glinda | Entries tagged with weather

Gosh, I needed that holiday. Last week I was very much going 'sorry, I'm going to be annoyingly cheerful for the next week' to everyone at work but this week... We uh got the tail end of hurricane Ernesto that was causing so much trouble in the Carribean last week. We got off pretty lightly here but over on the islands and the West Coast it's been grim as fuck, high winds and flooding. Here it's just been grey and damp and miserable, feeling more like October than August. This is why I needed some proper sunshine, as apparently we're straight into need my sad lamp weather. Therefore I have been nesting and crafting and reading and eating good food.

Media I have Consumed Lately

Unusually for me, I took a suitcase with me on holiday. (Stupid EasyJet and changing the rules on carryons *shakes fist* but I wasn't paying extra for 'large cabin baggage' which was just the old normal size, especially when hold luggage was the same price. They're giving Ryan Air a run for their money in ridiculous sneaky add ons these days.) So obviously I took a bunch of books with me on holiday. Not that I read them all but it was a glorious luxury to have options.

I'd picked up Zen Cho's Spirits Abroad, as I've previously enjoyed her short fiction but Sorceror to the Crown just didn't do it for me. (It's fine, just not as good as I'd hoped given how much I'd enjoyed the various short stories I'd read.) I officially LOVE her short fiction, this was great. Short stories are a great medium for travel reading which doubtless helped but these have such a distinctive flavour, it was easy to keep coming back for more. I'm a sucker for the living breathing folklore stuff and the ghost hunting lion dancers were definitely a highlight.

I started a history book on the cultures around the Mediterranean Sea while I was on holiday - it seemed appropriate holiday reading. The Middle Sea by John Julius Norwich. It's a bit dull. There's a lot happening over a long time in it but it's just like, way too broad a subject for one book. (And the author admits it! He doesn't actually call the subject insanely broad in the introduction but it's heavily implied, along with the implication that he's only doing this because his publishers insisted and who is he to argue with an advance. This book was publish in 2006 but my goodness it could have come out twenty years before that.) I should just have picked out the chapters related to Spain and read those while I was away, that was really what I was interested in. It's a proper doorstep and I haven't touched it since I came back. I picked it up second hand and back it can go again, I'm not finishing it.

Since coming back I've collected Artificial Condition by Martha Wells from the library and read it pretty much immediately. I sat down to eat lunch on Tuesday and basically inhaled it all in one sitting. Lots of things refernenced in the later novellas now make more sense. Oh Murderbot *hugs self* that hug's for you too. Speaking of library books, I stumbled across Becky Chambers Psalm for the Wild Built, actually on a 'new books' display when I was collecting my hold. I read about a third of it with lunch yesterday, and inhaled the rest today with lunch. I could happily have read a whole book set in that world, but as a novella it was a perfectly formed delight. The ending very nearly made me cry - in a good way - and I totally would have if I hadn't been in public. Just lovely.

Also at the library I returned Master and Commander as I've had it out for like four months now and read about 5 chapters, dunno if it's a not-for-me or just a not-for-me-right-now deal, but either way all it was doing was lurking about making me feel guilty.

Media I am Currently Consuming

I'm still listening to the podcast The Curious History of Your Home which I'm still enjoying but don't have a lot to say about. Oh and there was a new series of NatureBang likewise enjoyable but not a lot to say about.

I've not touched any of the other books I reported as in progress during my last check in since I wrote that post.

Media I Hope to Consume Next

Obviously I bought myself books for my birthday. I've got a book on the history of Budapest and Jimmy Hendricks Live in Lviv by Anton Kurkov - the Death and the Penguin guy, I recommended that book to the girl in Fopp who asked if his work was any good when I bought it - I'm probably going to read either of them next. Or uh maybe one of the other two books I bought on Monday for no good reason - I went into Waterstones to buy a coffee cup, to replace my late lamented fox mug as my go-to 'resuable'/travel mug, and I got one, it's got the 'Great Wave' on it and a better lid - Ros Atkins The Art of Explanation and Miye Lee's Dallergut Dream Department Store which seems pleasingly whimsical by contrast. I don't know. I was having a Monday, my tbr pile is officially out of control.

Actually I went back to the library today to return my two novellas that I'd actually read, and ended up picking up more books. (I started writing this yesterday but was nodding off - I'm on early shift this week - so left finishing it until today, so have had to change a bunch of changes along with moving the Becky Chambers from in progress to read...) Including... Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie, so obviously I'm not even going to pretend that I'm reading anything but that next. I actually went to see if they had Raven Tower in as I've never read it, and I'd been contemplating get her short story collection Lake of Souls but a bunch of the stories are set in that world so I thought I should read that first. Anyway, they did not but they did randomly have the second Ancillary book - in the pretty new edition! - so I've further put off the issue of what to do about the non-matching editions, by clever dint of doing the rest of my re-read out the library!

