In 2019 I zigzagged around Europe and even further afield. I thought this year would either be much the same, or completely different. It was completely different - but in an entirely different way than I what I expected. But that was the case for everyone, right? I posted to my site 4,394 times. I posted 6,017 individual photos into 11 different albums. tl;dr Downsized to 35L. Travel stalled. Upsized in order to occupy a part-furnished flat. I was the Best Man at my friend's wedding. Did one Vipassana retreat, in Switzerland. Got trapped by the pandemic for 5 months in Sarandë, Albania. Returned to the UK for multiple reasons, then stayed. Started the process for donating a kidney, but then wasn't needed any more. Decided on something to invest my savings into, but still pending. Read a lot and watched a lot of TV. Stood for election to the W3C TAG. Goals for 2021: Make the most of Fife. Spend time with my IRL friends again, IRL. Try to make myself useful in the local community, and online communities. Words I wrote 345 things. On my site I posted 282 short notes or commentary with photos, and 63 longer articles. I also logged non-blogpost writing 29 times. These all comprise approximately 59,593 words in total (9,010 off-site). That's a mean of 162.82 words and 0.94 posts per day. I wrote about 156 different topics, with the most common being life (122), travel (74), week in review (49), food (40), albania (34), hacking (31), vegan (29), ods (27), coronavirus (27), crochet (24), covid19 (21), and uk (16). My NaNoWriMo project was Dumping Sky. I didn't write anything else, or finish any previous projects. Again. Travel I stopped in an all-time nomadding low of 6 different countries, none of which I had never been to before. A long stay in Albania was a goal I overachieved on, with 149 nights in total. Pre-lockdown I spent 13 nights in Turkey, 2 in Greece, 3 in Bulgaria and 16 in Switzerland (11 of these on a Vipassana meditation retreat). And 177 in the UK by the end of the year. I spent 6 nights in total sleeping on public transport (long distance buses). Apart from that I slept in 25 different places. I spent the most time in short-term rental accommodation - in Albania and the UK - which was 246 nights. I stayed with family for 52 nights, friends (including couchsurfing and housesitting) for 34, in Vipassana accommodation for 11 (but moved rooms twice..), hostels for 9 nights, and hotels for 8 nights. Not the most effective year for travel. I'm pleased I was in Albania in March when the European lockdown hit, because it meant I was stuck in a sunny place, in a nice apartment, right by the sea. I try to avoid touristy hotspots or 'seasonal' towns in the main season, so I was also very privileged to enjoy Sarandë in the middle of summer but without the usual masses of tourists. After overstaying my Albanian visa, I did make an attempt to get overland to Greece, and considered trying for North Macedonia. But ultimately I finally had to return to the UK; the unpredictable border closures (oh and the rampant coronavirus) meant travelling overland was next to impossible, so I had to fly. In total I spent 1 month, 1 day, 7 hours, 9 minutes and 25 seconds in transit (this includes walking between places), logging 82 journeys. I took 34 train journeys, 34 local or long-distance bus journeys, shared a rental car 3 times (I didn't log car trips with friends and family), bought metro/tram tickets 3 times, took 2 ferries, 1 cable car, 1 taxi, 1 flight, and bought a bicycle! When I wasn't on the move, I spent: 7 months, 23 days, 7 hours, 2 minutes, and 46 seconds at home; 1 month, 18 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes, and 10 seconds on an adventure; 22 days, 3 hours, and 12 minutes in a meeting; 10 days, 17 hours, 1 minute, and 21 seconds with logging off; 5 days, 20 hours, 30 minutes, and 19 seconds out getting food; 4 days, 5 hours, 13 minutes, and 8 seconds at an event; 4 days, 4 hours, 6 minutes, and 59 seconds out exercising; 14 hours, 33 minutes, and 36 seconds in my office; 6 hours, 16 minutes, and 31 seconds doing a medical thing; 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 7 seconds in a talk or seminar; and was out helping with something for 27 minutes, and 5 seconds. Work Work hasn't changed much. I still work 3 days a week with Open Data Services Co-operative. I started trying out different patterns of engagement with internal Co-op-running work vs. development / client work and found that if I spent larger blocks of time on each rather than the 50% split each week I function a bit better. I was fortunate to see my colleagues in person in January, because all of our other in-person meetups were cancelled after that. I'm also fortunate that we collectively acted fast to enstate special provisions when lockdown started: including unlimited paid leave for any reason related to the pandemic and a guarantee not to reduce pay or cut jobs for a period of time. We were also fortunate to not have to transition out of an office like many people did, so for a lot of the time it was just business as usual (besides the baseline anxiety we all had). I also continued to contract approximately one day a week for Digital Bazaar, working on things related to the Decentralized Identifiers Working Group. As last year, this came in bursts. This year though there were no conferences or face-to-face meetings to attend :( I joined the W3C Inclusion & Diversity Community Group - which I'd been in before, but was booted when my affiliation changed and I forgot to re-join - and went to some meetings. I also started to get active in the Social Web Incubator CG again, and did some infrastructure/admin for the Credentials CG. Code Github counted 946 'contributions'. This was 64% commits, 13% code review, 6% issues and 17% pull requests. I don't see any patterns or anything significant. As usual you can see NaNoWrimo in November. Stuff I purchased or otherwise acquired something on 495 occasions, spending a total of approximately €10,653.71. I used 9 different currencies (GBP, USD, ALL, EUR, HRK, CHF, RON, BGN, TRY). This is an average expenditure of €29.11 per day, €204.88 per week, or €887.81 per month. I spent €5,021.09 on accommodation, and €1,449.62 on transit. I spent €1,557.15 on groceries, buying them 121 times. I bought food that was ready to eat on 147 occasions, spending €1,589.74; 56.5% of the time this was in restaurants and 42.9% to take away. I gave €465.99 away in donations, or spent it on gifts (but I didn't log this accurately; only occasionally when I gave cash to people on the street, or my Patreon payments which is about $15/month). I stopped counting donations under my monthly budget, so they are not included in the overall total. Some things I acquired the most often were food (147), groceries (121), restaurant (83), transport (79), takeaway (63), and accommodation (58). On 35 occasions I got something for free. I expensed €109.13 of stuff for work. The most expensive thing I bought was One month's shelter in Kirkcaldy (€611.73) and the cheapest thing (which wasn't free) was - just like last year - toilet use in Arad bus station (€0.21). I spent on average €21.52 per purchase. Money saved on eating out and living cheaply in Albania was rapidly reclaimed by the cost of living (and partially supporting my brother) in the UK. Even so, I came in under my €1000/month budget overall this year. January: Cold I spent the new year with new friends in Bursa (Turkey). After staying up all night, I got the worst cold I've had in years and couldn't get out of bed for a few days. The weather was cold and my house was freezing. Instead of going south, I went north back to the UK. First I met my Co-op colleagues in Manchester for our quarterly meeting. Then I arranged and attended a pre-wedding get-together (a "stag don't") in Perthshire. I found out one of my friends needed a kidney, and began the process of finding out how I could donate mine. All January posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 20 - 26 Jan Week in review: 13 - 19 Jan Week in review: 6 - 12 Jan Week in review: 30 Dec - 5 Jan February: Also cold Then I was the Best Man at K and M's wedding in Cornwall. I headed back to the continent again, stopping in Switerzland for a Vipassana retreat, and then spent some days with friends. I had a route south planned through Italy, but diverted through Croatia at the last minute due to the impending lockdown in Milan. A good decision. Little did I know what the rest of the year was bringing. All February posts. Weeks in review: Week and a half in review: 3 - 12 Feb Week in review: 27 Jan - 2 Feb The Long March Not long after I made it to Sarandë, Albania, the pandemic hit Europe. I had been expecting to stay for a month, but when April rolled around borders were closed and curfews were everywhere. I consider myself very fortunate to have been in a lovely apartment, right on the sea, in a fantastic climate. I managed a couple of relatively local adventures, and met a nice expat community. There I stayed. I got back into crochet, and started baking a lot. As spring set in, I swam in the sea every day. Finally, in July, my appointment for tests for kidney-donor eligibility was rescheduled to August. I broke the no-fly rule to return to the UK (if not foolhardy, it would have been impossible by land at that point, anyway). All March posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 23 - 29 March Week in review: 16 - 22 March Week in review: 2 - 8 March Week in review: 24 Feb - 1 March All April posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 20 - 26 April Week in review: 13 - 19 April Week in review: 6 - 12 April Week in review: 30 March - 5 April All May posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 25 - 31 May Week in review: 18 - 24 May Week in review: 11 - 17 May Week in review: 4 - 10 May Week in review: 27th April to 3rd May All June posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 15 - 21 June Week in review: 8 - 14 June Week in review: 1 - 7 June All July posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 20 - 26 July Week in review: 13 - 19 July Week in review: 6 - 12 July Week in review: 29 June - 5 July August and September: Still March I spent precisely the last two weeks of my twenties in government-mandated isolation at my Mum's house in the Lincolnshire countryside. Turned 30, and reviewed the last decade. Then I spent a day at Nottingham Renal Center, having lots of tests. During a window of eased lockdown, I spent more time in Edinburgh, house-sitting and visiting friends. Expecting to need to stick around for kidney donation, but needing to be by the sea, I made plans to move to Fife for a bit. Then my friend got a kidney from another source. This was great news! I could leave, but.. European unpredictable border lockdowns made travelling more complicated than I fancied, and family concerns made me want to stay in the UK for longer. All August posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 24 - 30 August Week in review: 17 - 23 August Week in review: 10 - 16 August Week in review: 3-9 August Week in review: 27 July - 2 August All September posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 21st - 27th Sept Week in review: 14th - 20th Sept Weeks in review: 31st Aug - 13th Sept October to December: Life in Fife So I rented a flat with a (medium-distance) sea view in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and my brother moved in with me. I bought a hammock stand again, and had to get a bit of furniture. Fortunately the secondhand shops and Freegle network are here are great! We went on loads of hikes, and enjoyed surprisingly glorious weather and a coastline that leaves me regularly breathless. Bonus: I started to meet the local eco communities here, and have really fallen in love with the place. My Mum has sold and is in the process of moving out of my childhood home. So I'm glad I got to spend some time there earlier this year, as lockdown means there's no way I'll be able to go back again before she hands the key over to new owners. I'm not that sentimental about it, anyway. I might have been not long ago, but these days I am an unfeeling orb of detachment :) I took lots of time off in November to make more time for NaNoWriMo, and though I didn't end up writing much, having more time to rest after an a hectic and/or anxiety-filled few months was amazing. Discovering newly available headspace, I stood for election in the W3C TAG, which turned out to be one of the most competitive elections ever. At the time of writing, voting is still open. It got cold quite sharply mid-December, but an advantage of being in Scotland over Turkey or Greece at this time of year is that the housing is actually designed to handle it. Renting for and feeding two has taken me regularly over budget in the latter part of this year, but it was offset by how little I spent in Albania. I'm working on a plan to rectify this in the medium-term. All October posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 19th - 25th October Week in review: 12th - 18th Oct Week in review: 5th - 11th Oct Week in review: 28th Sept - 4th Oct All November posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 23 - 29 November Week in review: 16th - 22nd November Week in review: 9th - 15th November Week in review: 2nd - 8th Nov Week in review: 26th Oct - 1st Nov All December posts. Weeks in review: Week in review: 21st - 27th Dec Week in review: 14th - 20th December Week in review: 7th - 13th December Week in review: 30th Nov - 6th Dec Reflection on 2020 Compared to the past Maybe next year I'll make this table into a pretty chart. 2017 2018 2019 2020 Posts total 4,656 4,817 4,974 4,394 Photos posted n/a 9,520 9,032 6,017 Coffees (total / mean per day) 471 / 1.3 431 / 1.2 484 / 1.3 462 / 1.3 Nights on transport n/a 31 17 6 Nights with friends n/a 56 60 34 Nights with family n/a 24 24 52 Time in transit 1mo 13d 23h 15m 45s 2mo 26d 6h 56m 21s 2mo 10d 14h 9m 12s 1mo 1day 7h 9m 25s Time in restaurants 17d 2h 37m 3s 21d 17h 44m 22s 26d 16h 16m 9s 5d 20h 30m 19s Time exercising 4d 9h 26m 58s 2d 1h 10m 2d 20h 8m 10s 4d 4h 6m 59s Time in meetings 3d 1h 28m 6d 4h 45m 59s 19d 0h 13m 12s 22d 3h 12m 0s € per month n/a 923.39 1,074.90 887.81 € accommodation n/a 4,175.61 5,080.86 5,021.09 € per night accommodation n/a 11.44 13.92 13.72 € eating out n/a 3,012.56 3,367.91 1,589.74 Words ~159,492 122,401 95,722 59,593 Topics (by tag) 237 217 153 156 Countries visited 13 24 22 6 New countries visited 4 13 8 0 Nights in the UK ~month 34 37 177 Exercise was up but transit and eating out was down... for some reason. Sarandë and Kirkcaldy got labelled 'home' pretty quickly, as is my Mum's house (where I grew up), explaining that massive bump. I started logging long hikes as 'exercise' so there may be a historical underreporting error rather than an actual increase in exercise. Because I certainly dropped the ball on running and yoga this year. At this time last year, I was looking forward at 2020, expecting to either visit many new places around Eastern Europe, or go back to the UK to donate a kidney. I was not expecting to stay virtually stationary, make a potentially significant career move or find somewhere to invest all of my savings. Everyone who had plans for 2020 found their lives completely upended this year. I've got off pretty damn lucky. Though I find myself pining for travel and idly browsing wikitravel or airbnb every few days, I also appreciate the extra mental energy I've gained from not constantly planning and moving. I am grateful for having been able to see friends and family this year, and in particular for being able to spend more time with my brother than ever before. I can hardly believe my good fortune at the geography and community I find myself amongst in a place I chose to move to fairly arbitrarily. I've been able to live more closely in accordance with my values here: minimising waste and shopping locally. This can be hard in the Balkans, when there are limited grocery options, fewer recycling facilities, and old ladies at markets who force upon you plastic bags at every turn. It's also harder when moving frequently as I'm less able to buy in bulk. Shortly after moving, I got a supply of empty jars from Freegle and friends, and shop almost exclusively at the zero-waste shop in Burntisland, and the local high street market. Okay, I go to Morrisons as well, but only for absolute necessities (and cheap vegan cheese. Nobody's prefect alright). I'm not sure if I've particularly missed eating out. It was quite a significant hobby when travelling, but since I also love to cook I haven't noticed much. I get takeaway from the local vegan-friendly cafes here sometimes because I don't want them to shut down. I've resisted the urge to look up how my favourite vegan places around Europe are doing because I expect to be distraught and find out lots of them are gone for good. Last year I wrote that I wanted to start logging my journeys properly and generate a map. In the last week of this year I finally found time to tinker with sloph, and have done it! Data is up to date for 2020 and a smattering of existing logs from the past. It helped that there wasn't a huge amount to backfill for this year.. When I'm low energy I'll be filling in gaps from previous years, using my ActivityPub C2S-ish travel logging client. 2021 I hestiate to make predictions! Realistically I'm probably not going to be able to travel again until I can get a covid vaccine, though it worries me a bit how long that might be. And my brother isn't going to be able to go back to Japan any time soon I don't think. So I'll make the most of my time in Fife for a while longer. I've signed up to volunteer at the local community kitchen with Greener Kirkcaldy - I really hope that can start this month. I'm going to move again, not far, but closer to the sea and further from town. Whether or not I get elected to the TAG, I forsee my W3C related activities increasing a bit. I'll probably do more to help with infrastructure of the Credentials CG, and take a more active role in reviving the Social Incubator CG in coming months. Hopefully as the vaccine gets taken up by the most vulnerable it will be safe to travel locally again, and I can hop on trains to explore more of Scotland. Even better, maybe I can spend more time with friends who I am now finally in the same country as.
