who only by moving can balance

Late this afternoon or, well, early this evening, getting a very late start on a flying visit to my parents (I have been fed birthday cake), my train of thought was abruptly completely derailed when I finally worked out what was going on with the the individual loitering on the grass outside our block.

They were walking their lizard.

Or, more accurately, their lizard (possibly an iguana???), complete with harness and lead, had plonked itself firmly in a very bright patch of sunshine and was making it very clear (tail curled up and everything!) that it liked this basking spot, thank you, and had no intention of going anywhere.

The human tried at one point to gently encourage it to contemplate moving. The lizard, without moving at all, became visibly heavier.

The human, resigned, returned their attention to the phone in the hand that wasn't holding the lead.

Item the first: I totally failed to mention, yesterday, but one of the things we Observed the teenage coots doing -- okay, well, one of them was successfully managing to invert itself, Köpfchen in das Wasser, Schwanzchen in die Höh' -- but we only observed this after having already spent Quite Some Time laughing (delightedly) at its sibling, which was making great big determined accelerating shoulder-shrug motions, and separately managing to put its head and only its head underwater, but had not yet quite managed to work out how to combine the two movements so as to rotate itself around its axis. I realised while trying to describe this earlier that the reason for my feeling of Great Affinity is just how much it looks to have in common with learning to do a wheelie.

Item the second: cake of the day.

Item the third: the tomatoes I planted out and then abandoned for a couple of days seem to be none the worse for wear for it (and I established this on the trip where I took the water condensed in the dehumidifier from the latest round of laundry up to the plot, in an empty milk flagon, for the purpose of watering the blueberry, on the basis that the water butt is running low and there's still no rain forecast...).

Item the fourth: I am continuing to greatly enjoy Owl Facts. Favourite so far, which I am utterly failing to track down a specific reference for: apparently owl chicks start vocalising before they emerge from the egg, at the point at which they breach the air cell in their Containment! which you need a very sensitive microphone to pick up. The second favourite is a long shaggy dog story that I might manage to type up tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

Item the fifth: I am now at two nights running for "watch thinks my sleep quality is significantly better if I spend ten minutes listening to wave recordings after lying down and lights out". If it continues to hold I will be both very pleased (about having a way to improve energy levels) and mildly irritated (about not being able to replicate this effect some other more convenient way). We Shall See.

Reading. SEVERAL.

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Next up is... probably skim-rereads of a couple of books on pain I've already read, making notes this time, and then onward to the stack I haven't actually read before. (One of these is Mindfulness for Health, which I expect to be middlingly annoyed by (the last time I tried it I put it down in frustration fairly early on, at the point at which it became clear that both authors were fundamentally healthy people who'd had An Accident; this time round actually assessing the impact of that perspective on the advice is kind of the point). Then there's Hurts So Good, and finally Touch, which I acquired from Oxfam on the basis that if nothing else its chapter on pain is actually titled "Pain and Emotion".

(I am not going to get through all of these next week, but I will make some progress. I also maybe slightly searched the library ebook catalogue for "pain" and thereby added yet more recent-ish things to my reading list; Abdul-Ghaaliq Laikhen's books are a fairly high priority.)

Writing. Quite a lot of PIP submission (for someone else, at least!). Not done yet. This remains the priority for the next week.

Watching. The new Old Guard 2 trailer!

Playing. I Love Hue: The Alchemy now COMPLETE, and... so is The Ascension/Earth.

Cooking. A was away. Consequently, two recipes from East that they expected to dislike: black rice congee, of which I am definitely a fan, and a kimchi fried rice I had no objection to but no particular plans to ever make again.

Also the caramelised onion and chilli ramen, about which we were both meh although!!! I did! get to use choi sum THAT I HAD GROWN, which is still novel enough to be exciting; a recipe for tinker's cakes from a tiny cookbook I bought for EYB indexing purposes -- Welsh cakes with grated apple, which I liked enough to probably make a note of; and a slightly underwhelming "saucy Japanese greens with sticky sesame rice" that did at least use up some of the spring greens in last week's veg box. (I then made something up the next day to use up the other half, and that worked much better for our tastes: ginger/garlic/mushroom stir-fry sauce/little bit of mirin.)

Eating. CHOI SUM FROM THE GREENHOUSE (I am extremely excited about this, in case you couldn't tell). I think my great excitement about my first British asparagus of the season was last week? And also first British strawberries of the season yesterday, as the greater part of my treat for Anti-Migraine Stabs.

I have also been very much enjoying apple and pear juice + angry water + ice + a little bit of fresh (garden/field) mint.

Making & mending. Actually dug some trenches and started moving the railway sleepers around??? I have a whole entire outline of a raised bed in a place I've meant to have one since I got the plot in the first place?????

(First layer needs screwing together and then I need to sort myself out corner posts to attach next-layers-up to, and also I need to decide whether I want to have it two deep or three deep, but feeling v positive about this.)

