( Read more... )
... finds of the day
Apr. 6th, 2023 11:27 pmA stamp, postmarked "92". That doesn't seem right, I thought. That is not a design of stamp that is consistent with 1992. Not at all. What gives?
.... it's only a Penny Lilac.
Huh, I thought. ŚRODKOWA LITWA POCZTA. That's... got to be Lithuania, right? ... right? UM. WELL. SORT OF?
The thing is, you see, that I thought I'd left all the interesting stamps with the rest of the family papers. I thought the oldest stamps in my stash would be from the 60s. The 1960s. And yet! I went! through every single one of them! Just in case! because that is what you have to do with anything that came out of the mouldering ancestral pile!
I mean, and also because I'm very fond of stamps that feature botanical illustration or interesting technology or science or The History Of Postal Systems or Hungarian pandas or, better even than Hungarian pandas circa 1977, botanical illustration advertising an exhibition of botanical illustration and philately...
... but still. STILL. 1882!!! Unrecognised short-lived puppet republics!!! How on Earth this all wound up in Papa's (and I use the term loosely) collection I shall almost certainly never know.
an unexpectedly pleasant afternoon
Jul. 22nd, 2021 10:57 pmAs you are likely unavoidably aware, whether you're in the UK or merely know people-other-than-me who live here, we are in the middle of a heatwave. Also, A has some time off work.
We wound up spending much of this afternoon lying on a picnic blanket, in the shade, by the pond, with a slight breeze, in my parents' garden, with absolutely nothing we Needed To Be Doing other than waiting for my mother to finish up at work and come socialise with us (outside, double-vaccinated, etc). I had been mildly concerned that it would be too unpleasantly warm, or that we'd get Bored, or or or -- but actually it was just lovely, and so has the day been as a whole, and I think we should probably try to work more "lying on a blanket with nothing to do" into our lives.
We wound up spending much of this afternoon lying on a picnic blanket, in the shade, by the pond, with a slight breeze, in my parents' garden, with absolutely nothing we Needed To Be Doing other than waiting for my mother to finish up at work and come socialise with us (outside, double-vaccinated, etc). I had been mildly concerned that it would be too unpleasantly warm, or that we'd get Bored, or or or -- but actually it was just lovely, and so has the day been as a whole, and I think we should probably try to work more "lying on a blanket with nothing to do" into our lives.
spirals; repetitions
Apr. 29th, 2020 10:46 pmToday, my mother posted me a package containing some onion sets and some seed Charlotte potatoes and -- probably -- some other bits and bobs.
Today, I put together a package for my mother containing caraway seeds, and poppy seeds, and sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds, and a wee tub of sourdough starter. (It needs taking to a parcel post box; that trip is probably going to be combined with picking up my latest prescription from the pharmacy and is almost certainly not going to be made by me.)
Back in the 70s and 80s, my Großmutti was living in Cornwall and her mother, Grausi, was living, still, in Austria. At that point it wasn't really possible to get, in the UK or at least that part of it, poppy seed or vanilla sugar or any of a number of other small comforts that make your connections and your continuities feel a bit less tenuous.
Which is how it came to pass that Grausi would post, across the Iron Curtain, packages containing anonymous (but highly scented) white powder, and poppy seeds that probably weren't a drug precursor, and--
-- and here I am, posting my mother food, and having her post food to me.
Today, I put together a package for my mother containing caraway seeds, and poppy seeds, and sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds, and a wee tub of sourdough starter. (It needs taking to a parcel post box; that trip is probably going to be combined with picking up my latest prescription from the pharmacy and is almost certainly not going to be made by me.)
Back in the 70s and 80s, my Großmutti was living in Cornwall and her mother, Grausi, was living, still, in Austria. At that point it wasn't really possible to get, in the UK or at least that part of it, poppy seed or vanilla sugar or any of a number of other small comforts that make your connections and your continuities feel a bit less tenuous.
Which is how it came to pass that Grausi would post, across the Iron Curtain, packages containing anonymous (but highly scented) white powder, and poppy seeds that probably weren't a drug precursor, and--
-- and here I am, posting my mother food, and having her post food to me.
Today got off to an inauspicious start when, following a breakfast of crêpes because A is often willing to indulge me, we wandered outside to discover... that someone had parked such as to block in the van full of Stuff we wanted to spend today unpacking with great prejudice.
Events eventuated.
The garage now additionally contains: three projection screens; lots more Photographic Equipment Of Dubious Vintage; a last few Kenwood accessories; my grandmother's Gritzner sewing machine table.
The patio additionally contains: a hedgehog bootscraper (from the dining room); a telescope (from the hallway cupboard, which turned out to contain, under everything, A SHOE RACK and also my mother's secondary-school hockey stick).
(The house proper contains an additional thirty-five tiny forks, in addition to Everything Already Mentioned.)
My parents' house now additionally contains: some Meccano, a lot of photographs and slides and cine film and reel-to-reel and VHS tapes inter alia, several suitcases of paperwork including a steamer trunk emblazoned CAPT [RELATIVE] [ADDRESS], and two more violins (Faithful Henry still sitting forlorn and without a case in a box in the living room, get me to tell you his story later), a (brand-new) duvet (that was misdelivered to the neighbours and eventually given up for lost and reported ditto to John Lewis, before rematerialising), three probably-mahogany headboards (to be donated to the luthier of My Mother's Luthier's Mother's Quince Tree fame), a hoya that somewhat miraculously isn't dead yet and that I gently disentangled from the place it's been my entire life (and about which I made the ungeheuer joke on the visit made for Mama's funerary rites and the arrangements therefore) (but I left behind its koala), Papa's air rifle and pellets (in my middle brother's bedroom), and almost certainly some other things I'm forgetting.