My alarm didn't go off because my phone operating system crashed. Did I mention I LOVE computers?? (and anyone who knows me knows I hate waking myself with an alarm and only do so when absolutely necessary....)
Back at work today, still have my special skill of waking up precisely one minute before standup, so that's good.
I have been elected to a two year term on the W3C TAG! I'm really excited for this opportunity to work for a better Web, and more than a little bit daunted. And so so grateful for all of the support people have given me during the election, which I did not expect to be as intense as it was.
How is being on the W3C TAG affecting my home life? (I hear nobody ask.) Well, earlier my brother very thoughtfully paused a 10gb No Man's Sky update because I was in meetings and he didn't want to disrupt the network, and had to play a different game instead. Will we make it through these challenges? Time will tell.
I do really appreciate living so close to the beach that it's not a big ordeal to go out for the last 15 minutes of sun of the day and a listen to the sea.
It doesn't seem to matter how many times I tell professional admin type people (utility companies etc) that my phone doesn't work, they still keep trying to call me then email acting all surprised that it didn't ring.
Dreamhost broke my ActivityPub C2S with changes to Apache mod_security rules today. They have fixed it now, and not explained exactly what was wrong. I debugged it sufficiently from the server error logs to decide it was probably their fault and not mine (my code hadn't changed and I couldn't reproduce it locally. The logs said things like: ModSecurity: Warning. Pattern match "[\\\ \\\ ]" at REQUEST_FILENAME. [file "/dh/apache2/template/etc/mod_sec3_CRS/REQUEST-921-PROTOCOL-ATTACK.conf"] [line "219"] [id "921190"] [msg "HTTP Splitting (CR/LF in request filename detected)"] [data "Matched Data: user-agent found within REQUEST_FILENAME: /. \\x0a \\x0a \\x0a <div class="] [severity "CRITICAL"] [ver "OWASP_CRS/3.3.0"] and ModSecurity: Warning. Operator GE matched 7 at TX:inbound_anomaly_score. [file "/dh/apache2/template/etc/mod_sec3_CRS/RESPONSE-980-CORRELATION.conf"] [line "87"] [id "980130"] [msg "Inbound Anomaly Score Exceeded (Total Inbound Score: 10 - SQLI=0,XSS=0,RFI=0,LFI=0,RCE=0,PHPI=0,HTTP=5,SESS=0): individual paranoia level scores: 10, 0, 0, 0"] [ver "OWASP_CRS/3.3.0"] [tag "event-correlation"] and ModSecurity: Rule 3525d796f28 [id "932110"][file "/dh/apache2/template/etc/mod_sec3_CRS/REQUEST-932-APPLICATION-ATTACK-RCE.conf"][line "256"] - Execution error - PCRE limits exceeded (-8): (null). and ModSecurity: Warning. Match of "within %{tx.allowed_request_content_type}" against "TX:content_type" required. [file "/dh/apache2/template/etc/mod_sec3_CRS/REQUEST-920-PROTOCOL-ENFORCEMENT.conf"] [line "970"] [id "920420"] [msg "Request content type is not allowed by policy"] [data "|application/ld+json|"] [severity "CRITICAL"] [ver "OWASP_CRS/3.3.0"] which are not settings I've had to mess with before, so I'm glad I pay other people to deal with this for me. I'm just dropping this all here in case other people have similar problems and are searching.. (I don't think POSTing forms between origins is that niche, but doing it with JSON-LD payloads might be, and it might come up more as more people realise the diverse-clients-generic-servers decentralised social web dream...
A federated galaxy of community platforms, tailored for the specific human communities that use them and linked by Google-like sites that facilitate discovery, would be a more functional internet for many people, and would also decentralize the social web. Exactly this.
Hey when Scotland gets independence and rejoins the EU can we also move into UTC+0100?
It is honestly hilarious how many of the voucher options for taking part in the UK gov's covid test survey thing are for travel! Hotels.com! Eurostar! Lastminute! The list goes on.
Me: I hope at the end of Shingeki no Kyojin they finally stop fighting and become friends. My brother: Not everything is Star Trek, Amy.
Human interactions that always cheer me up on a Tuesday: the cheerful man at the veg market stand brent chairing a DID WG meeting Without fail.
Many years ago, on one of my first ever Big Adventures, the only device I packed was a first generation Kindle. It had a global 3G connection, and a very very shitty web browser. But it worked! I blogged from the Wadi Rum desert with it.
I met this little guy on the Fife coastal path near Kinghorn today. Such a little poser! And so bold, I got right up close. Really made my day.
This morning my BBL and Grain and Sustain deliveries came, and this afternoon the sun came out. Truly a blessed day in Fife.
I seem to mosty have taken pictures of the more junky things I made this month. I ate veg-packed things too, I swear. Here are: Chickpea and sweet potato curry (by Dave) Pizza (half vegan, half not) BBL burgers in homemade biscuit(USA)-style buns with homemade chips Fruit cake, using mincemeat Mum sent, with lemon icing and pistachios Mac n not-cheese (with tomatoes, carrot, mushrooms, chilli, garlic, not-sausage)
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Leftover mac n not-cheese in delicious juicy grilled portobello mushrooms. A shepherd's pie just like we used to make in Wholey Wonder (more or less). Chickpea omelette with the usual tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach, and for the first time not-cheese, which was a good addition.
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Pink beetroot rice with aduki beans. Coffee and hazelnut cake. Veggie udon. Burn's Supper, provided by BBL, including deep fried vegan black pudding balls.
We walked to Kinghorn Loch, out along the coastal path and then back inland through fields. On the way we met a little friendly robin. It was much icier on the way back than anticipated, so took longer. The loch is lovely, very well kept surroundings and nice places to sit.
Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
The tiny demon came for a little beach walk. Her second ever walkies! She likes other humans, but not so much other dogs (she has it backwards..)
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
My brother wants a cat so much, so I made him one.
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Chocolate peanutbutter pie, of my own design, because I couldn't find any recipes that seemed quite what I wanted. I pulsed what nuts I had - a handful each of hazelnuts, cashews and almonds - in the food processor until they were meal. Then added flaxseed and a small handful of chopped dried dates that I soaked in hot water, and the water (they had turned into mush at that point). I pressed this into a tray to make the crust, smoothing it out by hand/spoon, and left it to set in the fridge. A little bit left over - added a squirt of agave and rolled it in coconut to make an energy ball. The filling was a cup of soy milk, warmed with about half a cup of crunchy peanutbutter (100% peanuts), half a cup of cocoa powder, two tablespoons of coconut oil, and squirts of agave syrup to taste. I added about a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with soy milk at the end, to make sure it would set, though the cocoa thickened it faster than I expected. Spooned this int the crust, sprinkled chopped pistachios and coconut on top, and left it to set. I had filling left over too - I rolled these in cocoa and coconut to make more energy balls. It turned out of the tray easily, and held its shape perfectly! It's chocolatey, but still with a strong peanut taste, and good crunchy bits. Success!
Amy added 16 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Beach run at Seafield, and some clambering on rocks. Edinburgh was shrouded in a mist which reflected pink and orange in the sunset. You can see Arthur's Seat poking out in the distance.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Walks along the promenade (one day the grey sea and sky blended together perfectly) and around the beach at Seafield. Snowy sand, icy air.
Amy added 52 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Icy sunset Seafield beach walkies.
Amy added 21 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
An icy walk along the Fife coastal path at Seafield.
Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Some years ago I said to myself if I ever get to the point of needing a kanban board to organise my life again, I am doing too much. I think I might almost be there.
I think my subconscious is extremely efficient at processing stress and anxiety so that I feel relatively chill and outwardly project calm most of the time*. Anyway this week's action-packed dreams have mostly been starring: the W3C TAG election. * (Another part of this is that I am very good at tuning things out and selective-attention-paying to minimise overwhelm.)
is twitter more shit than usual or am i just extra drained?
I am unreasonably excited about the BBL vegan Burn's Night box, you have no idea. (BBL are a small Edinburgh business, but they ship their amazing homemade vegan deli items all over the UK! Do give them a try..)
We had a nice Social CG meeting during which we talked about the Fediverse Enhancement Proposals - a lightweight process for collaborating on new features for decentralised Web things. (Oh and also I'm a co-chair now.)
This week so far has been a LOT and tomorrow is going to be the MOST, so I'm looking forward to not being on a computer at all on Saturday. Maybe crocheting in my hammock all day.
Attended my first TAG meetings. Only slept through one. (As in my alarm didn't go off, not that it was boring.) Chaired a Social Web Incubator CG meeting, and thought about SocialCG admin a lot. Had way too many meetings in general this week. 18 hours, 5 minutes and 9 seconds to be precise. Did manage to get out for a walk to Kinghorn Loch though. Crocheted a neko. Made a fruitcake, among other things. Made a no-recipe chocolate peanutbutter pie with a nut crust, that went surprisingy well. Went for a run, in the rain. Did some DID stuff. Celebrated an intense week with Friday night takeaway pizza. Finished Fullmetal Alchemist. Started Carnival Row. Watched Sputnik (pretty good?) and Ghosts of War (not good).
16 hours, 56 minutes, and 3 seconds in meetings (TAG, DID, Co-op, SocialCG). Attended the Co-op NoGM (this has evolved from OGM to CoGM (coworking) to NoGM (pandemic) for those interested..) and thought about BODS. Did quite a lot of DID spec work, finally. Started a new amigurumi project. Made a coffee and hazelnut cake, and other things. Dave did most of the cooking this week cos I have SO MANY MEETINGS. Went for a couple of walks but it was freezing. Finished Carnival Row (omg so good). Finished Heretics of Dune and started Chapterhouse: Dune. Got a new NextCloud toy - the time tracker. Have been using it for almost everything. Generally very very tired.
A BBL-supplied Burns Supper, and homemade coffee cake. Attended the TAG not-face-to-face. This was fun. But SO much to read. Spent 18 hours, and 31 minutes in meetings. Handed in my rental notice. Time to move! Closer to the sea, further from cars. Spent the weekend deep cleaning the new place, and... finding faults.
Tinkered with sloph to make it show a map of all the places I've spent time in. Did some DID stuff. Finished reading God Emporer of Dune and started watching the relatively terrible Children of Dune TV series for some reason. Watched The Midnight Sky (meh?) and A Star is Born (great). Still had to look after Dave. Felt renewed sadness about brexit. Beach walkies and snow walkies. Some food..
Wrote my 2020 in review. Got elected to the W3C TAG! Started back at Co-op work.. New UK lockdown == everyone is very stressed. First run of the year. Started Heretics of Dune. Watched loads of Fullmetal Alchemist. Greatly enjoying new Expanse.
B*tco*n people are all like 'revolutionising the economy' and in the next breath 'have fun staying poor' like these people don't want to revolutionise shit they want to keep the status quo but with themselves in charge. (yeah yeah Not All B*tco*n People, I know, but seriously, huge swathes of this community are just absolute garbage.)
I don't know what's going on with me this week, but I don't think I've been this tired in years.
Gale force winds and freezing rain for more than a week now. This is the longest stretch of consistent weather since I moved here. And I am sick. of. it.
me, hearing my brother swearing in the next room: what's wrong? brother: it's snowing in the bathroom again.
I just got a surprise Indian food delivery because I pre-ordered on Friday in anticipation of celebrating moving into my new place and COMPLETELY FORGOT. Past me is a genius.
My new place is on a main dog walking route, and my desk is by the window, so I'm shouting my brother to tell him about every single dog I see walk past. He's already fed up of it and it's been like, half a day. Should I make a blog just for this?
People often express concern for my back when they find out I sleep in a hammock. But of people I know with back problems... 100% sleep in a bed 0% sleep in a hammock and of people I know who sleep in a hammock (me), 0% have back problems. Just saying.
More photos of hanging out on the beach, sunrises, and the moon.
Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Walked to Burntisland. Nice to sea Seafield again. The water in the bay at Burntisland was still like glass.
Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Some things with tofu. A lentil loaf which was a good experiment. A good week for slow cooker stews (blizzard, and busy). Almond milk panna cotta with aduki bean topping and nuts.
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
"No food in the house" this week until the BBL order arrived later than expected.. so I made "no-food" lasagne (soy mince, red lentils, tomato sauce; cream not-cheese in the white sauce), seitan chicken, "no-food" pizza (with seitan chicken, sweetcorn, pickles, tomatoes, and the last two mushrooms) and "no-food" curry (with chickpeas and seitan chicken; we ran out of white rice but I scraped together a mix of brown sushi rice and barley). Friday brought the veg topup and BBL order (see: burger) to end "no food" week. I made a chocolate and raspberry cake to round the week off. The vegan chocolate berry meringue nests are from Roots & Seeds cafe, a delightful surprise find when I was walking into town one day (I knew about the cafe, didn't know they had vegan cake, let alone meringue).
A couple of things with tempeh; spaghetti bolognese; several curries.