Growing. Choi sum!!!

Also: despite my earlier misgivings the redcurrant is actually doing astonishingly well compared to the last several years, so good job me on that particularly vicious pruning??? Gooseberry also looking extremely promising; jostas I am much less surprised about looking good.

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Observing. A saw a slow worm at the plot today! Also the allotment fox; also, on my way home from the allotment the other evening, the previously mentioned Gawky Teenage Fox. At home, we've seen the bat! Also there is Yelling coming from a portion of the hedge that very notably has a pair of robins shuttling back and forth to it at fairly high frequency. I'd rather it weren't so dry, but the fact that it is means I've had the wood pigeons and the corvids balancing in deeply ungainly fashion on the water dish in order to drink, which has been fun to watch.

We are less happy about the local outdoor cats having decided that they too wish to take up birdwatching on our patio.

( Snip for boringness to people who aren't me! )

Bridget Collins, The Betrayals: I loved the structure and the internal resonance and so on and so forth to the extent that I didn't even mind that That's Not How Diaries Work.

(You do not get more detail because it is BEDTIME good grief, but -- okay I lied a bit -- queers! cocreation! complicity! choices! delighted.)

Reading. Finished The Way Out, Alan Gordon "with" Alon Ziv. I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS AND THEY'RE MOSTLY GRUMPY. Longer thoughts to follow, maybe even sometime within the foreseeable future, but to get the positives out of the way first: the foreword (I think? rather than the introduction? book's on the sofa and I'm not, I'll double-check for the proper write-up) does at least say that they don't yet know which illnesses and people this will actually work for, and is appropriately guarded about actual scope; I'm going to find some of the referenced literature useful, notwithstanding that a frankly shocking amount of it is over 20 years old; it's not exactly that the actual described approach is incorrect.

BUT GOOD GRIEF. ( Read more... )

Most of the way through: Coast, Rachel Allen, Recipes from Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way. Eventually got to the top of the library's hold queue on this one having stumbled across it via some combination of browsing the Oxfam food section and Eat Your Books; was utterly baffled at the presence of avocado. Having now read most of it the avocado makes slightly more sense (she's building recipes around specific Irish-origin ingredients, but not restricting what else she brings in) but also this is a travelogue composed mainly of the phrase "one of the country's [superlative] X" (I exaggerate only slightly) and at least as far as things I've read recently go for my money (i.e. council tax) Felicity Cloake provides a much better example of the genre.

Halfway through, continuing to enjoy and half-remember snippets of: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

Playing. I Love Hue: neaaaaaaaarly done with The Alchemy.

Cooking. Underwhelmed by ricotta and rosemary bread pudding, which is somewhat unfair of me given how egregiously I deviated from the actual written ingredients, but hey, A likes it.

This evening I have technically done another Meera Sodha recipe, but it requires sitting overnight and I'm not going to eat it anyway so I have very little to report on that front.

Several rounds of Pasta With Green And Also Lemon.

Eating. Such treats as Frozen Thai Green Curry, post-field CAKE, three-cornered leek, MINT, and the occasional nibble of leafs.

Exploring. The chunk of National Cycle Route 1 that runs alongside the local Tall Water! Hurrah for towpaths and locks and so on and so forth. Excellent clematis. Many other excellent things too, but clematis in particular.

Growing. Radishes coming up! Redcurrant looking extremely promising! Raspberries ditto! PEAS abruptly trying quite hard to be Luxuriant; strawberries setting fruit; not all of the tiny beetroot I planted out have died; tentatively excited about chillis; cherry tree also COVERED in small green fruit swelling from the ruins of the blossom.

So much grass. So much bindweed. I'm letting the dandelions flower and then attempting to deadhead before they actually set seed, with mixed success.

... three loofa hatched, which is more than I was expecting! Alas my Sibley seedlings are Not Doing Well so I might have another go at those. Really REALLY want to get the shed Erected before the greenhouse gets any more full. Aaaaaaaaand it's time for bed.

Yesterday: first full run through the Essentials sequence since surgery. Slightly out of order (because I'd forgotten some of it), and fairly slow, but apparently getting a letter from gastroenterology saying "nah you're fine we don't need to see you again" means I'm a lot more relaxed about the risk of provoking increased reflux through exercise?

I should probably still actually talk to my GP and attempt to get a bit more calibration on what counts as concerning symptoms vs worrying over nothing, but this will do for now.

Gosh but it feels good to have done the thing.

Today I have done Several Things, including: an eConsult re ankle; an appointment at the job centre; a few hours at the allotment.

Alas a lot of it is feeling fairly overshadowed by a Catastrophic Laptop Failure. I am reverting to the old Dell (NEVER AGAIN DELL) and apparently getting A to put in an order for a Framework for me.

There are many good things! And also I am hacked off about this one.

Reading. I continue to make slow progress with both What An Owl Knows (Jennifer Ackerman) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke).