We elected not to stay in Cambridge and go to a cinema in order to kill time before Bibimbap House opened, and instead Went Emphatically Back To London, where we managed to return the van early, and order pizza, and finish up the main game of Portal 2, and watch a film, and generally pootle about sorting the house out a little.
All of which is to say: between this and the tribunal I haven't actually done much volcano-related work since my last meeting with my supervisor, and my next one's Friday lunchtime, so I think I know roughly how tomorrow is going to go...
Events eventuated.
The garage now additionally contains: three projection screens; lots more Photographic Equipment Of Dubious Vintage; a last few Kenwood accessories; my grandmother's Gritzner sewing machine table.
The patio additionally contains: a hedgehog bootscraper (from the dining room); a telescope (from the hallway cupboard, which turned out to contain, under everything, A SHOE RACK and also my mother's secondary-school hockey stick).
(The house proper contains an additional thirty-five tiny forks, in addition to Everything Already Mentioned.)
My parents' house now additionally contains: some Meccano, a lot of photographs and slides and cine film and reel-to-reel and VHS tapes inter alia, several suitcases of paperwork including a steamer trunk emblazoned CAPT [RELATIVE] [ADDRESS], and two more violins (Faithful Henry still sitting forlorn and without a case in a box in the living room, get me to tell you his story later), a (brand-new) duvet (that was misdelivered to the neighbours and eventually given up for lost and reported ditto to John Lewis, before rematerialising), three probably-mahogany headboards (to be donated to the luthier of My Mother's Luthier's Mother's Quince Tree fame), a hoya that somewhat miraculously isn't dead yet and that I gently disentangled from the place it's been my entire life (and about which I made the ungeheuer joke on the visit made for Mama's funerary rites and the arrangements therefore) (but I left behind its koala), Papa's air rifle and pellets (in my middle brother's bedroom), and almost certainly some other things I'm forgetting.
We elected not to stay in Cambridge and go to a cinema in order to kill time before Bibimbap House opened, and instead Went Emphatically Back To London, where we managed to return the van early, and order pizza, and finish up the main game of Portal 2, and watch a film, and generally pootle about sorting the house out a little.
All of which is to say: between this and the tribunal I haven't actually done much volcano-related work since my last meeting with my supervisor, and my next one's Friday lunchtime, so I think I know roughly how tomorrow is going to go...
- post title: how our nibling Thoughtfully described us once we had finished flinging them & their sibling around and generally encouraging them to shriek happily, and had retreated to the sofa and gone in a pile. I am Charmed.
- POST POST POST. Two items this morning: my medical notes from Belfast, which I get to copy & send off to the DWP (along with a copy of the UN CRPD report, with relevant paragraphs about which of my human rights are being violated highlighted), and a new-to-me phone, because, er, the old one was gradually disintegrating, as... is my habit. I gave in to Our Googly Overlords and thereby copied a bunch of stuff (including my SCREEN LAYOUT) over with Minimal Faff and... it was pretty great. It works! It's responsive! It's great.
- Adventures in hair: I tried a variation on the bog mummy -- not French braiding the top plait, just doing a simple braid -- and this too seems to work well.
- I have excellent pyjamas. I found a very soft very stripy blue shirt in a charity shop for really not much at all, the other week, and on the one hand it in no way actually matches the (very blue, very stripy) pyjama bottoms I already owned, and on the other it goes really well with them and they are Soft and make me Happy. It's not actually the nightshirt of my dreams (which seems weirdly hard to track down currently, despite the fact that M&S were making them a few years back now, as evidenced by
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
me_and owning one that I keep threatening to nick). - Other things that are, in a similar Soft and Comfortable vein, Super Heckin' Great: my slipper sooooocks.
- My data from this mass spec session is Entirely Satisfactory. I've worked out useful filtering criteria, most of the uncertainties are eminently plausible, I've started plotting figures. Lots of things to think about & notes being taken & I am Enjoying this.
- My bookchair is comfortably up to the job of A Large Hardback, which I need to work on remembering because goodness it makes reading dead trees so much more pleasant & possible to do hands-free. (I can BRUSH MY HAIR while READING a PAPER BOOK; it's great.)
- We had some of A's family visiting, which provided useful impetus to Tidy Up A Bit.
- Indulgent supper: warm milk with vanilla & nutmeg, and a slice of buttered toast. I am feeling very contented.
- Actually, yes, that: I am feeling, currently, secure and contented and happy, and profoundly aware of & grateful for all of the ways in which my life is comfortable. I've burrowed myself out a small space of comfortable existence, and it's very soothing.
(For the princely sum of £15, no less.)
Boots are polished and out by the window, though, and probably very grateful for it they are too, given how long & how desperately they've needed a clean.
It is an interesting tension, for me, between not-my-religion and definitely-my-cultural-heritage, but observing Heiliger Nikolaus is a link to my grandmother and also an excuse to clean my shoes, so here we are, and in the morning I'll get up early to go to lab & they'll contain treats & I will pocket some of them to take with me.
Boots are polished and out by the window, though, and probably very grateful for it they are too, given how long & how desperately they've needed a clean.