Sometimes procrastinating works in my favour! Not often but sometimes!!

Feeling Vaguely: sleepy
Singing Along With: Tunng - Pioneers

1) What's normal March weather like in your area?
March is a transition month! The traditional phrase is 'in like a lion, out like a lamb' so it's generally pretty wintery at the start of the month and pretty spring-like by the time we get to the end of the month. In practice that means it can be pretty hard to dress for, as you might have snow or hail one day and a mild and sunny day the next. Climate change has made this rather more extreme. (Yesterday was mild enough that I was comfortable using a hoodie as a jacket for my trip to the corner shop, and was able to hang my sheets outside for a couple of hours and bring them in 95% dry. Today there was a hail shower at lunch time and I definitely needed my coat when I went to knitting.) Basically it's the start of spring, with the light returning and things coming to life, but you might get cold snaps when you least expect it.

2) Are you following any spring sports?

That's not really a thing here? Various sports are coming to an end of the season or just kicking off for the new year but I don't think that's what this question means. I've been enjoying the 6 nations? Scotland haven't done terribly this year, no danger of the wooden spoon, so that's been nice. My pals who're into running are starting to post their 10k and marathan training and completion posts - it was the Inverness half-marathon the other weekend - but that's really the only 'spring' sport that comes to mind.

3) What's a summer wardrobe staple you haven't had out since last season (or if you're southern hemisphere, answer this for winter)

Right, so this one's easy, as I've been doing my 'seasonal flip' this weekend. (That's where I change out my winter duvet for my lighter weight summer one, put away my thermals, fleecey leggings, fuzzy socks and heavy duty knitwear, and bring out the lighter weight things.) There's loads of things, shorts, obviously, and sun dresses. But also short pyjamas - there's usually about a fortnight when those are necessary but when I need them, I really need them - linen trousers, my cloches, various light floaty comfortable things, along with some sleeveless tops. I'm very much a layers person, so mostly the seasonal change means a change from various thick and cosy layers, to various light and airy layers. I'm looking forward to my blazers being outer wear again, rather than being worn over a jumper and under a coat.

4) What's your favorite spring break memory?

Spring break isn't really a thing here. We have Easter Holidays here but there's no holiday culture surrounding that the way there is around Spring Break in North America.

5) How do you feel about daylight savings time?
Okay, so the thing about it here in the UK is that the further north you are the more it actually matters, however, the timings are set at Grenwich, which is, really quite far south. So the clocks change when the light changes there not when the light changes in the places where it makes a difference. So really it needs to start like a fortnight earlier, because here you've just got used to the changing light, when it all gets shunted back an hour and you have to get used to it all over again. Which basically means it annoys everyone whether it makes a real impact on their life or not.

Feeling Vaguely: contemplative
Singing Along With: Florence and the Machine - Rabbit Heart

Brought to you by whatever the heck is going on with the Duolingo owl this month. Seriously, it looks like it’s face is melting, what’s wrong with painting it orange for the season. I love me some spooky season but that’s genuinely a bit unnerving.

1. Do you crave pumpkin spice all year long or just in the autumn?
Nope, it’s a seasonal treat, that I enjoy when it appears but I don’t crave it when it passes. I find PSLs themselves a bit sickly sweet these days - I definitely take my coffee less sweetened than I used to pre-pandemic - but I love the variety of pumpkin spiced baked goods that come along with it. (Starbucks do a cracking pumpkin cookie that includes pumpkin seeds and is a good balance of soft cookie to crunch.) Also the savoury things with pumpkin in too is a welcome refresh to many places vegetarian options. Pumpkin is superior to aubergine in many, many recipes. Viva la pumpkin!

2. What’s the oddest thing that you’ve seen touting a pumpkin-spice scent?
The Body Shop do a weird pumpkin/vanilla hand cream for the season and it is the sickly sweetest scent on the planet, fine in a small dose but if you need to use it properly it is unbearably cloying.

3. What’s one of the first things you do when you are sure autumn has arrived?
Oh my seasonal flip! A hold over from when I had substantially less cupboard space but I still like the opportunity to have a clear out, I pull out my old suitcase and swap out my summer clothes for my winter woolies - thermals, fleecy leggings, fuzzy socks and chunky knits - and swap my summer weight duvet for my winter duvet. Also I start taking my Vitamin D, Iron and Omega 3 supplements because SAD is a thing in my life and the damp hurts my joints, why suffer when I don’t need to?

