vital functions
Sep. 13th, 2020 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. Octavia Butler, Unexpected Stories. Another clearing-out-the-ereader-TBR turned-out-to-be-a-reread, but I remembered very little of the ways the (two, post-humously published, short) stories concluded and enjoyed them a great deal.
Still slo-o-owly reading The Starless Sea, though again Less Slowly Now I've Remembered My Book Chair, and continuing to wallow in it delightedly. Gosh I'm picking up so many more of its threads this time through. And there is a lot to be said for reading it while playing the horn, with sunset streaming in through the window and reflecting off my bell and over the page, turning everything golden.
(And, while I was writing this up, I learned -- via an e-mail to her mailing list -- that Dia Reeves has died. I was so excited in ~January when I found out she'd had another two books published; she'd also, apparently, been dead for almost half a year at that point. Goodness but I'm sad about this. Maybe, library loans not withstanding, I do just reread one of hers next.)
Writing. Well, on the one hand I got sucked into spending two days fiddling with maths from the last chunk of work (and did find a bunch of problems and did fix them, even though I am still not managing to reproduce the feature of someone else's model that's particularly upsetting me, but sigh, there we go) -- and on the other (some meetings, some rearrangement, and a bunch of paperwork later) I'm now at... a little under 6k words on the current thing. Fingers crossed that the modelling nightmares are banished for the next few weeks at least, though.
Watching. CXG S01E09, I'm Going To The Beach With Josh And His Friends!
I still love this show! I still... have really limited things to say about it that aren't, I think, mostly repetitive? Like: Josh is SUCH A SHIT. SUCH! A SHIT! TERRIBLE TO EVERYBODY. AWFUL. NO. DO NOT. And: oh Rebecca, you have so much insight about shit that's terrible when other people do it, now maybe go "... this isn't a good idea for me, either...?" And: Paula you had a boundary, and you ran back over all the things that had gone wrong and then this episode just... degenerated... back through them, and: Rebecca telling the truth but-not-the-whole-truth to Josh's crew in a way that's remarkably honest? It felt like a really nice summary of the show in microcosm so far, and I'm interested to see if this is actually as much of a turning point as it maybe felt like.
The Matrix Revolutions. I... see what everyone means.
Listening. TMA: the new episode, 178, which I enjoyed a great deal on a number of levels; and, on the relisten, 61, which does an excellent job of introducing Daisy in detail and made fascinating listening right after, well, the emotional landscape of 178.
I've also been earwormed by Frank Turner, specifically Dan's Song, for most of the last two days. I mean, how could I not be? When, well: me and my friend Dan/are gonna grab some beers and then/we're gonna go down to the park/and drink them there/we'll bask out in the sun/with our guitars and play some tunes/call up our friends/and invite them out to share/what might be the last weekend of the summer/'cause September's getting colder as it goes/and we haven't done enough/of this simple kind of stuff this year/it's clear we're getting older/and it shows.
Playing. Another round of Hanabi! We are continuing to experiment with communication.
PoGo: VERY EXCITED about my Galarian Darumaka (hatched!). Less excited about the wild-caught shiny Weedle, but pleased about the 98% Houndoom (still no shinies, alas) and Tangela, plusand a third shiny Lotad. Also very much continuing to appreciate remote raiding.
Cooking. smitten kitchen's herbed summer squash pasta bake, with A! Herbs were mint, thyme and chives from the patio; shallots instead of spring onions; squash was three Pattison Blanc, cut in rounds so we could have An Flowers on the top; this was super tasty and we are definitely making it again and not just because the squash are suddenly Productive.
More Ben's Cookies (still our faves -- dark chocolate & hazelnut for me, and I am reluctantly conceding that I really do like these best with ~70% dark chocolate rather than 85%+; raisin and oatmeal for Adam), except they were pretty much entirely made by A, and in fact this was the adventure in "we froze six of each kind, how does cooking direct-from-freezer work?" Experimental results so far: they ended up baking for ~25 minutes, and I'm pretty sure we'll get better results (on the last batch of same in freezer) if we start out with the temperature at ~200°C for ~5 minutes and then reduce it.
And a very satisfactory round of black bean quesadilla (accompanied also by pepper-and-onion quesidilla); I almost entirely ignored the budget bytes recipe, including going "eh" at the idea of putting sweetcorn in the quesadilla and instead making a sweetcorn-and-tomato salsa (as we had most of a tin of the former in the fridge). I'm going to acquire us some Appropriate Chilli Sauce (and then grow the chillis to make my own next year) but this is def. going into the rotation. Hat-tip tolireavue for linking to the recipe and prompting me to go "... hmm!"
Eating. In addition to MORE CRUMPETS (Adam is improving! I am very in favour of this experimentation) I think the most notable Consumption was of our first ear of sweetcorn. It's the Double Red, looking most similar to the backmost flat one in the accompanying photo -- predominantly white kernels with a deep red-purple flush in their centre. Steamed for five minutes; butter and black pepper; very good; looking forward to more.