It is an interesting tension, for me, between not-my-religion and definitely-my-cultural-heritage, but observing Heiliger Nikolaus is a link to my grandmother and also an excuse to clean my shoes, so here we are, and in the morning I'll get up early to go to lab & they'll contain treats & I will pocket some of them to take with me.
continuities
Nov. 22nd, 2019 11:58 pm
On the left: a modern Bart jar labelled cardamom, tall and cylindrical with the stacked black lids. It's empty, labelled 22g and Best Before End Oct 2017 on its square stickers, not that you can see that in the photo. On the right, shorter and generally rounder, with a much simpler green lid, is a jar of Bart cardamom dating from, probably, the mid-nineties. The label is round and scalloped and definitely, at this point, looking charmingly dated. It's mostly full; dspite being an awful lot smaller it contains 30g of spice. It's got a reduced sticker on it.
On the reduced sticker, in probably-my-grandmother's-hand, also not pictured, is written AROMATIC // TRY WITH CURRY RICE OR FRUIT PIES. The price has been changed from "159" to "106".
When we were clearing out the mouldering ancestral pile, a lot of the food had to be binned. The untouched unopened spice jars, bought at cut price, were fine, though. In addition to this one, I've got another jar or two of cardamom in the pantry.
My cousins, various, have decided that Kardemummebullar are The Best Thing Ever, which means I'm making quite a lot of them, which means that I am in fact getting through cardamom quite rapidly. It's still good; it's still aromatic; I'm using it. I've a pan of milk with twenty pods in on the stove, and tomorrow I'll grind the seeds from another fifty in the ancestral spice mill.
On this day in 2010 we held Mama's funeral. Tomorrow I've two godcousins and another of her grandchildren coming over. I'll feed them and we'll probably end up singing at least a bit and Adam might well paint their nails. (The first time I ever had my nails painted, it was Mama who did it, in the big armchair we've now got rid of in the attic sitting room, with newspaper on the floor and a gale outside.)
For now I'll put the bread and then myself to bed.
oh gosh it got late
Oct. 19th, 2019 11:48 pmDiarish: various putterings about, today, with vague gestures toward housework and doing a lot more science (not, of course, that I am anywhere close to done yet, or at least not as close to done as I'd like to be given that it's very definitely my bedtime). The rest of the fennel seed heads are spread out on some ancestral linen on the floor of the study to dry; I used my grandmother's secateurs to chop some dead sunflowers down to a vaguely transportable size; I fed my mother some Potitze, and we played Scrabble with a set liberated from the mouldering ancestral pile; my parents took us out to dinner and I might finally have got the Turkish for "leaf" (yaprak) into active vocab by dint of finally recognising it as a constituent part of a menu item. We talked, over dinner, about the amount of time Papa Hase spent in Turkey; both he and Mama spoke Turkish. Threads of continuity.
small victory hiss
Oct. 17th, 2019 10:52 pmFINALLY after a Saga including three separate refunds (one of which hasn't yet processed) from eBay sellers who had promised they definitely had two of the IKEA PS 2014 copper-and-white 35cm lampshades in stock and definitely weren't reckoning they could just pop into IKEA, buy it, and sell it at a massive mark-up to suckers on the internet, having not yet cottoned on to the part where that specific iteration of it had been discontinued--
-- plus a purchase made last week with "one-day delivery" that didn't get actually put into the post until Monday and then Hermes didn't get it to me til earlier today--
-- I have the thing my mother originally wanted, for less than it would have been from IKEA new (probably), in the correct size, in its box with all of its instructions, even though I was mildly concerned the seller might have Misled me about the diameter, and now I get to never think about this again (at least until I construct this one for her, and flatten the larger one back out for possible eventual installation in the mouldering ancestral pile).
(Also today: lots more paper, lengthy digression on the topic of my supervisor'shatcat, cesy dragging me out to the allotment, Infinite Pyjamas.)
-- plus a purchase made last week with "one-day delivery" that didn't get actually put into the post until Monday and then Hermes didn't get it to me til earlier today--
-- I have the thing my mother originally wanted, for less than it would have been from IKEA new (probably), in the correct size, in its box with all of its instructions, even though I was mildly concerned the seller might have Misled me about the diameter, and now I get to never think about this again (at least until I construct this one for her, and flatten the larger one back out for possible eventual installation in the mouldering ancestral pile).
(Also today: lots more paper, lengthy digression on the topic of my supervisor's
cesy dragging me out to the allotment, Infinite Pyjamas.)vital functions
Jul. 14th, 2019 09:23 pmReading. ( Read more... )
Watching. ( Read more... )
Listening. Medium Smallcousin pointed us all at Getting Ready To Get Down.
Cooking. ( Read more... )
Growing. The Cambridge Favourite strawberry is putting out runners! Which I am very pleased about. Also on the patio: the walnut isn't dead yet, the lemon is jubilantly putting out more leaves and flowers both, the tomatoes are becoming more tall, and a second batch of self-seeded parsley is starting to actually establish itself (the first batch having died of wind scorch) alongside an enormously enthusiastic regrowth of mint. There are also... A Lot... of semi-unintentional sunflowers, thanks to the birds; we'll see if they do anything interesting. (Probably I should transplant the most enthusiastic ones from the lemon pot to... somewhere... more sensible...)
I've possibly tentatively worked out what it is I've been doing that's resulted in seedlings sulking and dying off post-germination, but only if they're not suitable for sowing direct, so that... might be progress, and maybe I'll be able to nurse the passion fruit along sufficient that I don't have to resume from start.
At the allotment, an enthusiastic weeding of the redcurrant made it enough easier for the birds to get into the bush that by the time I went back all the proto-currants were no more. Next year's infrastructure project is very definitely a fruit cage (this year's being SORTING OUT THE CARPET, urgh).