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Biked into town for veg and it was a beautiful day but ugh I do hate cycling. Sat on Ravenscraig beach to eat a plum to recover. The next time I just walked. Dave and I spent a day cleaning the old flat, before handing the keys in, then walked all the way back and ate ice cream on our new beach (stoically ignoring the rain) to celebrate. Caught some obscured sunrises from the new flat. Discovered Health Foods & More to be a treasure trove of vegan treats and eco household stuff (I thought it was just supplements and alternative medicine)! Dysart is still so so cute, I feel like I'm on holiday every time I go out. As long as I stick to the coast/port part of the village, I can't even tell I'm in Kirkcaldy..
Amy added 29 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Got the keys to my new flat. Started cleaning / fixing / dismantling but then the boiler gave up and had to pause everything.
I couldn't move into my new room until the violent shade of blue was gone. Just covered it in white for now, three coats, and omigosh what a relief.
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
The coldest week in the UK since 1995 or something? It snowed a lot, the sea was furious, and everything froze solid repeatedly. It was a terrible week to not have a boiler, and to have to keep going back and forth between opposite ends of town with every step an icy hazard. But it was very pretty.
Amy added 49 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
On Seafield beach at sunrise, for a change. Breathtaking.
Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Another sunrise start (pictured from Linktown and Dysart) for boiler replacement. And finally moved! Celebratory cake and surprise Indian food (from The Tiffin) pictured.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
The sun lures me out for procrastawalks when I should be working. Who am I to resist. Also found a nice nook to read in. And cool rocks on the way to West Wemyss.
Amy added 65 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
It's quite nice out now, in between the snow storms.
Finally the weather recovered, and I had a couple of nice trips outside. Finished painting my bedroom from twitter blue to white. Cleaned my old flat, and handed in the keys. Gave away lots more stuff on freecycle/freegle, and received some stuff too. Spent a fortune on bulk food / cleaning supply orders, but hopefully never have to think about those things again.. Watched Parasite, finally. Saw many good doggos go past the window.
Stress, from various sources. Spent 15 hours, 44 minutes, and 22 seconds in meetings. Some BODS work, but not enough, and internal Co-op things. Bussed back and forth between the old place and the new place to prep for moving. Did more DIY than ever before in my life. Gave loads of stuff away on Freegle. Boiler in my new place died. Delayed moving until it can be replaced. Watched Space Sweepers - really good! The weather has been revolting. Tried to destress by cooking some things.
Actually properly reviewed some TAG Design Review issues. Editorial review of DID Core goes on. Tinkered with docker and github actions for the Standards Lab project. Started making a bath mat out of strips of fabric from old pillowcases. Last week was spring and this week apparently summer!! I feel like I'm on holiday. Borrowed some tools from a neighbour and made a new friend in the process. Walked to Burntisland. Made a lot of curries. Finished Navigators of Dune fucking finally. Started Frank Herbert's Eye.
It was cold AF. Finished Chapterhouse: Dune. Started Navigators of Dune. Brian Herbert's writing is nothing like Frank's so far (in a bad way.. I'm not sure I'll make it through many more of these). Did some work on how to module missing declarations/data in BODS in a standard way. 'Ran out of food' (according to Dave) but still managed to come up with some good meals. Gave lots of stuff away on freegle/freecycle. Went back and forth between new and old flats in the snow. Got up at sunrise for a freegle handover, and went to see snow Seafield. Got a new boiler!! Started painting my new bedroom. Moved all Dave and my stuff to the new place, but spent the first night on the sofa due to aforementioned painting. Got surprise Indian food from The Tiffin (surprise because I forgot I preordered it).
This afternoon's procrastination was starting to prep the hallway to be repainted, which escalated into me attempting to remove the ridiculous old wired in burglar alarm system (because there's a panel on the hallway wall for it) which ended up with me tripping the power in the entire flat, so that's hilarious.
Anyway nobody on Freegle has claimed my unmarked VHS tape after a few weeks, so I think I'll try to crochet it into something today.
My brother says I'm walking a very fine line between repair/reuse/recycle zerowaste minimalist and what-if-it-comes-in-handy junk hoarder.
I dreamt about both my mushrooms and my sourdough starter last night.
I hate almost everything about google meet, but the one feature every video conferencing platform should adopt is letting you see who is in a call before you join it.
My little brother demands to know why there are plant cuttings all over the dining table, the cheek.
My mushroom growing supplies have arrived, and I'm now the type of person who says "pasteurise the substrate" in normal conversation.
Never send a script to do a spreadsheet's job.
Walked to Buckhaven and back along the coast (12 miles). Stopped to look for/at fossils. Really beautiful rocks at Buckhaven that look like watercolour paintings, in blues, yellows and purples. Threw the ball for Max; lost one ball but found two more. Saw a curious little mink in the rocks at Buckhaven.
Amy added 16 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Got up early for a walk around Ravenscraig with K. Went out again in the afternoon to check out cool fossils and throw the ball for Max. Climbed to the top of a very tall rock.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Started taking my coffee down to the beach first thing in the morning regularly. Walked to town and back in record time (30 mins) yesterday to grab something before shops closed. Enjoyed the imminent sunset from Ravenscraig; the air was so fresh, and distant Arthur's Seat in shades of pink and blue stole the show.
Amy added 26 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Short walks and sitting on the beach around Dysart and Ravenscraig.
A beautiful week in the Kingdom with amazing sunrises and lots of time in the sun on the beach and in gardens.
Got fresh turmeric, peeled and grated it, made many things yellow in the process. Tested my newly fixed oven by making bread rolls, which worked. And a cherry chocolate cake with blackberry and apple compote inside. Also pictured: mac n not-cheese; stuffed aubergine with barley and lorne not-sausage; burger patty by BBL.
Golden bread (with fresh turmeric and rosemary). Pizza, stews, creamy mushroom pasta, peanut stirfry, home-sprouted chickpeas and homegrown salad leaves.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Inspired by a picture on twitter, I made artistic focaccia. It was very oily, but otherwise good, with big bubbles inside from rising overnight. Also featured: doughnuts; lasagne; lentil loaf with fried potatoes and mushroom gravy; mushrooms and homegrown beet greens and cashews spaghetti; courgette brownie.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Fried not-chicken. Two hours to make, two minutes to eat. It's seitan made with vital wheat gluten, veg stock, various spices, and coated with a flour-spice mix, chickpea flour liquid mix, and flour-spice again, and deep fried. We ate it with homegrown beet greens, garlic mushrooms and rice, and then I had some the next day on a salad.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Sanding, filling holes, and painting the hallway from twitter-blue to white, finally.
I followed this pattern to make a Kelpie. I started this in January and it took a lot longer than expected. Partly due to being interrupted by moving house and other things, but also it was a bit more fiddly than I thought. I learnt some new amigurumi techniques (like making a curve). I usually attach the parts together with a crochet hook, and I tried with this, but it was just too complicated, so I had to pause everything and wait until I had a bodkin in my life. Once that arrived, this was much easier and it came together pretty well. Once complete, after a quick beach photoshoot, I promptly posted it to Falkirk, to be with its own kind..
Amy added 36 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
I normally bake the lemon pie for 15 mins (and use a baked crust) but my oven was out so I improv'd an unbaked version. It worked well. The raw nut crust (almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, flaxseed, dates) is better than the shortbread one in my opinion. And the filling (coconut milk, soy milk, lemon zest and juice, cornflour, turmeric) didn't need anything other than time in the fridge to set.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
I made a bath mat from eight pillowcases (aka a rag rug). Shredded in a continuous spiral and then normal crochet with a big hook. Worked great! (The first section I made multiple strips and tied the together but it was very lumpy and harder to crochet. Definitely recommend the spiral method.)
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
I made shelves for shoes! I came really close to buying some a couple of weeks ago - from etsy, made of reclaimed crates - then realised how slack I was getting on the reuse front. I scavenged wood from three places: Some shelves I didn't need from the built-in cupboard in the bathroom; the bins across the courtyard; Grain & Sustain, who had some offcuts going spare. And borrowed tools from a neighbour. I bought screws (and reused a few that I extracted from the G&S wood). For want of a workshop, I did sawing on the beach and in my bedroom. I measured and planned; Dave helped me with drilling and solving some logistical issues. It's pretty janky, but it functions, and it's MINE. I don't think making shelves is my true calling though.
Crocheted a wallet from a VHS ribbon. This stuff is sparkly and super robust, and goes a really long way. Very bulky for keeping in pocket though.
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Two of my friends at home with their dog just sending me the same photos of her from their respective perspectives. 10/10 group chat experience.
Now I want to get more involved in my local community, not having a facebook account is becoming debilitating. I hate this! Well, it was always a problem when travelling too, but I was less invested in stuff then.
A lovely sunny week. Went in the sea, saw some lovely sunrises, hung out with Max, did some gardening. Made good bread. Worked on BODS, and TAG things. Met someone from the community council and a local councillor who are going to try to help me get permission to turn the shared front lawn into a veg patch (my neighbours in the block are all in favour). Started a sourdough starter. Acquired some houseplants and herb cuttings. Started incubating two bags of oyster mushroom spores.
TAG Design Principles week, I've got some work to do. Co-op staff welfaring... Made a lemon pie. Made shelves! Watched all of WandaVision. Went on several walks for procrastination purposes. Started regularly taking my coffee down to the beach first thing in the morning. A bunch of DID spec process stuff. Github actions, docker and django wrangling.
Made some good stuff including fancy focaccia and fried not-chicken. Dave got a job!!! Did some BODS stuff, actually wrote some useful code for a change. Sanded all the walls, filled all the holes, and almost finished repainting my hallway, then ran out of paint. The council said no, I cannot turn my front lawn into a veg patch, with a variety of slippery-slope style reasoning. My sourdough starter went mouldy :( Starting again. Radishes and lettuce in little pots sprouted at the beginning of the week, and carrots at the end! Walked to Pettycur Bay and back. Fridge freezer went kaputt. Bought a new (secondhand) one.
Made a bathmat out of eight pillowcases. Finally finished my crochet kelpie (and posted it to Falkirk to be with its own kind). Short walks and beach time. Wrote Django tests, mostly, for Standards Lab. Made a cake, and other things. Crocheted a VHS tape ribbon. Started getting serious about my herb garden. Went for a long walk along the coast.
when it was freezing outside the boiler broke down now it is warm the fridge freezer has given up
whomstever built my flat fitted the built-in wardrobe instead of bothering to actually finish the walls and ceiling so now I have removed [some of] the built-in wardrobe I have holes and voids so that is nice and definitely what i was hoping for.
My brother said, whilst cleaning up and glaring pointedly at me, that maybe the reason he's miserable all the time is cos he prioritises housework over "zany adventures" but what he classes as my "zany adventures" that day consisted of taking three cute slugs 'rescued' from my seedlings on my morning walk, and carrying a tire up a 45degree slope after getting stuck in a spiky bush in the evening.
I am definitely going to fail as a gardener because I refuse to kill any bugs. Anyway my lettuces belong to the aphids now.
You either never make sourdough, or you're constantly making sourdough. There's no in between.
I finally managed to eat a (first-party) cookie during a TAG meeting in which we talked about third-party cookies. Nobody mentioned TAG side effects being increased desire to eat cookies all the time.
Gonna make my first sourdough today, which means scheduling my whole day around its needs, apparently.
Homegrown mushrooms on homemade sourdough, with homegrown lettuce leaves and home-sprouted chickpeas. The ultimate lockdown breakfast?
This morning I have one fewer lettuce growing than last night. It's just... gone. I have spent an hour searching and I cannot find the slug. Am I going to have to stay up all night and watch for it?
Okay so it's probably a totally random coincidence and definitely not systematic sexism but I got a letter from the NHS addressed to both me and my brother and even though I'm Dr (clearly superior) and alphabetically first, it's still "Mr and Dr Guy". Edit: Handed the letter to Dave when he got home from work and the first thing he said was "with your impressive title and the fact you did all the work for this, but my name is first? Wtf sexism." So he's raised right.
A walk through Dunnikier Park, litter picking in Dysart harbour, plus the usual ambling around Dysart and Ravenscraig. An exciting walk into town and lunch from Kangus.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
More pictures of daffodils and the beach in the morning. One evening of snow.
Daffodils and morning beach coffees. The first of my seedlings sprouted.
Early mornings on the beach at Dysart. Astonishingly warm. I still can't believe I live here sometimes. Also featuring: many slugs rescued from local lettuce in my kitchen.
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Burgers made from beans, beetroot and seitan. Carrot cake with lemon beet frosting (a bit too sweet). Mixed bean chilli with guacamole. Various pies from youngvegans. Sweet potato and aubergine battered with sourdough discard.
I have a surplus of homemade jams, so made some tarts and expect a lot more of this in the future. Roasted five kinds of broccoli, three grown down the road. More youngvegans pies. Chocolate, coconut, hazelnut cake. Stirfries, Dave's bolognese, "open face" Eastern Europe style stuffed cabbage leaves with wheat groats.
Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Last youngvegans pie. Homemade veggie pizza; long rise, good fluffy crust. Falafel and flatbread from scratch. Not 'real' falafel: few fresh herbs, cooked chickpeas, carrot. Lemon poppyseed drizzle cakes. Haggis with mash and a heap of homegrown greens.
Lowenna came for beach walkies! And made friends with Max. She did her best in the sea. She's so big and sleek now, and distinctly less demonic then when she was tiny.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Oyster mushrooms! Elm, and blue/grey. First pins appeared on the 18th, and they matured and started dropping spores on the 25th. A fast turnaround! Every time I went in the kitchen they had grown some more. I felt like I could see them growing before my eyes. They are the most beautiful things I have ever had a hand in creating. I used kits from urban-farm-it.
Last of the first flush of mushrooms, on homemade sourdough with homegrown salad.
Amy added 37 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
I gently and lovingly harvested the beautiful mushrooms, and later gently and lovingly cut them up and seared them lightly with a little bit of coconut oil and sea salt. My delicious babies.
Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Also I crocheted some little mushroom keychains.
Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Crochet panda hat and shoes for Polly's new baby.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Baby seedlings: radish, lettuce, carrot, parsley. Sprouted in a tiny pot then planted in the windowbox, but kept inside for the time being. Some cute slug frens, gently evicted after demolishing two whole lettuces. Also Project Mushroom began in earnest.
