I really enjoyed this book. Circe’s a fairly minor character in the Odyssey (I think – I’ve blocked out most of reading that in high school. I hated it – though it was probably as much the boring instruction as anything else). In this book, we get the story of how the demigod child of the Sun (Helios) and sea nymph becomes the powerful witch of Aiaia. It’s beautifully written – there’s a certain sadness to it that I really enjoyed. I can see why it was so popular when it first came out.
My mother had a bumper crop of raspberries earlier this summer. She had so many I told her I’d take as many as she could freeze for me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything with them then, but figured September would probably be better. And I managed jam. The smell was heavenly. Tragically, the seal failed on one, so I was forced to put it in the fridge for immediate consumption.
I still have about a quarter bag and a half left- so some sort of mixed berry jam may happen. Or I’ll have fancy raspberry oatmeal this winter.
The garden’s definitely on the wane. I pulled out the cucumbers yesterday – they were not looking good. I will say, they were fantasically profilic. One vine would have been plenty for us.
I left the peppers and tomatoes. There are a few more fruits on there that still might ripen. We haven’t actually had a frost here yet (just really, really close), so I figure I can at least see what they do until an actual frost.
It does look bare with those gone, and those pots put in the garage.
Loved this book – it’s the story of the crew of a ship that builds wormhole tunnels, who are suddenly forced to go the long way around for their next job. The crew are not all human, which is great, so you get treated to a whole variety of people with incredibly different backgrounds. And this really is a story about people – it’s the relationships of everyone on the crew. The actual mission they’re on is fairly incidental to the story. Which is a refreshing difference for a sci fi novel – they’re usually much less about relationships than other speculative fiction types tend to be.
I’ve finished the first panel of the William Morris design way faster than I thought I would. I’m finding I can work on cross stitch longer than I can knitting – it seems to be a little less complicated for when I’m tired enough that trying to keep tracking of knitting becomes dangerous for the continued flow of the pattern.
I am glad I walked myself back from doing this on linen. There are days when finding the holes in black aida is challenging enough. Definitely need to keep that in mind for future projects. (I think light colored linen will be fine – but definitely need to be wary of the dark stuff.)
The first Gordes sock is done. I did have to frog and start over the first time through the cuff, but that turned out to be a good thing. I took the opportunity to go up a couple needle sizes when I did that. This yarn is light fingering weight, and it definitely benefited from the larger needle size.
This is a fun pattern – really well written, so it’s easy to keep track of, but complicated enough to keep things interesting.
Really interesting portrait of Antarctica – both the people there (past and present), and the science they’re finding. It’s from 2013, so a smidge dated at this point, but still lots of interesting things covered. You’ll find climate science, meteorology, astronomy, and biology – not to mention how living in such an isolated location impacts the people there. I think anyone could find something of interest in this book.
The North Wind and the Sea 