some. good. things.

Oct. 1st, 2025 09:07 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Clean, hot, on-demand running water.
  2. I do not thus far feel particularly inspired by any of the recipes in Mary Woodin's The Painted Garden Cookbook, but I am very much enjoying leafing through the watercolours.
  3. Bread came out of the oven not terribly long ago and will be breakfast tomorrow; I'm looking forward to it (probably with spiced medlar jelly, yes yes).
  4. Continuity Gripes notwithstanding, I have this evening been extremely glad to have several October Daye short stories I'd not yet got to.
  5. The pen I was using to take notes on The Challenge of Pain was running out of ink juuust enough that I was having to have repeated attempts at the odd letter, but not enough that it stopped writing before I was done making said notes. Great Satisfaction Achieved (and I'm hopeful that the thorough bath it has just had will mean it starts behaving better...)
  6. Various greenhouse peppers continue to pep. The purple jalapeños are thus far mysteriously very much green, the thing that I think is a poblano (there was a mishap with labels) is setting fruit, and I've got no idea what exactly the short very bushy thing is but that too is now covered in flowers so with a little bit of luck I might even find out soon.
  7. The second sowing of kohlrabi I'd entirely given up on... appears to be coming up after all???
  8. A is a Very Good A Indeed and has finished unpacking the car following the event back in the first half of September. Before we wind up driving it across London again. And has cleared a bunch of the pile of Misc to take out to store in the garage.
  9. Fancy moisturiser.
  10. Warm Bed. yes. good. off I go.

Ten years (again)

Oct. 1st, 2025 07:17 pm
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (fen hockey)
[personal profile] rmc28

I went to see the cinema screening of Hamilton at the weekend: this was a three-day release, presumably international, to mark ten years since the musical opened on Broadway. The main show was the recording of the original Broadway cast made in 2016 and shown on Disney+ since 2020, with a short segment at the beginning made up of ten-years-later interviews with the core cast members interspersed with footage of the development of the musical from a White House performance in 2009 to the opening on Broadway.

While I noticed people mentioning this cool new musical now and then during my cancer treatment in 2015, I didn't listen to it until 24 Jan 2016. The next day I was formally discharged from cancer treatment into follow-up. The musical became the soundtrack of my recovery, and my journal title and a number of tags are taken from it. I no longer listen to it daily, but probably every month or two. I've seen the live production in London four times and watched the Disney+ recording several times (I took a day off work to watch it the day it dropped!). Seeing it in the cinema though was a much richer experience: the screen size, the better sound, the (mostly) quiet company of people who also like me wanted to give up 3+ hours to experience this story, again.

1 October starts the University academic year and is my personal "still alive" anniversary (without treatment I would likely not have made it through September 2015). The Hamilton screening capped a weekend in which I went to see Arsenal Women with a bunch of hockey friends plus bonus Rebecca and my nephew; attended an alumnae event at my old College and re-met an old friend I haven't seen in years; ate a delicious pub lunch with extended family and made it to (some of) [personal profile] jack's birthday gathering.

Also in September I went to the Isle of Wight including swimming in the sea, played my first league ice hockey game, rode steam trains and watched football with [personal profile] tielan, and dipped my toe back into indoor cricket.

I am not throwing away my shot.

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October 1st, 2025next

October 1st, 2025: If you scroll allll they way down to the bottom of the site (and you're not on the mobile site!) you can see we have switched to our FALL FOOTER! It truly is the marker of the season: the leaves change colour, and so too does the png at the bottom of this webzone!!

– Ryan

kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

And then today's cookbook browsing introduced me to the concept of allorino! But the internet can't agree on whether it should be made with bay leaves, bay flowers, or bay berries. So clearly the correct solution here is Some Of Each, right.

(I am also contemplating whether I want to add finely chopped fresh bay to the quince buckwheat upside-down cake that is high on my priority list for things to cook over the next few days, given how much I love the Ottolenghi lemon & bay cake...)

Meanwhile, my other recreational reading today introduced me to the concept of the "Brompton Cocktail".

End-of-life care circa the 1980s, with specific reference to terminal cancer. )

squirmelia: (Default)
[personal profile] squirmelia
I had been to the dentist and needed cheering up and lunchtime coincided with low tide so I popped briefly to the foreshore outside the National Theatre.

I found a bracelet, a button, a bit of a marmalade jar, a piece of wood, some nice sherds and another piece of uranium glass!

Mudlarking finds - 48

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Mudlarking 47 - Battersea

Sep. 29th, 2025 07:31 pm
squirmelia: (Default)
[personal profile] squirmelia
I tried to go mudlarking in Battersea previously, but somehow got off the bus on the wrong side of the river and ended up in Chelsea. It was only when I saw Battersea Power Station on the opposite side of the river to me that I realised my mistake. This time though I got off the bus at the correct stop, on the south side of the river.

The set of steps downstream from Battersea Bridge led to slippery mud so I then tried the steps upstream of the bridge. They were slippery with mud but there was a handrail to hold onto and at the bottom of the steps, the foreshore was fine to walk along.

