who only by moving can balance

(I skipped last week's because I was hanging around the fire pit slowly drinking some lovely 10yo tawny port when it hit quarter to midnight, and then realised I had lost my phone in that field for the second time last weekend! so by the time I had hunted it back out -- with help from both Adam and Google Stalk -- it was too late and I was too tired to see if my laptop was still a Dell or if it had somehow miraculously managed power.)

Reading. I managed zero reading last week, but this week I have read Translation State (Ann Leckie, mildly disappointed that this is Not My Id) and half of Dead Country (Max Gladstone, delighted by).

Playing. Flight Rising released a new, or at least heavily-revamped-and-last-active-literal-years-before-I-signed-up, Completionism Feature. I have consequently been playing a lot of on-screen clicky games since getting back from a field. (I am also having a resurgence of Net but am tryyying not to lose too much time or hand function to it.)

Cooking. This morning: experimental fennel seed & date wholemeal sourdough. The fennel and the date go well together, but I am not sure I am convinced by the fennel in the bread.

Freezing dough in the basket right before the final proof, then letting it defrost overnight and baking as usual in the morning, worked well enough that we are definitely going to do that again.

Very Easy Fake Paella.

Eating. BROAD BEANS from the allotment (so far, one small helping each). Ditto STRAWBERRIES. I have also been munching the occasional rocket leaf and under-ripe jostaberry, and so far have also had one Definitely On The Tart Side redcurrant after I accidentally pulled it off its stem while weeding.

Our last few meals with asparagus, while it is still -- just about -- in season.

And tonight, just now, one of the cookies A keeps the freezer stocked with for me, with a glass of milk. :)

Exploring. I think "the same field, again" possibly doesn't count? But I did see it from some new perspectives in ways that also meant I learned a bit more about the layout of the field while it's being a city, which for the most part is rather an abstraction for me. (Oh! Even I wandered down Trader's Row on the Thursday night, and it turns out there's lots more of it than I'd realised! So, yes, okay, fine, "the same field, again" does In Fact count. And that's before I even mention the 2am shower-block run...)

Creating. I learned a skill:

This is only a three-strand braid and I think the ones I have historically admired in supermarkets and the like must be four-strand, so that's something for me to work on next year, but behold: almost a kilo of garlic IN A BRAID. (Yes I should really have cured it some more instead of braiding the last few bulbs I pulled in while they were still green. No we do not have anywhere sensible for it to live. Yes I am extremely pleased with myself.) I was horribly let down by WikiHow, whose instructions on this topic were incomprehensible to me at least when faced with actually trying to translate them into three-dimensional space, and instead found myself resorting to one of Those kind of US blogs. But hey! I'm pleased with the result!

The other thing I have done is -- okay, so, (as previously discussed)[https://kaberett.dreamwidth.org/1036181.html] a thing I did after this year's first event was take a probably-Creative Commons-licensed base image and fiddle about with it to make something that could be turned (with the right magic) into an embroidered patch. Courtesy of rjw76, Finished Products showed up at E2; while actually in a field I managed to do about (generously) half the necessary sewing to attach my real three-dimensional object to my cap, and finished it up this week. In addition: A had ordered some blue ones on velcro to stick to things; I had ordered some blue ones to give to two specific red hats who (i) hang around us a lot and (ii) like patches; I'd also got a few more reds for Reasons. And then. Then apparently someone spotted A's & went "ooh, cool idea, can you do one but make it Pride flag?" and that is why this week has also featured coming up with this:

I'm waiting for an okay on getting these put into production (and for that matter a retroactive okay on the blue & red ones...) but I am feeling pretty self-congratulatory about the design work.

Growing. A built the final long raised bed edging for me! And then today I singularly failed to go and dig holes for its legs so that will have to be a tomorrow job.

Alas my last Trinidad Perfume (heatless scotch bonnet chilli) died of neglect while I was away, so given that they are still extremely high up the list of peppers I want to grow it is going to be time for More Seeds. The strawberries also suffered a bit from lack of regular watering for most of a very hot week, but are basically recovering. And! the gastropods are monching my poor squash. :|

BUT OTHER THAN THAT: tomatoes are finally flowering, lots of beans Happening, second squash "bed" (currently in reality A Bit Of A Pile with some chickenwire staked around the edge) doing pretty well so far, jostaberries so close to tipping over into Everything Ridiculously Ripe All At Once (there are so many of them and I am looking forward so much to having lots frozen/in crumbles/on muesli/etc etc etc). I think this year I am going to be Contented if I manage "plot more-or-less under control, infrastructure Projects more-or-less done, tomatoes/beans/squash/soft fruit", and I am making good progress on all of those, so. Fingers crossed.

Observing. Stars.