I started taking Unmata ITS classes with Doro some time ago.
It makes me look like this:
Mir war nach Reindling, traditionell gemacht in einem 2L Reindl von Riess.
Das schneckenförmige Einrollen üben wir noch.
Fertig gebacken fast doppelt so hoch.
Alles was nicht im Magen verstaut wurde.
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Traditional soul food: Reindling.
I got a pretty saucepan of suitable size for this treat from Riess.
The recipe says to roll the filled dough in a spiral, I’ll practice that some more. But it turned out fine after 50min of gentle baking, and we plan to finish eating the remains soon.
Beim Gärtnern habe ich eine Mitbewohnerin entdeckt. Sie war gerade dabei, ein Jausenpaket zu spinnen (Inhalt: 1 Wespe), als ich sie aufschreckte.
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I discovered a cohabitant today. She was packing lunch (a wasp) when I disturbed her.
I am not entirely sure what to make of the fact that I agree with the writings of a frequently grumpy Anglo-American sexagenarian a lot , but maybe it’s just because we both love hiking. Wes hail, Mr. Bryson!
Another favourite read this year was The Martian – hard science makes for a good read; I finished the book during two nights with little sleep.
Towards the second half of the year I opted for some non-fiction.
Some time ago I made a big bag for my mum, then one for my sister, and now I got one for myself:
And I can never throw away fabric remains, so I’ll make another bento bag and a fabric basket (for bread, I guess).
This WGT’s picnic was haunted by people with cameras (and not even the real ones, they used phone cams). So for next year I’m going to camouflage myself a bit better, using:
I am planning a dark twin to the snowcoco gown, possibly with a short and a long skirt to go with. Maybe a zone gown like this one would be nice – here’s an historical example: zone gown, anyone? This two-colour gown is also pretty.
Post will be updated!
Me: *destroying smart phone after a series of stressful days at work, and being annoyed*
Boyfriend: this is the universe telling you that you’ve done a good job and have earned a reward! *accompanies me to the electronics shop*
:)
On Thursday I heard that my physician is on the mend, which by itself is great news.
On Friday we went to a brilliant Antimatter concert, Saturday was birthday party time at a friend’s new place, and yesterday was passed with a lovely high tea and attending a charity concert with performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Hana wa Saku (Flowers Will Bloom).
My family physician was hurt badly while giving first aid in a car accident which was caused by another person.
There’s nothing I can do except donate to Doctors Without Borders and send positive thoughts his way.
I’ve been a fan of Tim Minchin’s songs for a while. Today a coworker sent me this inspirational speech he did in 2013, for a graduation ceremony.
My favourite quotes:
“We didn’t evolve to be constantly content. Contented Australophithecus Afarensis got eaten before passing on their genes. ”
“You are lucky to be here. You were incalculably lucky to be born, and incredibly lucky to be brought up by a nice family that helped you get educated and encouraged you to go to Uni. Or if you were born into a horrible family, that’s unlucky and you have my sympathy… but you were still lucky: lucky that you happened to be made of the sort of DNA that made the sort of brain which – when placed in a horrible childhood environment – would make decisions that meant you ended up, eventually, graduating Uni.”
“There is an inverse correlation between depression and exercise.”
“A famous bon mot asserts that opinions are like arse-holes, in that everyone has one. There is great wisdom in this… but I would add that opinions differ significantly from arse-holes, in that yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined.”
“Science is not a body of knowledge nor a system of belief; it is just a term which describes humankind’s incremental acquisition of understanding through observation. Science is awesome. ”
“Don’t take for granted your education. Rejoice in what you learn, and spray it. “
“Be demonstrative and generous in your praise of those you admire. Send thank-you cards and give standing ovations. Be pro-stuff, not just anti-stuff.”
“I don’t care if you’re the most powerful cat in the room, I will judge you on how you treat the least powerful.”
Thank you, Tim Minchin!
After a blissfully uneventful weekend consisting of a healthy eat-sleep-read cycle I’m back at work, fending off a cold and planning a birthday gift for my mother: we’ll visit a nice city and spend a weekend there, yay!
The books-to-TV series junkie in me is excited – first The Man in the High Castle, and now The Handmaid’s Tale is being adapted for the screen.
I’m still undecided on whether this is a good sign (important stories getting a wider audience) or a bad one (series writers and producers being prescient once more of bad things to happen to parts of humanity, courtesy of another part of humanity).
Then again – humans being each others’ worst enemy unfortunately isn’t a new concept, but has proven to be a beloved pastime repeated time and again throughout the centuries. Writers aspiring to conceive of a dystopian story just need to take their pick from the long list of atrocities people inflict on each other, add some technological bits or social elements that do not yet exist to cover their lazy writer asses – and done! All that remains for them to do is to cast Scarlett Johansson as the main protagonist!
Erm. This post escalated quickly.
