It has been a long and full week, with too many notifications. I am feeling positive, but extremely tired. Fortunately I have had this gremlin all week to keep me stocked up on snugs.
I don't know if I'm spoiled by worker co-ops, or just basic EU workers' rights, but the idea of losing a job with zero notice is just.. mind boggling. How is that a thing? People have stuff to wrap up, hand over.. besides everything else obviously wrong with it.. I'm just confounded. Does not compute.
I let Tara lead the walk this morning and she took me directly to Chapter One Coffee in no uncertain terms. It was full, but she immediately charmed a stranger into letting us share the table, then found three more people who were willing to adopt her on the spot, and the staff gave her a special chewy treat.
Made a beautiful chocolate orange drizzle cake. It came to me in a dream. What if lemon drizzle... but chocolate orange?? Genius. With coconut ganache on top, as all good things should. Also approximately eleven billion gingerbread folk at the Community Kitchen.
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
A not-cheese board and a chocolate hazelnut cake for Mum. Peanut butter cookies for ice cream sandwiches at the Community Kitchen.
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Perfect gooey matcha cookies with hazelnut white chocolate pieces wrapped into the centers. Baking at 9pm just because.
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Made a mer-tail blanket for the new human my friend around the corner is going to create any week now. The yarn is absolutely gorgeous - all from a charity shop.
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Cold and fresh. Visits to Maud and Jess.
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One clear day. A visit with tiny Maud.
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A mostly cold and clear week, with braw sunrises that I got to see with Mum visiting. Also a walk to Wemyss with Mum and Max - rockfall at the fossil rock! Mostly all buried now. Not sure how stable it is.
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Beach walk and a sit on Ravenscraig rock for sunset.
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Cafe working and eating with Tara. Burgers and chips from Seeds for the Soul and #fish.
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Tara and I started the day at Chapter One Coffee. It was clear and bright, if cold, and only rained at brief intervals of a few minutes at a time, which was about as good as can be asked for at this time of year. We walked along the Water of Leith for a couple of hours, then detoured to visit Green Bite. Our final stop in the evening was Harmonium, where I worked for a couple of hours before J and H joined us. Tara got lots of attention and belly rubs.
Amy added 33 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
Tara and I visited Glow Cafe in the morning, which was lovely. Later we walked across town for delicious Malaysian takeaway from Soul Vegan and doughnuts from ConsiderIt. On Friday, morning walkies across the Meadows, and early afternoon walkies along the Union Canal.
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The rest of the week in Edinburgh with Tara. Saturday: I let Tara lead the walk, and she took me in no uncertain terms directly to Chapter One Coffee. It was completely full, but she charmed a stranger into letting us share their table, got a special chewy treat from the staff, and over the next hour found at least three other people who were willing to adopt her on the spot. Later, we met F for dinner at Henderson's, which was superfantastic. Sunday: We walked down the canal to Harrison Park and threw the ball for a while, then got brunch at Glow Cafe. On the spur of the moment, we marched to the train station and in time to go on an adventure to Livingston to see Lowenna (and K&M). The pups were in full zoomie mode in the house and the park, both attention-seeking and and possessive, but wary of each other. Lowenna is very submissive, so Tara has no problem standing up for her boundaries, but it was Lowenna's house and Lowenna is so curious and playful and a bit in Tara's face, though Tara was a bit too mean at times. Monday: Mum came in the afternoon. We had a walk down the canal, then cuddled with Tara, and finally dinner at Henderson's again. The creme caramel dessert was THE BEST.
Way overworked this week, so I took friday afternoon off. K and I stopped in town as we usually do, but there was no market and we felt like a change of scene. So we went on a grand adventure to Burntisland (the second-to-next town around the coast), had a nice lunch and ice cream on the beach. What exciting lives we lead. But it was very needed forced laptop-away time.
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Flu-recovery comfort mac n not-cheese, with two kinds of Honesty Tasty soft cheeses for the sauce.
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The sun finally came out, so we went for a rummage through the local woods where we found winter oysters last year. The tree that R climbed to get oysters a year ago has since blown down, making access much easier.. and it's just starting to fruit. Back in a couple of weeks. Did go home with lots of beautiful condition jelly ear though.
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Up early to catch the bus to Edinburgh. Cake in Lovecrumbs, lunch at Sora Lella with Co-op colleagues. Dave gave me a lift home, and I treated him to a farewell dinner at Koku Shi on the way home.
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Sneaky winter oysters are emerging... Back in a couple of weeks!
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Absolute ton of jelly ear out at the moment, in really good condition. Also some winter oysters were ready, so they got fried.
A good week for the sunrise. Back in the habit of going out now, whatever the weather. It's still gorgeous to start the day in solitude by the sea, even when it's overcast or drizzling.
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I saw some next level clouds at sunrise this morning (not for the first time) that were so unusual I thought I was seeing things. A smear in four parts, each had radial rainbow colours that reminded me of an oil slick. It drifted across the sky over the course of an hour that I was in a meeting, and I kept staring out of the window in awe. I raved about it in the family group chat, because my sister knows science and sky things, and she identified them for me as nacreous clouds which are super rare! I tried to take photos but they just came out white, which did little for the feeling I was hallucinating. They were very surreal.
Last day in Edinburgh with Tara. Mum came, and then we returned to Fife. Mum stayed for the week. We watched the sunrise and went on walkies with Max and crocheted. I blasted through my co-op todo list, but it doesn't seem to be getting much shorter. Felt productive though. I made peanut butter cookies at the Community Kitchen (and cake at home). I came down with flu symptoms. Mum left. I spent the weekend suffering alone. (I finished How to Get Away With Murder, and watched all of Mammals - because everything is shoving down my throat how funny it is but it wasn't, like, at all funny? and Willow series which I really enjoyed). Finished Empire of Light and started the Expanse short stories collection.
The year began with Tiffin and a midnight sit on the beach to watch the Edinburgh fireworks across the Forth. Actually they were all along the coast on both sides. Finished Smoke and Mirrors. Started The Lurking Fear as I seem to have finished all fiction but Lovecraft in the flat. After a mega productive week refactoring the tests for the BODS Schema, I thought I'd get back to it, but got immediately swamped by admin and meetings as lots of my colleagues came back to work. Also tinkered with the BreatheHR API in an attempt to get it to report the figures we actually need. Made courgette cake in the Community Kitchen, and pizza at home thanks to a donation of some Violife. J made pumpkin gnocchi. Braw sunrises until H came to visit, then it was grey, then braw again as soon as she left. Swam in the sea twice. Watched the new Indiana Jones with H and J. Got an astonishing amount of cleaning and laundry done. Planted onions. Planned some trips..
One more day off work, then recovered from flu. Mostly stayed home all week. Skipped Community Kitchen pending full flu recovery. Did my tax return. Did some TAG work about third-party cookies. Lots of Co-op admin. Coordination around operations and strategy. Facilitiated a retro. Final logistics and agenda planning for next week's CoGM. Managed to sit on the beach most mornings for some braw sunrises. Really starting to feel like spring. Mustn't forget it could just as soon freeze again next week. Spent time with T, following the loss of sweet wee Lucy. Wetsuit swim in the sea. Finished reading Memory's Legion. Watched bits of She Hulk, Archer, For All Mankind, and Pandorum, Shotgun Wedding and possibly another couple of movies which left zero impression. Ate lots of chocolate. Ate things from the freezer and jars. Will hold off from buying groceries for as long as possible.. This is much easier when I'm only feeding myself. Cleared all the dead stuff out of the footpath garden, and turned all of the stray nasturtium seeds in so hopefully it will be full of surprise wild nasturtiums again. Also rearranged houseplants. Started sanding the bathroom cabinet that needs repainted, only a year late.
Quietly did Co-op and TAG things while few people were around for meetings and interruptions. Watched Aliens, Glass Onion, Alita: Battle Angel, The Labyrinth, and started The Boys. Continued binging How To Get Away With Murder. Caught up on November and December photo and week in review posts! Made chutney. Visited Maud and Jess. Cleaned the beach. Went in the sea. Crocheted most of a blanket. Drafted an update The Tiffin's website in anticipation of their new restaurant opening. Foraged jelly ear and found emerging winter oysters. Felt extraordinarily anti-social all week and mostly wanted to stay in the hammock, so it's amazing I did anything really.
Week in review: 26th December - 1st January
More visits to Maud and Jess. Sunrises (finally) and walkies with Max. Found winter oysters emerging and lots of jelly ear. Made chocolate orange cake at home, and gingerbread at the Community Kitchen. A day in Edinburgh with Co-op colleagues. Crocheted. Mini Burntisland adventure.
Went to Edinburgh to be with Tara. Went for walkies and cafe working and cuddles. Did Co-op strategy and governance things, as well as excessive amounts of admin. Saw J&E&E and F. Watched School for Good and Evil, How to Get Away with Murder, and read The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
My brain is entirely at capacity. Please nobody ask me to think about any more things until further notice.
Good sunrises every day this week, in defiance of the clouds. A walk with Max on Thursday, although he was playing deaf and not being a Good Boy at all. He was better on Saturday.
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Finally stripped and repainted the cupboard in the ensuite bathroom, only about a year and a half after buying it. This officially completes the ensuite refurbishment! I sanded and repainted it in semi-darkness while watching movies over successive nights this week, so every morning I'd take a look and be for some reason surprised to find it a bit patchy. Got there eventually though.
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Healthy omega muffins full of nuts and yoghurt and topped with raspberry frosting at the Community Kitchen. Coffee, hazelnut and pecan cake at home, made for the first time with gluten free flour. It was slightly denser and drier than usual, but nonetheless was well received by various test subjects. The frosting was coconut oil, strong brewed coffee and icing sugar, and that was pretty great.
Made some vegan and gluten-free treats for a small gathering. Peanut butter cups with secret blackberry jam in the middle. Lemon and coconut drizzle cake.
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Gluten-free vegan coffee cake at the Community Kitchen. Carrot and avocado sushi rolls at home.
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A weekend visit from Sandy and Louie (and their humans, L&S). We wandered around Dysart and Kirkcaldy, and went to The Old Barn Cafe for some dog and human treats.
I went to visit Dave in Dunoon. We had a hearty breakfast in the Swallow Cafe, then went on a hike up Bishop's Seat. It was an easy hike, but varied in terrain, with some sufficiently steep and rambling bits to keep Dave satisfied, and fantastic views from the peak.
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A short drive to the glassy and still Lock Eck. There were many many dogs playing in the water on one beach. Then cake and dinner in the Coylet Inn, which had plenty of vegan options for a small remote place.
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I walked the hour from Dave's place to the Dunoon ferry port, around the coast. It was a greyer, drizzlier day. After lunch in town, I took the ferry to Gourock. I had enough time to climb a hill, then back to the station for a lift home with T.
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Cool clear mornings with vibrant clouds this week.
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More cracking sunrises (and another swim). A visit with Maud and Jess (and K).
Two days of coworking in Edinburgh with my Co-op colleagues. We connected well, took positive steps forward for the business, ate some great food, and went ice-free curling!
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Peach cobbler and fancy truffles at the Community Kitchen. I had to hand chop the almonds because the blender is broken. And this evening: a burger with mac n not-cheese on top.
Enough purple sprouting broccoli to eat in the footpath garden! And the rhubarb is coming back better than ever.
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Hazy sunrises and still seas... perfect for a swim.
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This morning started grey and drizzly, but by early afternoon it had cleared up and the sun was out. I walked back from Community Kitchen by the scenic route, and encountered the highest tide I've ever seen. The beaches at Dysart and Ravenscraig were completely underwater, in some places all the way to the Ravenscraig Castle walls. It was relatively calm. I sat for a while and listened to the waves lap, and imagined that it just keeps rising, and swallows the world.
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Rich sunrises with artistic clouds. A long beach walk with Max. The weather remains surprisingly warm.
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Twice in the last couple of days I've been asked to prove I'm human to sign up for email newsletters. Why can't robots subscribe to newsletters?
Finished Neverwhere. Started Lilith's Brood. Spent time with new local friends; very uplifting. Made gluten-free coffee cake at the Community Kitchen, and peanut butter cups and gluten-free lemon coconut cake for friends. Calm seas and hazy sunrises. Swam in the sea. Chaired the Co-op AGM. Forward looking, productive afternoon. Worked on preparing to put some Co-op job ads live. Hopefully going up next week. L and S and Louie and Sandy came to visit. We wandered around Dysart/Kirkcaldy and went for a jaunt to The Old Barn Cafe of course. Things are growing again...
Second February swim. High tides. Did my best to facilitate around some difficult interpersonal dynamics in the Co-op. Made pear cobbler and fancy truffles at Community Kitchen. Visited J&F&E&E in Falkirk and worked on the crochet sea turtle but didn't finish it. Enjoying Lilith's Brood, though some of the things the humans do are far more alien to me than the things the Oankali do. But also many aspects from the stories are working their way into my dreams quite severely. Hung out with Maud and Jess and K. Visited Dave in Dunoon. We climbed Bishop's Seat, visited Loch Eck and ate lots. Completely failed to see the northern lights despite being in a northern location with perfectly clear skies and low light pollution... because I went to bed early.
A confusing mix of frosty and mild days. Saw nacreous clouds! Pulled off a successful CoGM Hub in Edinburgh. Ended feeling extremely positive about all things Co-op. Well, most things. Started and finished Player of Games. Holy SHIT what a book. Started Neverwhere. Stripped the old paint of the ensuite cabinet more thoroughly than I planned. Started and finished The Irregulars and season 14 of Archer (whilst sanding the cabinet). Finished season 1 of The Boys. Watched Werewolf by Night which was good.
