eide

Reading. Reread Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik) because I was having a specific craving for specifically that.

Watching. We have had another episode of Farscape. It was... another episode of Farscape.

I was sort of in the room for approximately the first half of WALL-E on Saturday, but I was really not paying attention to it...

Also!!! The 2026 Small World in Motion gallery!!! LARVAL JELLYFISH in WATER DROPLETS. SEA SLUG that POOTLE. Highly recommended.

Playing. At home: we have completed our Creaks replay including Getting All The Damn Pictures.

Away: I have now played Betrayal at Baldur's Gate™ and Betrayal at House on the Hill, in that order, both for the first time. There was... some slapstick. This was also my first exposure (other than osmosis) to Baldur's Gate...

Cooking. Apfelstreuselkuchen! We have almost finished it, which means it's almost time for the next recipe variant. I thiiink that's the only exciting thing I've cooked this week.

Exploring. Brief walk along a section of the River Roding. :)

Making & mending. SECOND TEST PATCH OF TROUSERS COMPLETE. Need to get my shears back out, cut down said patch to a more reasonable size, and sew down its edges; will then be down to one (1) remaining patch before establishing whether I have Achieved Wearability.

Also made a pompom for the Child, who burst his balloon and was thus in need of something soft enough that he could throw it indoors...

Observing. Cormorant! Along aforementioned River Roding.

I have managed, today, to settle down with my notebook and my pens and substantially catch up with some of the things I want to record, and it's been lovely, actually. When, this evening, one of said pens disappeared under the sofa; A kindly did some grim rummaging to help me retrieve it (it was initially very much within my reach but in attempting to get hold of it I instead pinged it very much out of my reach...)

On Wednesday last week, A brought me home some Apfelstreuselkuchen from Vienna, and a cold; a week later I still have no cold, and ate about two thirds of the Apfelstreuselkuchen while A wasn't looking, which turned out to be an error in that they turn out to actually really like the stuff. So, given I'd brought home somewhere over 25kg of apples, I promised to make some; this evening's attempt isn't qui-i-ite right but is still extremely tasty and went very well with my fancy hot chocolate. Next we'll be trying the smitten kitchen version.

Today at the gym I Picked Up A Thing at a number of sets & reps that I have successfully managed in the past but failed last week, and it wasn't easy but it did go. I am feeling cheerful about being able to nudge it up on Sunday (and maybe match my personal best?).

Brain is permitting me to reread a book I have previously enjoyed, after a long enough gap that most of the details and several of the protagonists are surprising to me.

Reading. Finished: Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard. Memoir containing a whole lot of first-person perspective on the last fifty years or so of forest ecology; I found her tendency to short sentence fragments hard going but am v glad to have read this, and learned a bunch about how trees connect to & communicate with each other.

Small progress on EYB indexing for Divine, and reading a tiny bit more of the introductory everything of Medlars.

Writing. I am definitely at the point where I am wailing and gnashing my teeth about how to organise the biology/anatomy section, and grimly wishing to have spent, ooh, the last fifteen years practising anatomical illustration.

Watching. More Farscape. Finished the three-parter in season 2. Extremely A Farscape Episodes.

Playing. We finished getting the achievements for Tukoni: Forest Keeper, and have started a replay of Creaks.

Cooking. ... I sort of feel like there wasn't much of note this week. Is that true? Is that fair? Probably not! This evening definitely included making a batch of the self-saucing passion fruit pudding, which is pleasing.

Eating. VIENNESE PATISSERIE. A brought me: Apfelstreuselkuchen; Apfel-Mohn-Torte; Topfenstrudel; and a pair of things that sadly got extremely squidged but were nonetheless tasty, and were once upon a time a Holländer and a Maronikipferl. Also: the British strawberries continue; more of my mother's excellent beans and tomatoes; APPLES.

Exploring. Took the all-roads-and-minimal-canal-paths cycle route to visit The Child on Tuesday, and slightly to my astonishment it worked and was fine! I apparently did enough getting lost that Garmin thought it was a slightly longer journey than the detour via the reservoirs plus More Canal Path, and who am I to argue.

Making & mending. I have Properly Started patch #2 on Test Trousers #1. This is the largest; I still need to decide what I think I'm doing once I've finished blanket-stitching the edges of the largest hole...

Growing. Kohlrabi are coming up! Squash are squashing! Oca are looking much more cheerful for having had significantly more rain! Trinidad Perfume (heatless yellow habanero) is flowering; the next batch of apples I dehydrate are going to also contain a shelf of ancho chillis, about which I am Excited.

Observing. The bat. :)