kaberett | vital functions

Reading. Victoria Routledge, ... and for starters. I'd only read her first two books; this one's her third, and while it's engagingly written with terribly catchy prose it has gone straight back into the charity shop pile because in this instance only one of the female protagonists winds up breaking up with her awful partner. (The other agrees to marry him; also there's bonus transmisia in addition to the expected queer-baiting.) I'll read the fourth as well (at some point), given that I got it (along with the third) plus postage for the grand sum of £4.82, both from the same seller, but my hopes are not high...

The Singing Bones, Shaun Tan. This is "art inspired by Grimms' fairy tales", being a series of gorgeous photographs (very carefully composed and lit and shot) of equally captivating sculptures, accompanying excerpts of story, as curated and created by Shaun Tan, which I suspect will reward revisitation and reflection in a context of also actually having a copy of said tales to hand. I acquired this in a charity shop, because it was by Shaun Tan, and I am very glad I did.

Watching. CXG S03E04. REBECCA.

Cooking. A put some Thai sticky rice in our grocery order for last week, so we had Correct Rice with the last mango, and it was glorious.

Rhubarb and almond cake (with orange zest from the blood orange skins I stashed in the freezer): excellent, especially accompanied by yoghurt. Will be making (and consuming) again, not least because A went from dubious to Yes This Is A Friend really quite rapidly. (Rhubarb from my plot-neighbour's plants.)

Another round of black pepper tofu. The green bell pepper continues to work well as an addition; we need to drop the black pepper a little more, though, I think.

We had a go at recreating the ready-meal "confit tandoori chickpeas" we got from Ottolenghi for my birthday following a recipe with the same title he published on the Beeb. In the first instance, I added curry leaves (~15) and the zest of half a lemon, per the bonus ingredients listed on the packaging but not in that recipe, but this is going to require further experimentation -- the recipe as written had way too much oil and way too little tomato, with a much waterier texture than we were aiming for. So, obviously, I'm making it again on Tuesday.

And! On Friday there was another round of Vanilla Black cook-and-learn! "Fiesta Lasagna", a... somewhat dubious... "Mexican-inspired" deconstructed lasagna thing, which I can write up in more detail if anyone is interested, but in short we are fans of several of the components (tomatoes basted with scotch bonnet syrup and then baked!), which we intend to liberally repurpose while ignoring the more dubious parts.

Eating. Lots of asparagus, while it's in season, and also lots of strawberries, now they're local (of which some got dipped in chilli syrup leftover from some Cooking Bullshit we engaged in on Friday night; see above...)

From the allotment: rhubarb and (overwintered, golden) beetroot.

Making & mending. I have, I think, established what the problem with trying to get my bike front brake working again is, and have accordingly ordered a second replacement inner brake cable, this one branded, which will hopefully fit the lever somewhat better.

Growing. Well. I've moved the tomatoes (and the overwintered peppers) to the greenhouse, thereby committing myself to regular visits. I have, as mentioned in these pages, done a lot of weeding (with more to come). I... rather expect I will continue to provide regular bulletins.

Observing. The bat mostly isn't coming out round the back of the house at the moment, for reasons that are not clear to us, but we did go out and Observe it yesterday.

A ordered new bird feeders, which have arrived and been installed; it took both the birds and the squirrels about 24 hours to decide that they probably weren't carnivorous monsters, and so far the birds are coping admirably and the squirrel is, well, foxed. As intended.

... and also we have three snails now.