Amy added 13 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
I moved my salad windowbox outside, replanted my tiny carrots into the tyre planter, and sowed chard seeds in there as well. I stacked my other windowbox onto rocks, and planted nasturtiums in there. It didn't take long for my lettuces to all die from wind and sun exposure. The radishes look battered, but I think most of them will pull through. I lost a spring onion as well. I direct sowed bok choy where the lettuces were. The carrots look pathetic, but mostly okay for now. I was given a growbag and two healthy tomato plants and a cucumber, and rigged up some string for the tomatoes to climb against the wall. On Sunday I picked up a bunch more big planters from a Freegler as well... so the path-garden is growing.. Meanwhile in the living room, I made makeshift pots from toilet roll tubes and a plastic bottle for chilis and sweet basil. By the end of the week some of the tubes were germinating, but I couldn't remember which were which. I expect they're basil though. By some miracle the chilli seeds I planted weeks ago - at the same time as the lettuce, radish, carrots and parsley - finally sprouted! I also repotted my older supermarket basil plant and moved it to better sun and it's looking happier again. One of my rosemary cuttings sprouted roots, so that's in a pot now too, and I rearranged my windowsill setup multiple times.
After one false start I finally got a good sourdough starter, and used it to make Ninni's rye bread which is packed full of grains, lentils and seeds, super hearty and delicious. The recipe makes a lot and the overnight rise was so lively it almost escaped, so I ended up with two loaves. This will be great hiking food!
My first ever sourdough! What labour. Started Sunday night, finished Tuesday morning. Had to plan my whole day around it. But it was good.
I made sourdough again Sunday night - Tuesday morning, and sourdough lentil/seedy rye Wednesday night - Friday morning. It turned out basically the same as the last one, which is good, because I didn't change anything. Good with leek and potato soup.
Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
When I first moved here I wished for steps down to my nearest bit of beach, instead of the slippery muddy slope down the verge. One of my neighbours had been thinking about solving this problem for some years, too, and had both expertise and vision to actually do it (unlike me). So with five and a half hours work (including lunch break) and lots of digging and rock hauling, the two of us built these steps. It was deeply satisfying, and they look like they've always been there.
Removed the unnecessarily bulky builtin wardrobe from my bedroom to reclaim the space for better things. Except I guess it's been here since the flat was built, because they didn't bother to finish the floor, walls or ceiling underneath. So now I have new and exciting voids and exposed brickwork. Also the edges don't line up. K gave me some MDF for a temporary floor, but I'm probably going to need a professional to deal with the rest.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Started the day with an hour and a half of picking up rubbish on the beach on the way to West Wemyss. Then found some really beautiful spots in the woods between Dysart and Glenrothes. A pet cemetery, an old bridge, an epic gate, and many wonderful trees. GPS trace.
A pox upon gumtree people who ask "is this still available" then never respond again.
I put my little baby seedlings outside for the first time and they are so small and pathetic I'll worry all night. Dissuaded from sleeping on the path next to them, but I have rigged up a little cardboard tent..
Mostly amazing weather all week, so lots of beach walks. Trekked around Kirkcaldy for various things.. coffee grinder, compost, jars. Also bought an espresso machine that doesn't work >:( (debugging in process) and a bed for Dave that... has a part missing so we can't put it together. Extra TAG meetings, internal Co-op stuff, and where did the week go..? Made sourdough, tarts and cake. My mushrooms are emerging.. One of my rosemary cuttings has roots, so I moved it to a pot, and repotted the basil. I'm up to 7 parsley sprouts. Not sure why they're all coming up a week apart.. Found five more slugs on the bok choi that lives at the base of my avocado plant, but no more damage to radish and lettuce seedlings. Finally got to Kangus! Beach walkies with Lowenna! Finished Star Trek: Lower Decks. Finished Eye, started (against better judgement) Mentats of Dune.
Made sourdough again, and sourdough rye, and lemon cakes; falafel and flatbread; pizza; and other tasty things. Stayed really warm most of the week. Coffee on the beach in the morning is still as magical as the first time. Moved my indoor salad planter to outside, and replanted the carrots in the big tire planter. Promptly lost all four remaining outdoor lettuces to wind and sunburn, alas. Planted bok choy seeds there instead. The radishes look battered, but are growing new leaves and might make it (apart from one). Also planted chard seeds in big pots. Got a bunch more planters and pots from Freegle to expand the footpath-garden. Made my inside windowsill garden more civilised, and some chilli and basil have sprouted! Various plant photos. Walked through the woods on the way to Glenrothes, up to an ancient bridge. Picked up lots of rubbish on the way. Had an exciting trip to B&Q for yet more compost. Mushrooms grew dramatically and started dropping spores. So beautiful. Harvested and ate them! Amazing. Also crocheted a mushroom.
Made some tasty things, including a great rye bread. Filled some holes with compost for courgettes. Helped to build some steps down to the beach, which is an improvement on the muddy steep slope I'd been using til now, and was immensely fun and satisfying. Removed my built in wardrobe, revealing exciting new ceiling, floor and wall holes. Tests for BODS. Spent a bunch of money on fire safety related things, like a real adult.
Liberated some raspberry plants for the greater good. Replanted my radish and lettuce seedlings into the windowbox, but that's staying inside until it's less arctic out. Aphids immediately moved into the lettuces. Later in the week, a lettuce disappeared completely, and the following night another one did. Set up a defensive perimeter with sand and rosemary, and conducted extensive searches, eventually gently rehoming a total of thirteen slugs. Garden related photos. Also planted nasturtiums in the windowbox outside, hopefully they wait a couple of weeks to sprout until it's no longer intermittently freezing. Did some TAG things to do with First Party Sets. Finished painting the hallway. Crocheted some things. Started Star Trek: Lower Decks. It's so good. Misc gardening, replanting, hole digging. Trekked to West Wemyss along the beach picking up tons of rubbish on the way. It snowed.
When one person mutes someone else in a video call it should make a "shh" sound to the person being muted.
The early starts and late finishes and squeezing the day job into the gap in the middle were a lot, but I really enjoyed this week's virtual TAG face-to-face. Productive, and fun! Can't wait til we can do it in three dimensions though.
Get more coffee, go for a pee, be on time for the next meeting. Choose any two of the three.
Made a dish with multiple kinds of mushrooms in tonight, so if me and Dave get sick later we won't know if it's the ones I grew myself in my kitchen, or the ones I picked from the woods earlier. Exciting!
One day of heavy rain has decimated my footpath garden. I've covered everything, but too late for most. I miss when slugs were stealing my lettuces in my living room..
A warm week with longer and longer morning beach coffees. Also one evening sitting on a rock under the supermoon, with the tide further out than I've ever seen it. Also pictured: takeaway from Koku Shi because of Co-op NoGM.
Amy added 45 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
A couple of days of strong winds and lashing rain. Big waves completely rearranged the beach, almost burying the rock I sit on in the morning. Nothing to teach you anicca like the sea. A day in Glenrothes, mostly raining, but the sun blissfully came out in time for me to eat my lunch in a stone circle in the middle of a housing estate. Glenrothes is surprisingly pleasantly walkable. The photo of me is making chapati in the Greener Kirkcaldy Lang Spoon community kitchen.
Amy added 25 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
The Cloud Garden. The most beautiful gift I have ever been given. It contains three orchids, a bromeliad (alien pink thing), mosses from local woods, and various rootless air plants.
Day one of walk to St Andrews: Dysart to Dumbarnie Links.
Day two of the walk to St Andrews: Dumbarnie Links to Anstruther.
Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-walkstandrews/
Day three of the walk to St Andrews: Anstruther to Kingsbarns.
Amy added 75 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-walkstandrews/
Day four of the walk to St Andrews: Kingsbarns to St Andrews.
Amy added 86 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-walkstandrews/
Dave took down his fitted cupboards. There were no fantastical wall voids like in my room, thankfully, but we did find a creepy haunted baby photo.
Misc quiet beach time. And a trip to Edinburgh to try on a wetsuit (too small), pick up Chinese supermarket groceries (many kilos) and take meetings in Ewan's office (Tara helped). Dave tested his wetsuit. The kayak arrived and we played shed tetris to get it in.
Glorious mornings and evenings on the beaches. Can't believe I live here. Found an excellent crate. Finally picked a bathroom sink cabinet at Furniture Plus.
I made wholewheat bread using lovingitvegan's deeply suspicious recipe. 100% wholewheat? 20 minute rise? Surely not. That'll be like cake bread. I subbed in 1/3 strong white flour and let it rise for an hour (but that was because of a meeting). It overflowed and stuck to the tea towel. I managed to salvage the top, and the texture and taste were great! Perfect crumb for sandwiches. I also added flaxseed for cronch. I made a raw cashew cheesecake, which was a bit too sweet for my taste (too much agave) but other people enjoyed it. Swirled through with homemade berry compote, and the crust is my patented whatever-nuts-i-have-lying-around with dates and flaxseed; added some coconut flour to this one. Also a great many jam tarts, and lentil moussaka.
Not every sourdough story is a success story. I used a different recipe, with more starter, to try to get a more sour loaf. Several things went wrong: I fed my starter for two nights and it should have been ready, but it wasn't. I proceeded anyway, knowingly, but impatient. I subbed in a bunch of dark rye flour because I had it left, but didn't amend anything else. Rookie error. The dough was clearly too wet throughout. I couldn't handle it. Sticky and annoying. Didn't line the tins. I was baking late, and tired! Fool. Overcooked them slightly. This and the last point meant.. it took me half an hour to chip them out of the tins (which I did the next morning). Didn't steam the oven, so the crust is soft not crunchy. Despite all that, they looked pretty (before I dismantled them to get them out of the tins) and taste okay and have big bubbles, but in between the bubbles is dense and gooey. Still okay with soup or stew. Better luck next time. I also made sugar-free banana peanut cakes, put compote and coconut yoghurt or coconut cream on lots of things, ate shittons of homegrown broccoli and salad leaves, made shepherd's pie.
Apple crumble cake; paltry second flush of mushrooms; rhubarb crumble; omelette;
Many many flapjack experiments. Dave made some excellent meals including top notch burger and mapo tofu. Made seven rhubarb crumbles. All at once. There is too much rhubarb, send help. Dad came for one night and we had haggis, and crumble and custard.
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
A peanut mushroom dish with oyster mushrooms I grew in my kitchen, jelly ear mushrooms from the woods in St Andrews, and white mushrooms from the market. Survived. Also peanut and berry compote tarts with a pretty spectacular coconut flour pastry.
Basil and bok choy seeds sprouted. Repotted parsley. Footpath garden was hit pretty hard by strong winds and hail, but my runt radish is doing the best!
Crocheted a chunky hat from scraps of freegle yarn to wear when I'm swimming in the sea.
Zoomed to Burntisland on the bus for a Grain and Sustain run. Then helped K rescue an amazing bath that was being thrown out down her street. We wheeled it back to be used as a herb garden. If that wasn't enough action for one day, I hung out on ladder duty while she cleared ivy from the shed roof, and later had to hop a fence into a school field with the ladder to perform an elaborate rescue onto more accessible ground.
Second flush of mushrooms is not looking good. One small clump, a funny colour, and a couple of sets of aborted pins, and little movement anywhere else.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
The third flush of mushrooms! From both bags. Not as good as the first, but better that the second.
Amy added 16 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
A glorious gallivant with K around the coast to the East Neuk. We visited a lovely secondhand shop. I bought a wetsuit in Elie, then we went to the recently restored Victorian sea pool in Pittenweem for a bracing swim. In Pittenweem we also found vegan cornish pasties and fantastic fancy chocolates and hot chocolate. The chippy alas was closed but we were saved by the chippy in Elie. We ate in the scenic grounds of a BT exchange because it was too much hassle to find a space to pull up at the coast, and were rewarded with bunnies and cool spiders.
Harvested a sorry second flush of mushrooms. Potted basil and parsley; seedling corner in the living room is out of hand again.
Mushrooms ready to harvest when I got back; and inkycap mushrooms growing with my tomato seedling are weird. A hungarian hot pepper finally sprouted.
Amy added 13 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Day 1: Dysart to Dumbarnie Links We covered about 19 miles on the first day. Dysart to Leven is familiar territory; we powered along in record time. When we stopped for a break under the bridge between Buckhaven and Leven, we found a surprisingly good agate in the riverbed. I lost Max's ball, and hit my head on the bridge. At Lundin Links we spent more time looking for agates (and found a couple). We camped at Dumbarnie Links, among the dunes. Tired and achey after the longest walk in a while. It was plenty warm enough, but I slept terribly. All photos from Dysart to Dumbarnie Links. Day 2: Dumbarnie Links to Anstruther In the morning, we took it easy. Walked out to a little island that was accessible with the tide out. It was beautiful, with wildflowers and rocks and soft grass. Someone had planted an orange flag on a cairn at the end. We sat on the grass, in the sun, and threw the ball for Max. We headed off towards Elie. We couldn't do the whole Chain Walk with the backpacks and Max, but I scrambled about half of it before we turned back. The next stop was a hidden concrete bunker hideout. It smelled of wee, but the views were amazing. Next stop: Elie. We got great chips for lunch (Lincolnshire potatoes), and spent ages searching for rubies (garnet) at Elie Ruby Bay. I had a nap in the sun. We found lots of not-rubies, then gave them all away. It rained on and off, and we continued on to Pittenweem. Both the chippy and bakery were closed. I got Irn Bru sorbet from the ice cream shop at the harbour, which was a regrettable choice. Boosted by sugar, we powered on to Anstruther, and had our second meal of chips. It started to rain as we came out of Cellardyke, and we pitched the tent just in time. All photos from Dumbarnie Links to Anstruther. Day 3: Anstruther to Kingsbarns It was raining torrentially in the morning. We waited it out until about noon. The rain got lighter but didn't stop, and there was no way we could dry the tent before packing it up. It wasn't far to Crail, where I got vegan sausage rolls from GH Barnett's bakery. The rain continued. We hid at various stages in huts on golf courses, or in caves. We walked through Kilminning wildlife reserve, then followed the coastal path inland for a while to cross a river over a bridge. We returned to the coast at Kingsbarns, and walked until we found a spot that looked like it wouldn't get a lot of foot traffic to pitch the tent. It stopped raining for a while. We camped on a beautiful golden beach. The coastal path in this area is gorgeously rugged. All photos from Anstruther to Kingsbarns. Day 4: Kingsbarns to St Andrews We left late, around 10, waiting for the rain to ease off a bit. Everything was damp. Max was raring to go. We took our time, stopping to enjoy the scenery and look at rocks. Red beaches and rugged coves covered most of the rest of the route. Max plunged into the sea with all his gear on and got soaked. We picked up a few fossils to take home. It was okay, cos we'd eaten most of the rye bread, and weight was about equivalent. We scrambled around Buddo rock, with just about the last of our energy. The final stretch contained really more steps and hills than was polite. We got to St Andrews about 3pm. I got a double espresso, which was divine. We canvassed the high street, asking locals for their opinions about chippys, then went to Tailend which was cheaper with bigger portions. We ate in a little park. Somehow summoned energy to walk around the cathedral grounds. I wasn't quite ready for the trip to end yet, despite the exhaustion, so we looked for a quiet spot to city camp. After a slight detour throug a school field and over a wall or two, we found a spot in some woods by a river. It was raining by the time we got the tent up again, and few people were walking along the trail. We fell asleep to the sound of the river. The next morning we picked some jelly ear, and got to the bus station just in time to catch the X60 home. All photos from Kingsbarns to St Andrews.