Writing. Grumpy e-mails to Labour, mostly? Grumpy e-mails to Labour. Oh, and separately to the DWP courtesy of My UC Journal.

Playing. I have tripped and fallen back into 2048. I do not know why I have tripped and fallen thus. There are other things I would rather be doing. Brain whyyy.

I Love Hue current status: just started The Alchemy/Knowledge/12.

Cooking. Two new-to-us recipes from East: caramelised fennel and carrot salad with mung beans and herbs, of which I am a fan but about which A is a bit meh; and Amritsari pomegranate chickpeas, with the decaf English Breakfast I bought the other week, which I also quite liked but A was mildly dubious of.

Today has featured a different Welsh cake recipe, from one of the charity-shop books I acquired for the purposes of the special interest in EYB indexing. This one includes honey and ground mixed spice; I am decidedly disconcerted by how much they taste like Wrong Texture Mince Pies when cool.

Eating. ... yeah it's been A Migrainey Week, and has consequently contained two rounds of Wagamama. TRAGICALLY I decided on the first of these to branch out and try Not My Usual. Not My Usual turned out to contain The Dread Mayonnaise (I had been lulled into a false sense of security by the number of things called "slaw" I had recently encountered that did not contain mayo). It was mostly salvageable...

Exploring. ADVENTURES in VAN HIRE for the purposes of moving SHED. This involved heading out to Hatfield, because the one fifteen minutes up the road was already Thoroughly Booked. We got to observe MORE FLOWERS and lo they were good.

... I think that's it? I think that's it. (A also went on another adventure to acquire roof box and appropriate rack, but I stayed at home for that one.)

Making & mending. I have not, technically, actually resumed A's pair of gloves, BUT I have now got the information from A I need in order to do so! So that's a progress.

... there has also been. Event prep. So much event prep. The meal ticket booklets for crew are all done; the potions are all sliced and folded ready for laminating (except for the one that needed someone to actually finish writing what it did); ... progress?

Growing. SO MANY SQUASH. Not all of the ones I sowed, but... a lot... have come up.

Somewhat irritated that somebody found my Bravest Dwarf Pea, which had actually managed to find and attach itself to the pea sticks, and severed the stem a little below said attachment. :|

Main infrastructural progress this week was getting all the railway sleepers and shed bits up to the plot (with significant and indispensable help from A). I've not done anything with them yet but they are there, I have plans, necessary hardware is en route, etc.

What else what else? First of the beans are in the ground. I was feeling decidedly surly about my redcurrant but this turns out to have been premature and unfair -- since last weekend it's unfurled a little more and is looking much more promising in terms of potential harvest. The raspberries also seem to be very much enjoying the mulch + semi-regular watering, which is pleasing.

Observing. I totally forgot to mention in last week's section on this topic that on the ride back from Anglesey Abbey we observed Many Cowslips, including at least one that was red!

Tulips continue fantastic. Irises are getting into the swing of things at this point. The bindweed is definitely waking up...

Okay. SO.

Via THE GATE APPRECIATION SOCIETY on Facebook, earlier today I became aware of the Ginkgo Gates at the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. I took one look at the short sections and went I WANT TO KNIT IT.

Ergo lireavue went and poked Ravelry with sticks, and... this shawl fell out.

There Was Shrieking.

And then the shrieking Intensified because all of a sudden the outline of a possible character for the game that Admin: the LRP supports Arrived All At Once. Namely, one of the nations of the Empire is Navarr (summary of influences: "wood elves"). From the look and feel page for Navarr:

The Navarr look draws heavily on the forests for its inspiration. The colours are primarily greens and browns with occasional splashes of dark autumnal red or yellow. Materials are practical, primarily those that come from hunting - leather and fur. [...] Rather than rich materials or unusual colours the Navarr personalise their appearance by adorning their costume with embroidery, beads, feathers, fetishes, and other accessories. It is also common to weave such items into the hair. [...] Layers of well-worn, practical wool and leather in natural shades often serve as the foundation of Navarr costume.

Also relevant context: the existence of magical items that grant you Additional Tricks. Like, for example, mage robes, where I am raising particular eyebrows at the part where the information for Volhov's Robe notes that even the Navarr "see great value in a skilled individual being able to help an established coven".

Additional and further relevant context: there are four events a year. In-game, these events take place during the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Equinox.

It Is Also The Case That: a particularly distinctive piece of kit can get very strongly associated with The Specific Character Who Wears It in the general cultural wossname.

... I abruptly very badly want to make myself a set of three shawls identical except in colour: spring green, summer green, autumn blazing yellow. Obviously the conceit is that it is not three shawls, It Is One Single Magic Shawl. It Changes With The Seasons. Do I know anything about this potential character other than "Navarri, magician, magic shawl"? NOPE. Have I ever actually LRPed? NOPE. Am I nonetheless actually kind of tempted? ...