Week in review: 30th January - 5th February
Got out for sunrise every day and some walks with Max. TAG virtual face-to-face was full-on as ever, but fun and interesting. Co-op work remains intense but productive; preparing for hiring and upcoming AGM. Deflated by baking and repainting a cabinet. Watched Dirk Gently and started season 3 of The Boys. Despite all of the work, also managed to squeeze in some time with local friends. Decent Social conference ran, but I didn't join in the end; needed a break. The sinus infection that was threatining post-flu did not come to pass. I really feel like I need a week off, but there's nothing remotely on the horizon.
For everyone who replies to skills-based job application questions with a response from ChatGPT, that's really smart and cool and might work if only you did it, but when hundreds of other people also do it it's kind of obvious and also a very unpleasant waste of the reveiwers' time and definitely earns you zero points.
I'm going on an overland/sea trip to Finland from Scotland, starting tonight. Remember when I was a full time no-fly nomad, doing multiple consecutive nights on public transport without even noticing? Let's see how easily I slip back into that.
An incredibly braw morning, with the sea soft and shimmering. The cold temperatures and clear skies are giving the luminous effect I usually associate with November. I awoke from dreams of wanting to be in the sea but not being able to. Fortunately, once awake after my sunrise coffee, I had no impediments, and got straight into my wetsuit for a refreshing swim/float before breakfast.
We made it down from the hill and finally got some pizza in the tired/cold/hungry kids. The pizza had cloudberries on. Exciting. We came out of the restaurant and headed back to the hotel. Over our heads... the sky was dancing. We were there only for a weekend, and we were so incredibly fortunate to have clear skies, no moon, and the right conditions. It lasted for a couple of hours at least.
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H's train was delayed by 77 minutes, and she told me she wanted a brownie when she arrived (around midnight). So I thought I'd better get on and make some brownies... I usually mess with brownie recipes and put at least one vegetable inside, but for an emergency it's a straight butter/sugar/cocoa deal and it turned out so well. Will make again.
A coconut and almond cake with a layer of blackcurrant compote in the middle and a blackcurrant glaze on top. Dense but good.
Peanut butter choc chip cookies at the Community Kitchen. Turned out preettttyyy good. Namibian-style mealie pap (maize) with lentil stew also pictured.
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Made it to Copenhagen for the Community part of the IATI Members Assembly, along with several of my Co-op colleagues. It was gorgeous Fife weather (cold and bright), interspersed with flurries of snow. Made time for a walk with N, who I haven't seen for years. Had one of the most amazing meals ever at Bistro Lupa.
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H came to visit and we had sunrise coffee together and went for a swim/walk/kayak to Wemyss and back on a very braw still day.
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Brunch with the siblings at Seeds for the Soul. Lunch (Soul Vegan) and ice cream (Mary's Milk Bar) with F&J and co a week later.
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From Kemi in Finland to Haparanda in Sweden, by bus. The first thing I saw over the border was a giant Ikea. I checked into my accommodation which was much nicer than expected. Then went to hunt for food, just heading to the closest open restaurant, a Chinese one called Leilani. I was quickly and friendlily informed that all of the vegetarian options could be made vegan. I picked one and it was delicious. Across the road from the restaurant was an interesting tower. The center of Haparanda was peaceful and seemed like somewhere I'd liked to have spent more time. I forgot about the timezone switch, so got an hour more sleep than expected.
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Time in Jyvaskyla with S, B, E and J. I adapted quickly to the cold and perma-snow, and managed not to fall over on icy pavements. Walks out onto the frozen lake were stunning and peaceful. Climbed the hill in Jyvaskyla but it was too snowy for views. Visited the Museum of Central Finland on what happened to be the city's birthday, so entrance was free. Was greatly entertained throughout by the wise and thoughtful 9yo E, and the cartoonish delights of 3yo J.
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More wandering around Jyvaskyla in the snow. Saw the big lake, and J wanted to sample every playground on the way (there were a lot). Warmed up with cake in Espresso House.
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And on the move again. We took a bus to Rovaniemi and a train to Kemi. After surprise vegan cake and a friendly welcome in a cafe at Kemi train station, we wandered around the town. It was extremely quiet and sleepy. We found the famous 'snow castle', which was more of a three foot high snow maze and some terrible sculptures. We found curling, and slides which entertained the kids. And they let us in for free and stored all of our luggage for us for no clear reason. We walked through a park by the sea - which was frozen! - and to the church in the town center, then back to the bus station. I said goodbye to S, B, E and J as they boarded a bus back to Jyvaskyla. I stayed, to wait for a local bus to Haparanda, just across the border into Sweden.
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After an uneventful ferry crossing, I arrived at the port of Rostock. Here, the bus ticket machines only accepted cash. Having just spent two weeks in Denmark/Sweden/Finland, I had forgotten what cash looks like. So I couldn't buy a bus ticket. Nothing bad happened. I made it to Rostock Hbf via a bus and an S-Bahn train (which I did buy a ticket for). I bopped around for a couple of hours, having breakfast at a bakery in a nearby shopping center. The toilets in Rostock Hbf cost money, but the ones in the supermarket at the shopping center do not. Then I caught a (late) Flixbus to Luebeck. It dropped off right outside a stand with vegan currywurst, so that was the first order of business. It was a vaguely grey and drizzly but not too cold day. I walked along the river to check into my hostel - run by an anarchist queer feminist collective - which was a fantastic place. I had another day of wandering on the agenda. I had delicioius Arabic coffee and hummus at My Hummus, then zigzagged my way through the old town, through small alleyways and around a great many churches. I went into the Hanse Museum, which was interesting, though I missed an opportunity to learn specifically about the role of Boston (UK) in Hanseatic merchant trading via the customisable interactive exhibit, as I accidentally told it to stick to Edinburgh instead. I walked and sat in some parks. I bought marzipan, as apparently that's a thing in Luebeck. And ate dinner at Erdapfel, which has fancy vegan baked potatoes.
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We all took a night bus from Jyvaskyla to Rovaniemi, then another bus to Torvinen and another to Luosto. I have never seen so much snow before in my life. Feet of it, sitting around like it always had been and always will be. Thick on top of roofs, clumped around fir trees like bulbous growths. Scooped the sides of roads and footpaths like it's nothing, to make space for people to pass. Dotted with footprints from hares and reindeer. We tried to go for a walk around this epic landscape, but two kiddos straight off a night bus made it difficult. Even with borrowed sleds, there were many tantrums. We took them to the hotel pool instead. Later we went out again, though everyone was still tired. The hotel reception said there was a nice walk and a wooden hut with a fire, "a little bit up" with good views. We expected a 30 minute walk and a log cabin type thing. We walked for longer than E could stand, lost track of the sign posts sometimes, and climbed a massive hill. We were surrounded on all sides by snow coated fir trees. Some were completely covered, forming beautiful natural sculptures in the snow. It was like a dream world. The "wooden house" was an amazing modern construction, with heated windows and a wood burning stove. We arrived in time for an incredible sunset over this bizarre alien landscape. Absolutely just... like nothing I've seen before.
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An adventure on a snow train, up a hill, to an amethyst mine. Where they let us scrabble in the dirt for 20 minutes to find a handful of our own small amethysts. The views from the top were lovely on another bright and clear and extremely freezing day. In the evening - this time well fed (tonight's pizza had pickled milkcaps on) and better clothed - we went up the hill to the wooden house again. It was another incredibly clear night, and we met other aurora-spotters up there. We caught the end of another beautiful sunset, and stayed for hours in the cosy house. We saw a glimmer of green finally, but it didn't last long. Our trek down in the dark was greatly helped by two other hikers with their own lights ahead of us, and a headtorch borrowed from a kind local.
Amy added 33 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202303-se-fi/
Train from Copenhagen to Malmo, across The Bridge. A pleasant evening to wander around the coast, looking at fancy new apartment buildings. Dinner at Surf Shack, in lieu of anywhere else nearby being open at that time.
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I awoke several times in the night to find the train stationary in Linkoping. At 0630, the scheduled arrival time in Malmo, we were 'officially' awoken by an announcement, pointing out to us all that we were still in Linkoping because the train had broken down. I switched to the next fast train to Malmo, which was still 3 hours, though we were given the option to stay on board and await repairs and then stay on the slow (5 hour) route. I had planned a day in Malmo before my next connection, and used my interrail pass for the journey, so promises of refunds and reimbursements for missed connections were not at all useful to me. In the end, Swedish Trains did say they'd pay up to &eur;20 towards my food in Malmo, which was nice. The rest of the day, shortened as it was, was lovely. All trace of snow had gone, the sun was out and the sky was blue. I wandered. Took photos. Sat on benches. Wandered some more. I had breakfast in Farm2Table, which was very lovely and I could have stayed there all day. I went to the Form Design Museum, which was free, and they kindly stored my backpack for me until mid-afternoon. Inside was an exhibit about the carbon cost of different materials, showing how much of each you can get for 1kg of C02. I was, naturally, most interested in the mycelium boards. I walked around the gardens and grounds surrounding Malmo Castle, then visited the museum inside. It was wide ranging, from local to natural history, to modern art, and lots of climate change related stuff. I had lunch in Vegegarden, a delicious Chinese buffet. Then walked to the Moderna Museum, which strictly no-photos, and contained a gallery of modern art about.. you guessed it.. climate change. Some fantastic stuff; a lot of video and audio, as well as dance! (Nothing live while I was there.) I walked more around a park with a big lake, and then back into town for dinner at Rau. A fancy, expensive, and extremely delicious dinner. Definitely recommend. Finally I headed back to the train station for a train to Trelleborg. The route from Trelleborg station to the ferry checkin is sort of signposted, but also not obvious at all when you get there. I confirmed I was in the right place with the hotel next door. They also let me use their loo. The waiting room for Stena Line doesn't have wifi or much useful. There were only a couple of other foot passengers. None of the automatic checkin machines were working, and signs said staff would arrive to check us in 40 minutes before departure, despite other signs saying checkin closes 60 minutes before departure. Staff did eventually turn up, ticked us off, and put us on a bus to the ferry. This was a &eur;20 ferry ticket, only deck passage. But I was one of two foot passengers in the seating area, and had my pick. There was one power socket, so I posted up on the closest seat to that so I could charge my laptop while I slept. Onwards to Rostock. (After dinner I noticed I was missing K's borrowed scarf. I emailed all the museums and restaurants and they all replied - it turned up in Vegegarden. A friendly local is going to post it back for me. Hurrah!)
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Breakfast and excellent conversation with my new hostel-dorm-friend J, before heading to the train station. Next stop: Osnabrueck (via Hamburg). The sun was out, although it occasionally rained from nowhere. Another afternoon of wandering, although my energy was waning. The city was fine, with many interesting buildings, but not as nice as Luebeck somehow. Nowhere seemed to have wifi, except at the train station, which was excellent. I ate sweet potato waffles with not-feta at Snackwunder, and a tasty schwarma wrap at Gustav Grun.
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I finally finished E's sea turtle!
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Visiting the local snowy woods and frozen lake near Jyvaskyla. In the evening, the 9-year-old taught me to ski. I was already sure skiing would not agree with me, and I confirmed this. At the top of the slope, as I start to slide: "Can you tell me how to slow down?" 9yo: "We'll get to that later." I have a video of me falling over, which I'll upload too at some point. There was a beautifully vibrant sunset though.
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I had planned to spend the morning in Malmo, then take a train to Stockholm in time for my evening ferry connection. But the weather was miserable, so I got on an earlier train to Stockholm. The weather was still miserable in Stockholm, but I went on a walking tour of the old town, had tasty vegan Swedish 'meat'balls with lingbenberries in Verte, then walked to the ferry port.
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The ferry arrived in Turku amidst thick fog and icy waters. I took a train to Tampere, met friends, and we walked around the snowy city. We ate cake at Cafe Runo, and junk food at HOAX, before heading back to a very busy train station with full trains and broken ticket machines. We managed to get home - to Jyvaskyla - despite this, somehow. While wandering I stashed my backpack in free lockers in a mall not too far from the station.
Amy added 56 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202303-se-fi/
The first legs of my journey to Finland: Edinburgh to Hamburg. My first time on the Caledonian Sleeper, which even just for a (free, with interrail pass) seat was very spacious and comfortable, and came with all sorts of fancy things like earplugs. There are also vegan sausages on the breakfast menu. It's worth noting that the Sleeper website is quite ambiguous about which day an interrail pass needs to be active to be valid (departure or arrival day) so when I called (the only way to make a seat reservation with an interrail pass) I queried this; the staff weren't sure either, but as I wanted to take more trains on my arrival day they noted on my reservation that my pass is valid for the arrival day. I got no ticket, reference number or written confirmation of any kind, but when I arrived to board my name as on a list. Old skool. This got me to London with enough hours to spare for a leisurely breakfast at Keystone Coffee near KGX, before the Eurostar to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam I had time for falafel, and then got on another train bound, I thought, to Osnabrueck, where I would change to another train for Hamburg. It turned out that the line between the border and Osnabrueck had been closed for some time for engineering works, and the train was terminating early. I used the dB app to route around the closed bit of track, and alighted at Deventer. Then to Enschede, and another change to Muenster, with a bit of delay. In Muenster everything was delayed by an increasing number of hours. I consoled myself with pretzel and coffee. Time passed and disgruntled passengers accumulated on the platform. Eventually the train to Hamburg-Harburg arrived, though one to Hbf wasn't far behind.. I contemplated waiting so I wouldn't have to change again, but after about 3 hours of delay I thought I should just get on the train that was there. It stopped on the track multiple times, and was delayed outside Bremen for ages. Eventually it gave up and terminated at Bremen. Everyone got off and got onto the InterCity to Hamburg Hbf which had caught up and been stuck behind us the whole way. Finally got into Hamburg after 2am. I had a dorm bed in the Generator hostel right by the station. I sneaked in quietly to a bed with no pillow. Another dorm occupant decided 3am was a good time for the longest loudest shower in the history of humanity, followed by an hour of just-loud-enough to keep waking me prayer in a top bunk. So, not the best night's sleep ever. The next morning I boarded the train to Copenhagen, and met several people who had been caught up in the same delays as me, and missed their onward connections, so Deutsche Bahn had put them all in a nice hotel overnight. More fool me my good planning with lots of buffer.