Growing. At home: we've had the last of this year's figs (probably), and have been eating lots of herbs. I've separated and potted up the supermarket basil I got the internet to bring me, and it's not died (yet), so that's nice.
At the plot: late blight has struck the tomatoes. :( I've pulled up two (... three?) plants entirely and disposed of them; I trimmed several others Aggressively; I'm hoping that the tomatoes under glass won't get infected but am resigning myself to this being the end of the outdoor bed for the year. Next year: wider spacing and more aggressive staking. Nevertheless they've done me proud. Another kilo and a half ripe and ready to eat, though, plus a kilo picked green to hopefully ripen in the fruitbowl, plus some more -- fingers crossed -- to come, putting me at 17.5kg so far.
Also harvested: several cucumber (the Chengelkoy, it turns out, will get a lot bigger than I'd been letting them, while remaining edible); the aforementioned ear of corn; several more patty-pan squash; another few onions.
Plodding sturdily along: lots more patty-pan and courgettes; two luffa have definitely set fruit (so I need to decide if I want to eat one and let the other grow up for dish sponges, or keep them both for dish sponges this year...); more Cosse Violette coming, though the Greek Gigantes are still not managing to get any beanpods to a reasonable size; both sweet and popping corn; and the root veg I transplanted have mostly not died. (And the upcoming potatoes haven't got blight -- yet -- and the comedy onions Continue.)
There is, as ever, lots of infrastructure as needs done. Or perhaps not as ever: as autumn looms I'm turning my mind to putting together the raised beds I've got still planned, and then that might be it? There'll still always be weeding, though.
Observing. The bats are still abroad! A Mystery Bird? Noise, which we are tentatively considering a woodpecker, with further observation required. Both lawn fox and allotment fox have been spotted this week. And an excellent big dragonfly, that I didn't get a close look at but am pretty certain was easily as long as my hand.
Still slo-o-owly reading The Starless Sea, though again Less Slowly Now I've Remembered My Book Chair, and continuing to wallow in it delightedly. Gosh I'm picking up so many more of its threads this time through. And there is a lot to be said for reading it while playing the horn, with sunset streaming in through the window and reflecting off my bell and over the page, turning everything golden.
(And, while I was writing this up, I learned -- via an e-mail to her mailing list -- that Dia Reeves has died. I was so excited in ~January when I found out she'd had another two books published; she'd also, apparently, been dead for almost half a year at that point. Goodness but I'm sad about this. Maybe, library loans not withstanding, I do just reread one of hers next.)
Writing. Well, on the one hand I got sucked into spending two days fiddling with maths from the last chunk of work (and did find a bunch of problems and did fix them, even though I am still not managing to reproduce the feature of someone else's model that's particularly upsetting me, but sigh, there we go) -- and on the other (some meetings, some rearrangement, and a bunch of paperwork later) I'm now at... a little under 6k words on the current thing. Fingers crossed that the modelling nightmares are banished for the next few weeks at least, though.
Watching. CXG S01E09, I'm Going To The Beach With Josh And His Friends!
I still love this show! I still... have really limited things to say about it that aren't, I think, mostly repetitive? Like: Josh is SUCH A SHIT. SUCH! A SHIT! TERRIBLE TO EVERYBODY. AWFUL. NO. DO NOT. And: oh Rebecca, you have so much insight about shit that's terrible when other people do it, now maybe go "... this isn't a good idea for me, either...?" And: Paula you had a boundary, and you ran back over all the things that had gone wrong and then this episode just... degenerated... back through them, and: Rebecca telling the truth but-not-the-whole-truth to Josh's crew in a way that's remarkably honest? It felt like a really nice summary of the show in microcosm so far, and I'm interested to see if this is actually as much of a turning point as it maybe felt like.
The Matrix Revolutions. I... see what everyone means.
Listening. TMA: the new episode, 178, which I enjoyed a great deal on a number of levels; and, on the relisten, 61, which does an excellent job of introducing Daisy in detail and made fascinating listening right after, well, the emotional landscape of 178.
I've also been earwormed by Frank Turner, specifically Dan's Song, for most of the last two days. I mean, how could I not be? When, well: me and my friend Dan/are gonna grab some beers and then/we're gonna go down to the park/and drink them there/we'll bask out in the sun/with our guitars and play some tunes/call up our friends/and invite them out to share/what might be the last weekend of the summer/'cause September's getting colder as it goes/and we haven't done enough/of this simple kind of stuff this year/it's clear we're getting older/and it shows.
Playing. Another round of Hanabi! We are continuing to experiment with communication.
PoGo: VERY EXCITED about my Galarian Darumaka (hatched!). Less excited about the wild-caught shiny Weedle, but pleased about the 98% Houndoom (still no shinies, alas) and Tangela, plusand a third shiny Lotad. Also very much continuing to appreciate remote raiding.