One bag of mushrooms yielded one clump. The other bag tried and failed :( Too much bok choy sprouted, trying to spread it around. Repotted a ton of basil that grew from seeds. Salvaged the stray tomato that sprouted at the base of the avocado plant and potted it up. Most of the replacement cucumbers I bought from B&Q look like they aren't going to survive, for unknown reasons. Apple cake, rhubarb crumble, and other things. Made many omelettes in the Lang Spoon kitchen. Been about 6 years since I cracked an egg.. Started making decisions about bathrooms, changing my mind, acquired some stuff. TAG not-face-to-face from early mornings to late evenings, with Co-op in between. Somehow. Recovered with a fantastic weekend of gallivanting. Went around the coast to Elie and Pittenweem, bought a wetsuit, swam in the sea pool, visited interesting little shops; rescued an excellent bath from the dump and rehomed it in K's garden; then 'helped' with clearing ivy of her shed roof. The kayak finally came! I can't lift it myself. Finally watched the 1984 Dune movie (over two nights). I quite enjoyed it, though I can see how to people who haven't read the books it is probably completely incoherent. I'm still slogging through Mentats of Dune.
Weather got back to gorgeous (with intermittent showers/hail). Third flush of mushrooms is looking more promising! Lost quite a bit of basil and some of the parsley, and relocated bok choy isn't looking very happy. Rhubarb has come to life, and chard are growing fast. Moved my chillis to warmer climes (aka the polytunnel down the road) for a while. Bought kale, leeks, lettuce and more cucumbers from Kirkcaldy Garden Center. Found a big plastic crate on the beach. I'm sure this'll come in handy. Dad came for one night to scope the bathrooms situation. And helped me to acquire a sink and cupboard unit from Freegle. Conducted many flapjack experiments, and made seven crumbles. Made lots of focaccia at the Community Kitchen. Caught up on Standards Lab.. ish. Had a survey for an air-source heat pump.. will find out in a couple of weeks if I've been accepted onto the scheme. Finally got the holes in my bedroom walls and ceiling plastered up! Started walking to St Andrews, with no network connection and logs turned off.. Day one was Dysart to Dumbarnie; day two was Dumbarnie to Anstruther.
Concluded walking to St Andrews from Dysart: day 3 Anstruther to Kingsbarns; day 4 Kingsbarns to St Andrews. Four days of walking, with a couple of mornings waiting out rain, no particular hurry, and wild camping among the dunes. Plants were still okay when I got back. A new chilli sprouted! Dave harvested the third flush of oyster mushrooms, which were ready while I was away. Did mostly internal Co-op stuff. Weather got really warm again at the end of the week. Cue gardening and more time on the beach. Made mushroom things and fancy tarts. The cloud garden.
Joined the AC meeting. Little bit of DID spec stuff. Planted out broccoli and rhubarb. Spending longer and longer on the beach in the mornings.. And an evening under the supermoon. Co-op quarterly meeting, aka NoGM. Multiple failed attempts to rehome my old sofas. Desperate not to send them to landfill. Got to see JB in 3 dimensions! We hung out in K's garden. Made wholewheat bread. Went surprisingly well. And a cashew not-cheesecake.
Sanded the plaster covering my wall/ceiling voids, sealed it with PVA, painted two coats of white. Rearranged the flat to make my room a guest room and put the hammock and my stuff in the living room. Got trapped in the shed under Dave's bike and the kayak for a bit, at 7am. Managed to rescue myself eventually. Made ten pizzas in the Community Kitchen. Crocheted a hat. Dad and Ruth came to visit. Spent subsequent days running around on bathroom errands, and feeding and entertaining them. Finally ordered showers and taps. Tiles and terrible panelling in the main bathroom have come out. Bought art (among other things) from Furniture Plus. Rescued beach bricks, and filled a beach crate with compost for a new planter. Planted radishes, chicory, land cress and panseys. Potted up a giant thistle Dad brought, as well as the mystery plant I picked up from G&S the other week. Took my stronger looking basils and parsleys outside during the day to get used to fresh air. Hungarian hot pepper number 2 sprouted. Lost more parsley, and about to give up on the last hanging on lettuces on the windowsill inside. Made a really good quiche, ginger cake, various things with rhubarb.
Second flush of mushrooms has begun, hesitantly. Sudden strong wind/rain/hail decimated my plants. We'll see who survives. Chard and bok choy sprouted though. Bathroom renovation related panicking. Took a day off work to go tour Glenrothes on the bus to visit bathroom related hardware shops (and pick up some Freegle things). Did a bathroom 3D design at B&Q. Made a spreadsheet. Dave took down his fitted cupboards. Not too major disaster underneath. A few holes to patch. Some work on Standards Lab again. Started at the Lang Spoon Community Kitchen. Made chapati over the open flame on the stove. Super fun. Finally rehomed my old sofas. Hopefully they are put to good use. Helped to make raspberry plant supports from scavenged fence posts. Tried a different sourdough recipe, to make a more sour one. It did not go well. It was too sticky to handle, I overcooked it slightly and had to spend half an hour getting it out of the trays. It tastes okay but is dense and chewy. Editorial DID spec stuff.
I went to vote at 0730 yesterday. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be there, but got stuck behind a line of nuns.
Early morning routine of touring various Kirkcaldy industrial estates with my Dad in the van every other day is developing.
I just caught a slug on my orchids because I heard it chomping, over various not insubstantial background noises.
My latest mushroom pins have all aborted, my sourdough starter went mouldy in the fridge, and I rescued my inside tomato from a giant slug this morning.
Put art on my walls. Unprecedented level of settling in.
Deconstructing the old, slightly gross, bathroom, with a hammer. Fortunately the tiles came down easily without too much disruption to the underlying plasterboard. And then work begins on putting new tiles up.
I learned to grout, and grouted a lot. Also spent much time cleaning dried on adhesive off all of the tiles (grumble). The sink, shower, and toilet got plumbed in, the shower screen up, the floor down, and a new bath panel made from fragments of the old one plus flooring. It's almost there.
Finally resolved the void! After the plaster had dried, I sealed with with diluted PVA and gave it two coats of white paint. Then turfed all of my stuff (all two bags of it) out of my room and moved the hammock to the living room, and transformed it into something that looks more like an actual bedroom, for guest use this month.
A secondhand TV cabinet from Furniture Plus, transformed into a bathroom sink unit. I sanded it down (much more work than anticipated, despite help from friends and tools) then re-varnished it a darker colour. Also boosted the height by a couple of inches with some scrap wood. Dad did the work of making the holes for the sink, and plumbing it all in.
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
H and R separately spotted mushrooms growing out of a tree in Ravenscraig Park. They're dryads saddle - delicious. The next day, a trip through the woods near Wemyss yielded a lot more of them, but we wait a bit to see how they grow.
Amy added 29 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A family trip to Dunkeld & Birnam, one of my favourite villages. We walked to the 'hall of mirrors' to see the waterfall, and ate a fancy meal in the pub.
Amy added 45 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202106-dunkeld/
Summer in Dysart. Dad and Ruth came to visit. Lunch in Anderson's.
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Amy added 35 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Ginger cake that's "just like mcvities". I followed a recipe to achieve this, which involved a lot of sugar (caster, golden syrup, molasses). But it went down well with the family. A full size quiche for the first time using chickpea flour batter. It was quite soft inside, but tasted great, and my pastry was fab (as usual). Also featured: a rhubarb and blueberry cake with coconut cream and rhubarb banana jam in the middle; a standard shepherd's pie, the dish I make when I need to feed a crowd but have no energy left.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Cooking for four, stretching me to my limits, but a vegan fryup for three with limited stove space is the kind of logistical challenge I love to solve. Also made a fancy pasta with spelt shells, sweet potato coconut sauce, roasted nuts and green veg. Multiple crumbles, and rhubarb jelly. At the Community Kitchen: many flatbreads, plus vegan cheddar (that had not set when I left; not sure how it turned out).
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Lots of extra people in the flat, so lots of extra food. Lemon pie, apricot cake, pancakes, haggis/neeps/tatties and other meals for the family. Lasagne at Community Kitchen. DIY birthday cake in a jar for K. Sourdough with H's Greenland starter.
Many calzones in Community Kitchen. Teriyaki dryad's saddle steak (with sticky rice, asparagus, tomatoes) was a big hit. Plus made (some to freeze) several other dryad's saddle dishes: with noodles, broccoli and peanut sauce; with coconutty curry; with tomato and Italian spices; with Chinese spices and jelly ear; simple stir fry. Also made chocolate brownies, rice pudding, lasagne.
Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
My sister spotted a large and interesting bracket fungus in Ravenscraig Park, and I soon learned this is Dryad's Saddle, aka Pheasantsback. It's edible so long as it's soft. R and I went questing to our nearby woods, and found loads more! Some of it was small, so we left it to grow a bit. But went home with absolutely tons. The taste is bland but the texture is excellent and it takes up whatever you cook it with, so it's fab for marinading, even just in soy sauce, or putting in a stew. It smells mildly of cucumber. If you leave it out, or even in the fridge for too long after picking, it'll fill up with worms, so it's best to process and cook it as soon as possible.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Back to the woods to see how the dryad's saddle are doing. They grew! We harvested a shit ton. We've taken to referring to the trees which have an abundance as "dryad's fountains". We also found a cluster of nice oysters on a precarious log, and some jelly ear mushrooms too. Plus, lots that I don't know and are probably not edible.
Amy added 37 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Stacked a beach crate on beach bricks and filled it with compost to expand my garden even further. Planted radishes, chicory and land cress in it. A second hungarian hot pepper sprouted in the loo roll seed trays on my windowsill! But it looks a bit unwell.
Amy added 3 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
New things sprouted (chicory, land cress and radishes in the crate) and other things are growing! Tomatoes are maybe looking bushier, and kale and broccoli and chard certainly are. Bok choy looks spindly but doing its best. Some basil and a couple of parsley are going to make it. Planted out a new cucumber (who had a head start in the polytunnel) to replace the one that died. Very proud of my runt radish, who is now the best of the bunch. The alien orchid has sprung two beautiful purple flowers! The mushroom pins that popped up at the start of the week aborted. Chopped up the substrate of the healthiest (most populous) looking bag and layered into new substrate for a second round of incubation. Put the other bag in a compost bin. So let's see if they go anywhere.
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
We let a radish go to seed, and it is getting massive. In my footpath garden, chard and broccoli are looking bushy. Attempt 2 at bok choi sprouted.
A giant Scottish thistle has joined my footpath garden. And sprouted a mushroom. Things are growing. Caught a loud orchid slug.
Surprise (to Dad, not to me) visit from H.
Beach ambling, and H's departure after sibling lunch at Koku Shi.
More summer in Dysart. Fancy dinner with Dad and Ruth in the Duchess.
A morning swim from Dysart beach with Dad. An afternoon jaunt to Largo.
On a late night wander through Ravenscraig Park, we found chicken of the woods! I spotted it! I knew it was important even though I'd never seen it before. A lower down bigger one was a bit old, but we harvested it. A higher up smaller one that was young so we left it to grow. We proceeded to a small woodland in the middle of Kirkcaldy, and found some oyster mushrooms! We filled up a box, and well pleased with ourselves, thought that although it was getting late, we should probably do a quick scout of the rest of the surrounding area to see what else was about. Then we had a mushroom emergency. Multiple logs, absolutely bursting with beautiful oyster mushrooms, in perfect condition for harvesting. But we were at capacity! It was getting dark! What to do?! I phoned for backup. K gracefully interrupted here evening to come and rescue us with a car and several large boxes. What a night! We picked as many as we could, and were up late cleaning them. Two days later we returned to pick what we'd left because it was too young, or we just couldn't fit it. And got another massive load. Processing oysters is a lot of work, and they really really need to be sorted quickly or they fill up with worms like the dryad's saddle. But worse. So we bottled litres and litres of three kinds of mushroom soup, stock, and cooked batches more to turn into pie filling and freeze. Plus, we ate loads of them too.
Amy added 47 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
The Cloud Garden, looking lovely.
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Slug damage on the orchids. But new purple flowers on the bromeliad.
Outing to the Pittenweem sea pool, and the chocolate shop of course.
Took Dad and Ruth to the craft fair in West Wemyss. It wasn't very exciting, but they were happy. I walked back along the beach while they took the bus.
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Rate of orchid decimation has finally decreased from 2-3 slugs per day to 0-1 slugs per day.
rhiaro 2020: I have exactly one 35L backpack of stuff, am attached to none of it, and the idea of more is horrifying. [ [ pandemic ] ] rhiaro 2021: would you like to come and look at my collection of oil paintings in the flat that I am renovating? (I don't actually have a collection of oil paintings.. yet.. I'm thinking about buying a couple though.)
Took the week off Co-op, and still hardly coping with work. Did lots of grouting; started staining bathroom sink cabinet. Made flatbreads and boxed up lasagne and stovies in Community Kitchen. My cashew cheese never set, but made great cannelloni filling. Pulled up all the flowering bok choy, sewed new seeds, and they sprouted already. Most other things are doing well. Slugs are eating my orchids!! Outside basil is very unhappy. Went on a sofa adventure with K, then on our way out of town got distracted by a charity plant sale! Bought two more chilli plants. Went to the amazing Kirkcaldy car boot sale. Helped to clean the steps up to the main Dysart bus stop. Various gardening, and warm evening walks along the coast. H came to visit! We went on adventure to Pittenweem to swim in the sea pool and drink hot chocolate. Made almond apricot cake; haggis, neeps and tatties for the family; various food for lots of people; and started a rye with some of the Greenland Summit Station sourdough starter!