Amy added 25 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202303-cph/
A trains day! I had just enough time for a hasty breakfast provided by my accommodation, before a fast march to Haparanda station. I caught a train to Boden, then another to Umea. I walked along Umea's frozen river, admiring lots of random sculpture and an arts college, into the city center. I had an incredible lunch at Rost, and could happily have stayed there all day. It was freezing and clear, and every so often a gust would blow powdered snow from trees and rooftops, filling the air with glitter in the sun. I caught my next train to Stockholm. It was snowing by the time I got there, but I had a few hours to pass, so I stomped around the city center for a while. I had a distressing burger in the Swedish burger chain MAX. Initially excited to find a vegan chocolate milkshake, I regretted all of this junk food later. Then I boarded a night train to Malmo.
Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202303-se-fi/
The final leg. From Osnabrueck to Koeln Messe (a bit delayed). I walked across the bridge to Koeln Hbf, enjoying the sun and interesting architecture. I've spent a lot of time in Koeln airport bus station, but none in the city center itself. I caught the next train to Brussels (delayed), and had time to march to the nearest place for an interesting vegan burger. Then back for the Eurostar. In London in time to catch an earlier train to Edinburgh than planned (and no issue with my seat reservation, or lack thereof, supposedly required with an interrail pass). Then I had the genius realisation that I could grab the next train to Kirkcaldy on my interrail pass too, instead of waiting for the bus. I was also feeling a bit unwell and the bus all the way home from Edinburgh would definitely have finished me. I almost threw up on the 10 minute journey from Kirkcaldy train station to Dysart. Anyway, I made it. It was good to be back in the hammock. But the whole trip immediately felt like a dream.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202303-de/
I made one mug warmer a couple of weeks ago and then was struck by a brilliant idea. It finally came to fruition. Two mug warmers, which when placed together create a portal to Unicornium! One each for J and F. Oddly enough there aren't any amigurumi patterns for "half a unicorn" so I did most of this freestyle and I'm very proud of myself. I did adapt the head of a tiny horse pattern which wasn't tiny enough.
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-livingston/
Got on eight trains to Copenhagen. Attended the Community part of the IATI Members Assembly. Looking forward to the Co-op having even more involvement in the IATI space. Saw N after 5.5 years! And hung out in Copenhagen with colleagues. Before getting on two trains to Malmo then Stockholm and a ferry to Finland.
Spent a gentle week in Jyvaskyla, seeing the local sights/snow and being with friends. Skiied for the first (and almost certainly last) time ever. Took a night bus to Luosto in the very north. Saw alien landscapes and the aurora borealis, went on a snow train to an amethyst mine, visited Kemi, and then over the border to Sweden.
Returned from Dunoon via a ferry and a wander in Gourock. Finally got the Operations and Admin Officer, and Management Accountant Co-op jobs live. Got my head back into improving Co-op governance. Made a coconut almond cake with blackcurrent glaze, and brownies. Crocheted some gifts. Planned a trip to Finland. Felt generally exhausted and quite headachey all week. Finished Lilith's Brood and started Fevre Dream. Then H came to visit and we walk-swam-kayaked to Wemyss and back, ate pizza and watched a Liam Neeson movie, and had brunch in Edinburgh with Dave.
Focus on Co-op recruitment (now we're hiring a Senior Data Analyst too), and governance stuff. Had a new novel idea... My posting apps broke due to a PHP upgrade, sigh. Bought warm clothes for going to Finland. Made pb chocolate chip cookies at the Community Kitchen. Swam in the sea again, before breakfast on Saturday. Finished E's sea turtle and unicornium mug warmers for J and F. Lunch in Edinburgh with J and F. Much travel planning. Watched Wakanda Forever and started Ms Marvel. Planted french beans, runner beans, broad beans, soya beans, mange tout, parsley, basil, beetroot, fancy carrots, gherkins and cucumbers to kick off gardening season.
Delighted to report that the UK gov emergency alert test didn't come through on either of the phones currently about my person. I had assumed it would work over whatever lets you call 999 without a network connection, but turns out it requires such new-fangled concepts as "4G" and/or "Android 11+".
I'm very tired* of the assumption that the Web needs advertising in some form to continue to exist as a widely accessible service. I will not accept this false dichotomy of ads or paywalls. Everywhere we fucking look we have ads and paywalls. See: media streaming services, the cinema, print newspapers and magazines... Please, I beg you, go involve yourself in some kind of co-operative, collective, mutual aid, community organisation, literally anything that isn't just transaction/exploitation based, and consider that maybe there are other ways to exist. * tired in the sense of exhausted and weary, and also in the sense of mind-numbingly bored by.
I have returned from my three week round trip by land and sea to Finland, with stops in Denmark, Sweden and Germany en route. Here is a picture of every train I went on. Several of them were not ones I planned to go on. I also went on the Copenhagen metro, several local buses in Jyvaskyla, a ferry from Stockholm to Turku, and from Trelleborg to Rostock, a local bus from Kemi to Haparanda, a local bus from Rostock Port to Luetten Klein, a Flixbus from Rostock to Luebeck, my local bus from home to Edinburgh and from Kirkcaldy to home, and some skiis and a child's sled.
Mum taught me how to do the fancy icing on a bakewell tart (using a cocktail stick). Then we ate the bakewell tart.
J and family came to visit. We had lunch in Merchant's House, then walked from Path Head to Dysart along the beach and coastal path, looking for sea glass and pretty rocks. When it was time to go home, E did not want to leave.
Mixed days this week; mostly braw, but some chill winds and banks of cloud with substantive raindrops passing through. A nice day of big crashy waves. Pictures from sunrises and walks with Max.
Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Cleaned the beach near Wemyss. Heard a rumour about a fire in Dysart and then walked past the end of it being put out on the way home.
Amy added 9 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Extremely nice to be home. Beautiful spring day walkies with Max.
Just a regular sunrise, nothing to see here. Then an evening with lovely people in Bustle & Buzz listening to experimental banjo folk from Jacken Elswyth.
More gorgeous sunrises. Rainbow. Big moon.
Marmalade / damson jam / mincemeat tarts. Rocky road at the Community Kitchen. Lime pie with limes rescued from a bin, condensed coconut milk that was out of date, and a nut and date crust. Very moussey and good.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Jammy sponge in the Community Kitchen. More rescued-lime-based things at home: lime and coconut jelly with lime mousse on top; lime chocolate pudding with lime mousse on top.
Amy added 13 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Community Kitchen this week: coconut and rose panna cotta with mango and strawberry puree on top. Cardamom cookies.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Time in the garden yesterday. Promoted tomatoes and gherkins/courgettes/cucumbers to bigger pots or the ground in the polytunnel. Harvested chard and purple sprouting broccoli. Mange tout and beans have sprouted, but my soya beans are a no show. Again. No sign of beets or carrots yet. All of the labels washed off so we've kind of lost track of what else went in the trays. Also made experimental mustard green kimchi. I do not have high hopes.
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Cucumbers, courgettes, gherkins, tomatoes, chillis sprouting. Moved the salsify into a line.
Home at last! And the sunrises are braw (if a bit brisk this week) and the bluebells are out everywhere.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
To Mum's for the weekend to recover post-Wortley. Went to a quilting fare, walked in the woods. Lunches at Denstone Farm Shop and The Ramblers. But mostly, sitting around and bananagrams.
Amy added 16 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202304-wortley/
Loads of flowers on my oxalis. A sneaky nasturtium in the tradescantia. An early veg harvest: carrots, mustard greens, land cress, rocket, sprouting broccoli, chives.
Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Dave and H at the beach at East Wemyss, after a spontaneous visit to the caves.
Amy added 2 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
A weekend with K and Lowenna. We threw the ball in the park and walked around the local woods; walked in the Pentlands; and trekked across town to Castaway Coffee for a treat. Lowenna is slimy.
Amy added 34 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-livingston/
Three days of intense Co-op work at Wortley Hall, punctuated by nice walkies around the fields with the Wortley Wanderers, and lots of carbs (though the food gets better every year).
Amy added 34 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202304-wortley/
A three-day, quite intense and tiring but overwhelmingly positive Open Data Services Co-op CoGM this week. We're in a state of flux at the moment as several complex and interdependent internal moving parts come together in support of the co-operative future we want, and that can often lead to frustration and stress. We had a lot of alignment this week, collectively, but (and) there also remains a lot of work still to do. I was taking today off to rest, but accidentally drafted a Remuneration Strategy based on thoughts percolating in my subconscious from the past few days instead. (I continue to surprise myself when I reflect on what my job seems to entail these days.)
Down to Wortley for our whole-Co-op in-person meeting. Wandered the fields, and worked hard. To my Mum's for recovery. Made a bakewell tart. Watched Triangle of Sadness. Finished Matter, started Inversions.
Had some long days doing Co-op operations and staff & welfare work. But also started gearing up to do some actual data stuff again. Dave got a diving job! Started a new crochet project. Finished Fevre Dream. Wrote a bit. A mix of nice weather. J and family came to visit and we walked from Ravenscraig to Dysart. Walkies with Max, did gardening, swam in the sea, and cleaned the beach. Was late for sunrise most mornings. Made jammy sponge at the Community Kitchen, and things with limes at home. K came round and we went for a brief jaunt to the Wemyss caves. My first self-seeded nasturtium and sunflower are up in the footpath garden.
Returned from Mum's. Lots of Co-op work. Caught up on sunrises. Made cardamom cookies and panna cotta in the Community Kitchen. Finished Inversions, started A Fire Upon The Deep. Finished Picard. Planted some things kidnapped from Mum's garden in my footpath garden. A friday night relaxing float in the sea, as a storm brewed on the horizon. Wrote quite a bit, actually.
Traveled south by train through Sweden then spent a day in Malmo. Took the ferry to Germany for a day in Luebeck, most of day in Osnabrueck and a final travel day back home. Rested. Planted some flowers.
Early veg harvest. Actually started writing my new novel idea. Just a couple of hundred words per day. Goal is more than none. Caught up with Co-op work and friends/neighbours. Listened to live music at Bustle & Buzz. Swam in the sea. Walkies with Max. Made rocky road at the Community Kitchen and lime pie at home. Went on a Lowenna adventure. Finised Consider Phlebus. Didn't like it much. I'm glad it wasn't the first Iain M Banks I read! Started Matter.
Tuesday evening departure for the Arran adventure. We caught three trains to Ardrossan, then camped on some empty scrub near the port. We awoke at sunrise for the first ferry to Brodick. A bad night's sleep - as the first night in the tent usually is - left us feeling pretty heavy, so we had a slow day. We first pitched the tent in some woods up a wee hill. It was a good out of the way spot, but it was very midgey. Subsequent scouting - after a very good breakfast at Little Rock - yielded the beach to be a much better location. We relaxed at the (very interesting) Arran Heritage museum for a while. I had a nice cup of tea and a vegan cinnamon swirl, and wrote and read, while R and I took it in turns to visit the exhibits and chill in the garden with Max. Then we moved the tent to the beach, though were beaten to the best spot by another very smug camper by about 5 minutes. Midges were less persistent because of the breeze, but still around, so Max slept in the tent (after what happened last time). He loves it.
Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202305-arran/
Awake for a glorious sunrise on the beach. We took the bus to Corrie, then walked along the coast to Sannox, checking out various interesting rock formations. We stopped for breakfast at Mara Deli, which was really delicious - kedgeree with crispy tofu, and excellent coffee. They have banana blossom tacos too which I was sad I didn't manage to return to try. A lovely outdoor location with a sea view, and dog-friendly. From Sannox we took the bus to Lochranza, then embarked on a far more substantive than expected hike over the hills. It was very glorious. Max met a boxer dog called Betty who wanted to affectionately punch him in the face over and over, and he wasn't sure what to make of that. When we finally made it to the coast, by Laggan Cottage, I read on the beach for an hour while R went off to look for fossils. Finding none, we continued, only to discover the fossils had been in the direction we wanted to walk all along. The return route around the coast was beautiful too, a bit rugged, and I was running on fumes. We were absolutely knackered by the time we made it back to Lochranza, in time for the 5pm bus. We got off in Blackwaterfoot, on the west side, having had the original plan to explore there as well. But we were too tired, and just waited for the next bus back to Brodick. We got very excellent sourdough pizza (with king oyster mushrooms) from The Parlour in Brodick, as well as nice sorbet, and ate it on the beach.
Amy added 62 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202305-arran/
Max and I had a restful day to ourselves while R went off on his bike to look for rocks. We started in the Little Rock cafe in Brodick and.. stayed there reading and writing and eating for a while. Finally we got our act together and set out south around the coast, towards Lamlash. Another glorious day, and another beautiful rocky path. The next stop on the food tour was The Drift Inn, which had several great vegan options. I had a cracking Beyond burger with melted smoked not-cheese in a pretzel bun. It was perfect, and the location was gorgeous too. We returned via an inland route, across some hills and through a bit of woods. Then spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach.
Amy added 30 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202305-arran/
Some clouds provided a bit of relief from the sun, but still a beautiful day. We took the bus to Whiting Bay, then walked from there to Kildonan. We weren't sure if it was accessible along the beach the whole day and ended up doing quite a trek along a road which wasn't ideal. From there we bussed to Blackwaterfoot, and finally managed to hike to the King's Cave. We found a fossil dinosaur foot/handprint and some excellent rock formations, and beautiful views. We did a circular route which, once again, was longer than expected. We marched to Shiskine for the last bus back to Brodick.
