thistledown
thistledown

  • Currently Reading: Brother Cadfael’s Herb Garden by Robin Whiteman 📚

    Imagine buying this book in the year 2000 for $30 only to find pages like this.

    A photo of an open book. The open page is talking about Ivy. There is a colored photo of ivy at the top of the page and lots of information about ivy below it. the whole page has a background image of low opacity ivy, but this makes the text extremely hard to read.

    I’m also disappointed as their definition of “illustrated” is just some border artwork. Glad this is just a library book.

  • 🍞 Tried out a recipe for a faster loaf. The darker loaf is spelt + acorn flour (harvested and processed by a neighbor) the one in the back is just spelt. Came out pretty dense, maybe not enough water?

    Baking with spelt is tricky, but I am slowly learning more. First time using/eating acorn!

    Two homemade loaves of bread sit on a wooden cutting board on a white tile kitchen counter. They are angled diagonally across the frame. The loaf in the front is a darker brown while the second loaf is much lighter in color.

  • When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.

    -Sparrowhawk in The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

    Feelin' this one IN MY BONES.

  • A visitor.

  • Finished Reading: Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan 📚

    Greatly enjoyed following along on this journey. Book is filled with tons of helpful advice and now I have a lot to think about.

  • 🌱Millet Quest Update:

    Went with this cookie recipe for my first millet flour experiment.

    Subbed powdered sugar for the jaggery powder and only had whole wheat bread flour.

    Lovely simple cookie with a lot of flavor, sort of like a shortbread but more soft and cake-like. Maybe from the bread flour?

    A photo of two light brown cookies sitting on a white plate. The cookies are homemade and have markings on top to show that they were pressed down with a fork. There is a white mug in the background with a cartoon panda on it.

  • Gave a big bunch of celery to a neighbor, who in turn gifted me a huge bag of millet flour she could not use.

    New Side Quest:.
    🌱Gather millet flour recipes.

    Current Side Quests:
    🌱Gather celery recipes.
    🌱Finalize shirt design for community garden.

  • May have planted too much celery. Going to give away a ton, but this is also probably a good time to find some new recipes.

    Photo of a wooden raised garden bed. Closer to the viewer is a row of romaine and butter lettuce, towards the back is a tall, bushy row of celery plants.

  • We drove out to the desert to watch Gary Numan and Front Line Assembly play outside in 40°F. Incredible show, can’t stop thinking about it.

  • Ended up hiking 20 miles of the Trans-Catalina Trail the other day. Did not see anyone else until we were about 80% through. Large sections were pretty overgrown and some parts had collapsed from landslides. Lots of mud, lots of foxes, only heard one rattlesnake (but I’m sure we passed by a ton). 🥾

    Photo of black hiking shoes covered in mud. Photo of a hiking path that winds away into the distance. It is high elevation and can be seen following the tops of hills. The ocean can be seen on the far left corner and the sky above with clouds low and close to hills.&10;

  • middleschool.jpg

    A photo of a strip of paper on a desk. The paper says, "3. Someone eating poop, drinking farts, and/or eating lice."

  • Welp, accidentally pasted the URL 🎶to this into an important slide presentation months ago and never noticed (black text on a very dark blue background). Boss found it today.

  • 🌱 Rainy day community garden duty. Only two people came by, but that was nice. Allowed for some undisturbed weeding and trash pickup.

    A community garden in the rain.

  • 🎵 It is a Fief kind of day.

    The album cover for Fief's album II. The artwork is from the viewpoint of someone looking into a green space inside a cave, there is a pedestal with fire on it and a large green reptilian creature laying on the ground wrapped around the pedestal.

  • Time to take my vitamins so the little bird that lives in my phone can buy pants. 🤷

  • First attempt at home-made sushi! Asparagus, avocado, and marinated tofu. Definitely going to make more, but with much less rice.

    Been wanting to do this for years, but assumed it was complicated.

    I need to get better at actually trying things instead of putting them off forever.

    Three wide sushi rolls sit sliced on a wooden cutting board. The filling of asparagus, tofu, and avocado can be seen inside the rolls.

  • Apparently feeling empty after finishing Star Trek: The Next Generation is fairly common.

    Although Picard had its issues, those last few episodes really opened that wound back up.

    A screenshot of a reddit comment saying, "You never actually “finish” TNG. Best of luck to you, you’ll rewatch this show till you die"

  • Things are looking good at community garden spot #1. The donut peach tree is loaded with flowers. Just hoping we don’t have a repeat of last year where someone got greedy and harvested every single peach (a few hundred) overnight.

    Close up of some pink flowers on a branch of a peach tree.Close up of a head of butter lettuce with celery and more lettuce growing in the background.

  • The sun is setting later, so the community garden is staying open longer.

    Things are looking good thanks to all the rain. Garlic is plentiful, peas are still doing their thing, fava beans are taking over, and the first eggplant of the year is here.

    Came across a new mushroom. Some type of Peziza?

    A close up of a bunch of pea vines wrapping around each other and a wire cage.A close up of a small baby eggplant with leaves and a purple eggplant flower in the background.Closeup of some mulch in a garden bed. Growing out of the mulch is a bunch of small light brown cup-shaped mushrooms.

  • Currently Reading: Redwall by Brian Jacques 📚

    My brain is demanding a reread. Is it for inner child work? Is it because it is fun and cozy? Because I’m teaching kids who are the same age I was when I read it? Because I’m sad and lonely? In anticipation of Bloomburrow?

    All of the above? Probably! 🤷