Got up at 4am to watch sunrise on the solstice. It was overcast and rainy for the first time in weeks, but the sky went a bit pink. Adventure to Dunkeld & Birnam with the siblings. Walked too much. Finally finished my bathroom sink cabinet upcycle. Foraged dryad's saddle mushrooms! And cooked a ton with them. A bug is eating my chard leaves. Bathroom: heated towel rail is up, shower is installed, new bath taps are on, floor is down, sink is plumbed in! Rory came for a visit, a swim in the sea, and to look for mushrooms.
More mushrooms pinned but aborted. Relocated the mushrooms mush to new substrate and a compost bin for further experimentation. Sourdough starter went mouldy (but my backup starter is fine). Crate planter radishes, chicory and land cress sprouted. Planted a new cucumber. Everything else seems to be growing at last! Discovered RISE by Willow. Made lots of good food. Vegan cheese and 23 flatbreads at Community Kitchen. Got my covid vaccine! No side effects apart from sore arm and muzzy head the next day (which might have been the usual Friday afternoon feeling). Took Ruth on various Fife jaunts. Took Dad on trips to Screwfix (etc). Went in the sea twice (no wetsuit). Bought more art, and put it on the walls. Bathroom tiling progresses... I am learning to grout. Finished sanding the sink cabinet. Started on some shelves. Slow, but looking good. Read a lot of things but don't feel like I did any actual work; barely keeping my head above water.
First vandalism of my garden yesterday. Someone tried to yank off some rhubarb. They failed, but partly detached the stem and wrecked the leaf.
Boletes in the Cairngorms and in Perth. Started learning some specifics - slippery jack, larch bolete, orange/brown birch, scarletina, lurid...
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A couple of nights camping in the Cairngorms. It was one of the hottest weekends of the year, which is a good time to go to the Highlands, but the midges were out and they were hungry. We had a late afternoon start, so the first night we ended up pitching the tent a bit after dark which was not ideal. After several hours walking, we found a good camping spot where the paths forked by a stream under shade of some trees in the early afternoon, and left the tent there. After the sun had peaked, we climbed Beinn a'Bhuird and looked for smoky quartz crystals. On the way back to the tent we took a "shortcut" which led to a fight through undergrowth taller than me. The next day we skirted around the base of Beinn a'Bhuird, enjoying the landscape and flora, then packed up and walked back more or less the way we came. On the way we found a beautiful stream for a swim. Max made it his mission to grab every single rock and take them out of the riverbed. Chips in the evening from Blairgowrie, which has been promoted to my new favourite Perthsire village (Dunkeld & Birnam is down to number 2). The chippy has a full vegan menu! And it has the tallest hedge in the world!
Amy added 120 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202107-cairngorms-perth/
Dad returned, and started dismantling the ensuite with a hammer. The shower fitting is nonstandard, the sink waste runs uphill, and the stepladder went through a rotten bit of floorboard. But the shower wall we wanted to remove came out just fine, and most of the material from it was fit to be repurposed to re-enclose the upstairs pipes that needed to be boxed in again.
K and I went to an open garden and plant sale in Falkland. It mostly poured down, so we marched around in raincoats and wellies, before retreating to Pillars of Hercules for coffee and cake. We did manage to buy some plants though.
Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Not long before mushroom porridge made an appearance. Made huge amounts of mushroom soup, too, and bottled a lot of it. Mushroom stir fries, mushroom pasta. Mushrooms in sandwiches and mushrooms in pies. Eventually gave up and just boiled and bottled the rest. Chocolate cakes for Community Kitchen. Berry compote swirl cake for me (and friends).
Amy added 38 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Several varieties of mushroom pate, with sunflower seeds as the base/binder. Attempted sticky bbq mushrooms andn a mushroom pizza of course. Mushroom burgers with homemade bread and homegrown salad. More mushroom porridge and pastas. Compote muffins; cake for Community Kitchen.
Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Mixed mushroom stirfry, mushroom tempura, mushroom scramble, mushroom chilli in wraps, mushroom bolognese with penne. A courgette choc chip cake, plus lemon drizzle for Community Kitchen.
Homemade sushi. Courgette choc chip cake for Community Kitchen and blackcurrent cake and muffins for home. Mushroom stew. Spanish omelettes (with mushrooms), Foragers' pie (Shepherd's pie but with mushrooms), mushrooms on toast...
Back to the Dryad's' Fountain for another go at the ones that have grown. Also found more fountains. Some were pretty high, but with the ingenious invention of a knife tied to a stick with a dogpoo bag, we managed to get some. The ones I couldn't catch (most of them) crashed to the ground in a mushroom apocalypse. We also packed the dryer with oyster mushrooms.
Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Back to the oyster woods for another evening of harvesting an unseemly quantity of oyster mushrooms. Stayed up late again processing them. Again.
Amy added 31 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Back again to the oyster woods. This is getting out of hand. Bottled loads to preserve for stock and cooking with in future. Filled the dryer over again. Also went to check on the chicken of the woods in Ravenscraig, doesn't seem to be growing.
Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Some of the oyster mushrooms are just breathtakingly beautiful little things. Makes you just want to pickle 'em. (We did.) Also got more dryad's saddle!
A bus trip for a foray in some woods near Aberdour. The chanterelles are up, but we're a bit early and only got a handful. Also found an aging chicken of the woods! Saw my first stinkhorn, and plenty of others that I don't know (yet).
Amy added 48 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Back to Aberdour woods for more chanterelles, but they hadn't grown much. We think not enough rain. Also found interesting boletes and other things.
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
This week's mushroom of the week is russulas! It's a 50-50 chance whether they're tasty or bitter. To find out, nibble the edge and wait a minute or two to see if it goes hot and peppery on your tongue. The good ones don't. Spit it out either way - don't swallow raw wild mushrooms. If you get a good one, it's worse than a 50-50 chance if it's already been eaten to distruction by something else - slugs, deer, flies, everything loves them. But if you get a good one - they're delicious! Full of deep flavours. Fry them up on toast with minimal seasoning. And they come in all kinds of lovely colours. We got a great boxfull from the edge of the oyster woods. And more oysters, of course.
First cucumber! Chillis are looking great. Various leaves are thriving. Purple flowers grow up the side of the bromeliad, working their way towards the top. Plus: mushroom update... chopped up my spent straw substrate and mixed it with grain, into new bags, which are being re-incubated.
Nasturtiums are flowering. Wow they're bright! Damage to the rhubarb. Chillis are looking amazing.
Tomatoes and cucumbers are developing. Picked a radish and a banana chilli and broccoli. Extended the footpath garden with a new planter made of old wood and washed up fishing crates..
Beets, turnips, and the mega radish (pulled out to dry for seed pods, now it has taken over the entire polytunnel).
Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Emerging new oyster mushrooms from remixed substrate.
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The oyster mushrooms are growing fast. Many of them, but they're a bit of a funny shape.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
After a few more days, they're big enough to eat. Some of them are leggy.. I think not enough air circulation?
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Cucumber, carrots and broccoli from my footpath garden. Banana chillis from the polytunnel. Shitloads of rhubarb; other root veg and courgettes from the garden.
That one time I managed to get out on the kayak. I retrieved a ball that a dog couldn't get. Photos by Dave, most of them from his own kayak adventure down to Wemyss.
Amy added 75 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Dysart beaches and a couple of pics from an Aberdour foray.
Amy added 3 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
A wee Perthshire (and thereabouts) adventure. Water from Scotlandwell, a deep and clear natural spring. A wander around the shore of Loch Leven, which was too full of blue algae for swimming. Walk through wild orchards in Perth, along the river, through the heather gardens, over to the island. Found some boletes, possibly lurid or scarletina, but they were too old. I've never been to Perth before. On a hot sunny day, with the river-beaches and beautiful treeline, it really felt like one of several eastern european cities. I didn't actually go into the city center though.
Amy added 48 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202107-cairngorms-perth/
Found some beautiful yew in R's shed. Sanded it down, treated it, filled borer holes, and oiled it about six times over the course of a couple of weeks. Bought, by accident, unfinished steel brackets off ebay. So I had to spraypaint them black. Finally it all came together into bathroom shelves. Which Dave promptly covered with all of his mysterious potions.
I shaved my head again last week and now all I see when I see my shadow is:
The chanterelles are up. Got a handful, the rest aren't ready yet. Also some kg of a different - better - kind of oysters, and a bit of slightly aged chicken of the woods. Two forays this week. Wander around Aberdour. Cooked many more mushroom things. Made lemon drizzle cake at Community Kitchen. Trying to get back on top of TAG work. Lots of internal Co-op stuff. Finally sealed my bathroom and cleaned stray adhesive and grout off the tiles. Put the beautiful shelves up! Beach sunrises and gardening...
My Dad left, and I finally have my bedroom back. Feels like I've moved house and the flat is so much bigger. Also the bathroom is more or less finished, though I have some things to finish off myself. Unbelievable epic mushroom quest success. The motherlode on Monday and back to clean up the rest on Wednesday. Extremely loads of time cleaning, slicing, drying, cooking mushrooms. Bottled like 18 litres of oyster mushroom soup, three varieties, and I made a ton of mushroom pies. Made three vegan chocolate cakes at the Community Kitchen. Privacy TF kickoff. Back to work at the Co-op... lots of catching up with people. Things are growing. Finally oiled my bathroom shelves. Also started constructing a frame to make a tiered planter out of fishing crates.. Adventure to an open gardens in Falkland, plus my first visit to Pillars of Hercules. Shaved my head. It was either that or get a hair brush.
Went foraging for mushrooms more times. Walked miles, and actually started cycling and wearing my glasses too. Got kilos of dryads, oysters and also jelly ear. Spent much time cleaning, processing and cooking mushrooms. For some reason. Flowers in the garden.. concern for the orchids. Made cake at Community Kitchen, and many mushroom things. Walkies and beach time. Caught up with Edinburgh PhD friends!
Little caterpillars in my kale, your clever camouflage somewhat backfires when you're hiding from someone who only tries to find you in order to not eat you.
The cucumber situation is getting out of hand. All hail our cucumber overlords. Eight out of eleven of my chillis are now bearing fruit! Also courgettes, beets, broad beans. Tomatoes are ripening. Planted some less functional but pretty things in my crate planter to make the place look more presentable.
Dad came back. I took him to Furniture Plus, and against all odds we got a chaise long into his car. Also to Harbourmaster's Cafe.
Sunshine in Edinburgh. Wander around Murrayfield, mushrooms in Dalry Cemetery, lunch on the Meadows. A long run up Arthur's Seat.
Amy added 38 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202108-edi/
Afternoon in Edinburgh to see B&J. Food from Seeds for the Soul and Black Rabbit, and a nice sit on the Meadows.
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202108-edi/
Work on the ensuite uncovered an exciting floor void, and rotten floorboards that the step ladder fell through. Tiles went up, a new floor went down, toilet from ebay and sink unit from Freegle were installed, and existing towel rail was moved. The wooden shelf was yet another piece of beautiful wood, ash this time, scavenged from R's shed, that was almost exactly the right dimensions already, and I sanded down and varnished it. Dad left, and I repainted the walls with white bathroom paint. Two weeks later Dad came back, and installed the heated towel rail to replace the radiator, and fitted a new ceiling as the old one was rotting a bit. The mirror had been an issue as the window interfered with the space above the sink, and we need one that works for people between 5 and 6.5 feet tall. Astonishingly at the last moment I picked up a mirror with a frame to match the shelf from the secondhand furniture shop for £3 with a swivel stand, so we bolted that to the windowsill and it was perfect.
I needed a cabinet to cover an unsightly pipe in the ensuite. I thought I'd have to modify something, but I found this fantastic thing in Castle Furniture in Glenrothes. It has already been modified, so the base fit perfectly over the pipe, and perfectly in the gap available. I'll paint it white, but I also look forward to Dave's deeply offended reaction when he sees the farmyard animals.
Amy added 1 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
I walked all the way into town for one specific thing, which I did not achieve. But in some random grass near the train station I found a bunch of good russulas, and loads of field mushrooms. So, not a completely wasted journey.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Espresso machine started working! Mushrooms, fried, grilled, gooped. Mushroom and spinach muffins (not a hit). Berry cakes and apple crumble muffins.
Carrot muffins in Community Kitchen. Soft chocolate cookies and berry pies and crumbles at home. More mushroom pies and mushroom burgers.
Not-sausage (and mushroom) caserole. Soups, burgers. Waffle's with R's waffle press. Wild berries for berry and applie pies. Chocolate coconut cake with ganache.
Chanterelles and boletes! On toast, in pasta, on pizza, in chilli.
Breaded chicken of the woods is the absolute best! Battered puffballs are a juicy explosion. Grilled hen of the woods goes black and blue with a rich taste. Made some things with boletes and chanterelles and oysters too. Froze mushroom lasagnes and chicken-of-the-woods and sweetcorn soup. And bottled more when making actually dishes got too much. Chocolate cake at Community Kitchen. Courgette choc chip cake at home.
Amy added 41 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Fried chicken of the woods, and chicken of the woods parmigiana. Also scones.
A very successful afternoon of mushroom foraging around Kirkcaldy-adjacent woodlands, and Aberdour. Featuring: Many different russulas, nibbled on site to decide whether to keep them. A variety of boletes in reasonable condition, mostly yellow/orange cracked, and a few brown birch. My first porcini! A bolete with a brown cap and a fat red stem. It could have been a lurid or a scarletina, but we left it. We got one mature one that after triple checking is definitely a scarletina. A good haul of chanterelles. What we thought were puffballs, but turned out to all be earthballs when we got them home. Most common cause of poisonings in the UK, I expect because the rule of thumb is earthballs are dark inside and puffballs are white. But actually some earthballs can be cream and it's easy to think you have a puffball. But the giveaway is the texture - earthballs are much firmer. Lots of blushers spotted (poisonous). A variety of to-be-identified mushrooms, including some funnel caps and milky caps.
Amy added 64 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Foraging in the local oak woods. Today's find of the day is beefsteak fungus! An absolutely gory bracket mushroom, with a solid, fleshy texture, veins and oozing red blood. Plenty of russulas and blushers around, too.
Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A trip to the oyster woods, for more oysters. But also, our first larch boletes.
Perfect oysters, and chicken of the woods.
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Another boatload of oyster mushrooms.
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Earthball mushrooms in Edinburgh cemeteries.
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
More chanterelles, and orange birch bolete.
Walking in the woods near my Mum's place near Alton, and picking up mushrooms... Loads of earthballs (not pictured) and lots of amanitas; definite blushers, and pretty sure not death caps, but some other kinds. Very old boletes, scattered russulas, stinkhorns, and some big 'uns in a field that I'm not sure about.
