kaberett | vital functions

Reading. Black and British, David Olusoga. I found this a mix of fascinating and frustrating, but on balance would recommend it and am considering acquiring a lending copy. Part of the frustration is that it simply hasn't been very well proof-read for punctuation and missing words and so on and so forth, which makes it harder for me to follow; part of it is that it jumps rapidly back and forth through time without clear signalling in a very brief space, as I think I have previously mentioned; part of it is the repeated motif of describing an event as the "most" [adjective], without contextualisation or really any support other than the bare assertion; and some of it is that it becomes in places a to-my-mind disjointed series of brief biographical statements. I am also mildly baffled by the abrupt jump from 1919 to 1942, in the final chapters, and the almost total absence of even any mention of suffrage. (I think suffrage comes up once in a specifically Jamaican context?) BUT: I learned a lot! It does really well at emphasising that British history didn't just take place actually on this island, and exploring what that context means and does to conceptions of British history, all on an explicitly articulated bedrock of "British history with the black history messily excised is an unstable and incomprehensible structure". As I say: I am contemplating a lending copy.

Unknown Number, Blue Neustifter aka Azure_Husky. I got tripped up in the middle of this by the explanation of happiness that fundamentally misses the distinction between having a baseline mood of contentedness versus a baseline mood of grinding depression.

The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien. SO MANY NOTES. But it is sticking better this time. (Currently I am 61 pages into the narrative and have 3 A5 sides of notes...)

Playing. I finished a second play-through of Epistory; more thoughts to follow!

We also finished Gorogoa, which was beautiful and had a fun mechanic but which we did not think stuck the landing.

Cooking. A variant on the butternut squash and caramelised onion pie, because I had half a bulb of fennel that needed using and the grocer delivered a Seasonal Squash (in this instance a pumpkin) rather than a Squash, Butternut. It was a less interesting flavour and had significantly less structural integrity; will not repeat.

Leftover pastry (once I'd got a second case into the freezer) was turned into tiny jam tarts (which erupted, whoops).

This weekend I have also made a big pot of stock from the vegetable scraps in the freezer, reduced it significantly, and turned it into (tasty) leek and potato soup, and am in the process of More Rice Pudding.

Eating. I have been browsing through food52; today A made us akuri for breakfast, minus coriander leaf, eaten with cupboard parathas (Nishaan, available from most British supermarkets). We are going to have more tomorrow. :)

Exploring. This evening, as part of the Mindfulness book, we went for a little walk down one of the nearby side streets; I admired some dubious decorative stained glass, a wrought-iron-and-wood bench trellised to a tree with ivy, Many Varieties Of Tulip, the various Prunus enthusiastically in bloom, and a FOX that was clearly intending to cross the road but then visibly paused to consider us before noping away again and waiting to have another go when there were fewer two-legs around. Also I liberated a trellis from a skip just down the road and am contemplating going back for more tomorrow.

Creating. I have -- imperfectly, but nevertheless -- bleached Adam. Maybe tomorrow we will dye him.

Growing. Second batch of beans coming up at the allotment! First batch not entirely eaten by gastropods and birds! Strawberries starting to flower! Allium increasingly sturdy, and spring onions & first rounds of peas sown!

At home I have made a start on pricking out the tomatoes and need to continue to do so tomorrow.

Observing. We saw the jay that lives out back, briefly, lurking on top of the garages! We also very much enjoyed seeing TWO BATS, and (per Exploring) going for a walk, and generally being Outside in the Green and the Sun.

***

Akuri for breakfast!
Rice pudding for pudding!
Leek and potato soup for lunch also worked out pretty well, and was Good with the date-and-walnut sourdough and some Wensleydale.
I thought I might be developing an unscheduled migraine this afternoon, and indeed I'm still Not Quite Right, but I dragged myself through to getting the soup simmering and the rice pudding cooling after its first stage of prep and then passed out, and I at least don't definitely have a migraine!
I emerged from my Abrupt Afternoon Nap to find that Adam had not only un/loaded the dishwasher but had also thoroughly cleaned the kitchen. <3
The yacon (plural!) are growing EXCELLENT tiny fuzzy leaves and I am delighted. Fingers crossed for raising them to adulthood.
Period pain is abating.
And I didn't bleed all over the bed linen! Which I thought I might have.
I... appear to be really enjoying making notes on the Silm and putting things together this time through. I keep wanting to put down this (and physio, and Duolingo) to go back to making more pretty notes with my pretty pens in my pretty notebook and also Engaging With The Text, heh.
I am REALLY PLEASED about having acquired Some Trellis, With More To Come from a local skip, and similarly pleased that there's more lumps of wood that will make convenient corners for raised beds! So yes. More skip-rummaging tomorrow, I think. Possibly via actually putting a card through the door to ask nicely, but... possibly not. >_>