4. Will or have you bought a pumpkin and will you carve it eventually or make pie out of it?
I currently have two mini-pumpkins in my veg rack. I won’t be carving them, but I will be roasting at least one of them. I have a couple of pumpkin curry recipes, and the little winter squashes we get here store pretty well and are really tasty roasted. I’ve never made pumpkin pie, but I do like a pumpkin muffin, so I have been known to get a can of pumpkin from the world foods aisle to make my own pumpkin muffins.

5. Will you decorate or is it not your style?
I only started decorating for Hallowe’en since the pandemic kicked off. I love Autumn in general and Hallowe’en in particular but it wasn’t until Autumn 2020 that I felt the need to nail my colours to the mast and decorate. I was chatting with one of my pals on Skype about the oncoming winter and she declared that she was going to put her Xmas lights up early cos she needed the cheer and I decided that I needed some fairy lights of my own but I was damned if I was giving in to the expansion of Xmas. Handily I found some cheap little pumpkin fairy lights and a couple of silly candle holders - a pumpkin and black cat - to bring some more seasonally appropriate cheer. And I enjoyed that so much that I’ve done it every year since, gradually acquiring more bits and bobs each season. I now have a collection of pumpkins of different sizes, colours and materials (most recently some fabric ones from Hobbycraft, but I have a set of little velour ones, and a couple of cheap ceramic ones with silly slogans) along with some goth roses and a ridiculous purple throw covered in bright pink bats! (Not dissimilar to the ones on my ‘feeling’ bit at the bottom of the entry now that I think about it!)

Feeling Vaguely: calm
Singing Along With: Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around

Thems The Rules: If you'd like your own questions, let me know in the comments! I'll ask the first five commenters five questions each. Answer them in your own journal, offer to give the first five commenters their own sets of questions, and let the cycle continue!

Questions from

netgirl_y2k:

1. Because adults do not get asked this enough, what's your favourite dinosaur?
Pterodactyl. I've loved those winged pointy bastards since I was a kid. Not even that scene in the third Jurassic Park film could break me of it. Actually if we're going to get really specific about it the particular kind of pterosaur that they recently identified from fossils on Skye that has the delightful gaelic name of Dearc sgiathanach (a speckled or striped winged creature).

2. Where do you stand on Scottish Independence, are you in favour of it and do you think it will ever happen?
I'm in favour! But okay I have a fairly nuanced view on it, in that I think that there are plenty of good reasons for the countries of these islands to be in some form of political union - there was brief moment after the 2014 referendum when it looked like we might get proper federalism and realistically that's probably the best option - much as we're better being part of the EU. However, the ruling establishment of the UK has fundamentally never accepted that the Empire is gone and isn't coming back. And I sincerely believe that they never will accept that until and unless the UK breaks up entirely. Once we've all come apart and figured out who we are as individual countries then maybe we can come back together as actual partners again then, but I think that'll be a long time coming because the establishment seems intent on doubling down and alienating all it's obvious allies. It saddens me but I think that the only way out of the hole Westminster seems determined to drag us down into, is for Scotland to actually leave. It might be enough shock to the system to get them to pull themselves together, or it might prompt the other nations to walk away too.

3. It's so cold! Favourite and least favourite things about this weather?
Well, I'm a knitter, so the excuse to wear lots of cosy knitwear is pretty high up there, I love layers, and I love being cosy and having an excuse to drink fancy hot beverages - both alcholic and not - and crunch through the snow in my favourite boots. My least favourite thing is ice, especially when its done that annoying freeze/thaw/freeze thing that makes everything deceptively lethal. (Actually, I think it might really be people who don't drive with due caution in icy/snowy weather. Just charging at things like it'll some how be less dangerous because they're in a hurry.)

4. If you could only listen to one podcast from now on which one are you keeping?
Ooooh that's difficult. Probably a toss up between From Our Own Correspondant and 99% Invisible, which I think 99% Invisible would probably win just because I could cheat and listen live to FOOC on Radio 4 (I wouldn't though, the reason I subscribe to it as a podcast is because I'm utterly useless at tuning in at the correct time.) Everything else I listen to is to specific, focusing on one subject - sound, linguistics, food, history, whatever - they're the only ones wide ranging enough to keep me satisfied in the long term.

5. What's the most memorable 'bad' book you've read, one that you just couldn't stop thinking about?
Hmmm... I think either, Prozac Nation or Catch 22 because while I never finished either of them, even the thought of them some twenty years later makes me go 'urgh'. I've probably bounced off some worse books in the intervening years - I read a chapter of Twilight to see what the fuss was about but I never really got either the intense hate or love for that book, I just thought it was badly written nonsense - but nothing that has quite stuck with me in quite the same way. I definitely subscribe to the mantra of 'life is too short to read bad books' and giving myself the gift of noping out of a book I wasn't enjoying has been a good life choice.

Feeling Vaguely: snuffly
Singing Along With: Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero