vital functions
Jul. 25th, 2021 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke. I wound up enjoying this a lot, despite it being the kind of anthology of short stories I find exhausting, in an ebook riddled with errors! I even went back and reread the introductory notes, for fun! So that was pleasant.
The Vela, Yoon Ha Lee/Rivers Solomon/SL Huang/Becky Chambers. I am about 20% of the way in and so far I'm... mostly disappointed. About three pages in we're supposed to believe that a hypercompetent mercenary/sniper/assassin would forget that she'd handed over her weapons on entering her employer's place of work for a routine meeting, which at this point is a brilliant way to irritate me, and I am finding the climate change thread tediously heavy-handed. I am currently intending to drag my way through one chapter (sorry, "episode") by each of the authors before I did-not-finish it, but given how much I've liked other work by most of the authors I'm a bit sad that this thing I was looking forward to having the brain for is not in fact as much of a treat as I was hoping.
I am stalled on making more Silm notes (WHAT EVEN IS GEOGRAPHY), but I am gonna attempt to pick that back up this week coming.
Watching. Orphan Black S05E06. I keep being startled by how affecting I actually find Ira and Susan, in the end. Krystal is AMAZING. They all have such FACES and I love them.
CXG S03E09. Still massively not okay with Rebecca's behaviour last episode! Still really impressed with her for this episode, loving her and Paula respectively experiencing the slow dawning realisation that their behaviour has been absolutely fucked up, and the faces everyone pulls.
ALSO. ALSO. WHY IN THE NAME OF FUCK IS IT ALL THE NATHANIEL SONGS THAT I'D SEEN IN ISOLATION? (Seriously though: Let's Have Intercourse, Going To The Zoo, Fit Hot Guys...)
These people, too, all have such good faces.
Cooking. A very pleasing crumble: jostaberry and apple, with spelt flour and whole oats in the topping.
More japchae, this time with black fungus. Also more black pepper tofu and sea-spicy aubergine (which I am annoyingly still not getting quite right), more aubergine kuku, and another Ribiselkuchen.
Eating. Raspberriesss. And the start of the blackberries, but they're still decidedly tart, so I nibble them only out of Intense Desire For Blackberry, and am impatiently anticipating them being Actually Ripe.
Also my mother made me padron peppers (fried with salt), and fennel-pepper-paprika stew, and RASPBERRY TRIFLE.
Making & mending. I made an abortive attempt at breaking up some slate using my hammer and a chisel (and eye protection!), and will be revisiting the topic with an angle grinder at some point this week.
I have also poked at secateurs some more, and made progress on that front (thank you all!).
Growing. Most of my squash have indeed failed to come up for reasons I don't entirely understand, but it looks like something has Eaten The Seeds for many of them so I suppose I'm starting next year's batch off at home instead of in the greenhouse. On the upside, the one that did germinate is one that we adored last year, so I'm mildly sad I'm not getting to try out new winter squash but, you know what, that's okay.
Elsewise, I have actually managed to make a start on potting up (aubergine, chilli, some tomatoes) and planting out (one tomato), alongside ongoing harvest of soft fruit.
... the lemon. is very bravely. growing an inch-long branch. from the bottom of its trunk. and I'm going to have to try to work out how to keep it alive and marginally happier over this winter coming. Bubble-wrap tent in the greenhouse it is, I suppose. *facehands*
Observing. While we were sat out on the decking on Friday night, with Pimms and the bat detector and the bat, we are pretty sure that I/we spotted, in relatively quick succession, the Multipurpose Laboratory Module and the ISS, completely unintentionally, because we happened to be outside and I happened to be staring at the sky while I tried to articulate some things about my career and my relationship with my family and the (entirely sincere) joys of growing older.
Plus today while I was attempting to do some weeding I stumbled upon a plant covered in absolutely tiny baby snails -- holler if you want pics -- that I assume must have hatched pretty recently, which was delightful and extremely distracting. So small. So smol.