Observing. We met a leopard moth! Its antennae were SO GOOD.
At home, the new "squirrel-proof" bird feeders seem to be deterring the birds but not, alas, the squirrels, so that... is a thing to think about. And: the stupid cat came to visit twice, and is staaaaaarting to learn that No Means No.
Poking. Of particular note: a third shiny Aron (so I can now get the entire evolutionary tree, even though none of them are actually any good); a Jynx with perfect IVs from a research task (lolsob), and ditto a Voltorb (which is at least less horrifying). I can solo a Starmie with Hydro Pump (three-head raid boss)... with about a second to spare, once I'd maxed out both a Gengar and a Houndoom.
Watching. ( Read more... )
Listening. Medium Smallcousin pointed us all at Getting Ready To Get Down.
Cooking. ( Read more... )
Growing. The Cambridge Favourite strawberry is putting out runners! Which I am very pleased about. Also on the patio: the walnut isn't dead yet, the lemon is jubilantly putting out more leaves and flowers both, the tomatoes are becoming more tall, and a second batch of self-seeded parsley is starting to actually establish itself (the first batch having died of wind scorch) alongside an enormously enthusiastic regrowth of mint. There are also... A Lot... of semi-unintentional sunflowers, thanks to the birds; we'll see if they do anything interesting. (Probably I should transplant the most enthusiastic ones from the lemon pot to... somewhere... more sensible...)
I've possibly tentatively worked out what it is I've been doing that's resulted in seedlings sulking and dying off post-germination, but only if they're not suitable for sowing direct, so that... might be progress, and maybe I'll be able to nurse the passion fruit along sufficient that I don't have to resume from start.
At the allotment, an enthusiastic weeding of the redcurrant made it enough easier for the birds to get into the bush that by the time I went back all the proto-currants were no more. Next year's infrastructure project is very definitely a fruit cage (this year's being SORTING OUT THE CARPET, urgh).
Observing. We met a leopard moth! Its antennae were SO GOOD.
At home, the new "squirrel-proof" bird feeders seem to be deterring the birds but not, alas, the squirrels, so that... is a thing to think about. And: the stupid cat came to visit twice, and is staaaaaarting to learn that No Means No.
Poking. Of particular note: a third shiny Aron (so I can now get the entire evolutionary tree, even though none of them are actually any good); a Jynx with perfect IVs from a research task (lolsob), and ditto a Voltorb (which is at least less horrifying). I can solo a Starmie with Hydro Pump (three-head raid boss)... with about a second to spare, once I'd maxed out both a Gengar and a Houndoom.
vital functions
May. 26th, 2019 11:24 pmReading. Ended up consigning Feel Free to the Did Not Finish pile, because I was just... avoiding reading, when it was the thing I was going to read. Such is life.
Have started (shortly before it goes back to the library) Daring Greatly (finally). Having a lot of feelings about the first few pages; in particular, I think it will probably be useful to me on the general topic of How Do Friend, which is timely.
(Loaned a pile of books to godcousins: Dicebox, SFP vol 1, Kate Bornstein, Whipping Girl, ... something else.)
Watching. Yeah, I... started a rewatch of Elementary S1, or at least the first four episodes, because I Love Them, okay.
Also for bonus points: JUPITER ASCENDING, with my largest smallcousin and my godcousins, because none of them had seen it and I wanted an excuse to engage in fannishness and make people afternoon tea yes good.
In the process we also watched The Lost Thing, because I like introducing people to Shaun Tan, surprise.
Listening. The Indelicates played a gig! I went and listened to them! It was great.
We also showed my cousins various a bunch of P!nk music videos (because Channing Tatum Living His Best Life, and also P!nk's Extended Modern Dance Moment). And some other miscellaneous music videos.
Cooking. APRICOT AND SOURED CREAM ICE CREAM. Preliminary feedback v encouraging. Also: buttermilk! Succesfully turned some of the Spare Milk into An Enormous Jar Of Buttermilk, and thence into scones.
Also also: baby's first attempt at madeleines, which worked out remarkably well given that I looked at the requirement for demerera sugar, and looked at my cupboard which contained none of the above, and combined some muscovado and some golden caster. I note for myself that the recipe in the Leiths book makes two full trays, and that I might well wish to halve the quantities if I'm not preparing them for the purposes of Entertaining.
Growing. The carpet harvest is... bountiful. I have cleared all the carpet from beneath one raised bed (of seven, where I have things growing in three of them); finishing its adjoining raised bed is, hopefully, a job for this week, whereupon I will perhaps be able to put the first batch of edging in and then sow some stuff? Maybe?
The bin continues. We went to a garden centre pre-gig, and I acquired more Unterlagen for the patio plants. (A acquired more bird feeding devices.) There were several Excellent Succulents And Succulent-Adjacent Plants, none of which I purchased.
Expotitions. Wimpole, the Whipple, BAT SAFARI.
Observing. A Common Blue butterfly at the plot!
THIS FUCKING THING (Long-wattled Umbrellabird, Cephalopterus penduliger, I'm now considering starting a blog dedicated to unhelpful translations of binomials starting with "dangly head-wing").
Lots of misc farm animals and bats!
Have started (shortly before it goes back to the library) Daring Greatly (finally). Having a lot of feelings about the first few pages; in particular, I think it will probably be useful to me on the general topic of How Do Friend, which is timely.