I watched a heron for a while, underneath the bridge.

There were quite a lot of bits of wood on the foreshore and some shells, but not as many as on the other side of the river.

I found another Paw Patrol toy, which at first I thought was a goblet. I found one on Friday as well, so it seemed odd to find another so soon.

I found a Ganesh idol, but left it on the foreshore, along with a pair of pink glasses, and many shoes, including some with little nails holding them together. I later found out that the Salvation Army had a kind of recycling centre near here, so perhaps that is why there were so many shoes.

I found a little pouch with symbols on it which made me wonder if it was for Holy Communion.

I found a different coloured piece of combware, not the usual yellow and brown. I also picked up blue and white sherds with a fragment of a building and of a fence on.

It was quite a miserable day and I got a bit cold and wet, but the foreshore was quiet, which I enjoyed and sang songs to myself as I walked along.

I found another piece of uranium glass! It glows brightly. I have found some other pieces of glass since the first one that glow slightly, but not brightly. I am not sure what they are - cadmium perhaps? I think now I have a better idea of what uranium glass looks like so I’ll be able to find more.

A goose hissed at me.

I found what was probably a Victorian scrubbing brush. It has bristles held together at the back with little bits of wire. There were various factories in the area back then so I wonder if it was used for scrubbing in a factory.

I found a pink eye and wondered about the toy it might have fallen off.

I found a piece of Royal Doulton with a green logo. Apparently that logo was used from approximately 1930 to 1993 so it could actually have been quite modern, although probably wasn't from the 1990s.

I found some bits of pipes with decorations on them. I have quite a few with the initials of makers, but this was the first time I found any that were patterned.

I found a piece of glass which looks to say "energy" on it. Part of a Lucozade bottle, perhaps?

I walked towards Albert Bridge until I reached Ransome's Dock and could go no further.

Mudlarking finds - 47.1

Mudlarking finds - 47.2

Mudlarking finds - 47.3

Mudlarking finds - 47.4

I headed across Battersea Bridge and noticed this sign:
Do not feed

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)
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September 29th, 2025next

September 29th, 2025: If you scroll allll they way down to the bottom of the site (and you're not on the mobile site!) you can see we have switched to our FALL FOOTER! It truly is the marker of the season: the leaves change colour, and so too does the png at the bottom of this webzone!!

– Ryan

vital functions

Sep. 28th, 2025 09:56 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

Reading. Brosh, McMorland Hunter & Hughes, Melzack & Wall )

Dreamwidth! Down to two and a half months behind.

Writing. So many e-mails about objects. So many.

Watching. Farscape S02E06, Picture if You Will. The discussion about which of the Highly Specific Fetish Big Bads it was who was resurrecting in this particular context was entertaining in terms of highlighting the, you know, motifs. Of the work.

Playing. We have just managed some Fluxx. <3

Cooking. Batch of puff pastry for the sake of making two (of the three) things in East that call for it (because I could not quite bring myself to buy pre-made). Pleased with how the puff came out; mildly dubious about both the tomato, pistachio + saffron tart and the banana tarte tatin, but on the level of "I am unlikely to make these again", not "I regret making them".

Eating. On Tuesday we hit the point of Make The Internet Bring Us Pizza. The Pizza was very welcome.

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to say goodbye to Ruby Violet, i.e. we had cake for breakfast, along with hot chocolate. The flavours were all ones I was familiar with but I'm still pleased to have had them. (It is not impossible I will decide I want to make another trip by myself, though, especially given that they currently have the malted milk on...)

As mentioned we then also availed ourselves of an Ethiopian-and-Eritrean Veggie Combo and a piece of Japanese Curry Bread, both of which I am pleased to have experienced.

Exploring. St Pancras Waterpoint! Brief turn through Camley Street Natural Park.

Growing. Spinach that I thought was unlikely to still be viable turns out to in fact still be Extremely Viable! Spinach is go! And the lambs' lettuce has self-seeded nicely (so in fact I also had some of that plus some allotment rocket accompanying the tomato tart). Tomatoes continue to produce tomatoes. Peppers various looked very happy last time I went to see them so now I want to overwinter them all. At home, the pineapple continues to grow and the lemongrass isn't obviously dead yet (and I'm doing something right with at least the larger of the two orchids...)

Observing. BAT, extremely obliging with the aerobatics. Good sunsets. Cyclamen various. Moon.

(almost the) end of an era

Sep. 27th, 2025 10:50 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

Ruby Violet, my favourite source of ice cream, are continuing as a business (I feel like that bit is important to say first) but will alas be closing their King's Cross parlour for the last time at 5 p.m. Sunday next, the 5th of October. They're apparently still intending to have their ice cream van at Granary Square during the summer, and to have a variety of "pop-up shops" around London, but... gosh I have a lot of feelings about the amount of post-therapy ice cream I have eaten at the lovely big wooden table indoors and on the benches and grass outside.

