ten good things

[kaberett]

1. My lemon tree is getting delivered at some point in the next three days and I am Extremely Excited! (I also... need to finish the greenhouse, whoops. Perhaps tomorrow evening's greenhousery will be mostly cleaning glass and FINALISING THE BASE.)
   
2. Some of the other plotholders have cordless drills they can lend me, which will make Dealing With the raised beds much easier and less expensive (... subject to me getting the greenhouse up so the existing ones can stop being used as a prop for the glass...)
   
3. I spent a chunk of this afternoon sat in Ruby Violet with excellent hot chocolate, waiting for barrelofrain to show up so we can have ice cream. I was seriously conflicted about which set of things to get because there's At Least Four that I Want, but happily BoR having had A Day meant that I had plenty of time to dither. (I ended up with the pear sorbet and the marzipan & orange blossom ice cream.)
   
4. Via a small pile of anxiety I successfully navigated the BL and used one of the reading rooms for the first time ever. Quiet! Plugs! A desk! Yes good. (I also got to look at a couple of the exhibitions currently on; I skimmed The New Londoner, observed that the third floor has Some Furniture for me to look at more in future, and made a mental note that I want to drag A to spend fifteen minutes looking around Imaginary Cities next time we're in town.)
   
5. I have made Some Progress on The PhD Work and am slowly building up momentum again. (It's the thing where If I Manage Some Every Day I stay engaged and have ideas and can think of things to do next; if I let it slide I... really struggle to pick it back up.)
   
6. I have introduced my godmother's eldest and my largest smallcousin and they are talking enthusiastically to each other in a group chat I've set up with the three of us, which is thoroughly pleasant to check in with periodically.
   
7. We've had some of A's family visiting tonight; we're now at 3/4 parents having seen The Flat, and we successfully Went Out For Dinner including Everybody's Favourite Waiter, me successfully judging how hungry I was, and Managing A Social without immediately crawling under the bed.
   
8. The walk back from the restaurant featured an excellent crescent moon glowing orange through an approximation of fog.
   
9. I am greatly enjoying my current book, because it's filling in gaps and giving me more detail in re The Dawn Wall, and it's very... communicative of personality in a way I'm mostly charmed by.
   
10. This morning's bread worked particularly well, and I am very much enjoying continuing to experiment and learn and improve (both understanding and skill).
    

Comments

[alexwlchan]

These are excellent things indeed. Particularly the pear sorbet and the lemon tree!

[kaberett]

LEMON LEMON LEMON

[oursin]

Congratters re the BL: I have been going there for decades (since it was at Bloomsbury) and it remains The Library I Feel Relieved to Visit Without Encountering A Problem Somewhere (the BL and I have history).

[kaberett]

It's mostly useful to me as a quiet place to work around King's Cross (with eduroam and journal access...) but it's very soothing and I'm awfully fond of Paradoxymoron in particular. :)

[oracne]

Hooray!

[booksarelife]

Yay for good things!! The British Library, the one very short time I was there, seems like one of those libraries that are not immediately obviously set up for people actually doing work there (to be fair we were there for one of the exhibits),so that sounds useful and productive!

[kaberett]

Right, yes, the BL is very much set up as a research library -- when you walk in the main hall, you're in the area full of cafes/restaurants/shops/exhibitions, etc. In order to access the reading rooms you need to provide proof-of-address and convince them you are A Legitimate Researcher (which tbf isn't necessarily terribly onerous), and then take yourself down to the locker room in the basement at the back right, divest yourself of all your Stuff except 1. a laptop 2. some writing paper 3. a pencil 4. your clothes, and then you can get one of the lifts up the back of the public wall and go into one of the wings, which contains reading rooms.

Which are large and quiet and lined with predominantly empty bookshelves, because if you want to refer to a book you mostly have to order it from the stacks rather than just having it out on public display.

It's Nice.

[booksarelife]

Interesting!!