The Vela, Yoon Ha Lee/Rivers Solomon/SL Huang/Becky Chambers. I am about 20% of the way in and so far I'm... mostly disappointed. About three pages in we're supposed to believe that a hypercompetent mercenary/sniper/assassin would forget that she'd handed over her weapons on entering her employer's place of work for a routine meeting, which at this point is a brilliant way to irritate me, and I am finding the climate change thread tediously heavy-handed. I am currently intending to drag my way through one chapter (sorry, "episode") by each of the authors before I did-not-finish it, but given how much I've liked other work by most of the authors I'm a bit sad that this thing I was looking forward to having the brain for is not in fact as much of a treat as I was hoping.
I am stalled on making more Silm notes (WHAT EVEN IS GEOGRAPHY), but I am gonna attempt to pick that back up this week coming.
Watching. Orphan Black S05E06. I keep being startled by how affecting I actually find Ira and Susan, in the end. Krystal is AMAZING. They all have such FACES and I love them.
CXG S03E09. Still massively not okay with Rebecca's behaviour last episode! Still really impressed with her for this episode, loving her and Paula respectively experiencing the slow dawning realisation that their behaviour has been absolutely fucked up, and the faces everyone pulls.
ALSO. ALSO. WHY IN THE NAME OF FUCK IS IT ALL THE NATHANIEL SONGS THAT I'D SEEN IN ISOLATION? (Seriously though: Let's Have Intercourse, Going To The Zoo, Fit Hot Guys...)
These people, too, all have such good faces.
Cooking. A very pleasing crumble: jostaberry and apple, with spelt flour and whole oats in the topping.
More japchae, this time with black fungus. Also more black pepper tofu and sea-spicy aubergine (which I am annoyingly still not getting quite right), more aubergine kuku, and another Ribiselkuchen.
Eating. Raspberriesss. And the start of the blackberries, but they're still decidedly tart, so I nibble them only out of Intense Desire For Blackberry, and am impatiently anticipating them being Actually Ripe.
Also my mother made me padron peppers (fried with salt), and fennel-pepper-paprika stew, and RASPBERRY TRIFLE.
Making & mending. I made an abortive attempt at breaking up some slate using my hammer and a chisel (and eye protection!), and will be revisiting the topic with an angle grinder at some point this week.
I have also poked at secateurs some more, and made progress on that front (thank you all!).
Growing. Most of my squash have indeed failed to come up for reasons I don't entirely understand, but it looks like something has Eaten The Seeds for many of them so I suppose I'm starting next year's batch off at home instead of in the greenhouse. On the upside, the one that did germinate is one that we adored last year, so I'm mildly sad I'm not getting to try out new winter squash but, you know what, that's okay.
Elsewise, I have actually managed to make a start on potting up (aubergine, chilli, some tomatoes) and planting out (one tomato), alongside ongoing harvest of soft fruit.
... the lemon. is very bravely. growing an inch-long branch. from the bottom of its trunk. and I'm going to have to try to work out how to keep it alive and marginally happier over this winter coming. Bubble-wrap tent in the greenhouse it is, I suppose. *facehands*
Observing. While we were sat out on the decking on Friday night, with Pimms and the bat detector and the bat, we are pretty sure that I/we spotted, in relatively quick succession, the Multipurpose Laboratory Module and the ISS, completely unintentionally, because we happened to be outside and I happened to be staring at the sky while I tried to articulate some things about my career and my relationship with my family and the (entirely sincere) joys of growing older.
Plus today while I was attempting to do some weeding I stumbled upon a plant covered in absolutely tiny baby snails -- holler if you want pics -- that I assume must have hatched pretty recently, which was delightful and extremely distracting. So small. So smol.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-25 11:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 12:08 am (UTC)(Nb if it’s helpful to DM specifically about that - because the narrative description really IS difficult to follow and i have hacked it out WITH MAPS - in a specific answer geographical questions Way rather than social narrative way, feel free. )
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 09:06 am (UTC)Noted! <3
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 12:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 01:22 am (UTC)*feelings*
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 03:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 04:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 09:07 am (UTC)And the bat! It came within about two feet of our heads multiple times :D
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 09:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-26 07:43 pm (UTC)JRRT JUST DOESN'T KNOW!
(If you meant that in terms of how geology and climate and so forth work in Arda. Alternative answer: A
wizardVala did it!)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-28 05:05 am (UTC)