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.
Amy added 13 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2023-edi/
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.
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.
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.
Two days in Edinburgh for co-op time. Lots of post-its; food from Green Bite, Soul Vegan, BBL.
Amy added 19 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2024-edb/
A long weekend at Mum's, with woodland walks to The Ramblers. A day trip to Manchester to see some more of the co-op gang for curry and milkshakes. And rail replacement buses.
Amy added 14 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2024-visits/
Planted tomatoes, chillis, aubergine, pumpkin and squash, after taking every precaution I can think of against fungus gnats. Caught up with a friend I haven't seen for ages who is.. opening a new cafe this week. At least I have somewhere to go to immediately replace Kangus. Went to Edinburgh for the co-op CoGM, then to Mum's, then to Manchester for a day. Started and finished The Galaxy, and the Ground Within.
Started and finished This is how we lose the Time War. Went to London for the TAG face-to-face which was very positive and productive. Spent more time in The City than I think I have before. Ate some excessively expensive food. Took the sleeper home on Burns night, and they kindly provided a bagpiper. Got home to find the tomatoes and pumpkins have sprouted and the sea is where I left it. Made a surprisingly successful cake. Found out another beloved local-but-not-local-enough-to-go-regularly cafe, with excellent vegan options, the Old Barn in Auchtermuchty, has closed :( Survived a week with only a 'work' laptop.
Worked every day, which was a bit much. Lots of meetings. Too much co-op, too little time. Did a Mental Health First Aiders course, thanks to Greener Kirkcaldy, which was really good. Made raspberry coconut tart at the Community Kitchen, and chocolate hazelnut cupcakes at home. Mostly braw but freezing days, interspersed with flurries of snow. Swam in the sea twice. Went to Burntisland for an afternoon. Found out that the vegan cafe isn't reopening after the winter break, which is very sad. Started contemplating upending my life to open a cafe again. Advice from the people who were running it, and other small business owners in the vicinity, is "don't."
A bit of a heavy week. Long days, and coop angst. Running out of patience for being the person in the middle of everything. Dave and Huan visited for one night, eating everything in sight like a swarm of locust. (Read: with great affection.) Started The Difference Engine. Made lemon tart at the Community Kitchen. Swam in the sea twice. Finished Ugly Betty. Gallivanting in Glasgow (Went for Tripod training about conflict in non-hierarchical groups. I'd booked it before This Week, but it was incredibly useful). Adventure in Anstruther.
Week in review: 29th January - 4th February