Cooking. smitten kitchen's herbed summer squash pasta bake, with A! Herbs were mint, thyme and chives from the patio; shallots instead of spring onions; squash was three Pattison Blanc, cut in rounds so we could have An Flowers on the top; this was super tasty and we are definitely making it again and not just because the squash are suddenly Productive.
More Ben's Cookies (still our faves -- dark chocolate & hazelnut for me, and I am reluctantly conceding that I really do like these best with ~70% dark chocolate rather than 85%+; raisin and oatmeal for Adam), except they were pretty much entirely made by A, and in fact this was the adventure in "we froze six of each kind, how does cooking direct-from-freezer work?" Experimental results so far: they ended up baking for ~25 minutes, and I'm pretty sure we'll get better results (on the last batch of same in freezer) if we start out with the temperature at ~200°C for ~5 minutes and then reduce it.
And a very satisfactory round of black bean quesadilla (accompanied also by pepper-and-onion quesidilla); I almost entirely ignored the budget bytes recipe, including going "eh" at the idea of putting sweetcorn in the quesadilla and instead making a sweetcorn-and-tomato salsa (as we had most of a tin of the former in the fridge). I'm going to acquire us some Appropriate Chilli Sauce (and then grow the chillis to make my own next year) but this is def. going into the rotation. Hat-tip to
lireavue for linking to the recipe and prompting me to go "... hmm!"Eating. In addition to MORE CRUMPETS (Adam is improving! I am very in favour of this experimentation) I think the most notable Consumption was of our first ear of sweetcorn. It's the Double Red, looking most similar to the backmost flat one in the accompanying photo -- predominantly white kernels with a deep red-purple flush in their centre. Steamed for five minutes; butter and black pepper; very good; looking forward to more.
Growing. At home: we've had the last of this year's figs (probably), and have been eating lots of herbs. I've separated and potted up the supermarket basil I got the internet to bring me, and it's not died (yet), so that's nice.
At the plot: late blight has struck the tomatoes. :( I've pulled up two (... three?) plants entirely and disposed of them; I trimmed several others Aggressively; I'm hoping that the tomatoes under glass won't get infected but am resigning myself to this being the end of the outdoor bed for the year. Next year: wider spacing and more aggressive staking. Nevertheless they've done me proud. Another kilo and a half ripe and ready to eat, though, plus a kilo picked green to hopefully ripen in the fruitbowl, plus some more -- fingers crossed -- to come, putting me at 17.5kg so far.
Also harvested: several cucumber (the Chengelkoy, it turns out, will get a lot bigger than I'd been letting them, while remaining edible); the aforementioned ear of corn; several more patty-pan squash; another few onions.
Plodding sturdily along: lots more patty-pan and courgettes; two luffa have definitely set fruit (so I need to decide if I want to eat one and let the other grow up for dish sponges, or keep them both for dish sponges this year...); more Cosse Violette coming, though the Greek Gigantes are still not managing to get any beanpods to a reasonable size; both sweet and popping corn; and the root veg I transplanted have mostly not died. (And the upcoming potatoes haven't got blight -- yet -- and the comedy onions Continue.)
There is, as ever, lots of infrastructure as needs done. Or perhaps not as ever: as autumn looms I'm turning my mind to putting together the raised beds I've got still planned, and then that might be it? There'll still always be weeding, though.
Observing. The bats are still abroad! A Mystery Bird? Noise, which we are tentatively considering a woodpecker, with further observation required. Both lawn fox and allotment fox have been spotted this week. And an excellent big dragonfly, that I didn't get a close look at but am pretty certain was easily as long as my hand.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-13 10:40 pm (UTC)(Someday I'll make a really big batch of caramelized onions and remember to set some aside for quesadillas, as that would make them C-safe rather than the raw that's in the recipe as-written.)
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-13 10:42 pm (UTC)I have dreamwidth set up to not notify me when people subscribe etc because if so I will SOCIAL ANXIETY about it! And last time I checked you hadn't and I didn't want to be Forward! But yes it is. :-p
I seared the onions (& pepper) in the cast-iron pan we've been using for crumpets, while the black beans were doing in the Instant Pot (gosh but not having to remember to soak things in advance is STILL a game-changer), in this instance...
Wowsa that song is so plague diaries 2020
Date: 2020-09-13 11:26 pm (UTC)...and I don't know why I assumed sweet corn didn't grow on your fair isle, but I just had an ear myself (I think it was Butter and Sugar) and it's the best butter delivery system ever.
That's the name for my favorite cucumber! I think of them as "pickling cukes" because the skin isn't bitter so one can eat them whole. They're my favorite fruit :,)
Re: Wowsa that song is so plague diaries 2020
Date: 2020-09-13 11:47 pm (UTC)Re: Wowsa that song is so plague diaries 2020
Date: 2020-09-13 11:51 pm (UTC)We do need cultivars that have been selected to cope with the cold & damp and that ripen early, though!
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-14 07:45 am (UTC)It does look like several of the plants will pull through.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-14 12:45 pm (UTC)