vital functions

Reading. October Daye reread continues! I have just finished An Artificial Night. ( Mild spoilers. )

... and I am taking a break to pick Swan Song (Victoria Routledge) back up, because it's been sat on the sofa with my bookmark a third of the way through it for Several Months at this point and if I finish it then it can go Somewhere Else. (Continues extremely readable prose but right this minute I'm in the middle of this book's patch of prurient homophobia, which is rather more extended than any of the previous ones have been, so the likelihood of this winding up in a charity shop is still pretty high...)

Watching. Good Omens S02E01. I... am suspending judgement thus far, more or less.

Playing. One round of Fluxx where Adam had to keep very slowly and patiently explaining the current rules to me, because migraine, plus one subsequent round where I mysteriously didn't need as much explanation and also I won.

Cooking. smitten kitchen's summer squash gratin using Pattison Blanc from the plot!

Eating. More blackberries! Not strawberries because Somebody has been Eating Them just as they get to ripe, which is very rude, I feel. Squash from the plot; garlic and chilli and pepper and and tomatoes likewise.

Making & mending. Finished sewing my PriDe patch onto my PD hat! So that is now a project that is DONE and the hat can go into my PD desk RUB and my wrist can complain at me and at some point I need to retrieve the thimble from the adventure it's gone on underneath the sofa, but that is going to be Somewhat Involved and I am consequently reluctant to commit to it. (But if I am actually going to sew A's on as well then I definitely want the thimble back before I start that.)

Growing. Thing about which I am most excited first: SAFFRON. I was all geared up to be excited just about the fact that it's coming up in the various places I left it, but then today I found a flower. A flower!!! It's been in the ground about three years now, I think, in three different places, and I had one previous go at the stuff a few years before that (which disappeared without trace), and not only does it keep coming up but there's a flower! My first ever saffron flower!

Tomato plants have now made their way into the compost, poor things. Aubergines are happily continuing to flower in the greenhouse. Squash are definitely now Exhibiting Features Of Powdery Mildew, but I'm treating them and also pleasantly surprised we got this far into the season. Strawberries are trying to have a second wind, but see above re Somebody going ahead and Consuming them. The (small) number of oca that survived the harder-than-usual freeze last year (in the ground) are flowering. A was very obliging this afternoon about shifting things around to make it easier to get at the carpet, and then tripped and fell into doing Quite A Bit of Digging to extricate more of same.

Observing. THE BAT. It has NOT gone to sleep for the winter yet! We saw it! Well, Adam spotted it and I then proceeded to watch it and say "bat!!!" excitedly. Hurrah for bat. :)