Amy added 33 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Wandering the fields near my sister's place in the Lake District, and picking up mushrooms on the way. Mostly not edible, apart a couple of field mushrooms, but fun to try to ID them all, familiarising myself with the book. Also borrowed a sundew to take home.
Amy added 25 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
An epic Fife fungal foray. The very local oysters are still flushing, plus some puffballs coming up nearby. A few good scarletina and yellow/red cracked boletes. A milk cap, probably not a good one, but haven't learnt much about those yet. Went to check on a baby chicken of the woods to see if it had grown, and alas, something had eaten it.. but then.. out of the corner of my eye.. down a muddy slope and through several feet of ferns something was glowing orange.. my conscious brain said "almost certainly some trash" but my subconscious brain knew... I slid down the bank.. and sure enough.. a chicken of the woods as big as my torso. What a feast! Plus, blackberries on my doorstep.
A jaunt into local oak woods to look for more chicken of the woods after last week's exciting discovery, and was not disappointed. Lots of small ones, mostly the right age. And some very high up a tree! Alas. Lots of beefsteak fungus too, but didn't harvest any because though it's pretty I wasn't impressed with the taste and texture of the last one I tried. Got a ton of hen of the woods though, a new one for me.
Interesting clump of mushrooms growing with one of my broccolis. Haven't identified them yet. Everything is getting eaten by caterpillars, but rescuing as much kale as possible before I surrender. Cucumbers and chillis are starting to explode.
Capsicum, chilli and tomato polytunnel excitement. Excessive courgettes. Harvested the turnips too late and they're not good. Got a second freezer to start bulk processing some of this produce and storing for winter.
Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Surprise visit down south for Mum's birthday. Crazy Golf occurred. Preceded by a stay over at H's in a hammock.
Amy added 43 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202108-en/
Hen of the woods in the middle of Kirkcaldy town. And misc.
Too many variables to know what is causing these weird shapes. Poor light, poor air circulation, temperature, remixed substrate...
Inside Ravenscraig walled garden (Greener Kirkcaldy volunteer social bbq).
The Oak Pond in Wemyss woods, and the beach on the walk back.
I have too many emails. Thunderbird is refusing to accept more. So I guess that's it. No more email for me. I accept the situation.
Final ensuite wrapup... More harvesting.. mostly cucumbers. Epic mushroom foraging expeditions locally. And made mushroom pizza, mushroom stew, other things. Lots of work on internal Co-op policy stuff. Watched The Vast of Night and Black Widow. One more night in Edinburgh, then down to my sister's in the Lake District, and on to my Mum's for the weekend (found mushrooms..).
Finished The Foundation and started Foundation and Empire. My giant tomato is a failure, it's gone all gross. Footpath garden generally struggling. Various more wild mushrooms. Beautiful skies. Afternoon in Edinburgh to see friends. Greener Kirkcaldy volunteer social. Prepared and ate, bottled or froze yet more mushroom dishes.
Made rhubarb blackcurrent crumble muffins at Community Kitchen. Ensuite tiling finished, and I did half a wall of grout. Everything functional, just a few things left to do - which Dad will have to return for a third trip for. Various touchups myself, including sticking on some missing tiles. Plus started work on Dave's bedroom wall. Potted on a few things. Carrots are sprouting. Tomatoes started. Harvested chillis, cucumber and broccoli. Orchid who seems to be dying has opened a new flower, despite all the others and buds falling off. There's hope? Went foraging in the oyster woods and on a mushroom walk through the woods near Dysart. Found various brittle gills, lots of boletes all eaten up by slugs, a bad puffball, and, excitingly, a small beefsteak! Made mushroom muffins, mushroom soup, mushroom porridge, mushrooms on toast... Finally tested then gave away ye olde washing machine that was in the flat when I moved in, to make space for... another freezer.
Went mushrooming again again again. Got oysters and larch boletes, plus an inedible brittle gill and unidentified fairy ring mushrooms. Time in the garden. A couple of nights in Edinburgh, eating all of the vegan takeaway. Made carrot muffins with jam centers and the Community Kitchen, and a cashew cheese sauce for the vegan enchiladas. The orchid that I thought was dying has opened some more flowers and is growing a new leaf, hurrah! Second vaccine achieved. Watched Avatar for the first time. Got another freezer and made trillions of pies and mushroom burgers to go in it. Grouted.. Am I done grouting now?? Please??? And painted the bathroom walls.
A jaunt to Edinburgh to eat many things. Found mushrooms, saw Kit and Mariette and Lowenna, and ran up Arthur's Seat. Finished The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K Le Guin. Started watching Kingdom (Korean zombie series). Helped with pizzas in the Community Kitchen, plus not-entirely-successful apple and rhubarb puddings. Made more successful apple and berry pies, among other things. Harvesting tons of stuff from the garden. My tomatoes are struggling, but bearing fruit. One is putting all energy into a single tomato the size of my head, and dying off at the top. My Dad came back for final work on the ensuite and industrial estate adventures. With help, started filling the holes in Dave's bedroom wall. Mushrooms growing... Co-op staff welfaring, mostly.
This weekend's bathroom refurbishment jobs include the ceiling, and sealing. My Dad and I have found ourselves talking past each other more than once.
I have absolute dream neighbours. Last time I left my washing in the communal washing machine all day, I came back to find it neatly folded on the side, after someone had taken it out of the washing machine, put it in the dryer, then taken it out of the dyer too.
I accidentally made seitan the other day. I was trying to make a not-omelette (aka nomelette) and was mixing the equal parts flour and water with all the seasonings and stuff but it was going springy instead of batter-y?! I'd grabbed wheat gluten instead of gram flour. Fortunately it was a totally valid seitan mix so I stuck it in the fridge and started again. Now I'm frying it for a stirfry and it's super. Good job, past me.
I am beyond excited that my fave independent zero waste shop Grain & Sustain is coming to Kirkcaldy, and bringing a vegan deli with them! And I'm thrilled that my local coffee bean supplier Ecobean is getting recognition for having a completely closed-loop zero waste thing going on as well.
My brother and I are going on an adventure together this weekend. I'm paying for everything, as a goodbye present. With the caveat that if he fails to actually leave, he's refunding it in full.
Colleagues who offer to hold a meeting for you so you can get on with other stuff instead are precious indeed. <3
I haven't done a week in review since like May but REST ASSURED I'm keeping notes in a text file and I will flood you with all of them at some point. I'm behind on photo logging and like to link to stuff from the WiR, is why.
I'm not usually around when my brother goes for his before-bed snack, but I was last night. Thoughtful of him, as he heads to his room with the last slice of lemon pie on a plate and a fork in his hand, licking his lips, to ask: "is it okay if I have this?" as if it wasn't a foregone conclusion.
An afternoon in the community orchards at Buckhaven for apples, pears, and plums. Also spied some aging parasol mushrooms. And stopped in the ice cream shop at East Wemyss on the way home.
A chanterelle emergency in woods not far from home (location classified). Filled up bags and boxes we had and had to leave a whole patch for lack of space and light. Also picked up a few to ID, and a good amount of hedgehog fungus. And what is probably an agricus, but it was growing under a tree, so further investigation required.
Got offered some big jars on Freegle, but they were in Dundee. So made a day of it, and went to various new woodlands on the way for foraging. Got a good haul of chanterelles (from very close to home actually), plus a few boletes, a ton of amethyst deceivers (or are they?? yes they are.. some doubt for a while because the caps were super pale, but they do that as they age and/or dry out - rehydrated them to get the glorious purple back to convince myself), and several new mushrooms to bring home to ID. Also found my first wood blewit, but unfortunately the slugs had found it first and all that was left was the - admittedly very distinctive - stem.
Amy added 74 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Sunset, sunrise, sunset, sunrise, never ending glory.
A day out to investigate various woods around Fife. Lunch from the market in Cupar. A quick stop on Tentsmuir beach.
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Ice cream in East Wemyss on the return from apple harvesting in Buckhaven. And the sunset, earlier and earlier.
Hunting for agates in fields near Norman's Law, and a stop for chips and local history in Newburgh.
Scones at the Community Kitchen. More chicken of the woods meals. Muffins and sourdough rye for hiking.
More scones, cake and muffins at the Community Kitchen. Wild mushroom pasta bake. Coconut and jam cake at home.
Amy added 13 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
More scones. Courgette pakora to accompany curry and homemade flatbreads.
Trying to do something with all of this beefsteak fungus. It's not my favourite when cooked. Not much taste, and not very pleasant texture. WIP. More scones and lemon drizzle cake at the community kitchen. Comfort food (with mushrooms) at the weekend.
Pies, passata, and apple puree. A lot of food to process. And more mushrooms, of course.
A beautiful lemon fruit tart, peanut butter stuffed cookies, and many crumbles. Mushroom tempura.
Multiple batches of berry compote. Mushroom noodles. Lemon tarts at the Community Kitchen.
Misc from passing through Ravenscraig Park. Bag of hen of the woods from Kirkcaldy town center!
Evening foray to woods near Aberdour. The goal was ceps, but we were a bit late. Found a couple in decent condition (but I'm not totally convinced they're not Bay boletes - the pores are yellow, but the stems are so cep! Good either way.) and some giant ones that were way past it. A couple of new chanterelle spots and enough of those for a couple of meals. Lots of yellow/red cracked boletes, some very pretty brown and orange birch boletes. The chonky scarletinas are from before we'd even made it to the train station in Kirkcaldy (actually missed the intended train to stop and pick these). A selection of yellow and purple russulas in surprisingly good nick. Also my first amethyst deceiver and porcelain fungus. A couple of unknown souvenirs to take home and ID.
A visit to the woods on my doorstep. We were hoping for more chicken of the woods, but it seems like it's beefsteak fungus season! This deeply disturbing bracket fungus which bleeds and wobbles like raw meat is found mostly on oak trees, anywhere from by the ground to way up high. We levelled up on this foray though - mushrooms up to 11 feet high are no longer safe from us due to my unexpected new skill of precariously and hilariously balancing on R's shoulders. Also a great haul of puffballs. And a few late hen of the woods.
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Foraging on my doorstep last week. Puffballs in Ravenscraig Park. A new flush of dryads saddle on the first tree I saw fruit in June! Don't they know their season finished a month ago?? A relative of the hedgehog fungus. Agricus, the ones that didn't have sneaky little beak marks in. Several unknowns. Also pictured: Max helps with mushroom ID.
A day trip to areas around the border of Fife and Tayside, with some foraging stops. Found enormous pestle puffballs, and a few new things to ID. Also pictured: agricus and dryads from closer to home, earlier in the week.
Amy added 21 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
A final harvest before we leave for an adventure. My footpath tomatoes are growing.. but..... also horrible mutants.
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Inside cherry tomato has reached the ceiling. Now what? A hole?
Hungarian peppers are going purple. Tomatoes and aubergines... another flush of inside substrate remix oysters.
Cucumber in the footpath garden. Tomatoes in the polytunnel are getting out of hand.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Chillis abound! Inside tomato has ambitions of the stars.
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Climbed Glen Dessary at a leisurely pace. Met many interesting rocks, plants, and bugs - and mushrooms of course - along the way, and built a cairn. It was overcast, but very humid and warm. The breeze kept the midges away as we got higher. Pitched the tent a little way down from the peak on the windy side - it was a loud night, but decided that was preferable to midges.
Amy added 45 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202109-glenfinnan/
Day one of West Highlands adventure: bus to Glasgow, train to Glenfinnan, and walked out to the nearby bothy, about an hour and a half through the woods. Lots of people gathered to look at the viaduct just outside of Glenfinnan. The woods were bursting with mushrooms, and even though we had no way to make fire, I picked them anyway. At the bothy were other hikers, who did have a way to make fire, and also bothy cooking pots. So that evening we cooked mostly brown birch boletes and slippery jacks, then camped by the river. There were a lot of midges.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202109-glenfinnan/
Day 4 of West Highlands adventure. Followed the valley out to the bothy of the first night (Corryhully). There was no trail for 2/3 of the way, besides those left by the deer, and it wasn't super easy. The foliage was long and wet, and the banks were often steep and/or muddy. Soaking by the end of it; it rained a little bit too. Took about 3 hours to get to the bothy, where we sheltered and dried off for a while. Then walked back through the woods to Glenfinnan. Picked up a few boletes on the way. Saw the steam train go over the viaduct. Bumped into a Bothy Association guy who saw my bag of mushrooms and said we might find chanterelles in the nearby woods. We surely did! And a bunch more perfect boletes, and my first hedgehog fungus. Then the last train back to Glasgow, and the last bus back to Kirkcaldy.
Day three of West Highlands adventure. Didn't have a particular plan, so made a decision on which direction to walk in the morning. Options considered were: a ridge walk to Beinn Gharbh (eastish), a creek walk to a bothy at Oban on Loch Morar (northish), or an off-trail amble to wherever we'd get to in the south-westerly direction. Chose the latter. Went in a roundabout way to look at rocks, and ended up at Loch Beoraid mid-afternoon. There were some nice waterfall-y valley spots en route. Saw and heard red deer. The loch had a lovely beach, where we pitched the tent and chilled for the rest of the day. Midges came and went, which was better than being consistently covered in them. Kinlochbeoraid bothy is a mostly abandoned bothy a swampy 15 minute walk from the loch, but two other people were staying in the coal shed. It was pretty grim. Loch beach was better.
Amy added 29 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202109-glenfinnan/
Finally cleared Dave's room the guest room and painted a base layer of white to cover twitter-blue and bare plaster.
Pickled tomatoes! Finally, I can relive my glorious days of eating in Georgia (where I discovered pickled tomatoes, and haven't really been able to find them anywhere else since).
Me: ugh why didn't the last people who painted this room bother to tape up the edges, it's so messy. Also me: fuuuuuuu- taping up all the edges before painting is so much work, is this really necesssary?
Inside tomato is starting to fruit. Taped up and sanded a bit of my brother's the guest bedroom walls. Harvested tomatoes. Walked on the beach. TAG virtual face-to-face in the middle of the week. Made coconut scones and fab lemon drizzle cake at the Community Kitchen and did some weird things with beefsteak fungus. Adventured around Fife and went to Dundee to pick up freegled jars, and made foraging stops enroute. Went to the Buckhaven community orchards for a haul of apples, pears and plums. Started watching Sweet Home.