Amy added 61 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202305-arran/
Another hike to Lamlash, via a different inland route. Found a community woodland/orchard, and R finally hit upon agates. I had lunch and read/wrote at The Drift Inn again by myself. Staff were exceptionally kind, and found vegan mayo to go with my croquettes and mac-n-not-cheese, and a vegan chocolate for me when I went to pay the bill. I stuck my head in the Old Pier Cafe; they had some vegan stuff, but it was cramped and busy. I returned by bus, and read on the beach.
Amy added 13 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202305-arran/
R went off for one final rock hunting trip on his bike, and I wandered into Brodick. Finally got to Wooley's Bakery, which had an astounding amount of vegan options, sweet and savoury. I started with an excellent sausage roll and a brownie, and bought more things for the journey home. Posted a postcard, cleaned up our campsite, and read and wrote on the beach until R got back. Then we headed for the ferry back to Ardrossan, and three trains home.
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202305-arran/
Bakewell tart at the Community Kitchen. Mum taught me how to do the fancy squiggles. It took three goes to get them half-decent.
Oat and marmalade muffins for the Greener Kirkcaldy open day. Many jars of rhubarb from the garden. Ginger set in chocolate for a friend.
Rhubarb muffins from explosion of garden rhubarb. Carrot cake with tangy frosting in the community kitchen.
An adventure to Cambo Gardens with K and Tara, featuring a nice lunch. Tara was an excellent beach gremlin.
Amy added 29 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Amy added 2 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Courgettes are already fruiting. Planted cucumbers/gherkins (we'll see) and tomatoes into my footpath garden. Gave away the rest of the tomatoes that we had no space for.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
A long walk along the Water of Leith, with a detour to Green Bite Cafe. Tara made many friends, and frolicked in the water. At Leith Market, we met M and Lowenna. I bought much vegan cheese and not-pork pies (from Earthy and Kama) then we had more lunch in the Sly Fox. Tara and Lowenna bring their own special blend of chaos, sweetness, and antagonism to any outings. We walked along the Water of Leith some more, then sat in a dog-filled park for a while as Lowenna joined a pack. Tara was bemused by all of the bigger dogs running around, and settled for guarding our perimeter and asserting her boundaries with yaps.
Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
Up at 5 to walk to the Auld Kirk to climb the tower in time for sunrise. A tradition to welcome spring. Then a nice breakfast provided by the Auld Kirk Trust volunteers, and a glorious walk back home.
Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Two days of Co-op governance coworking in Manchester. As well as being very positive and productive, I found a toastie place (Frankie's) that would put ramen in a toastie with vegan cheese, and that was fantastic. The next day I went back for baked beans, potato waffle and jalapenos in a toastie. And an excessive peanut pretzel milkshake. Also had fantastic food at 8th Day Co-op Cafe, Pastan, and Wholesome Junkies.
Amy added 26 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202305-mcr/
St George's mushrooms out bang on schedule. Dryad's starting. Fairy ring champignon in the secret cemetery?
Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
A braw week of sunrises and sunsets in Fife, around a trip to Manchester.
Amy added 38 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
To Edinburgh to be looked after by Tara! She bounced so high when I arrived. And accompanied me on visits to Seeds For The Soul and Chapter One Coffee. We attempted to go to Harmonium for their final weekend, but it was full. Nova Pizza squeezed us in instead. Tara is not an early riser.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
Ran into Tara's mad family on the Links this morning, for some unexpected excitement. Wee breakfast at Cafe Kweer before train to Kirkcaldy.
Cuddles, walkies and food touring with Tara. Co-op colleagues came to cowork as well.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
Breakfast at Curran Geal. Work all day, through a day of glorious sunshine. When we finally got out in the evening a haar promptly descended on the whole city. We stomped around Holyrood Park anyway, and got home in time for dinner to be delivered from Soul Vegan. Tara crashed out, and refused any more walkies for 24 hours.
Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
I was at work, and Tara was refusing to get up most of the day. We did manage a frolic with a big stick on Bruntsfield Links, and a nice lunch at Curran Geal.
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
My last day with Tara - lunch at Curran Geal with F. Then I returned two days later for a night before an early train. An evening walk with Tara's mad family. This is the first time I managed to get a photo of them that wasn't a blur.
Tara and I visited F in Glasgow. We enjoyed the anti-monarchy protests, and lots of tasty vegan food.
Immediately woke up at sunrise once I was home. Finished Anne Frank Diaries. Work on onboarding new staff, co-op staffing plan, general admin. One more evening with Tara. Went to Manchester to work on co-op governance, and eat many good things. Swam in the sea. Baked for the Greener Kirkcaldy open day. Garden update. Caught up with friends.
Climbed the Auld Kirk tower for sunrise on the 1st to welcome spring. St George's mushrooms! And dryad's saddle starting. Made bakewell tart at the Community Kitchen. Went to Edinburgh to see Tara. Adventure in Glasgow with F and Cambo Gardens with K. Started and finished reading The Wasp Factory. Started watching Bridgerton.
Lots of work to get ready for new Co-op people starting. Also we're still hiring developers... Swam in the sea. Went to Arran. Hiked around the east and north of Arran; to the south along the east coast; parts of the south and west coast; to Lamlash again.
Nonstop work, but also lots of eating and walkies and Tara cuddles. Walkies around Holyrood Park and to Leith and back. Started reading Anne Frank Diaries. Finished watching Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte. Feeling excited and exhausted. Dryads!
Did a rather inordinate amount of baking for K's birthday. Started as soon as I finished work at about 1730 on Friday evening until I ran out of steam, then resumed at 5am on Saturday. It was a blast. I made matcha cookies, chocolate hazelnut brownies, a lime polenta cake with lime curd in the middle and rhubarb frosting, mini vegan quiches with oyster mushrooms and courgette inside, and a buckwheat, lentil and edamame salad with roasted courgettes. The pastry went wrong the first time so I had to do emergency hot water crust at short notice, and that was actually way better. The quiches were excellent (if I do say so myself).
Amy added 16 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Summer can't quite make up its mind if it's here yet, but when the sky is blue, it's hot! Some big tides.
I woke up with a screaming headache, so walked out of the woods to High Valleyfield, the nearest small and dreary town, to find the Co-op open before 7am. They IDed me for ibuprofen and a bottle of water, looking and feeling like absolute shit, still in the clothes I'd slept in straight from the woods. Haha. They sold me the ibuprofen anyway. We had to hang around until Culross Palace was open. Mostly we chilled in a park nearby, and visited the gardens for a bit. The palace was great actually. They even had a dog-volunteer (another dog) who Max could wait with while we followed the guide around inside. It's interesting how much history has been preserved here due to sheer neglect over the centuries. We delayed further by having cake in the cafe. We finally commenced walking. Most of the route was along roads and quite rubbish. At Newmills we met some people scavenging a door from a skip. We were about 18 hours behind our original schedule at this point, but managed to chat for over an hour about .. the environment, state of the world, reuse and recycling, litter, etc... We took a detour towards Charlestown off the official path, because it looked like a nicer woody trail rather than a main track. So glad we did! There was a lovely stream, some interesting caves, and... We found so much chicken of the woods. We harvested it, and continued to the town. It wasn't going to survive a night in the tent and another day of walking, so we decided to just call it and get the bus home. We went to see the lime kilns, and continue to the town of Limekilns. I wanted to press on to Inverkeithing or at least Ferrytoll, but the buses were scarce, my feet were hurting, and most of that stretch of the route was along road. So we just got the bus home from Limekilns. So there's a stretch of the Coastal Path between Limekilns and Inverkeithing that I've never walked... I'll have to get back to that.
Amy added 59 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
An adventure to Falkland Open Gardens with K, JB and E. We ate many good snacks, bought plants, saw lovely gardens, and also went to Pillars of Hercules for lunch. On the way home we stopped at B&Q. What a day!
Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Panna cotta with rhubarb topping at the Community Kitchen. Burritos and popcorn at home.
Loads of chicken of the woods, so nothing to do but make KFC... Kirkcaldy Fried Chicken. And chunked a load for a future curry. Polenta, almond and lime cake too, inspired by one I had at Culross Palace yesterday. Mine also has stewed rhubarb in, as a yoghurt substitute. Obviously.
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Summer fruit jellies at the Community Kitchen. Excellent slow cooker thai green curry with chicken of the woods, oyster mushrooms and courgettes and onions from the garden. And a creamy oyster mushroom and courgette pasta sauce.
Made rose panna cotta at the Community Kitchen. And oyster mushroom lasagne and oyster mushroom tempura at home.
An early parasol in Ravenscraig Park. Oyster mushrooms in Ravenscraig too, though none yet in the oyster woods. Chicken of the woods in the oyster woods doesn't seem to be growing, so we're leaving it alone.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Someone found these growing on the compost at Greener Kirkcaldy! Gorgeous. (I was consulted to see if they're edible!)
Amy added 1 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Oodles (1.4kg) of chicken of the woods at [redacted] on the south fife coast.. so much that we had to abandon our hike early to bring it home. Back in Kirkcaldy, the oyster mushrooms are flushing... right on schedule.
The season is really kicking off in the oyster woods. Got several kilos. All in perfect condition, barely needed cleaning. Little rain means they've not been splashed with dirt, and also they're not so full of water that they turn to soup when cooked, but fry up perfectly!
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
More oyster mushroom runs, closer to home. Found another chicken of the woods in a well hidden but accessible-once-you-know it nearby location. Waiting to see if it grows more; will be a good haul if so. Also found a deer shield, a small inkcap I haven't seen before, and some interesting weird grey growths on a fallen log.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Pulled out all the flowering salsify, as pretty as it is, and self-seeded potatoes. Planted chard, carrots (god knows what happened to the last lot), land cress, radish, radicchio, rocket, purple sprouting broccoli, kale. The beetroot crop is patchy. Lots of other things just didn't sprout. Some sunflower seeds from a flower head I left lying around last year in my living room got damp and sprouted, so I've potted them up..
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Managed to stay on top of watering the footpath garden this week. Veg seems to be coping. Flowers are also looking good. Self-seeded nasturtiums are still popping up at a rate of about two per day. Sunday in the main garden. Some of the tomatoes are nearly as tall as me already. Dug the chillis out of the ground in the polytunnel into big pots, so we can move them when it's cold. Replaced them with aubergines (from the RNLI plant sale). Propped up the broad beans and sweet peas. Mounded potatoes. Improved anti-sparrow measures for the chard, beet, carrots, whatever other unlabelled things that have started sprouting.
Amy added 22 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Arranged wildflowers I picked at dawn on the solstice, on the way back from rose petal harvesting. Also, mystery (self-seeded) bean growing with one of my tomatoes.
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Took an afternoon bus to Kincardine with R and Max and the tent, and began the first segment of the Fife Coastal Path. It wasn't really very coastal. We poked around Culross when we arrived, and debated marching on for another few hours, or hanging around to visit the palace in the morning. We decided to stay. So we passed the evening with some unnecessary miles around the perimeter of Preston Island, and camped in the woods. Culross is very cute. So far this part of the rest of the coastal path has been uninspiring though.
Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Miraculously planned ahead on thursday, and made a pizza dough to rise overnight. I only had wholewheat strong flour, and plain flour, so used a combination of the two and it was great. Topped with a tomato sauce made from homegrown tomato/rocket passata, sambal, and tomato puree; chicken of the woods chunks, oyster mushrooms, and courgette from the garden of course, home-pickled gherkins and jalapenos as well; and grated and cream Sheese.
Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Many hours spent rescuing spiders, wee flies, aphids, earwigs, tiny snails and weird squiggly guys from the rose petals, before processing. Unlike last year, I managed not to bring any bees home with me. Then I made loads of rose water and rose syrup, at home and at the Community Kitchen.
Rhubarb mousse topped with rose jelly tart, with a date and oat crust, and decorated with a variety of scavenged, donated or homegrown fruit. Cardamom rose shortbread topped with pistachios.
Amy added 22 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Polenta almond lime cake, drizzled with rose syrup, at the Community Kitchen. Vegan and gluten-free.
An incredible, gentle solstice. I walked, alone, to the beach at West Wemyss before dawn, and harvested dewy rose petals for a couple of hours.
Amy added 39 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Some exceedingly braw sunrises this week. Mostly hot clear days. First half of the week starting the day with a bit of haar, so had to wait for the sun to rise past it. Beautiful blue afternoons, with enough sea breeze to offset the summer heat. Idyllic, really.
I sometimes still just can't believe I live here. Also that my body cooperates in sitting me bolt upright wide awake at 4am so I can witness this every day.
More celestial masterpieces on my doorstep.
A week of braw sunrises, calm seas, still evenings. R came to visit, after years of being so-close-but-so-far!
Amy added 51 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Sunrises; wanders into town (too much sushi); Greener Kirkcaldy volunteer celebration in Ravenscraig Walled Gardens.
Co-op internal/operations and governance work. Prepping for our OGM. Made summer fruit jellies at the Community Kitchen, and thai green chicken (of the woods) curry, oyster mushroom pasta, and chicken (of the woods) and mushroom pizza at home. Several trips for oyster mushrooms and found some other things too. Vast amount of baking for K's birthday. Exciting visit to the RNLI plant sale at Kinghorn. Garden day on Sunday. Dried oyster mushrooms, mint and sage in the dehydrator. Finished Surface Detail, started A Psalm for the Wild-Built. More meetings and IRL socialising than an average week. Might need to hide for a couple of days. Dave came back, briefly, and left again. But he did make me lunch in the short window of being in the flat. Woke up for sunrise most days. Swam in the sea twice. Monday morning around 9 was in a light haar, and the sea was really glossy with big rolling waves; high reflection and low water visibility made it felt like I was swimming in the sky. Friday morning at 6 was gorgeous too.
