who only by moving can balance

Reading. One Malka Older short story -- The Rupture, again because I was clearing out the TBR folder on my ereader and starting with the low-hanging fruit -- plus ongoing slow but delighted progress with the reread of Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea.

Writing. You know what, I'm in the last stretch (theoretically) of the PhD and I'm going to start counting that progress here for the sake of having it to look back on, so: currently a wee bit over 5k words on "chapter 3" (main text only, oh dear) (but it's okay, it's being divided into three separate sections).

Watching. CXG S01E08. I am so here for Calvin being sympathetic to Rebecca and telling her no kindly and sympathetically and firmly, and holding that line. So here. Also extremely pro Heather calling people on their bullshit.

Listening. TMA #177. AHHHHHHHH. Oh but I liked this. I thought it was very effective, soothing, affirming horror; and Basira is getting explicitly called on some of her shitty decisions (and even making some good ones: listening to Jon give the statement, rather than abandoning him to do it alone!); still not a fan of Martin apparently understanding what's going on enough to defend Jon to other people while still being frankly unkind to him in direct interactions.

I've also had another go at the Tori Amos albums I've had since about 2012; I think I'm getting on better with her than I have in the past. (Reminder: I basically always dislike unfamiliar audio; listening to new music for the first time, the question is always how much I hate it, not whether I actually like it.)

Playing. HANABI. Oh but I like this... to the point that I wanted to keep playing once A was done. Something like four rounds with just A, plus one with A & our houseguest and one with just-the-houseguest this weekend. It turns out! that three-player is HARDER.

Via some debate over whether puzzles count as games: a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle given us by... one of A's relatives... some time ago... that was sold by M&S and is an inexplicably German old map of central-ish London. A started out going "but why??? are you Opening it???" to which the answer was "because I'll feel much better about giving it to a chariy shop if I've done it and also the reason it hasn't already gone to a charity shop is I wanted to do it" and then pretty rapidly segued into "... a Shared... Activity??? that we can do... Together???"

Anyway, we've got all the edges done, plus the detailed legend/scale, plus the whole of the Thames, making its way across the middle.

Pokémon Go: out of this event, I've caught my second shiny Lotad and my first shiny Rhyhorn (I missed community day) plus a 95% wild Beldum that I'm probably gonna keep even though it's only like level 11. Also, from a Rocket battle, a highly-statted shadow Snover.

Horn: still excellent self-regulatory activity.

Cooking. New for me this week: blanching tomatoes (for shakshuka!) and poaching an egg in a silicone egg-poachy-thing (as opposed to in tomato sauce). The latter was a qualified success.

Not exactly new but: turned 1.5kg of beefsteak tomato into passata using one of the Kenwood attachments and I will reluctantly concede that it was Better (than doing it by hand with a sieve and a spoon).

(I also glared very suspiciously at an article I was linked to elseweb and then did actually submerge and boil the most recent five jars of blackberry soupjelly -- now mostly actually set! -- and the jar of passata.)

Elsewise of note: lots of salads (mostly tomato-shallot-mint with various cheeses); moooore injera; one cauliflower-and-chickpea curry and one ALLOTMENT-SQUASH-and-cauliflower-leaf-and-ALLOTMENT-LEMON curry.

Eating. PRAISE BE TO A: this week I twice got fed Experimental Fresh-Out-of-the-Frying-Pan crumpets, and on Saturday morning while I was waking up he told me he was Just Going To Get The Crumpet Batter Started so I had been expecting him to return for more snuggle while it sat and thought about life for fifteen minutes... and eventually, after this had Not Happened for Quite Some Time and also the kitchen had Emitted A Lot Of Beeps and seemed to have no intention of stopping, I Emerged to find that he was... most of the way through making me a full batch of Ben's-style dark-chocolate-and-hazelnut cookies, half for now and half to freeze for Future Baking.

They are so good. They are even better for not having had me involved in their creation barely at all. <3

Exploring. For Reasons, we ended up taking the Woolwich Ferry on Friday night. This was my first travel by public transport since mid-March, and we remained in the car for the Entire duration With The Windows Up Thanks and it was Quite Fun.

Growing. Harvest: another 2kg of tomatoes; some peppers (and I have learned several things about growing them for next year); a RIDICULOUS Tromboncino squash the length of my arm; and the first Pattison Blanc patty-pan squash. Which I need to do something with other than, like, just bring it home to show A in delight and glee, but STILL.

Potatoes: still coming up. WHAT am I supposed to DO with these BRAVE POTATOES. (option 1: smother them in straw in a raised bed and see if they rear their heads again next year. option 2: transplant them into pots. option 2a: move the pots into the greenhouse and wrap up snugly. option 2b: move the pots into the house and just... get Adam to accept that his house contains potatoes now I guess.)

Autumn raspberries are producing flowers and setting fruit. Greek Gigantes beans still not managing to get any pods to reasonable adulthood before they Give Up. Purple sprouting broccoli finally established?

And! I thinned the root veg out but was too soft to actually just bin the ones I pulled, so, I replanted them and now have four rows of Misc. Umbellifera (I'm certain some of them are purple carrots; I'm struggling rather more to distinguish the Probably Parsnips and Probably Root Parsley) and half a row of yellow beetroot. Last seen all the transplants were looking rather sulky, but hey, they might perk back up.

Observing. BATS. Still out and about! The garden fox. And some excellent sunsets, one of them over the Thames while waiting for the Woolwich ferry.