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garden,
nature

Garden observations volume 1

I've been doing very small sets of garden observations on Facebook, and since Facebook sucks balls I'm going to do a roundup here

12 July

I don't know how people identify insects, and I'm not sure I want to learn, but in a brief species count in my garden at like midday in the sun I found.

Wood pigeon that I scared off the feeder as I went out
Lesser black backed gulls making a racket
A smol bumble bee of some kind
Teeny tiny flies, too small to see except by movement
A suspiciously clothes moth looking moth
Tiny bits of spider silk but no visible spiders
Smol (5mm ish) long bodied black flies
Similar size and shape flies with bronzy orange body
Long (1cm+) black bodied fly/beetle
5mm ish round bodied fly with very see through wings
A bluebottle
A similar to bluebottle but noticeably smaller fly
An woodlouse
A suspiciously familiar black cat who kept following me around scaring the creatures

21 July

Beeeee!
Smol hovering flies with brown bodies
Tinies flies, lots of them
The smallest possible spider
Is it a seed or is it a pupa? Who can say?
Swifts doing an eeeeeeeee!
Lesser black back gulls squabbling
An domestic cat
An mouse, sad victim of said cat
Some foam on the heather which may be hiding a creature
A garden snail, trying to unalive itself in my watering can
A much smaller snail, resting in the crack of the back door5 August

4 August

A blackbird, eating rowan berries and then making an annoying wheezy squeal in the sycamore tree
The world's teeniest spider, which I actually got a photo of by putting my hand behind its web so the camera would focus
A lovely glossy almost purple shield bug
Beee
A very basic beige moth
Some kind of hovering fly who was mostly black with thin pale stripes
Black lies on the stem of a sad sunflower
Some other kind of long bodied 3-5mm blackish fly
Collared doves flying over
Very noisy lesser black backed gulls who are a permanent feature
The sound of a probably blue tit (unless that was the wheezy blackbird warming up)
Much more orangey hovering flies
A.N. other bee who was more orange
A bluebottle

6 August

one sparrow who immediately flew away. There used to be dozens of them, even after I acquired a little cat, so not sure why they've all gone or become invisible - maybe the weird weather is affecting their food.
One (1) black ant
One large? white butterfly who briefly flitted across and into next door.

Current Mood: calm

Things that I do on days when I "don't do anything" - a small celebration

I keep track of a bunch of stuff in my life, for largely neurodivergent reasons - things like whether I bath or clean my teeth, do housework or werk or art or craft, and whether I see another human being that day. Some days though don't have any of those tick marks, so I think I "didn't do anything." This is what I do on those days. I don't do all of them all the time, but I nearly always do some of them and they are not nothing.

This list is not complete

Reading. I am nearly always reading a book that's new to me. Mostly relatively easy fiction - golden age detective fiction, children's fantasy books or some science fiction or fantasy. I mostly read on the Kindle, which means giving Amazon more money than I'd like but it is more accessible.
Watching Youtube - I do this so much that it's worth it to have a paid account. I watch people doing crazy Zelda challenges or coming up with detailed geek lore, solving puzzles, making miniatures, ASMR videos, nerdy documentary stuff like Tom Scott, frugal or outdoor living, walking and camping and of course kitten rescues.
Playing games on my phone. Sometimes this can be a grind that I wish I could escape from, but I am usually doing something else at the same time, and it can be genuinely enjoyable.
Imagining one of my many ongoing stories. Sometimes I will write some of them down, but far more often I am world building or just living in the story in my head. World building can include dives into all sorts of trivia, and making lists of things, because lists.
Watching and solving variant sudoku, mostly from Cracking the Cryptic - https://www.youtube.com/@CrackingTheCryptic - sometimes I just solve the easier ones myself, but often I solve along - by doing what I can, watching the video for a hint and then carrying on.
Make and maintain mostly strictly unnecessary lists and accounts and records of all sorts of things in my life.
Jigsaw puzzles on https://www.jigsawplanet.com/ - You can pick kinds of puzzles, different shapes of pieces and whether the pieces are rotatable or not, and you can vary the number of pieces on every picture. I generally do natural scenes at 300 pieces, but with the pieces the right way up cos I'm terrible at rotating things in my head.
Telling my cat what a wonderful bean she is.
Doing quizzes on https://www.jetpunk.com/ - I frequently redo the same ones, like capitals and countries and flags of the world, chemical elements, monarchs, presidents and prime ministers. Hello, I am an autist and I like lists and knowing things. This flags of the world quiz is also good. https://world-geography-games.com/en/flags_world.html
Doing my basic maintenance things - taking meds, getting dressed enough to open the door, eating a food, feeding the best bean.
I do word puzzles too. I play Boggle at https://wordshake.com/boggle - it's slightly annoying because it's dictionary is a bit off, but it's easy to do just a bit of.
Sometimes I do the guardian cryptic crossword, but not so often these days. I might like to do more, but I need to overcome my shame at "cheating" (true of some of the other puzzles as well). Rationally I don't believe you can cheat when you're playing anything alone.
Watch TV - I usually only do this in the evening. I am currently watching Murdoch mysteries and Loudermilk and Pottery Throwdown and Salvage Hunters and Death in Paradise and Poker Face and Our Flag Means Death. Sometimes I have a very low tolerance for even mild peril and watch children's things and nature and Money for Nothing.
Stepping into my garden for even just a few seconds, so breath oxygen and see that things are alive.