Walkies with Max. Worked on upgrading the JSON schema version for the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard. Co-chaired our co-op OGM. We made some Decisions About The Future (tm). Finally got some rain. Swam in the sea. The now traditional Solstice dawn rose petal harvest. Made much rose water and rose syrup. Made polenta cake at the Community Kitchen and Rhubarb and rose jelly tart and cardamom rose shortbread at home. Arranged some wildflowers. Finished A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Started Use of Weapons. Glorious sunrises. R came to visit and we foraged oyster mushrooms.
Returned from Arran. Swam in the sea. Alternating grey and braw days. Not that they grey isn't also braw, on an empty beach at 5am. Made carrot cake at the Community Kitchen and rhubarb/banana muffins at home. Long work days. Oyster mushrooms are starting... Falkland adventure. Much blog catchup. Finished A Deepness In The Sky. Started Surface Detail. Garden catchup.
Finally on top of Co-op internal work, and even did some client work! Swam in the sea. Made rhubarb panna cotta at the Community Kitchen. Walked part of the Fife coastal path, from Kincardine to Culross, then visited Culross Palace and went the scenic route to Limekilns. Had to abandon the hike there as we found so much chicken of the woods and needed to get it home to a fridge/stomach. And the oysters started too.
Courgette and rose cake at the Community Kitchen. Courgette choc chip, and rhubarb flapjack, at home.
Jammy double biscuits with rose frosting at the Community Kitchen.
Homemade gluten-free, vegan dog treats for Maximus. Containing peanut butter, gram flour, rice flour, coconut flour, coconut oil, cinnamon. Chomp chomp.
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Courgette cupcakes with chocolate fudge piped frosting for little E's birthday party.
Tara and I had a lazy morning, lunch at Curran Geal, then missed the bus to Cramond. So we walked all the way from Bruntsfield to Cramond Island, via the causeway. It was great! We did not get trapped by the sea. I only had to fight Tara to stop her from eating disgusting things several times. There were also lots of revolting things to roll in. We walked to Silverknowes, then caught a bus back into town. Met K at Holy Cow for dinner, then walked home.
Amy added 77 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
Finished making some new friends on the train (for E and E).
Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
A day in Porty for R's first day at the co-op, featuring pizza on the beach. Then finally reunited with Tara, for a week of Taradventures.
The day after a long walk, Tara wasn't up for going anywhere. Which was fortunate, as I had meetings all day. We did manage to get to the Meadows Tap in the evening though.
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
Tara and I took the tram to Newhaven, and Tara made some new friends. We all went for a walk around Newhaven, then to Leith Market. It was periodically raining torrentially, but we managed to stop in Face Plant Food for a mac n cheese sandwich. I dropped our new friends at various different points around Edinburgh, then found myself in the neighbourhood for Prewired, where I knew a small make-a-thon was ongoing, so I dropped in to say hi. I subsequently got roped in as a judge for the next day.
Tara and I took one of our new friends up Arthur's Seat. We had lunch in BBL, then I went to Prewired to judge the make-a-thon. Tara helped.
Some sun, some rain, some excellent skies.
Mornings on the beach. A couple of trips to town. Walkies with Max.
Amy added 22 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Forager's pie (wild mushrooms and lentils) and rhubarb and custard to share with L upstairs. Courgette cupcakes with rose glaze, at the Community Kitchen.
Chanterelle pizza, courgette pakora, chanterelle and courgette stew..
A trip to the local chanterelle woods, where lots of patches were ready (including some new to us) and lots more still to come. Also loads of russulas, but very chewed up by slugs and time. A few brown birch and red cracked boletes, but only a couple worth taking home.
Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Nasturtiums are opening gloriously, including the "black" one from D. It's a gorgeous deep red. Tomatoes in the polytunnel are getting out of hand. Squash are becoming rather large. Bottled a ton of rhubarb.
Flowers, opening! And look at that cute little self-seeded poppy.
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Potatoes soon! Jalapeno flowers. Harvesting gooseberries and blackcurrants.
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Went to work in the garden with Max. He wanted to sit on me practically the whole time while I was shelling broad beans. Such a cutie.
Extremely windy outing to the beach at Longniddry, for chips huddled behind the shelter of the car. With K, M, R and Lowenna. The company was nice, but the weather is, obviously and always, better in Fife.
Max injured his foot, probably on some glass. So his camping trip was cancelled, and he spent the weekend convalescing with me instead. We kept walkies to a minimum, and lounged around a lot, which is Max's least favourite activity. He was very sweet and loving once he got used to the idea though, especially when I was re-bandaging his foot. He got really good at sitting quietly on the beach with me at dawn, and not trying to dash into the sea, managing to constrain himself to gazing intensely and longingly at it instead.
To Manchester for co-op coworking again, this time with our new operations team. A productive two days. Ate lots of good things (Frankie's toasties, Kim's Kitchen, Fred's Ale House, Desert Island Dumplings).
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202307-mcr/
I put some pictures on the walls that have been sitting around for ages, which made me feel very accomplished.
Amy added 6 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
Brunch with T at Roots & Seeds. Joined by K, M and Lowenna, for Fife Pride. On the High St, the Saturday market was blowing away as the winds got up and we had to emergency hold down some awnings just as the parade was coming round the corner. Excellent energy all day. I bumped into most people I know at some point. Hung out at the queercaldy maker fare in Century. Home for beach walkies, tea, and dozing.
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Continuing to be excited about how well the changes to operational work at the co-op are going. Swam in the sea twice. Some very still days, but also windy days. Planned to go to TPAC. Made jammy biscuits at the Community Kitchen. Got chanterelles. And made pizza with them. Finished Excession. Started Fantastic Voyage. Hung out with Max. Harvested some things. Put pictures on the walls.
Caught up on The Witcher. Made forager's pie and rhubarb and custard to share with neighbours, and courgette and rose cupcakes in the Community Kitchen. Coworked in Manchester. Made some tentacled sea creatures and fancy cakes. Visited J and co in Falkirk. Went on a Wennaventure to Longniddry. Good amounts of sun and rain.
Spent the week in Edinburgh being looked after by Tara. Onboarded R into the co-op. Walked to Cramond Island. Lazed around. Went to Leith, made new friends. Dropped in on Prewired, and got absolutely soaked in George Sq. Climbed Arthur's Seat and judged the Prewired make-a-thon. Read Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Watched a load of Superstore.
Braw summer sunrises. Made many oyster mushroom based things at home, and rose panna cotta at the Community Kitchen. Worked on BODS, admin, recruitment coordination. Rearranged my kitchen, to fit in more tea. Greener Kirkcaldy volunteer celebration (I got my 100 hours certificate). Went to Fife Pride. Garden catchup.
Read A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. Finished Use of Weapons. Started Excession. Went to the solicitors for Co-op business. Kind of odd, being in town on a Monday. A weekend of convalescing with Max and his injured foot. Made choc chip courgette cake and rhubarb flapjack and homemade gluten-free dog treats. Found enough fairy ring champignon to have on toast. Visited the Dysart tolbooth museum. Worked in the garden, mostly harvesting broad beans and being sat on by Max.
Beetroot brownies and apple crumbles at the Community Kitchen
Apple crumble. A phonecall from a local business asking if we'd take 12kg of defrosting raspberries. I said I'd stay late to process them into compote, how could we say no?!?
Made a fuzzy seal friend with some velvety yarn I've been wondering what to do with for a while.
Too many cucumbers, beans and tomatoes to deal with.. Ran out of vinegar... It's fermenting time.
Trying to deal with the massive harvest. Gooseberry ketchup, courgette pakoras, courgette cake, pickled gherkins with seaweed and chinese spices.
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Made some dead good food this week. Curry night: aloo chard, tomato dahl, courgette pakoras. Peanut stirfry. And to conquer the harvest: many fruit crumbles, gooseberry pies, salads, fermented cucumbers/courgettes, bottled tomato and veg.
Preserved more of the tomato and runner bean harvest by bottling a tamarind bean curry. Made proper risotto for perhaps the first time ever, using chanterelle and bean stock. Crunchy french beans inside, and sauteed chanterelles on top. Super good.
Oyster mushrooms in Ravenscraig Park - just enough for dinner. A ramble after work to look for chanterelles. Found plenty, along with lots of other interesting fungi.
R dropped off about 5kg of chanterelles for me to "deal with".
Two days of garden catchup. Massive harvests - runner and french beans, courgettes, cucumbers, gherkins, tomatoes, rhubarb, blueberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries. New chilli plants are starting to fruit. Pulled out mustard greens and dying squash, and planted leeks.
Amy added 20 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Successfully removed the builtin hallway cupboards. Behind them was surprisingly not a disaster! A bit of hole filling to do, but basically ready for shelves.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
A ton of beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, courgettes. Beyond manageable.
A trip to Helensburgh to visit J and family. A very wet day, got soaked multiple times over. But in between managed lots of nice food and frolics.
Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202308-scot/
Rearranging my flat to accommodate the houseplants I've inherited. Also started tackling the hallway chaos cupboard/drawers.
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
A visit to Livingston to help K&M paint (or, as it turns out, strip wallpaper). And snuggle time with Lowenna. Who prevented me from sleeping. But is still the sweetest thing.
Amy added 23 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-livingston/
Visits with Froyja, Ash and Pika. A wander across Newcastle.. the tunnel under the river was closed but there was a replacement bus. Return via the North-South Shields ferry.
Amy added 30 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202308-ncl/
Coworking in Newcastle with the BODS crew. I woke up at sunrise and managed to catch a glimpse of the glow through the window. So I went for a wander around the city center, across the bridges, saw the castle and the vampire rabbit. Ate tasty food at Super Natural, Snackwallah, Cantina, Pink Lane Bakery.
Amy added 41 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202308-ncl/
Braw sunrises. A seagull terrorises Kirkcaldy high street.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Walked from Kirkcaldy to Kinghorn for an 80th birthday celebration in a field. This was after a visit to an antiques sale and the garden center with K, what a wild day!
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Down to Newcastle to visit M. We went for a lovely 15 mile hike in Weardale. We didn't ford a river, but did climb two hills and see three waterfalls. Then ate pizza.
Amy added 78 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202308-ncl/
Sometimes people think it's weird that I log all of my purchases on my website, but do you you know exactly how long a 2.5kg bag of chocolate chips lasts you? I didn't think so. (It lasts me one year minus one day.)
Had a surprisingly positive GP experience. Swam in the sea. Made a fuzzy amigurumi seal friend. No Community Kitchen. Cups-of-tea-with-neighbours times. My sleep pattern is still a bit off, but managed some sunrises. Overworked a bit. Got on top of my todo list before taking a proper break. Very positive week though, especially running probation progress retros with some of our new people. Had an extremely wild Saturday: went to a small antiques sale, the garden centre, and an 80th birthday party in a field. Walked to Kinghorn for the latter. Two days in the garden, for harvesting, and produce cooking/preserving, featuring lots of berries. Planted leeks.
First of two weeks off. Fully off. Managed, eventually, to stoically ignore work emails. Braw sunny days. Swam in the sea. Made apple crumble and tons of raspberry compote at the Community Kitchen, and excellent bean curry and chanterelle risotto at home. Helped K&M with painting and Lowenna walkies. Visited J and co in Helensburgh. Went to A&D's wedding anniversary party. Tagged onto the last day of the Kirkcaldy Walking Festival. Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and courgettes still going strong.
TAG virtual face-to-face meetings. Made apple crumble and beet brownie at the Community Kitchen. Foraged oysters in Ravenscraig Park, and chanterelles. Swam in the sea. Italian N came for a visit. Went for a hike in Weardale.
A small wander around Newcastle before coworking for a couple of days. Back to pink sunrises and warm days and time with friends. Started Stardust. Watched Superstore and Good Omens S2. Swam in the sea. Helped T with moving. Caught up on the garden; lots to harvest. Made a courgette cake and courgette pakoras, gooseberry ketchup and seaweed pickled gherkins. Had a major flat clear out / tidy up.
I budgeted wrong and used all of my social energy up on Monday, day 1 of this 5 day conference.
Feeling fancy that my agenda for today involves lunch in London and dinner in Paris. The rest of my agenda involves spending the entire weekend on trains, to get from Fife to Sevilla for W3C TPAC. Pretty sure I'm not going to be able to fit in any meals tomorrow at all.)
First terrible mistake of the trip: getting the time of my eurostar wrong. Realised in time to not miss it, but not in time to eat the delicious lunch I'd just ordered at Thenga which I'd been looking forward to since I woke up at 5 ;_;
Bread and butter pudding at the Community Kitchen. Summer fruit jelly at home, with the leftovers from bottling.
Bottled the absurd amount of produce from the garden. Tomatoes, courgette. The blackcurrants have been waiting in the freezer for the apples - made gallons of compote.
A few days in Birmingham with the co-operators. Good food, good people. More work to do, always work to do.
Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-bhm/
Looking for hallway decor inspiration in Rejects. Patching up the inside of the cupboards with plaster and R's help.
Amy added 10 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
Five days in Sevilla for TPAC. Reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, and making new ones. I didn't do much touristing, but did manage to find decent vegan tapas. An exhausting but worthwhile week.
