
( The liveblog. )
Cooking. Many things! A token quantity of mince pies; a rather less token quantity of cheese straws; Teebäckerei (I... really most post the recipe here one of these days) and Vanillekipferl; and, as I mentioned, I have been playing about with some Ottolenghi dishes.
( Noodling! )
And then a Big Roast, feat. veg haggis (pre-made), Yorkshire puddings, beetroot roasted with honey & thyme & shallots-from-the-allotment, cheesy leeks, braised red cabbage, roast potatoes & parsnip & celeriac & onion, and carrots and cauliflower. (The light returns.)
Growing. More progress at the allotment! Exuberant strawberry runners into the ground and covered in straw; three beds mostly-mulched; and I've started tearing down the horrible (falling to pieces) plywood edging surrounding the last big raised bed with carpet under it, in preparation for starting to move soil hopefully-next-week.
There is a risk that the small bed beyond it also has carpet underneath, but I'm going to cross that bridge when I come to it -- not least because having resigned myself to the saffron I stuck it in vanishing without a trace... it's all (or at least a lot of it) now come up! So in addition to the at-home saffron I have some at-the-allotment saffron, which also isn't flowering, but which it would be annoying to have to move.
It is feeling really good to be getting back to this.