Igenlode Wordsmith

I finally got round to splitting up the various things that have been germinating in the dill pot, three or four of which were dill. I have been putting this off because, in addition to all my other normal reasons for putting things off, I couldn't be sure whether any of the winter purslane seeds might have germinated, or might yet be about to germinate; however, I now have several large plants that look as if they are more likely to be cornflower or flax, and some that are either Linaria, toadflax or alyssum, plus some that I already identified as chickweed or Oriental poppies and pulled out. I suspect the one that I had hoped was another mesembryanthemum is actually only the furry leaves of a forget-me-not, and I don't think I'm going to get any purslane out of that handful of seeds (which may or may not have ripened sufficiently in the first place). However, I have left the remaining soil in the tray just in case anything further germinates in it :-(

( Dwarf peas and towel-tomatoes )

( Orange poppy and not-a-strawberry )

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Lesson 21 was another unexpected misfire from the Russian TV course, being basically an inferior reprise of the winter sport vocabulary in Lesson 18, only with worse acting and a lot less plot :-( I note that Lesson 18 is credited to the Kiev educational film studios and Lesson 21 to their Leningrad counterparts, so possibly the repetition was the result of someone carelessly assigning the same course material to two different production teams; at any rate the second team were evidently a good deal less creatively inspired by it than the first.

( Towel-tomatoes )

The Roma tomatoes *finally* seem to have turned the corner and are starting to look more vigorous, and much to my surprise we have a chive seedling -- and possibly a second. And what may be a second and extremely delayed nasturtium; I had assumed that the seeds which had not germinated had simply rotted away by this point. (Zero signs of any of the non-germinated dwarf peas showing up as 'pea-shoots', and the two that were previously showing some sign of life in that pot are very small compared to the ones that were properly sprouted before going into the soil.)

I have sprinkled yet another batch of orange poppy little black dust seed across the soil, which must consist of a high proportion of dead poppy seed at this point! The single adult orange poppy plant is on the verge of opening its bud, and the yellow poppy has two flowers open and another one already over.

I spent two and a half hours non-stop in Waterstone's bookshop again this afternoon looking for 'comps', which was both mentally and physically taxing-- if I look any further I shall have to find another shop, because I can't face going back in there after hanging around for so long, reading so much, and buying absolutely nothing! The question you are supposed to be asking yourself, apparently, is 'which table in the bookshop would my book be on and what other books would be next to it'? ( Read more... )
I found precisely three potential 'comps', only one of which is actually a good fit: ( Night Fire )

Where it doesn't match at all is in the travel/adventure aspect, and as I said, I failed to find anything at all that did :-( The other 'wild card' match that felt closer than most of the others was a very different kettle of fish: ( The Phoenix Ballroom )

The third title I noted was the one and only example of published fan-fiction I found on the shelves (as opposed to the Jane Austen-marketed one, which looked promising from that respect but turned out to be based on the real-life history of her nephews and nieces, which isn't the same thing!) ( West of Wicked )

The scenes in England at the beginning are verging on self-parody (and abuse of adjectives) on Orczy's part, but the French setting is vivid and alive, and it's interesting to have a female antagonist for a change, while Gabrielle gets an unusually detailed backstory to explain what made her the way she is: I was getting strong flashes of Madame Defarge in "Tale of Two Cities", the victim who becomes a monster out to destroy an entire family. ( Read more... )

I finally came across another copy of "The Witches of Wenshar", and could see why, as I remembered, I didn't really get on with it on my first reading; maybe I'm biased by the fact that I have now read all three books in this series, but I still feel that this novel is far more closely dependent on its predecessor than "Dark Hand of Magic" was on this, despite the mentions of "the King of Wenshar" in the opening lines of the latter. And it still feels darker in tone.( Read more... )

I finally potted up the coriander (the two seedlings left over at the end got a whole tall pot to themselves, so it will be interesting to see how much better, if at all, they do!)

Having got my hands muddy I then proceeded to 'top up', or rather fill in the bottom of, one of the dwarf peas that didn't seem to have a lot of soil depth in its pot, and took the chance to give it a stick at the same time. None of the peas have really grasped onto their various sticks, which is a bit disappointing...

( Chives )

Also resowed the orange poppy, which has likewise shown no sign of life after a couple of weeks.

I have lost four otherwise vigorous towel-tomato seedlings, from both batches, to damping-off already, which is annoying, though I currently have plenty of spares (just as well).

I have potted up half the marigold seedlings, leaving the remainder still tumbled in their original tub; we shall see how they go. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of self-sown marigolds in other pots :-p

I noticed last night when taking in the washing that the new buckle on my secondary clothes line had cracked through in the same way that the original Bakelite buckle did, and after about the same amount of time; however this time I knew where to go to purchase a replacement! The current new buckle is green, but I don't think it's as thick in cross-section as the last one, so I don't know how long it will last. What I really need is a metal buckle, of course (though doubtless the weld holding the bar on would eventually fail; they are simply not designed for heavy loads). Possibly I should *get* a metal buckle and then make a strap to fit it, as opposed to trying to find buckles to fit the existing stout woven strap -- which has lasted remarkably well.

Current cycle mileage: 878 -- 271 miles since January (plus a few more that didn't get recorded due to bike issues). Spot on the usual average of 18-19 miles a week :-)

*reads rest of past blog post*
I currently seem to have two videos on Venjamin Smekhov queued plus two on Igor Starygin, having watched four on Valentin Smirnitsky... well, I currently have 42 videos queued ;-p
( Read more... )

( Gypsophila elegans, pink Linaria and Swan Rover daisies )

( Kale )

Tumbled the entirety of the tub of flax into a deeper pot without splitting up the root-ball at all. The marigolds are the other thing that really needs potting up, but that means finding a lot of individual pots and of compost to fill them, and I couldn't face it.

No sign of germination from my second attempt at chives, despite the success of the spring onions; I'm afraid the seed library appears to have been a dead loss on my first attempt. I hope the seed I donated there is doing better for other people :-(

"People who go quiet when hurt" -- apparently this is a new piece of pop psychology. https://www.bolde.com/psychology-says-people-who-go-quiet-when-theyre-hurt-arent-shutting-you-out-they-learned-early-that-pain-leads-to-these-10-consequences-so-silence-feels-safer/

But the conclusions they draw just don't ring true to me at all. No, I don't 'reach out' when I'm hurt; I don't respond well to group sessions or psychotherapy, because my instinct is to shut up like a clam and I'm not just dying to tell the world about all the times someone humilated or cheated me (why would I want to expose my own failures?) In fact I know people who are never happier than when they are talking about how wronged they are, and I find it frankly uncomfortable to be around.
( Read more... )