So today we went to say goodbye (and I managed to drag a university friend into joining us, as they're also independently fond), in the form of Dessert For Breakfast: apple crumble + the hazelnut & hazelnut brittle ice cream for me; sticky toffee pudding and coffee mocha ripple for A. Hot chocolate for both of us. (I'm very glad we had the Afternoon Tea Experience in 2023 for Animals Week; by the time I thought to try booking a farewell repeat it'd gone from the online shop.)

We followed this up with some slightly more savoury food from around the entire Coal Drops Yard situation (one veggie combo from an Ethiopian-and-Eritrean stall, mostly for me; one Japanese curry bread mostly for A); fifteen minutes or thereabouts poking around St Pancras Waterpoint, an old water tower that was having a serendipitous open day; and a quick poke around the Camley Street Natural Park, which A had not previously met.

I'm very glad we did it.

squirmelia: (Default)
[personal profile] squirmelia
It was lunchtime and I headed to the Custom House Lower Stairs.

A Paw Patrol toy washed up on the shore. I thought about the child that might have dropped it and felt sad for them. The toy seemed very buoyant, so could have travelled far along the Thames.

I found what I thought was a strange tool at the time but now think it's probably just a shell that got stuck to rusting metal. The Thames is trying to craft its own tools.

I found a red swirly sherd, with a similar pattern to another piece I found previously.

Mudlarking finds - 46

Mudlarking finds - rustyMudlarking finds - rusty

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

yes good day.

Sep. 26th, 2025 10:19 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

I cannot tell if it's that I'm asleep, or that I'm Not A Biologist, or just that this paragraph (from The Challenge of Pain, Melzack & Wall) is actually very, but I am... struggling to persuade it to resolve into meaning:

Embryological and anatomical studies of fish, amphibians, and reptiles reveal that, even in the lowest vertebrates, reflexes are created by internuncial cells that link the sensory input to the motor output. During embryological development in these species, behaviour becomes increasingly a function of earlier sensory inputs as a result of the memory traces they have etched into the neural connections. Behaviour, then, is not merely the expression of a response to a stimulus, but a dynamic process comprising multiple interacting factors. Coghill (1929) was the first to propound this principle, based on his brilliant neuroembryological-behavioural studies of salamanders, which has been substantially confirmed by later investigators. Given this fundamental principle -- that organisms are not passive receivers manipulated by environmental inputs but act dynamically on those inputs so that behaviour becomes variable, unique and creative -- the remainder of evolution becomes comprehensible as a gradual development of mechanisms that make each new species increasingly independent of the push-and-pull of environmental circumstances.

Other than (but also, actually, in addition to) being sufficiently puzzled by this that I should definitely Go To Bed: I have caught up (mostly) on the PD e-mail. I completed one EYB indexing project and have been happily rolling around in making a start on the next. I made pastry, and used it as a prompt to unfuck the kitchen some, and then made progress on project Cook All The Things (From This One Book). I went on a Stupid Little Walk for my Stupid Mental Health. I am very very tired, and it has been a good day.

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September 26th, 2025next

September 26th, 2025: This comic was inspired by the robots in my life!! There are many, especially if you are generous with your definition of "robot"! For example, my toasting robot is sadly inconsistent on one side of the bread.

– Ryan

some good things

Sep. 25th, 2025 10:00 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Discount raspberry trifle + freshly toasted flaked almonds. Excellent bonus pudding yes.
  2. Social limb-wiggle! Outside, half under the trees, interspersed with The Toddler being Delighted to see us.
  3. Some successful communication debugging, thus far of the "okay, well, we now have a better understanding of the shape of the problem" variety rather than in the "... and we've implemented a solution" sense, which is still useful progress.
  4. Successfully got a bunch of other people's stuff out of my house and headed back to its people, even though this involved both Actually Parcelling It Up and then a whole entire trip to the post office. Good Job Alex.
  5. FRIEND HAS FINISHED ORPHAN BLACK. FRIEND SCREAMED AN APPROPRIATE AMOUNT. I am thrilled she loved it & was willing to yell about it all the way through when I didn't even try to lure her. She got here by herself. I am DELIGHTED. Did I mention I'm delighted? I'm delighted and I've had some Big Feelings and I have ALSO had some brand new-to-me horror from the penultimate episode Revealed unto me! Which is a different kind of delightful!

Other Stuff

Sep. 25th, 2025 06:28 pm
lnr: Halloween 2023 (Default)
[personal profile] lnr
I note I am doing other stuff, not just being grumpy about the EHRC, but this is a kind of handy place to keep track of the EHRC activism.

We had a good summer, with trips to Devon and Yorkshire, involving a lot of hills and waterfalls :)

Now we're back into the routine of school and work, but Mike and I had a nice day off together to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

I'm also starting to put together plans to celebrate my 50th birthday in November. Well, the birthday is in November, some of the plans are actually for the end of October because that's when half term is and we can go away for a few days with family. Extra long birthday :)

Still not sure whether to try do a big party, or just declare a pub and invite people to join me. Sadly mid-November is not the best time of year for outdoor events, and I'm not sure how to filter venues for "has really good air filtration system".

Got my NHS flu jab booked for next Friday, and my expensive covid one for the following week in town.

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