Amy added 55 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
Despite the hiccup in Gibraltar, I managed to get to Malaga in time for the 7 hour train to Barcelona. This ran late, quickly eating up 25 of the 31 minutes I had to catch the last train to Cardedeu. Barcelona Sants is huge, and I had no idea where to go; Renfe staff were no help at all. I did a bunch of research on the station to work out where the regional trains were likely to be, and decided I get a taxi to Cardedeu rather than sleep in the station or walk into town for a very expensive hostel. Off the train, dodging slow pullers of suitcases, I saw no signs to the regional trains, and had to pause to ask someone. I sprinted in the direction pointed, to be met by a wall of ticket barriers, too robust to climb over or squeeze through. My interrail pass never opens barriers, and there were no staff in sight. Fortunately a nice lady let me tailgate behind her. I continued to run, unable to see the train I was expecting on a screen, but aware it was an R2 (but there are 3 R2 lines, all going to different places, and I didn't know the end destination). I saw a train that was a candidate, ran down the wrong stairs, back up again, down the right stairs, determined it was my train as it began to pull away.... I kept running in desperation, onto the platform... and it stopped. And opened the doors. Eternal thanks to that driver, and thank goodness this thing is run by human beings and not computers. So I made it to Cardedeu to stay with B, very late, and woke up E. But it was wonderful to see B. The next day we had coffee, walked around the town, and got tasty food from a market stall. And then I set off again. Back to Sants for a train to Latour de Carol. This train was slow, winding through beautiful mountains. A busker in the carriage made it feel like a dream. The journey reminded me of my 2013 interrail through Austria. The night train to Paris was waiting, and I found my bunk straight away. Another great train sleep. Another walk across Paris, this time in torrential rain. My Eurostar was delayed by an hour and a half. Thank goodness for LNER being flexible about interrail passes. I made it to Edinburgh about three quarters of an hour later than expected, which is not too bad in the grand scheme of things.
Amy added 40 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
Chocolate chip raspberry muffins at the Community Kitchen. Seitan pepperoni for pizza. Acquired some vegan cheese, so had some exciting toasted wraps on my new grill pan. Had a handful of raspberries and blueberries from the garden, so I put them in scones. Processed a load of other berries into mixed fruit compote.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Prince coming up in Ravenscraig Park, but the slugs got them before I could. A little flush of oysters in the oyster woods, in defiance of dryness and heatweave.
Amy added 3 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
The journey to TPAC begins. An early train from Edinburgh to London, Eurostar to Paris, then an afternoon of wandering around Paris in the scorching sun. Cake at Cloud Cakes, and dinner and supplies from Land & Monkeys. I had to walk from Nord to Austerlitz station, but had many hours to do it in. I wandered along the Seine, and found a sculpture park, and platforms by the water with people dancing. After dark I waited in Austerlitz, for the night train to Toulouse. The night train was way more comfortable than I expected. The bed was comfy, the temperature in the cabin was perfect, my cabinmates were silent, and the train sounds were very soothing. Better night's sleep than I'd have had in a hotel in Toulouse, if I'd taken a fast train earlier. Definitely recommend. From Toulouse I took a local train to Narbonne, and then from Narbonne the long distance Renfe train to Madrid. I'd hoped to reserve a seat on the next available train from Madrid to Seville and arrive at a reasonable time, but after being passed between three different Renfe ticket offices (after taking a number and waiting in line each time) I was told that the next available train wasn't until 8pm. So I waited for three hours, and arrived after midnight. At least I made it.
The ferry from Tanger to Tarifa arrived quite late. In my wisdom, I decided to get the FRS bus from Tarifa to Algeciras because it's included with the ferry ticket... but that left very late too. Then I got lost in Algeciras (which as a whole did not leave a good impression on me) between the port and the bus station, and missed two buses to La Linea, setting be back even further. The bus I did finally catch from Algeciras was fast, and the walk from the bus station at La Linea to the border is short and straightforward. There were no crowds or lines. When I got to the hostel I had to wait around for someone to arrive to let me in. So my whole prospective afternoon in Gibraltar was gone, alas. I went for a wander, and stopped for motivational ice cream. I was trying to work out whether I should take the cable car to the top of the Rock (expensive) and walk down (dark soon?), or if I should just walk up in the morning (is it accessible? How long would it take?). Taxi drivers trying to sell tours to the top insisted that walking up was impossible, which if anything made me more determined to try it. I did agree with them that the cable car pricing is extortionate, however. And then it's another £20 on top of that to get into the nature reserve. Hmm. I approached the botanical gardens, which were open until sunset, but was accosted by a taxi driver trying to fill a car he already had a couple of takers for. In the moment, still undecided about my itinerary and wanting to make best use of my very limited time, I conceded, and joined a French couple on the ride to the top (for 25eur). I'm glad I did. The taxi driver (Ryan) was lovely and related a little bit of history but more day-to-day life and economics of Gibraltar, all of which is new and interesting to me. He introduced us to some macaque friends, and we talked about Scotland as well. The ride took about an hour, and gave me a good preview of the top and convinced me that it was definitely climbable at sunrise the next day... He also pointed out that going up before 9 means I don't have to pay the entrance fee to the nature reserve. I had dinner at a slightly fancy place by the water, then ran to Morrisons in time to get supplies for my early morning adventure, before bed. I got back to the hostel to meet an aggressive cat, and find I was sharing my dorm only with one other person.
Amy added 71 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
I woke up early and climbed the Rock before sunrise. It was very doable! I went via the Moorish castle, and was high up on the west side by sunrise, but not over the top. Then I wound my way through the nature reserve, detouring around paths that looked interesting, and avoiding big roads, not that there was any traffic. I found the suspension bridge, but didn't cross it due to intimidating macaques whom I didn't not want to jump on my head over an enormous drop. The day got hotter and I met a few runners and nature reserve staff. There are some steep steps running straight down the middle in one area, linking various horizontal tracks together. Generally all of the tracks are very accessible, most are for vehicles. My route down was via the mediterranean steps, which was absolutely gorgeous. Over the east side of the Rock, it was suddenly quiet. The steps were scrambly and wild, and there were lots of caves. I got back down later than expected, and couldn't take a bus back to the town center because they didn't take card or give change! So I walked, fast, in time to check out from the hostel. I wanted brunch and a nice sit down at a tea shop, but decided realistically I needed to march straight back over the border to La Linea bus station. It's a good job I did, because I discovered that the bus I wanted to get to Malaga was full. Somehow not at all panicked, I jumped on the next bus back to Algeciras, and texted K to help me buy a ticket for the next Algeciras-Malaga bus in the meantime, in case that was full by the time I got there. Phew.
Amy added 85 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
More beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgette... all I'm eating. Nice little escapees from my footpath garden in the local area..
Amy added 46 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Arrived in Tanger at lunchtime. Got lost for an hour looking for my hostel in the old town. This got decreasingly fun as it was very hot and I was carrying my backpack, GPS wasn't working and I went around in many circles. Eventually I discovered the hostel was at the end of a street that was in the process of being dug up and I'd walked past it several times already. Feeling a bit claustrophobic in the old town, I had lunch (tagine) on the promenade, then wandered along to the beach, and into the main part of the city. Tanger is a lot bigger than I expected. I caught a tour bus outside the train station, and stayed on it for a ride out along the coast in the evening. I saw the sunset near Cap Spartel lighthouse, and stuck my head in Hercules' cave, which was packed full of tourists and junk. Dinner was couscous at a nice local-feeling-but-actually-had-lots-of-tourists-in restaurant (Ahlan) near the Grande Mosque. Hostel Riad is lovely.
Amy added 88 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
For a nice change of pace, it rained pretty heavily all day in Tanger. I visited the castle museum (mostly outside, so wet, and very small), wandered around Place 9 Avril between showers. Stopped for bissara at a place called bissara which only serves bissara after walking round the block several times to work up to it. It was a tiny very local place, so I observed for a while to see what the sitting/ordered etiquette seemed to be, and had to wait for a table to free up as well. Despite initial anxiety, I managed to eat bissara (white bean breakfast soup) and bread and Moroccan tea and that all filled me up for the entire day afterwards. For about £1. I enjoyed the American Legation Museum, and learnt a lot of history I didn't know. I was very inspired by the Ibn Battouta museum, which is well worth the visit. I got on the tour bus when I spotted it with the ticket I already had, and rode it for most of the route despite wet seats. Jumped off at Cafe Hafa for coffee and managed not to get rained on too much. Wandered until I found the Roman ruins, which was mostly just a really good viewpoint where lots of people were taking selfies. Managed to catch the bus back into town. Rain was tapering off by the evening, so I went for a wander in the old town, and decided to have dinner based on where I happened to pop out. This took me to a Syrian place called Abou Tayssir which was incredible, especially the kibbeh. And lovely vibes.
Amy added 84 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
I went to the beach to catch the sunrise, but apparently this is a weird thing to do as lots of people were asking where I was going and I got weird looks when I sat down. I returned to the hostel for breakfast, and there I met two lovely people who became my friends and travel companions that day. We wandered in the old town, then caught the tour bus to Cap Spartel. This time we went into the grounds and museum which had lots of interesting lighthouse and historical information (albeit all in French). There were lovely gardens, and extremely expensive juice. We walked to the beach and the rock of Hercules, before hopping on the tour bus back. Back in town, we went straight to Abou Tayssir and ordered everything vegan on the menu between us and had a fantastic time. Socialised some more in the hostel with lots of Germans, before the three of us headed out again for tea in the old town, and watched the world go by. Meeting these two made a huge difference to my trip, and helped me to find a new perspective on Tanger!
Amy added 75 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
A relaxing final morning in Tanger. I had considered leaving much earlier, but my new friends kept me longer. We ate bissara, went to the market, and drank lots of tea in a quiet courtyard. A helped R with Arabic writing, and they both added something to a postcard to my Mum. I finally boarded the ferry back to Spain. It departed quite late.
Amy added 38 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
A night in Edinburgh, to catch the early train to London. Snuggled with my darling Tara.
An evening bus from Sevilla to Tarifa; food and a wander around the small old town and onto a pitch black beach. As I approached the sea and heard the crashing of the waves, I almost cried. I can't believe how much I missed the sea after a week inland! The next day I went to see the same places again in daylight, and swam in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Tarifa is lovely, I'd come here again. Then I caught a ferry to Tanger.
Amy added 48 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202309-es/
The Social Web CG meeting featured old faces and new. I hadn't looked at the agenda beforehand, and Evan seemed keen to focus on practical things and make it a working meeting. I think it's tricky to balance this at TPAC, where many curious observers without necessarily deep background sit in, and it's harder for the usual community members to attend (remote is an option, and technically anyone could just dial in, but it's theoretically gated behind a registration, which again, has an option to ask for the fee to be waived, but does imply that most people should have a paid ticket). It turned out that the audio in the room was not great too, so remote participants had trouble taking part. I minuted it here. Some of the interactions gave me a tight-chested panicky feeling, a throwback to five or more years ago when I was deeply involved in this space, emotionally invested, and having a hard time dealing with all of the conflict. Time constraints aside, I'm hesitant to get more than peripherally involved again for this reason, though I do want to see the work progress. Thoughts about rechartering the Social WG have been floating around for a while, and we had the first minuted conversation about it. There is a lot of enthusiasm for it from the W3C side - it would be a shame to lose the momentum currently in the fediverse, when we could use it to fix up at least the ActivityPub standard. Meanwhile there's a diversity of projects and spinoffs in a community that's so large I can't keep up, and people there are naturally worried about being excluded. I think this is a combination of people who weren't around for the first time, and see it as an exclusive group that only reps of large companies can be involved with, along with people who were there for the first time round and had some bad experiences with the difficult group dynamics, and are not keen to see that repeated. Personally, I'm not opposed to a WG rechartering, but I'm not strongly advocating for it either. I carry the concern of the latter group, and take seriously the worries about exclusion. W3C process can be completely opaque to most people, and even when they are inclusive on paper (eg. Invited Experts don't need to be part of a W3C member company) this opaqueness as well as tribal knowledge and strongly held assumptions by "insiders" can similarly cause exclusion. To mitigate this, I think it's safe to charter a continuation of the Social Web WG when we have: A tightly scoped charter, focussed on "maintenance" of (errata and clarifications) the ActivityPub and ActivityStreams 2.0 specifications alone. A set of criteria for selection of two or three co-chairs of the group (see eg. this self-review draft from csarven). The W3C Team ultimately nominates chairs, but we can make recommendations to them, and I'd advocate for their decision making process and rationale to be completely transparent. A set of criteria which Invited Experts should meet. We should enable people who have stewarded communities and moderated instances in the fediverse or similar to participate, as well as current implementers, and implementers who plan to integrate AP into exisiting software in future. We should make the criteria as open and inclusive as possible so we have a meaningfully diverse set of voices in the group; and it will also help us to transparently justify every group participant, and help others understand the perspective each person brings. A clear process for individuals to self-nominate as IEs. Ultmiately the chair(s) decide who can join as an IE, and it's always a worry that they approve people they know and reject people they don't. If we have a clear set of criteria, then people who are not known to someone on the "inside" can apply on solid ground and feel secure that their application is considered on its own merits. A clear participation process. We should know when a meeting is "quorate", how we make decisions (in more detail than "consensus"), and enable async participation in decision-making as much as possible. A clear, documented line of communication/coordination between the WG and the CG. There will certainly be membership overlap, but someone(s) explicitly responsible for feeding information in each direction will be important. It typically takes ages to get a WG chartered, although I think there's a sense in W3C that this could happen (relatively) quickly for the Social Web, as it's a continuation of an existing group. The biggest impediment are the hangups in the community, old and new, and the emotional reactions people have when they're in disagreement. I get it - I've been there, and still have the scars - but ultimately a majority of potential participants are striving for the same goal, and I really hope there's enough unity in that. Many of us have been burnt, or burned out, but it's a different world now than it was in 2016-2018. We can do things differently. The disagreements are broadly between people who are doing work as well, who all have opinions and experiences that should be weighted heavily. I understanding wanting to just get stuff done but the price of this shouldn't be ignoring people with a different perspective. I understand having serious concerns, but these can and should be a constructive way of improving the situation for everyone, not stop-energy or a weapon. I hope we can slow down just enough to hear each other, but not so much that we spin our wheels forever. It's a tricky line to walk. I don't know how involved I'll be. I've already borne witness to public and private blowups about this in the week since the meeting and I don't have a place for that energy in my life. On the other hand, if we can get some more cooperative and inclusive dynamics in place, I'd be more inclined to spend some time.