(Loaned a pile of books to godcousins: Dicebox, SFP vol 1, Kate Bornstein, Whipping Girl, ... something else.)
Watching. Yeah, I... started a rewatch of Elementary S1, or at least the first four episodes, because I Love Them, okay.
Also for bonus points: JUPITER ASCENDING, with my largest smallcousin and my godcousins, because none of them had seen it and I wanted an excuse to engage in fannishness and make people afternoon tea yes good.
In the process we also watched The Lost Thing, because I like introducing people to Shaun Tan, surprise.
Listening. The Indelicates played a gig! I went and listened to them! It was great.
We also showed my cousins various a bunch of P!nk music videos (because Channing Tatum Living His Best Life, and also P!nk's Extended Modern Dance Moment). And some other miscellaneous music videos.
Cooking. APRICOT AND SOURED CREAM ICE CREAM. Preliminary feedback v encouraging. Also: buttermilk! Succesfully turned some of the Spare Milk into An Enormous Jar Of Buttermilk, and thence into scones.
Also also: baby's first attempt at madeleines, which worked out remarkably well given that I looked at the requirement for demerera sugar, and looked at my cupboard which contained none of the above, and combined some muscovado and some golden caster. I note for myself that the recipe in the Leiths book makes two full trays, and that I might well wish to halve the quantities if I'm not preparing them for the purposes of Entertaining.
Growing. The carpet harvest is... bountiful. I have cleared all the carpet from beneath one raised bed (of seven, where I have things growing in three of them); finishing its adjoining raised bed is, hopefully, a job for this week, whereupon I will perhaps be able to put the first batch of edging in and then sow some stuff? Maybe?
The bin continues. We went to a garden centre pre-gig, and I acquired more Unterlagen for the patio plants. (A acquired more bird feeding devices.) There were several Excellent Succulents And Succulent-Adjacent Plants, none of which I purchased.
Expotitions. Wimpole, the Whipple, BAT SAFARI.
Observing. A Common Blue butterfly at the plot!
THIS FUCKING THING (Long-wattled Umbrellabird, Cephalopterus penduliger, I'm now considering starting a blog dedicated to unhelpful translations of binomials starting with "dangly head-wing").
Lots of misc farm animals and bats!
Serendipity is a wonderful thing
Apr. 26th, 2019 09:36 pmAs none of you have any particular reason to remember, my grandmother was an Austrian.
My mother was asking me today about Progress On The PhD, and followed up by asking what the next chapter was going to be on, then -- not expecting to recognise the volcano name.
"Popocatepetl--" I said...
"-- is der Berg in Mexiko, yes yes, oui oui, si si, so so!" she replied.
Turns out there's a 1951 German music hall song about it that she was taught as a nursery rhyme... and it's on YouTube.
My mother was asking me today about Progress On The PhD, and followed up by asking what the next chapter was going to be on, then -- not expecting to recognise the volcano name.
"Popocatepetl--" I said...
"-- is der Berg in Mexiko, yes yes, oui oui, si si, so so!" she replied.
Turns out there's a 1951 German music hall song about it that she was taught as a nursery rhyme... and it's on YouTube.
I didn't (unsurprisingly) get the greenhouse, but looking at it did substantially clarify my thoughts and the eBays do regularly contain less fancy greenhouses that, actually, probably will perfectly well do the job now I know what I'm after.
( In which I ramble about hardware and tell stories about secateurs. )
In terms of my upcoming jobs and planting...
Well, I need to spend some quality time pruning the Ribes bushes various; the plot came with a red dessert gooseberry, a redcurrant, and what-I-think-is-a-jostaberry, all of which are a little neglected and tangled. Tidying them up was on the list for Sunday immediately after the teasels, but a pair of secateurs that couldn't handle a teasel was... erstrecht not going to cope with actual wood. They also need top dressing with manure and then probably mulching, but that can wait until after I've tidied them up a little.
Next door, I've come to the conclusion that what I want to do with my ground-level bed (squash, pak choi, and failed calabrese last year) this season is set some broad beans and peas going down the middle around now, and then sow quinoa down the edges some time later. On the one hand, it's not known that this is a good idea; on the other, intercropping legumes and quinoa is a topic of active research and growing trials, and it looks to me like it ought to be sensible, so no doubt you will collectively get Running Commentary while I experiment.
At home, it's time for me to get the purple chillis and the orange bell peppers started (if I'm going to); that can't really happen until we're back full time, and while I'm happy to heat the house to a temperature that is safe and adequate for me to exist in when I'm actually there most of the time, that is... less the case when I'm away. (I'm attempting to resist the temptation to acquire a heated propagator.) Also the tomatoes, though there the thing I really need to do is work out where I want to put them -- whether I want to grow them on at home again, or if I'll be looking to plant them out at the plot.
Which is a general problem -- the working-out-where-to-plant-things. I'm dithering but probably about to come down on the side of putting the saffron bulbs in around the base of the cherry tree; I think I know where I'm going to put the comfrey once it's established itself a little better; and I'm tentatively leaning towards growing the poppies-for-seed in a patch of mixed wildflowers. (WHERE, though, Alex, you need to work out where you're going to put this. Probably also in the general vicinity of the cherry, if we're honest.)
But. Yes. Priorities: getting misc. seeds started; actually sourcing and constructing my proper raised beds so that I can plant out into them (which will inevitably involve More Weeding); pruning and dressing the Ribes; and working out what I want by way of asparagus, because my mother has offered to buy me some crowns.
