Celebrating the end of NaNoWriMo (and this extremely stressful week) by cleaning my desk.
I made it to 36,267 words, in spite of everything else going on this month, which is more than last year, and I haven't run out of steam for the story itself, so I'm happy all round.
I had the oven on for something else, so obviously threw in some muffins as well. These are carob and mixed nuts, low sugar, oaty, fluffy, and healthy tasting.
I woke up one morning last month to strange bulbous shapes silhouetted against my window on my big orchid stem. Almost overnight, it seemed, it had put out a load of blossoms! I'd given up on seeing it flower again. One of them has opened this week.
Other photos show inside and footpath plants in October and November.
Finished NaNoWriMo with 36,267 words. This is better than last year, and I'm feeling good about the story, so very content with this outcome. I feel like I managed to write all this in spite of a ton of other things occupying me this month. But far from being an extra thing to contend with, I think the writing helped to ground me and force me to step away from stressful things. I did a vast majority of my writing on the beach, on paper, and the November Seashowed up consistently. There's no way that wasn't good for me.
A very local winter forage, in which I discovered a nearby old graveyard which is absolutely brimming with exciting fungal life. Some fantastic slime moulds, along with old waxcaps, still edible blewits and agaricus, and some dead cute smokey spindles and a pinkish coral fungus.
Then onto the nearby big park to check on the shaggy parasols. So many, all up in a line! And they're massive! Picked the biggest ones because they are already getting wormy. And an absolutely amazing patch of common inkcaps around the corner too.
A cloudy, dramatic sunrise. And then a walk home from town at sunset, under an enormous bright moon, and shades of purple in the sky that defied description.
K and I went for a late lunch at the Aberdour Hotel to try the recently revolutionised seasonal menu. There is now a "green" (aka vegan friendly) option for a three course meal with three options to choose for each course, thanks to Iain of Greener Kirkcaldy fame :)
After a two hour recovery from the meal, we rolled down to the beach to find someone in the sea in just a swimsuit at sunset. Brr.
Went for a winter forage and found some good things.
Did extremely loads of Co-op admin and wrangling.
Finished The Wolves of Midwinter which I've been reading in snatches at someone else's house, and stuck with it from a morbid curiosity. I am so very disappointed in Anne Rice, because I loved the Vampire Chronicles so much, but these wearwolf ones are just dire. The plot meanders, the characters are completely vapid and sickly sweet, the dialogue is frankly bizarre, and there's abuse apologia and transphobia (or, if I'm really squinting, an extremely clumsy attempt at not being transphobic that is done so badly it comes across as transphobic. I really can't tell, and can't be bothered to look up where Rice stood on that when she wrote these. Either way, it comes up about twice, is completely unincidental to the story and again, just bizarre).
I neglected to top some plant pots in my flat with gravel recently, and had a bit of a fungus gnat population explosion last month. I was worried it was getting out of hand again, but the entire generation seem to have all expired overnight at the same time (and I have since covered all exposed soil, so hopefully they have not managed to lay more eggs) which is great for my wellbeing but they also all expired in the same place, so I now have a fungus gnat mass grave on my living room floor o.O
Paintings commissioned from Sarah Wakeford, inspired by rocks at Buckhaven beach are finally on the wall - one in the hallway and one in Dave's bedroom. They're gorgeous in and of themselves, but I love that Sarah walked to the coordinates I gave her to see the rocks in-person in order to create the paintings.
Stayed with Wenna so I could catch a train from Edinburgh the next day. Eventually train delays meant I gave up and went home, but not before lunch in Holy Cow.
Apple cake and gluten-free lemon coconut cake at the Community Kitchen. Also, not pictured, made three flavours of banana ice cream; vanilla, peanut butter, and raspberry.
Another (last??) harvest of tomatoes, and stripped the lemon pepper because the frost got it, and made 2L hot sauce.