Social Web Incubator Community Group - face-to-face meeting at TPAC 2023
The sound of The News is so distinctive (at least UK TV and radio but I think it's pretty universal) and after having avoided it diligently for some years now whenever I hear it in passing I get such a visceral horror reaction.
Stuck in Madrid for three hours longer than planned/ideal. I couldn't make the reservation that needs to go with the interrail pass for the Madrid-Sevilla train except in-person (myself - tried to send agents in advance, no go) at the station. After standing in line at two different renfe ticket offices before being told "not this ticket office" I waited for 30 minutes at the third to be told the last seat on the 5pm train went to the person in line before me. I blame the massiveness of Madrid station. So my only next option was first class on the 1958, which gets me in way past my bed time. Alas. At least first class was only 3eur extra. And I have discovered that there are free toilets after the baggage security check. The WiFi at Rodilla cafe near platform 15 works, and the nice person at Rodilla filled my water bottle with ice cold water for me.
I was on the fence about attending TPAC right from when the idea first entered my head, to the journey there. I'm glad I went though. It was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues from the web standards world, and to meet some wonderful new people as well. The covid precautions taken by the organisers reassured me a lot. It was a four to five hundred person conference, with attendees from all over the world. In spite of relaxed standards taken across most of the rest of the world at this point, we stayed masked, ate outside, and they handed out as many tests as people needed to encourage testing every day. I know a few people who tested positive early on, and attended remotely from their hotel rooms; I hope everyone was so considerate. Last I heard there were a handful of cases reported, and a week later I've avoided it. While wearing masks during a heatwave in Spain for five days running was uncomfortable, I'm glad these were the requirements and I think it was worthwhile. I probably wouldn't have attended without this. The food was rubbish though; apparently consistently for everyone, not only the vegans :) The first two days were the most exhausting, and I used up pretty much all of my energy upfront. I attended the Social CG meeting. I went to the AC meeting, and sat on stage for a TAG panel. I was anxious about this the whole time, as I had carefully arranged my life to avoid public speaking since I left academia, and don't do well thinking on the spot in front of a crowd. Fortunately none of the questions were about anything I had a strong opinion on, so nobody was expecting to hear from me in particular. I didn't attend many breakouts as I had a few co-op meetings to fit in. I did join the Privacy Task Force breakout, which was a completely packed room, and a surprisingly (sorry, perhaps I'm too cynical) positive discussion. Seems like we're on a good track with the Privacy Principles (though much editorial work remains that I'm on the hook for but not on top of). At various points I sat in on the RDF Canonicalization and Verifiable Credentials WG meetings. I'm a bit out of the loop, and these meetings were not quite enough to get back into it, but tensions seem high as various pieces of work near completion. I felt like everyone in that room is well overdue a holiday. In between all of this I spent time in the "hallway track", having excellent conversations. I was so happy I got to spend time with half of the TAG (Dan, Hadley, Tess, Sangwhan, Lea); as well as Evan, Tantek, Arnaud, Brent, Joe, Juan, Michiel, Amy, Sam, ... ; and Dmitri and Manu however briefly. I also made some amazing new connections, including Lola, Elena, and a bunch of people from Igalia who I was keen to talk about co-ops with. There were plenty of people there I wish I could have managed to see more of, too. It was an intense week, and I haven't really looked at my email since, but I suspect I have a lot of things to follow up on. I took the scenic route back, via Morocco and Gibraltar, in an attempt to decompress before my whole-co-op meeting next week...
Unexpectedly amazing sleep on the Paris to Toulouse night train. Probably because I tired myself out stomping randomly around Paris all afternoon. But comfortable couchette, silent co-passengers, dark berth, reasonable AC and soothing train noises certainly helped!
Went to W3C TPAC onseveral trains. Didn't do much touristing in Sevilla. Fit Co-op work in the gaps. Headed to Tarifa, then on to Tangier. Spent a rainy day of touristing in Tangier.
Had a lovely day of touristing in Tanger with new friends followed by a restful morning before the ferry back to Spain and buses onwards to Gibraltar. Climbed the Rock of Gibraltar at sunrise. Then got back on buses and trains, to Barcelona then Cardedeu to see B. Another one and a half days of trains, a brief stop by the Prewired 10 year anniversary celebration, and home. Finished A Fire Upon The Deep. Harvested the garden.. Swam in the sea. Tried to catch up on life.. Dad and Ruth came.
Week two off work. Dramatic skies. A trip to Linlithgow market, and theatre and dinner in Glasgow. Removed the builtin hallway cupboards, finally, but the person who asked for them changed their mind after actually bothering to measure their space, so now they're taking up space in the stairwell >:( R helped me to plaster the gaps. Harvested... and resorted to fermenting everything. Made chocolate raspberry cakes at the Community Kitchen; seitan pepperoni at home for pizza; raspberry and blueberry scones; a ton of summer fruit compote.
Week in review: 28th August - 3rd September
A few oysters but no ceps yet. Made bread and butter pudding at the Community Kitchen, and fruit jelly at home. Braw sunrises and walkies with Max. Headed Edinburgh to stay with Tara for the beginning of my trip to Spain for TPAC.
Incremental improvements to the status quo: good. Incremental improvements to the status quo which further entrench a fundamentally harmful pattern: bad. We all (well most of us, I'm an optimist if a despairing one) want to make the world a better place, and perfect is the enemy of the good and all that, but sometimes I think that people get too caught up in a narrow problem space and forget to step back and look at the big picture from time to time. If you're making iterative improvements to something that is systematically corrupt, flawed at its core, or downright evil you're not helping as much as you want to believe you are. If you find yourself saying that look, you know it's not ideal, you acknowledge the harms, but at least it's not as bad as this other thing (that your thing may or may not be replacing, but is likely just supplementing, realistically), take a break, then spend that all that energy and enthusiasm and goodwill and smarts to do something that is not actively harmful or even actively beneficial instead of slightly less actively harmful.
Being The Lesser Of Two Evils Is Not Good Enough
I had a new world idea a little while ago, and recently I've started to discover some stories in it too. I'm anxious about starting something new for nanowrimo when I have uh several unfinished novels sitting around, but...
Picked lots of apples from the community orchards, chopped, pulped, pressed, bottled. A year's supply of apple juice.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Exploring the post-storm beach. Some stunning skies.
Finally finished filling and sanding and painting the nooks in my hallway following the built-in cupboard removal. I mixed purple and green paints leftover from the bedrooms to make kind of a darker more moody purple, managed to not just end up with grey or brown. I like how the dark colours and lack of light in the nook makes the ceiling invisible/indefinite. R helped me make shelves from a stack of decking wood that has been sitting around in his shed for years. Just cleaned it up and cut to size, no finishing.
Amy added 18 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
Two trips to Edinburgh in one week. Socialising with colleagues at Paradise Palms. Then coworking in Leith (not pictured). What is pictured is lunch and lovely art at Face Plant foods.
Amy added 31 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
You can't tell from these, but it rained a lot this week. My windows leaked.
Apple cake at the Community Kitchen, and apple and pear upside down cake at home. Turned a haul of cemetery agricus into mushroom rice. Made a good lasagne using veg from the garden, and fermented more tomatoes and beans.
Made peach cobbler at the Community Kitchen (and hear later it was a big hit!). An excellent lasagne at home with tomato/lentil/chanterelle sauce, and entire layers of ceps because we finally found enough to be extravagant. Plus a rather fantastic apple pie with a super simple shortbread crust (was craving shortbread, and had so many apples to use up... and it was way faster than pastry. Will make again!).
Made many mushroom pies with ceps and cloud agarics and chestnuts, most went in the freezer. Used my new silicon bundt tray to make a very fancy cake. I started with an orange polenta cake recipe, and substituted almost every ingredient (including orange - with lemon and lime, and polenta - with maize). It was still gluten free and vegan and delicious, and looked pretty too.
Fancy pear and almond tart, and beet brownie at the Community Kitchen. Chanterelles in dahl (criminal right, but I've had so many chanterelles..), with inkcaps on top.
Went for more parasols. Also to the chanterelle woods for chanterelles and a few boletes.
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Many more chanterelles, and a decent showing of ceps in the chanterelle wood (they're so late!) but still not anything like last year. Also lots of really good condition fly agaric... "may cause gastric upset"... I risked it, they were delicious!
Amy added 51 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Finally it's shaggy inkcaps time! My joint favourite with chicken of the woods, depending on what mood I'm in. The tree in Ravenscraig Park where I found lots last year did not fail to disappoint again, with several flushes. Blewits have started too.
Took the compote that wouldn't fit in the jars, spread it out on sheets in the dryer. It dried out perfectly into a sticky-but-not-too-sticky fruit leather, as hoped, which we can roll up and store indefinitely!
One night and one day in London for coop work. Fancy Mildred's dinner with TR.
A trip to Linlithgow market, mainly to eat delicious food from The Tiffin, but also to enjoy the lovely weather by the lake. Lowenna turned up eventually, but not long before I had to leave. On to Glasgow to see The Ocean at the End of the Lane in the theatre (my first ever theatre trip!) and then a magnificent fancy dinner with F and M.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/202308-scot/
Tried my hand at chocolate mole because I had this garlic/chilli chocolate cs had sent me from Tallinn ages ago which is basically too foul to just eat. I grilled bread, chillis, tomatoes, garlic and onion, then blended them together and strained them into a saucepan. I melted the awful chocolate in and it made a nice thick glossy sauce. Served with chicken of the woods from the freezer and mixed beans. It was delicious, but not spicy in the end despite the amount of chilli. Bottled the left for future use, it should keep for a while in the fridge.
Went for a rainy walk in Ravenscraig park and found several times more enormous shaggy parasols than last year, and in more locations too! Some were old and wormy, but many were great. Also puffballs and many cute unidentified wee things. And a stinkhorn!
Amy added 30 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-foraging/
Grabbed some puffballs from the park on the way into the community kitchen, and did an ad-hoc puffball ID and cooking demo for the volunteers. Battered and deep fried, of course.
I met T in town, and we drove to North Queensferry, then walked over the bridge to South Queensferry. I've always wanted to walk around South Queensferry and somehow never managed to; it's very charming. We had a mid-afternoon meal in a pub, then walked back.
After storm babet battered us for a few days, the beach was entirelly remodelled. The bank next to my steps was washed away, as well as all along the beach, we lost a few meters. Rocks had been moved to such an extent that the drop from the bottom step was nearly two meters down, instead of the small hop it had been. The tide never normally gets that high, so we don't hold much hope of the sea putting the rocks back. Neighbours and I started moving enough to make the steps accessible again.
Amy added 42 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
A new cat appeared on the steps by the garden. It seemed very lost. Some local kids took it upon themselves to visit, feed and cuddle it every day, until its home was found. Heartwarming.
The storm was over, but the waves were still far bigger than normally, so R wanted to surf. I had to hold onto Max and continually tell him to stay as we watched from the beach. He cried the whole time, poor bean. I'm never sure if, when he's seeing a human in the sea, he's upset because he wants to rescue them or because he's missing out on the excitement.
Garden catchup. Lowenna visit for beach walkies.
Amy added 40 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Spent two hours with a giant flipchart and markers to prep for nanowrimo. Started with a vague idea and a blank page, and now I have 3 MCs, 3 parallel but interconnected stories, a fleshed out world, some meaningful (to me) themes, and a plot twist. No longer terrified of starting yet another project, pretty excited in fact.
Adventure over the bridge to South Queensferry with T. Went to the Greener Kirkcaldy volunteer harvest celebration. Went out for more chanterelles and a decen haul of ceps and cloudy agaric. Storm babet hit the east coast of Scotland hard. Continuous rain, enormous waves, and no public transport for several days. The beach has been entirely remodelled. Finished painting my hallway cupboard nook, and made shelves for it. Held onto Max while R went to surf the post-storm waves. Made many pies and an orange polenta bundt cake. Some astonishing post-storm skies.
This month has flown by. Worked pretty solidly this week. Went to Edinburgh twice, once to socialise with colleagues and once to work. Made pear and almond tart, and beetroot brownies at the Community Kitchen. Foraged lots of inkcaps. Hallway shelves started going up. Nice walkies with Max. Waves pounded the coast again, but not as bad as before.
Most of the week in Birmingham, for the coop CoGM and OGM. Which went well, but was exhausting, and obviously yielded/highlighted more work to do. Back for harvest and bottling. Finished Dying of the Light. More harvest. Sunrises. Swam in the sea.
Week in review: 25th September - 1st October
It's getting colder. Supposedly back down to 3 days a week now, but I'm still feeling entirely overwhelmed by co-op stuff. All of the W3C drama in the background is passing me by. I just can't. I'm thankful for the sea. Had a new novel idea. Maybe for nanowrimo. Finished Whisperer in Darkness (finally). Started Feersum Enjinns. Watched a lot of Ted Lasso. Plodding through Foundation (it's alright but doesn't make me want to watch lots. That's probably a good thing.) Started Ashoka. Watched The Little Mermaid (the newest one). Swam in the sea twice. Tried my hand at chocolate mole. Made apple cake and did a puffball mushroom demo at the Community Kitchen. Successful fruit leather experiment. Went apple picking and spent several hours processing them into juice. Rainy forage for parasols.
Lots of rain. My windows leaked. Though you can't tell from this week's photos. Flying visit from Dave. Another soggy forage for parasols and chanterelles, a few boletes. Made peach cobbler at the Community Kitchen and rather fantastic cep and chanterelle lasagne, and apple shortbread pie at home. Went to my first meeting of the local Community Council. Managed not to volunteer for anything. Went to London for a day of BODS coworking. Had dinner in Mildred's with TR. Garden catchup, tomatoes and beans. Beach walkies with Lowenna.