So, you know, if you have asparagus cultivar recommendations, please by all means go ahead! I prefer the stems to the tips, and I am resigned to growing at least some purple...
( In which I ramble about hardware and tell stories about secateurs. )
In terms of my upcoming jobs and planting...
Well, I need to spend some quality time pruning the Ribes bushes various; the plot came with a red dessert gooseberry, a redcurrant, and what-I-think-is-a-jostaberry, all of which are a little neglected and tangled. Tidying them up was on the list for Sunday immediately after the teasels, but a pair of secateurs that couldn't handle a teasel was... erstrecht not going to cope with actual wood. They also need top dressing with manure and then probably mulching, but that can wait until after I've tidied them up a little.
Next door, I've come to the conclusion that what I want to do with my ground-level bed (squash, pak choi, and failed calabrese last year) this season is set some broad beans and peas going down the middle around now, and then sow quinoa down the edges some time later. On the one hand, it's not known that this is a good idea; on the other, intercropping legumes and quinoa is a topic of active research and growing trials, and it looks to me like it ought to be sensible, so no doubt you will collectively get Running Commentary while I experiment.
At home, it's time for me to get the purple chillis and the orange bell peppers started (if I'm going to); that can't really happen until we're back full time, and while I'm happy to heat the house to a temperature that is safe and adequate for me to exist in when I'm actually there most of the time, that is... less the case when I'm away. (I'm attempting to resist the temptation to acquire a heated propagator.) Also the tomatoes, though there the thing I really need to do is work out where I want to put them -- whether I want to grow them on at home again, or if I'll be looking to plant them out at the plot.
Which is a general problem -- the working-out-where-to-plant-things. I'm dithering but probably about to come down on the side of putting the saffron bulbs in around the base of the cherry tree; I think I know where I'm going to put the comfrey once it's established itself a little better; and I'm tentatively leaning towards growing the poppies-for-seed in a patch of mixed wildflowers. (WHERE, though, Alex, you need to work out where you're going to put this. Probably also in the general vicinity of the cherry, if we're honest.)
But. Yes. Priorities: getting misc. seeds started; actually sourcing and constructing my proper raised beds so that I can plant out into them (which will inevitably involve More Weeding); pruning and dressing the Ribes; and working out what I want by way of asparagus, because my mother has offered to buy me some crowns.
So, you know, if you have asparagus cultivar recommendations, please by all means go ahead! I prefer the stems to the tips, and I am resigned to growing at least some purple...
ten good things
Jan. 23rd, 2019 10:58 pm- Waking up to (mostly) clear streets, against a backdrop of snow on the hills.
- I have in the fridge my first ever tub of The Collective Dairy's passionfruit yoghurt. It... is my new favourite? It is very much my new favourite. (I was forever into the limited-edition raspberry trifle which is, alas, no more; the plum and honey is also Good; but I think passionfruit is My New Fave.)
- The ritual of sourdough continues soothing.
- Today I finally had a proper poke around the Professional Caterers' Shop in the centre of Belfast and successfully didn't buy anything, though honestly this was mostly because they only sell cheesecloth in 10m rolls and I thought A would be... Unimpressed... if he came home to find one.
- To my minor astonishment, I have actually managed to string words together today in the context of the PhD! More words than I have managed for the past week! It is a relief, and also things continue slotting into place.
- A & I have been having a bunch of Conversations that on the one hand have been hard work, in terms of leaky feelings and vulnerability, and on the other feel immensely productive and positive and affirming.
- Nice clothes today: the mostly-cotton definitely-peacock-blue V-neck sweater and the black-blue-purple-white striped herringbone shirt, both from a charity shop (and specifically the BHF). They're both new-to-me enough that I'm Wearing Them A Lot and being delighted.
- I have been playing... a lot... of Dominion Online, mostly against the bot but sometimes against friends, and (1) enjoying it (!) and (2) getting to try out a bunch of ridiculous okay-but-what-if-I-don't-buy-any-money decks (to go with the okay-but-what-if-I-do-endless-gardening ones).
- Problematic Aunt got me cheese for the new year, from the Snowdonia Cheese Company; the Little Black Bomber is always a win, but I hadn't had their vintage Red Leicester before and it is good.
- I am struggling somewhat with uncertainty around illness, but: I'm being kind to myself, and letting myself rest, and doing a bunch of self-soothing and self-care around No, Really, Love, You're Ill. I've got so much better at this specific skillset, and it's such a relief.
Treasures of the day
Jan. 2nd, 2019 10:07 pmItem the first: a letter from my great-great-grandmother Spain, to Papa as a young man, informing him of various familial goings-on relating to his younger siblings (at that point in her care, because reasons) and to various aunts and cousins going fishing. This is the first actual written artefact of Grandma Spain, rather than simply references to and stories about her, that my mother has ever encountered; it was lurking (of course) in a sturdy leather bag we'd assumed to be Yet More Photographic Equipment on top of Lord Whoever's Mahogany Wardrobe, where we unearthed also the commissions yesterday.
Item the second: it transpires that one of the Spinster Aunts Who Lost Their Fortune In The Australian Gold Rush and Lived Out Their Days In The Convent As Paupers... pseudonymously wrote a book of literary criticism. Of Dante. That's still in print.
Item the second: it transpires that one of the Spinster Aunts Who Lost Their Fortune In The Australian Gold Rush and Lived Out Their Days In The Convent As Paupers... pseudonymously wrote a book of literary criticism. Of Dante. That's still in print.