To conclude on a hopeful note: for our sakes, I do hope we reach some sort of United Federation, Star Trek-style, sooner than later.
Somehow the amount increased this year, I am not sure why. Normally I pay attention to what’s in the fridge that needs to be consumed, this year it didn’t work out so well.
Both ladies celebrate their birthday on November 7, so a lot of celebrating is to be done.
February 12 is Charles Darwin’s birthday, and we celebrated by enjoying a meal from Mrs. Charles Darwin’s Recipe Book.
It seems that Mr. Darwin was a food lover and participated in the Glutton Club.
On skepchick I found the nice idea of celebrating Betty White day (January 17, her birthday).
I made tiny cheesecakes, watched some episodes and donated to animal welfare.
Wheel of Time…. I did something I almost never do – I took a reading shortcut by reading the summaries of the 14 main books of the Wheel of Time series here.
I had started to read the actual books around 2003 or so and managed to finish a few (possibly 1 to 6) until I decided that none of the characters were interesting enough for me to plough through pages and pages of padding.
Many fans insist that the books get better and better after each re-reading because of masterful foreshadowing that may even span 13 books.
I was not able to appreciate this meticulous planning of plot hints and reveals because my mind went numb from being drowned in detailed descriptions of tiles in houses and colours of flowers. Maybe these descriptions are useful for some readers to achieve better immersion in a fantastic world, for me they just detract from recreating the world and the story in my mind. If anything, the books reminded me more of a very detailed movie script.
To end on an uplifting note, here’s to Nynaeve’s hairdo:
Well what can I say except: it’s a bloody shame.
I started freezing muffins; they thaw and are almost as good as new. Also I started freezing lemon juice in ice cube trays.
The damned tomato paste was super ewww as it got mouldy in its tube – but you only need a spoonful for most recipes, and the tubes are huge. So I turned it into tiny frozen balls.
December 10 is Ada Lovelace’s birthday, I think ramen are in order :)
Auf in ein neues “Garten”jahr –
März
Im Warmen wurden Chili (Habanero), Tomaten (Mühls Mini, Roma und Yellow Submarine) und Paprika (aus gekauften Biopaprika – vermutlich eine Corno Giallo, und eine unbekannte rote) gesät. In einen tiefen Topf im Freien kamen Halblange Weiße Pastinaaaaaken, gemeinsam mit Überraschungs-Topinambur (danke Markus!).
April
Zwischenstand nach einem Monat bei vier Tomaten, die zwei Paprika in die Zange nehmen:
Auch die Habaneros im Büro sind großteils geschlüpft. Weil sie so genial benannt sind, habe ich auch noch Ziegenhorn-Chili angepflanzt.
Als Sichtschutz-Experiment gab es daheim zwei Sorten Strankerln* (je 5 Goldfield und Blauhilde), die im Warmen gesät wurden. Blauhilde kam direkt in die Erde, Goldfield habe ich vorher über Nacht eingeweicht, und das hat ihnen einen deutlichen Startvorteil verschafft (sie sind regelrecht aus der Erde explodiert). Nach 3 Wochen waren sie schon über 1m hoch.
Zusätzlich gibt’s probeweise ein paar rote Rohnen** (Rote Kugel 2***), die auch schon jetzt vorgezogen werden, weil sie offenbar 3 Wochen bis zum Keimen benötigen. Tatsächlich streckten sich aber schon nach ein paar Tagen rote Gestalten aus der Erde. Wahrscheinlich hat auch hier geholfen, die Samen 12 Stunden lang einzuweichen.
Für den Balkon haben wir 5m Tröge für Kleingemüse, sowie eine Rankhilfe besorgt, an der man hoffentlich einen schönen Sichtschutz hochziehen kann – vorzugsweise aus den magischen Bohnen.
In einen Trog zogen gemeinsam kleinwüchsige Karotten namens Ochsenherz und Braunschalige Winterheckenzwiebel, weil sie sich offenbar gut verstehen.
Mai
Nach dem letzten Frost wurden alle verbleibenden Jungpflanzen an die frische Luft gesetzt. Die Roten Rohnen kamen in die verbleibenden Tröge neben Zwiebel und Karotten.
Probeweise habe ich die Bohnen direkt in den Erdsack gepflanzt, denn das bietet einige Vorteile – sie sind Flachwurzler, man muß nicht extra ein Gefäß kaufen, und Ästhetik ist hinter der Sitzbank eher irrelevant. In den Boden des Sacks habe ich ein paar Löcher gebohrt, um Staunässe vorzubeugen.
Danach wurde gefaulenzt und unter der Hitze gelitten :)
* Bohnen
** rote Bete
*** man fragt sich automatisch, was aus Rote Kugel 1 geworden ist
I went to bed with one inflamed heel, possibly because I tend to trample when I walk.
So today I try to be really nice to my foot, putting on my most comfy shoes shoes to go to work – and what happened? I sprained my ankle on the same leg. It hurt, but at the same time: LOL