A bitter, frozen week, so I didn't go out much, and took pictures of the sunrise from my window instead of the beach. I am eternally grateful to live so close to the sea.
After one false start, finally made it to York to celebrate the legal union of two friends. I met lots of awesome people there. I didn't have much time to explore York in the end, but did get to eat great tacos at El Rayo, and surprise fantastic vegan food at Cafe Frida's.
Did some gardening until my hands froze off. Harvested loads of frosted celery and turned it into stock. It's all collapsed, but will see if the rest recovers or not.
Made lemon and coconut cake (gf), apple cake, and three flavours of ice cream (banana base with vanilla / raspberry / peanut butter) at Community Kitchen.
Picked more shaggy parasols but they haven't grown much.
Felt a lot of stress and pressure around Co-op restructuring. Trying to get agreement on how to get our internal operations in-hand is harder than expected.
Co-op OGM.
Visited Lowenna, who has hurt her little toes from zooming too much in the snow.
Tried and failed to catch a train from Edinburgh to York.
The lemon pepper and other chillis in the polytunnel also got frosted. Stripped the chillis and made 2 litres of super hot hot sauce out of several dozen green lemon peppers, tomatoes, apple cider vinegar and salt.
Had Friday off work, as I was supposed to be in York, and didn't do much (except make hot sauce).
Started How to get away with murder. Watched all of Obi Wan Kenobi, and some movies (The Princess and the Frog, Willow).
Another trip to the Aberdour Hotel for the seasonal menu, this time with K, M and Lowenna. We went for a beach frolic afterwards and Lowenna got soaking wet and found a big stick.
My mince pie presentational skills are poor, but I made some anyway (Mum sent me homemade mincemeat).
I also made improv gluten- and sugar-free festive tarts for someone eating a mostly keto diet. They went down well. The crust is dates, cashews, hazelnuts, flaxseed, ground almonds, coconut flour and coconut oil, blitzed together and pressed into silicon cases. They set pretty well in the fridge so would have worked raw, but I baked them for a few minutes to ensure their structural integrity if they were left out just in case. They were filled with apple and sultanas that had been baked with cinnamon and ginger and the water from soaking the dates.
Winter chanterelles! From the same local woods that was great for normal chanterelles this autumn. I didn't pick them, R did, because I didn't feel like going out. But I washed and cooked them.
(The other picture is the slow growing shaggy parasols from earlier in the month.)
Spent many hours emergency navigating Dave back from Finland at short notice. Alas Vipassana was not to be this time (they kicked him out because he was coughing, despite a covid test being negative and other people also coughing. Sounds like they made up policy on the spot. Sigh. Last minute international travel over xmas? Sure no problem. Never have I been more grateful for spending an extra few euros on flexible ferry tickets and an interrail pass!)
Co-op, co-op, I do not want to write about the co-op right now.
Went to Edinburgh to pick up some stuff, and gave Dave a change of clothes so he can spend xmas in Edinburgh. Astonishingly he made it back with a few delays but nothing traumatising! After all that.
Started a new crochet project, and ate lots of chocolate.
Finished Nova War. Distinctly mediocre. But started the next one - Empire of Light.
Finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane (super!). Trying to rationalise the number of books I'm reading at once as I've had three on the go for a while, but it's not working as I also started The Birth of the Chaordic Age - though that doens't count as it's 'work', right? I still have a HP Lovecraft collection that I'm half way through.
A blanket shaped like a tailfin, with alternating rows of shell and v stiches. Reverse crochet edging, which I always find difficult to get started with, but really enjoy once I (re-)figure it out. Just the actual fin part remains. The yarn is really nice.. charity shop stuff I picked up ages ago, in lovely colours. I'm using two similar but slightly different balls, doubled up.
Stripped the rest of the tomatoes in the polytunnel, and turned most of the green tomatoes into chutney - with chilli, apple, apple cider vinegar, paprika, thyme, sugar (not too much).