On the downside, however, it was purchased in 2002 -- the Woolworths receipt stapled to the distractions advertises the release of The Two Towers -- and is its own standalone device, i.e. very much not the attachment my mother remembers Mama using while she was an undergraduate.
Which -- given the nature of the house -- means there's at least one more ice cream maker somewhere, in addition to today's finds of yet another Kenwood Chef chassis (this one complete with bowl and mixing attachments, hidden behind the stack of disused breadmakers), a coffee grinder, a fourth mincer, and a mysterious thing I know not what.
This is particularly disturbing because I've now gone through as much of the cellar as I'm going to prior to the clearance firm arriving (there is, for example, categorically no way I'm investigating the locked wardrobe that's wedged along a piece of wall behind a wine rack that has been bolted to said wall) and it's... not there. (I was briefly excited by the two potato peelers, previously mentioned, because "a glorified bowl lined with sandpaper and a stirring device similarly coated" has superficial similarities to "a freezable metal bowl and miscellaneous churn", but nope!)
Maybe it's in the freezer that is just getting taken away as-is because No? Maybe it's somewhere under the rafters? Maybe it's in the garage, somewhere, horribile dictu?
Either way, the clearance folk arrive on Thursday morning, and on Thursday morning I will turn into my grandfather: I shall become a wretched little gremlin insisting on poking through every single container they try to remove from the property in the course of the job of work they've been hired to do, in case any of said containers contains something precious.
But then again I did, earlier and at my mother's direction, find on top of the ridiculous wardrobe in the hall, in a nest of dust and spiders and pristine LPs, Papa's commission. And great-grandpa's commission. Signed by the actual respectively relevant kings. Which Papa had sworn blind were Probably In The Attic, and had been keen for us to find, and to be fair the attic would have been A MUCH MORE SENSIBLE PLACE TO PUT THEM but THERE YOU GO, Papa, THERE YOU GO.
Which -- given the nature of the house -- means there's at least one more ice cream maker somewhere, in addition to today's finds of yet another Kenwood Chef chassis (this one complete with bowl and mixing attachments, hidden behind the stack of disused breadmakers), a coffee grinder, a fourth mincer, and a mysterious thing I know not what.
This is particularly disturbing because I've now gone through as much of the cellar as I'm going to prior to the clearance firm arriving (there is, for example, categorically no way I'm investigating the locked wardrobe that's wedged along a piece of wall behind a wine rack that has been bolted to said wall) and it's... not there. (I was briefly excited by the two potato peelers, previously mentioned, because "a glorified bowl lined with sandpaper and a stirring device similarly coated" has superficial similarities to "a freezable metal bowl and miscellaneous churn", but nope!)
Maybe it's in the freezer that is just getting taken away as-is because No? Maybe it's somewhere under the rafters? Maybe it's in the garage, somewhere, horribile dictu?
Either way, the clearance folk arrive on Thursday morning, and on Thursday morning I will turn into my grandfather: I shall become a wretched little gremlin insisting on poking through every single container they try to remove from the property in the course of the job of work they've been hired to do, in case any of said containers contains something precious.
But then again I did, earlier and at my mother's direction, find on top of the ridiculous wardrobe in the hall, in a nest of dust and spiders and pristine LPs, Papa's commission. And great-grandpa's commission. Signed by the actual respectively relevant kings. Which Papa had sworn blind were Probably In The Attic, and had been keen for us to find, and to be fair the attic would have been A MUCH MORE SENSIBLE PLACE TO PUT THEM but THERE YOU GO, Papa, THERE YOU GO.
... to the thing that appeared to be grass growing up through my planted-out cut-price live-baby-salad-leaves, when I stepped onto the patio just now -- full moon or thereabouts shining down serenely -- to retrieve something from the garage (we have a garage) and to pick some tomatoes for tomorrow's lunch. (The fact that my patio tomatoes are still happily ripening up, while sat on the patio, in late October, is... Another Matter.)
So I picked it, and I picked another of it, and I was reaching for the third when I thought "... hold on a second, everything suddenly smells of garlic."
I tasted, cautiously, the "grass blades" I had just broken off.
... the wild garlic I brought back from the Mouldering Ancestral Pile way back at the beginning of the year, as I was passing through Plymouth for my pre-op consultation with my top surgeon? That I planted in a trough, watched shrivel up sulkily, and then exasperatedly planted some cut-price live-baby-salad-leaves on top of, in the vague expectation that I would probably actually see them again?
Like wheat that springeth green, indeed.
So I picked it, and I picked another of it, and I was reaching for the third when I thought "... hold on a second, everything suddenly smells of garlic."
I tasted, cautiously, the "grass blades" I had just broken off.
... the wild garlic I brought back from the Mouldering Ancestral Pile way back at the beginning of the year, as I was passing through Plymouth for my pre-op consultation with my top surgeon? That I planted in a trough, watched shrivel up sulkily, and then exasperatedly planted some cut-price live-baby-salad-leaves on top of, in the vague expectation that I would probably actually see them again?
Like wheat that springeth green, indeed.
PS longer letter later
Apr. 24th, 2018 10:23 pm1. Yedi Kocalı Hürmüz at the Arcola several weeks ago now, performed by the in-house Turkish-language company (Arcola Ala-Turka), with my friend D. A little rough around the edges (e.g. the surtitles frequently just sort of... didn't) but the energy & the audience engagement were fantastic, particularly in the segments that were just sort of... mini interconnected folk gigs? Lots and lots of clapping (and singing) along. I was very entertained -- there was comedy "whack people over the head with an inflatable stick and over-the-top sound effect" that worked really well -- and I even understood the occasional word and sentence fragment, go me.