Finally finished sanding and painting my brother's the guest bedroom walls. Made much apple raspberry compote and many apple pies and more desserts. Picked a tomato and a carrot from my own garden. The caterpillars seem to have abated for the time being, maybe it's time to put a row of autumn carrots in? Chilli plants are all thriving. Finished reading Foundation & Empire, started Second Foundation. Finished watching season one of Kingdom, started watching Uncanny Counters. Sunrises... Climate protests at Seafield. Wandering around north/east Fife.
Made tasty things. Found More local mushrooms. Caterpillars have destroyed my broccoli and kale among other things. Went on a West Highland adventure which featured hiking, a Munroe, camping and foraging mushrooms (of course).
Week in review: 30th August - 5th September
Cherry tomato plant inside has reached the ceiling. What now? Worked on the Environmental Permits Data Service project. And various internal Co-op welfaring things. Went foraging in the woods near Aberdour. Finally sanded and cleaned the walls in Dave's bedroom ready for painting. Made scones and lemon cake at Community Kitchen; blueberry scones, lime coconut cake, chilli and curry and pickled tomatoes at home. Garden continues to produce. Sun continues to rise. Beefsteak fungi, and cooking boletes.
The chocolate cake is my interpretation of Sachertorte because I knew we had some apricot jam lying around in the community kitchen from last week. And then I get to tell everyone about the time I single-handedly made sachertorte for about 170 people in the mountains outside Vienna a few years ago.
The great thing about procrastibaking is that at the end of the day when you realise you haven't got any work done, you can console yourself with cake.
This morning my brother found me buzzing around at 7am in the kitchen, nodded knowingly, and said "ah it's your superfan day. That's why you're up early getting all your jars out." And indeed! The grand opening of the Kirkcaldy branch of Grain and Sustain has arrived! I got there just after 9 to find it delightfully buzzing, jammed my backpack full of jars of supplies, and had lovely chats with a few local business owners who I bumped into who I also see regularly. Plus the sun was out. I am feeling the love for Fife!
Agaricus haul, and some beautiful amanita muscaria.
Pressing apples and making compote.
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
An amazing full rainbow in view from Dysart. And some sunrises and Max time.
Another amazing sunrise, with Max and K. In the evening, I went with K and R to see Merlin Sheldrake talk in St Andrews. We got chips on the way back from East Wemyss - just in time.
Set out on the motorbike for a brief jaunt to St Monan's, then back to Buckhaven to load up on apples. But the search for a nonexistent secondhand shop in St Monan's dragged on, time advanced faster than expected, and we found ourselves having to choose between chips in East Wemyss and an extremely rapid apple pick. We went for the former and regretted nothing.
Laid laminate floor in Dave's room the guest room. Once again, Max's help was invaluable.
Chocolate coconut cake at home; sachertorte at the Community Kitchen.
Making as many things as possible with foraged apples and mushrooms.
Giant field mushrooms as pizza base... as pie topper...
Many delicious chocolatey things. And more meals with field mushrooms.
Reminiscing about Malaysia, I made nasi lemak. It was so good! The vegan boiled eggs - made from potato, soy milk and agar, primarily, with kala namak - were weird but, you know, filled a need.
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Peanut butter cups and muffins in the Community Kitchen. Haggis, neeps and tatties (and chard) at home. Wagamama's at Kit's.
Cemetery foraging; lots of brightly coloured waxcaps, and some agaricus. Nothing else in the box, mind your own business. Giant horse mushrooms picked by R up near Cupar.
Earthstar fungi in Ravenscraig Park. Various inkcaps, including a good harvest of shaggy. Funnels, porcelain fungus, and a few wee things I don't know.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Amy added 3 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Fungal questing with Lowenna in Livingston.
R and Max and I insulated under the floor in Dave's room the guest room. Under one half of the room there was a positively comfortable 2 feet of space to maneuver in, but under the other half it got down to a foot or less. Not horrifying at all. This involved duct taping and cable tying insulation tubes around as many pipes as we could get to, and stapling and taping thick foily stuff over it all. It took the better part of a weekend and felt like a mega achievement. Max did most of the work, obviously.
Amy added 22 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
A weekend of looking after the void demon. She sat over me concernedly when I had a migraine, and we went for a big long walk to Livingston Village and back. She is very good at finding socks.
Amy added 72 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-livingston/
Sunrises in Dysart. A little visit to Lowenna.
Mum came to visit. We adventured around Kirkcaldy, to Burntisland, and visited Dave at work in Aberdour. Got rained on a lot, but walked a lot anyway.
An absolute chanterelle emergency in the woods by Loch Ness. I picked a bagful but we were supposed to be hiking.. I've never seen anything like it, there were so many. Also found hedgehog fungus, a few boletes (but most were one to two weeks too old), shaggy inkcaps, my first woolly milkcaps, a handful of puffballs, and a few to be IDed.
Amy added 39 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Dave and I went on a mini adventure to the Highlands. We stopped over in Inverness, then bussed to a quiet hostel on the side of Loch Ness. We promptly proceeded to climb Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, going extremely the long way around. A few wrong-side-of-the-fence mishaps, and forcing our way through ferns taller than me. We were also delayed by vast quantities of chanterelles. After descending, we reached a small and lovely tea room / pottery barn, just in time for rain. So we stayed a while for cake. The route back took us along the Great Glen Way. That evening I made wild mushroom stir fry to share with the couple of other people in the hostel. Dave had a pizza.
Amy added 123 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202110-inverness/
Sunrise at the lochside. A castle visit. A wander around Inverness city and river islands. Put Dave on a bus back home, but I stayed.
Amy added 128 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202110-inverness/
A pleasant sunny solo day in Inverness. I went to the Botannical Gardens (and bought plants, oops). Climbed a big hill with a cemetery on it. Enjoyed the local vegan food scene.
Amy added 103 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202110-inverness/
Rock hunting in Orrock Quarry. The clouds hung low and heavy, muting and distorting all sound. The mounds of stone formed an alien landscape. The air was damp and cold. The light disappeared quickly, and we had left late to walk from Dysart. The country roads weren't lit, and there was no way we would make it over the hill to Burntisland in total darkness. We pressed on to Kinghorn instead, and ate extortionately priced chips while we waited for the last bus home.
Replacing the smelly carpet with laminate in Dave's room the guest room has escalated into installing insulation under the floor in half the flat. Which is definitely good in the long run by BY GOLLY do I want this disruption to be over. Replacing the smelly carpet with laminate in my room will, I anticipate, escalate into creating a secret compartment under the floor with a trap door because I think I have 4-5 feet of space down there.. (plus installing under floor insulation in the other half of the flat).
Of all of the things that could divide the current TAG, ReSpec vs Bikeshed is going to be our downfall.
Foraged field mushrooms, shaggy inkcaps, puffballs. Made sachertorte at the Community Kitchen . Grain and Sustain in Kirkcaldy opened! Laid new floor in Dave's room. Beach time. A foggy quarry adventure.
Cooking and baking and gardening and foraging and not a lot else by way of 'productivity'.. Worked on BODS (when I did work). Made compote from foraged apples and berries. Visited Lowenna.
A failed mission in St Monans. Mum came for a few days and we went on some nice walks despite the rain. Made peanut butter cups in the Community Kitchen which are always a good idea. Weekend supervising the void demon which was lovely, and also foraging around Livingston. Also watched season 4 of Dear White People all in one go. Crocheted a housewarming teacosy.
Hung out with Max. Made lemon tarts at the Community Kitchen, and compote and mushroom things at home. Chanterelle and more foraging. Inverness hiking and foraging.
Week in review: 27th September - 3rd October
Inverness touristing with Dave and alone. Beach time. Saw Merlin Sheldrake give a talk in St Andrews. The usual gardening and cooking and baking. Dave went away for the weekend. Giving me the opportunity to paint his room, and then take up the floor to insulate the pipes.
Discovered wood blewit and honey fungus spots in Ravenscraig Park. Picked up some veiled oysters too! (I think that's what they are.. they have super hefty stems and a really good taste.) Surveyed the edge of Dunnikier Park, and fields on the way to Thornton. Some good spots to go back to at the right time, next year.
Amy added 26 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
On the lookout for wood blewit and trooping funnels between Kirkcaldy and Wemyss. Not much luck (a couple of wood blewits) but did find some late chanterelles, a cloudy funnel (too old to eat), butter caps, and some very pretty brackets.
I'm picking up my 2012 and 2019 still unfinished novel for NaNoWriMo again this year. Writing immediately becomes the bigger procrastination target, so I might catch up with all my other work this month.
Fruits of the chilli farm. (Plus tiny carrots and a celeriac.)
The November Sea is back, just like last year. Lunch in Anderson's.
Amy added 37 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Walks along the coastal path near home. Baked potato on the beach from the Tattie Shed.
Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
The vividest of skies. No other way to start the day.
Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Amy added 22 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Apple cake in the Community Kitchen. Bread, ginger cake, battered puffball mushrooms at home.
Chocolate biscuit cake and mini caramel cheesecakes at the Community Kitchen.
Baking at home and in Community Kitchen.
Amy added 2 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
A fungal foray around woods in Kirkcaldy, and Dunnikier Park. Found big flushes of wood blewits that were too old, and small flushes that were in good enough condition to harvest. Lots of cloudy funnels that were well past it as well. In Dysart cemetery, picked up some agricus that bruised red and were smaller than Prince; no definitive ID but definitely safe so ate them (they were good); and two parasols (my first!) which we decided were shaggy parasol because they're smaller, and shaggy. Also found: beautiful blue/grey oysters on a log practically in the middle of town; a saffron milkcap that was so old it was mouldy, but still nice to see; a new cep spot with ancient remains, but logged for next year.. lots of small pink mushrooms that seem to grow wherever the wood blewit are, but haven't IDed yet; they smell of raw potatoes; a grey/white mushroom with wide gills, and a really distinctive floral smell; some very late season blushers/panther caps; lots of bright wax caps; a single charcoal burner.
Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-foraging/
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-livingston/
A visit with tiny Maud of the Many Toes, who is really just a ball of fluff with eyes, who can inexplicably zoom around at top speed.
Max was more than happy to be buried in a giant pile of leaves. The only problem is, we could never cover his wagging tail! He also chased the ball off the edge of a wall into a deep pile with great gusto. No Max's were harmed.
Amy added 36 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Dave's room The guest room becomes white and purple. This was my first ever time painting a colour and it was fun.
Painted my room in pale grey and dark green, and gave the ceiling a coat of white to get rid of nicotine stains from the previous occupant. My cosy crochet corner is finally complete. More or less got the hang of painting straight along edges without taping them up.
NaNoWriMo began. A strong start, but I fell behind pretty brutally, procrastinated agonisingly, then caught up at the weekend by barely leaving the flat. Made apple blondies at the Community Kitchen, chilli/sage/basil bread at home, plus mince pies and ginger cake for Dave's last weekend. November sunrises are next level. The sea is luminous. I remember it was like this last year too. Harvested lots of chillis, and my tenth inside cherry tomato is ripening. My big outside tomatoes are still slowly reddening too, but I have to pick them and bring them in before they're done or they get demolished by slugs. Caught another orchid slug. Planted onions, and found more permanent homes in the footpath garden for sorrel, poppies and rosemary. Pulled out the sunflower and the dead rhubarb (RIP).
This month is a blur. Time off work to write, but I'm filling it with foraging and gardening and baking and frolicking with Max. Made cheesecakes and chocolate biscuit cakes, fruit loaf and a great many muffins, falafel and things with wild mushrooms. Read all of the Foundation books. Visited Lowenna for a distraction-filled writing retreat. Visited Maud, just for distraction. Beach sunrises help my state of mind. Sanded and washed my bedroom walls, and repainted the ceiling (from nicotine-yellow to white). And then it snowed.
Yesterday I spontaneously removed everything from my bedroom and sanded, washed and repainted the ceiling. Today I've done the walls and I'll decide tomorrow if they need a second coat. Amazing what you can do on nanowrimo brain.
In case folk wanted a change from mince pies, I made mince pie muffins for the Greener Kirkcaldy Community Meals..
Sun showed up for just long enough for morning beach walkies.
F & J & family came to visit, so of course a thick veil of fog descended for the occasion.
An incredibly braw day. A cracking sunrise (spent an hour and a half on the beach), blue skies all day, and a stunning sunset (popped out to the post office then got sidetracked by sitting on the beach for another hour and a half). The sun was warm and the moon was full and glowing.
Amy added 33 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-fife/
Now I have my cosy crochet corner I can crochet again. Yoda on 'commission', Mando for J, seahorse for E, panda hat for another E.
Mince pies at the Community Kitchen. Chocolate nut cake at home.
Acquired some vegan marshmallows, so I can have indulgent too-sweet hot chocolates for a while, which I will enjoy until the novelty wears off and then I'll remember I don't like things this sweet.
Amy added 3 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Ben made mince pies, so for some variety at the Community Kitchen I made mince pie muffins. And choc chip cookies.
Winter foraging in the local oak woods. Over half a kilo of oysters collected, and a couple of kilos more to come back for with climbing gear... Max foraged a ball from the pond.
13.5kg of oyster mushrooms, over 8 feet up a tree. Mushroom season is over when I say it's over.
Amy added 3 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Ever since I saw this rock in March, I have aspired to paint my hallway that shade of purple. Today I finally started. And also the very important job of de-yellowing the ceiling.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-livingston/
Wenna is an excellent mushroom inspector, and also very cosy.
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2021-livingston/
Great big waves, but Max doesn't mind, he is part fish.
Made an bottled an absolute ton of oyster mushroom soup.. tom yum variety and green curry variety.
Amy added 1 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
A braw sunrise, as usual. NYE feast from The Tiffin.
Sunset on the walk back from Wemyss (with 13.5kg of oyster mushrooms).
Sunrise in Dysart, and a walk to Wemyss to pick up rubbish, out through the woods then back along the beach. Met a nice cat.
I don't do christmas, but I do do contextually appropriate food. Leaning tower of gingerbread, mince pies (Mum's homemade mincemeat) and not-cheese board (not-cheese courtesy of Grain & Sustain).
Braw sunrises. Procrasta-painted my bedroom. Mince pie season has begun. Saw Lowenna and Maud again. Finished NaNoWriMo with a satisfying 30,943 words of Quest for Brothers, bringing the total for the novel close to 90k. And I'm barely half way through.
Saw J, F, and E in Fife, finally! Enjoyed increasingly festive Kirkcaldy markets. Watched Loki, Hawkeye, Wheel of Time, ... Read the new Expanse book. Lots of Community Kitchen and other baking. Crocheted some things. Some astonishing sunrises and sunsets and many lovely walkies.