I don't think I'm getting to 50k (I might if I say up all night, I'm not far off! Tempting, but I have tons of stuff to do for work tomorrow and I'm already knackered) but if I can write the actual final scene I'll be very pleased with myself. I never manage to write the endings even when I know how they go. This one is made up of three distinct stories so I've already written two 'endings' this month which is frankly the achievement of a lifetime.
Ending my 6k today challenge with 3,585 words, a loaf of homemade bread, an excessively elaborate cake, enough curry for the week, a bit of housework, two paintings of kirkcaldy from the second hand shop, a nice lunch out, and picked up a library book. Passed last year's final total, so pretty happy with that.
Good morning, it's raining, it's the first of November, and I'm immediately on a nanowrimo-related wikiventure.
I'm going to write 6000 words today, so help me.
I'm up to 50,151 words and there's a whole 20 minutes of the day left. I still haven't written the fucking ending, but I've sure as hell built up to it...
This morning I went on a nanowrimo related wikiventure about different types of galaxy then had a small existential meltdown about the scale of our universe. In case anyone was wondering how my writing is going.
Due to being behind on my NaNoWriMo wordcount I had a pressing need to find out if jelly made an acceptable sponge cake filling, and also to decorate a two layer cake in elaborate buttercream frosting. My first mistake was not skimming the domed top from one of the layers. My second mistake was to use the layer that had already split as the top layer instead of the bottom. My third, was not mixing the buttercream thick enough. My fourth was not mixing the new buttercream thin enough. My fifth was not doing a crumb layer of buttercream before the top coat. And overall I should not be trying to frost cakes late at night. It looked like it'd been dropped, but it tasted good. I can confirm, jelly is an acceptable sponge cake filling.
The buttercream lessons of last week paid off, and I successfully frosted the Community Kitchen rose and orange sponge. Also made rose and almond jelly/panna cotta puddings... The rose water from the summer really needed to be used up.
Made some plant hangers to donate to the Kirkcaldy festive giving market (along with pots and tradescantia).
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
An afternoon in Edinburgh for the Lighthouse Radical Book Fair and some talks on climate stuff. Dinner afterwards with N in Soul Vegan.
Amy added 4 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
A couple of days of coworking in Leith, and a night with Lowenna. Ate nice lunches at Sly Fox and the Leith community garden cafe, and a mindblowing lime pasta at Nova Pizza. Nice to see coop colleagues.
Against all the odds, high tides and big waves this week restored the beach to more or less how it had been pre-babet. Obviously the bank that washed away was never coming back, but the steps down to the beach are accessible again! Dave and H came back briefly on their way home from China, leaving a trail of teas and tiny pandas in their wake >.>
Astonishing sunrise skies. A trip to Burntisland.
Went to see Luna the moth (with a telescope) on the prom, but the clouds covered the moon before our turn to look came.
Apple cake, and there was some leftover puff pastry so I made a strudel with apple and homemade (not by me) fig jam.
Cooking with agarics and blewits from the woods. Fancy chocolate tart with ginger and rose for N's birthday.
Pulled all of the beets from the garden; they're not going to grow more, and they are getting eaten by slugs. Put them in brine to ferment. Picked jelly ear in the park on my way home one evening, and immediately made a stir fry. Picked blewits another day and made a fry up. What a life.
Pear and almond tart at the Community Kitchen.
An excellent new light fitting for 50p from Furniture Plus. The chilli plants moved into my living room, along with a great many aphids :/
Amy added 7 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
After a frantic day of trying to get to work meetings in Kangus between running back and forth to town, I sat down at 9pm to write some more. If I could write 1000 words an hour, I'd make it. No way, I thought. Not a chance. So I wrote a thousand words, and it was 45 minutes later. Alright, I thought. Just do that again. So I did. Felt a bit like I was in some kind of alternate reality. Like I was watching myself from outside. I don't know, it didn't seem very real. It was well past my bed time. Then I did it again. I celebrated briefly, then since it was only 23:30 I wrote another 500 before midnight. WTF! I got so far behind, I did not expect this.
The November Sea is back in all its luminescent glory.
Amy added 64 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Adventure in Pittenweem with K, R, K&M and Lowenna. A swim in the sea pool, followed by lots of food and hot chocolate at Cacoa Tree, as usual.
Far longer than planned browsing fabric in Rejects. I think I'll get the black and gold with mushrooms/space/leaves for a wee curtain and cushion in my hallway. Also, some astonishing light fittings, that are far too expensive.
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
Started putting shelves up in the hallway nook. R can't resist the opportunity to insulate something of course, so we took up the floor boards, cleaned all of the junk out (found a whole set of drill bits!) levelled the floor and put insulation in, then put laminate down (leftover from Dave's room). Started populating the shelves with pantry and gardening items.
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/diy/
Wrote. Swam in the sea. Caught up on housework and life admin due to procrastinating from writing. Visited Jess and Maud. Exciting trip to Rejects to look at fabric. Coworked in Leith and stayed over chez Lowenna. Saw Howie Reeve play in KDY in a very small gig which was really good. Fermented beets, and ate lots of blewits and jelly ear.
Wrote. Some incredible skies. Finished Daemon Voices and Against a Dark Background. Started Vurt. Took myself for an afternoon in Burntisland; groceries from G&S and a not-cheese toastie at The Fix. Overworked. Made pear and almond cake in the Community Kitchen, and mapo tofu at home. Dealt with a lot of tomatoes. Explosion of fungus gnat and aphid populations in my living room is starting to test my nonviolent gardening style. Learnt some lessons about buttercream (and baking when tired). Saw a giant moth on the promenade, but not the moon, because clouds came. Swam in the sea twice, once in Pittenweem.
Astonishingly, the sea restored the hole it had earlier gouged in the beach, covering the new steps we started to build with fresh rocks, and excavating my morning seat that had been buried. So, back to how it was before. Started a new story for NaNoWriMo. Stayed pretty on top of the word count. Worked with a new crew to get a funding application in for a local commumnity support project. Dave and Huan briefly came back. Made apple cake and apple and fig strudel at the Community Kitchen, and even stayed to eat some. Chanterelle pizza at home. Pressed the button on the smoke machine at K's for hallowe'en. Just about finished my hallway cupboard pantry and tool storage updates, including underfloor insulation in just that wee bit. Played lego with R.
Week in review: 30th October - 5th November
Finished Bodies. Had a bit of an intense co-op week; only worked two days, but it felt like a very long week indeed. Chilli forest and accompanying aphids moved into my living room for the winter. The weather picked up again, back to normal programming for November in Fife. Made pumpkin pie (which was actually squash and sweet potato) at the Community Kitchen, and chocolate ginger tart for N's birthday. Foraged blewits, cloud agaric, agricus. Went to Edinburgh's Radical Book Fair, saw some talks on climate stuff, and bought many books. Wrote, on the beach, in the hammock, and in various Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh cafes. Swam in the sea.
It's a clearish night, do I stay up late enough to try to see the Edinburgh fireworks across the Forth (which I have never yet achieved), or just go to bed?
I'm having an alarmingly good day for one spent mostly at a computer.. I'm making good progress with actual work work (billable software development as opposed to ops/co-op wrangling support which is still work but not work work), got myself out of a dependency hell in less than 20 minutes, learnt some new stuff, remembered how to write Python again and actually did so, and it worked, like immediately... Then I took a break and went to investigate some homemade pickles that looked like they had gone mouldy in the (sealed) jar to discover that it was just kahm yeast around the edge and they are perfectly fine! I've been so sad thinking for weeks I was gonna have to throw out the whole jar. You might observe it doesn't take much for me to be having a good day, my bar is pretty low.
I packed a tall jar with hot lemon chillis and yellow cherry tomatoes at the beginning of the month, and fermented them in brine along with coriander seeds and bay leaves. I tested a tomato every week until they were suitably fizzy, and today I blended them, and added a bit of lemon juice. I decided not to pasteurise them, so the jars need to be stored in the fridge, but will keep all of the exciting bacteria from the fermentation. Hopefully the lemon juice and fridge will stop them from fermenting more. I had to scoop kahm yeast off the top every few days after the first couple of weeks; I hope they don't go yeasty again in the jars.
Harvested most of the rest of the green tomatoes from the polytunnel and made green tomato chutney. I have a suspicion it won't be as good as last years (which is amazing) but we'll see...
Work on the crochet project I can't decide on and will never finish.
Amy added 2 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
Amigurumi ray and fishy for E and E's sea creature collection.
Amy added 15 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madestuff/
A day out in Edinburgh with Max, who was Very Good. I had to pick up a box from BBL, and then we had a doughnut in ConsiderIt with JH. Max was very good. We had a frolick across the Meadows, and took the train home from Haymarket.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
Spontaneous trip to Edinburgh to see the Snow Queen at the Lyceum. I took the bus, and had just enough time beforehand to have a fancy dinner at Henderson's. (I tried Sora Lella first, but they were full.) The pumpkin gnocchi with cashew ricotta were next level. I really enjoyed the theatre too. It wasn't busy and I had empty seats around me in the Grand Circle, and a good view. (Tony from Kangus was in the play.) This outing re-confirmed something I already knew: that my favourite kind of date is one with no other people on it.
It's a new month, and I have a novel I didn't have 30 days ago.
Turned yet more green tomatoes into ketchup, with some chillis. Also made a ginger loaf, but it sunk in the middle. Peach and raspberry cobbler at the Community Kitchen.
Many mince pies at the Community Kitchen. Used some of my fermented beetroot to make falafel, which was very good.
Still some blewits and cloud agraric and a few agaricus around.
Tomato and chilli harvests from Nov and Dec.
Amy added 8 photos to https://i.amy.gy/growstuff/
Max came to stay with me for a while, and immediately took over my life (and sofas).
Amy added 17 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Walkies through the Wemyss woods. No oyster mushrooms except old ones.
Lucky to have some more gorgeous clear days for beach walkies. And also to have a Max to snuggle on the sofa on the rainy days. Such a cuddly Max.
Amy added 45 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
Nacreous clouds at sunset! Far more vivid than my camera could capture, in the colours of the trans flag. Max and I watched them from the beach until they turned bright orange and dissipated..
More walkies, more nacreous clouds! And a visit to the market for the first time in a while.
More walkies. Max has a great time with giant sticks. I'm glad he can entertain himself while I sit and contemplate the waves. Xmas eve Tiffin delivery.
Amy added 33 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
I went to the polytunnel to pick the last of the tomatoes. Some still turned ready! Cleaned everything up, and then got trapped by a blizzard. Very conveniently, there were also some blewits growing in there. Does it count as foraging when they're in the polytunnel?
The finishing touch for the hallway nook pantry - fairy lights, which I scavenged from a box of "free stuff" cleared out of my late neighbour's flat. (And to make Mum happy, I strung up the seed advent calendar she sent me there as well.)
No-particular-occasion vegan feast with K, A and D on the 25th. The days alternated between extremely braw and miserable AF this week. There was snow but it didn't settle. A lot of wind and generally dampness. But clear days and still seas were enough to see me through. I went to see the Kirkcaldy panto with K. It was a lot. (I didn't realise I haven't been to a panto before..)
A jaunt to Glasgow and Helensburgh to visit F & J and co. Had a nice time at the Helensburgh winter festival.
Amy added 5 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-fife/
A great many walkies and sunrises. Mired in recruitment again. Hired two more Python developers, started onboarding prep. Sifting for Data Analysts (application deadline 24th Dec...). Actually did some BODS scheme refactoring work though. Made ginger cake and green tomato ketchup at home, and plum and raspberry cobbler at the Community Kitchen. Finished The Bear. Watched uh all of Fleabag. Swam in the sea. Finished Look to Windward. Started Legends and Lattes. Fungus gnats continue to drive me to despair, but the spider population has increased considerably which is nice. The second birds eye plant died. All hope for a chilli filled summer hangs on the scotch bonnet.
Finished Legends and Lattes. Started We Won't Be Here Tomorrow. Made many mince pies at the Community Kitchen, and falafel at home. Watched all of Only Murders In The Building. Had a great many walkies with Max including a day out in Edinburgh. Snowed under with Ops work, recruitment stuff, and Spanish employment law anxiety (it's all fine, though). Nacreous clouds! For three days in a row! Lots of walkies and cuddles before Max left for his other home.
Started watching Ugly Betty. Finished We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and started Smoke and Mirrors. Spent time with friends. Swam in the sea twice; braw days amidst the storms. Had a quiet week at work, restructuring the BODS schema and tidying up the tests. Saw the Kirkcaldy Panto (Ya Wee Beauty and the Beast). Ate lots of Tiffin delivery. Spontaneous trip to theatre in Edinburgh. 'Foraging' in the polytunnel.. Turned my fermented lemon peppers and yellow tomatoes into hot sauce.
Got behind on housework and life admin again. Made rose and almond puddings and orange and rose cake at the Community Kitchen. Made crochet plant hangers for the gift giving market. Had big highs and big lows in coop land. Swam in the sea. Won NaNoWriMo! Unexpectedly. Frost, almost snow. Finished Vurt. Started Look to Windward. Tomato and chilli harvests. Put lights up in my hallway nook pantry.
Week in review: 27th November - 3rd December
Had a cold. Slept a lot. Crocheted some sea creatures. A bit of a stressful Coop week, again. Watched all of Pose. Made green tomato chutney. Went to Glasgow and Helensburgh. Max came to stay with me. Aphids have finished off all of the lemon pepper plants and one birds eye in my living room, and given up and mostly moved out, it seems. The second birds eye and scotch bonnet are clinging to life. Fungus gnat population has escalated dramatically.