2. Baby's first paper has been formally accepted. It is going into various preprint archives as we speak; I will link once it's actually usefully available. (Did I mention how good it is that I fixed the graphics driver issue with my desktop such that it's actually usable? It is SO GOOD.)
3. Off to Cornwall on Thursday, for approximately a fortnight, for the hundredth-birthday-that-isn't, coming back for the middle weekend because Reasons. I am looking forward to it. I will be bringing wild garlic back to plant out. Cornwall in early May is, in my unquestionably objective opinion, the best place in the entire world.
4. Frantically getting lab work finished up for pre-interruption-of-studies before that, so far as possible. Cocked up yesterday in a way that adds an extra week in lab (boo) but it was one I would otherwise have been anxious about not doing (yay), so that's worked out fairly well.
5. British strawberries, reduced in the supermarket. Yes. Good.
6. Started thyroxine (low-ish dose) on Friday last (the 20th). So far no conclusive changes, but excitingly the water is muddied by the part where I finished the most recent course of iron supplementation right before I started the thyroxine.
7. Have had first salad-and-cheese-and-bread dinner of the year on the PATIO. We have a PATIO. It has been WARM. I am very excited by this, and also by linens.
8. I have participated in A Bunch of research recently -- autism + the social model of disability in higher ed, intersection of trans status + disability, Being A Grumpy Tran At Market Researchers for fun and profit (and actually they were really great and give me hope), miscellaneous cognitive function for the long-term psychiatric study I'm participating in (£15 in vouchers, whoo).
9. Voucher has thus far been used on a bamboo travel mug, with a succulent pattern and duck-egg-blue silicone bits. (staranise, I keep restraining the urge to put together the succulent-themed care package you did not ask for and probably don't want because it would be silly to do the Shipping To Canada thing if you don't, but if you'd like preposterous succulent-themed tat let me know and It Will Happen.)
10. I spent a lot of the weekend making friends (at A's step-relative's Significant Birthday Thing) with both nibling S (who has, correctly, decided I am interested in them, and now greets me with enthusiasm) and -- which is what I was going to go with when I started this point -- a ridiculous ornamental cherry, which had the big-blousy-white blossoms as most of its canopy... and one branch, comprising about a third, that had been grafted on from a dark-purple-leaves and bright-pink-flowers tree. It was Good. I went and patted it on the graft and told it it was good, and made A admire it.
(The mint I rescued from the supermarket has established itself sufficiently aggressively that I'm starting to worry for the parsley it shares a tub with. I shall clearly just have to consume more of it.)
2. Baby's first paper has been formally accepted. It is going into various preprint archives as we speak; I will link once it's actually usefully available. (Did I mention how good it is that I fixed the graphics driver issue with my desktop such that it's actually usable? It is SO GOOD.)
3. Off to Cornwall on Thursday, for approximately a fortnight, for the hundredth-birthday-that-isn't, coming back for the middle weekend because Reasons. I am looking forward to it. I will be bringing wild garlic back to plant out. Cornwall in early May is, in my unquestionably objective opinion, the best place in the entire world.
4. Frantically getting lab work finished up for pre-interruption-of-studies before that, so far as possible. Cocked up yesterday in a way that adds an extra week in lab (boo) but it was one I would otherwise have been anxious about not doing (yay), so that's worked out fairly well.
5. British strawberries, reduced in the supermarket. Yes. Good.
6. Started thyroxine (low-ish dose) on Friday last (the 20th). So far no conclusive changes, but excitingly the water is muddied by the part where I finished the most recent course of iron supplementation right before I started the thyroxine.
7. Have had first salad-and-cheese-and-bread dinner of the year on the PATIO. We have a PATIO. It has been WARM. I am very excited by this, and also by linens.
8. I have participated in A Bunch of research recently -- autism + the social model of disability in higher ed, intersection of trans status + disability, Being A Grumpy Tran At Market Researchers for fun and profit (and actually they were really great and give me hope), miscellaneous cognitive function for the long-term psychiatric study I'm participating in (£15 in vouchers, whoo).
9. Voucher has thus far been used on a bamboo travel mug, with a succulent pattern and duck-egg-blue silicone bits. (
staranise, I keep restraining the urge to put together the succulent-themed care package you did not ask for and probably don't want because it would be silly to do the Shipping To Canada thing if you don't, but if you'd like preposterous succulent-themed tat let me know and It Will Happen.)10. I spent a lot of the weekend making friends (at A's step-relative's Significant Birthday Thing) with both nibling S (who has, correctly, decided I am interested in them, and now greets me with enthusiasm) and -- which is what I was going to go with when I started this point -- a ridiculous ornamental cherry, which had the big-blousy-white blossoms as most of its canopy... and one branch, comprising about a third, that had been grafted on from a dark-purple-leaves and bright-pink-flowers tree. It was Good. I went and patted it on the graft and told it it was good, and made A admire it.
(The mint I rescued from the supermarket has established itself sufficiently aggressively that I'm starting to worry for the parsley it shares a tub with. I shall clearly just have to consume more of it.)
In memoriam
Nov. 5th, 2017 12:07 amPapa died today (yesterday); my mother phoned me from the M5 near Exeter -- "We just missed Papa." I'd assumed she was calling me about the All Blacks game she'd been supposed to be watching at Twickenham.
Nothing feels particularly real, yet, so emotions to follow. I'm being looked after.
Nothing feels particularly real, yet, so emotions to follow. I'm being looked after.