Books Read in 2023

A long list which is ordered by author instead of the order I read them. As you can see I tend to pick and author and binge them repeatedly. Nearly all of these were on Kindle or online, some were very short.( Read more... )

Pick a class, no, pick fewer classes than that

In my head it’s still the start of term around about now. I am 56 rapidly closing in on 57 and don’t even have the excuse of ever being a teacher, but whatever. Now is a good time (in my head) to start courses, get all my pencils sharpened and jolly well sort things out.

I also get noticeably less happy and active in the winter, to the extent that this start of term energy rarely even lasts up to half term in mid October.

So what should I do with my start of term energy? I don’t want to sign up for too much and then hate myself for not finishing it, but I do want something to do as the nights close in and the heating goes on while I am still lucky enough to be able to afford it.

I have a few options, I mean I have a ton of options if you include my overloaded craft cupboard and the overflow area around it, but I have to discount a lot of that as set dressing. However I have signed up for a couple of things, and have the option of more.

Expressive Therapeutic Art is a weekly class I signed up for and paid for, so I am jolly well going. I have no idea what it will be like, but it sounded less scary than an introductory art class given that I famously cannot draw. It’s at Southbridge, where the pottery is, so I know I can get there OK and go and get a posh coffee afterwards.

Art for Anxiety is a group that meets one afternoon a month. I enjoyed the first few a lot, but am getting a bit less out of it now. It is in Leith, which is an expensive taxi ride away, but the class itself is free, and if I loved it more money wouldn’t be an issue. (Also it gets me to a part of town I don’t see every day.) If I run out of energy for this, or the group stops I can still carry on with the class at Southbridge.

The Pottery User Group is, against all expectation, still staggering along. If I pay my dues I can once again make small things (5-20cm) and wait patiently for them to be fired. I do not feel at all inspired about this, but I am reluctant to let it go completely because if I let my membership lapse someone else will be accepted from the waiting list and I might never get the chance again. I haven't paid up yet, and need to decide soon. The fee is small and I feel I really Should do it, but should I?

And then there’s OpenLearn (https://www.open.edu/openlearn/). There are a whole lot of courses on there I like the look of, from sociolinguistics to anthropology to Golden Age detective fiction. Most of them are for a few weeks but say they take 3-5 hours a week. They would cost me £100 a course or I could just join at £20 a month and get access to loads of them. I can certainly afford to do that but it might make me feel bad when I inevitably don’t get “my money’s worth.”

If I do all of this, plus my job and volunteering, it will definitely be too much. Pottery could just be depressing, Art for Anxiety could be superfluous now I have another art course, Open Learn courses are like actual studying and could be hard.

What would you do?

Storecupboard Challenge - - Probable Fail

I am extremely unlikely to complete the month on under £30. Firstly because I slipped badly and had a takeaway on a particularly bad day, but also because I have already spent £28 and I only have two bananas and zero cereal bars left, and the milk expires on the 29th, assuming I don't finish it before then. Of course I could have other things for breakfast - I have some tinned and frozen fruit which will help, and I also have some instant lattes, but I am usually super dependant on milk and bananas, and I can't afford both, or anything else.

During the month so far I have become very aware that food prices at the "cheaper" end are even worse than I thought, even when I thought I was being pessimistic. And my capacity to cook the stuff in my store cupboards is lower tan I thought, because my self-image hasn't caught up with my disability.

I have got this far only through a combination of super easy free food from Shrub (Pret sandwiches ftw!), leftover work food, and my carer chopping stuff up for me for a more traditional cook once a week. When I do cook a "recipe" it will be something like a stir fry with a packet sauce,so I've barely touched he spices for years but still feel bad about getting rid of them because Reasons.

I have succeeded in using some thing from the freezer, and have thrown away a few more, like some very freezer burned veggies. I have used some cupboard things, like cheese sauce, corned beef, tinned cod roe and some ambient desserts, and I have a better picture overall of what I will ever use and what I would maybe be better donating to a food bank.

I will persist for a bit longer, maybe even to the end of the month, but I'm not going to shame myself over the odd takeaway or for going a couple of quid over...

Storecupboard Challenge day 5 - the shoppening

I've coped OK with four and a bit days of no food shopping, partly because I got free coffee and a Pret salad when volunteering yesterday and picked up some tatties scones which I ate last night and this morning, but today I used the last of the milk and had to shop. Well I could have used the frozen milk, but that would have meant remembering to defrost it in time? How long does it take to thaw four pints of milk? Longer than I can cope without a coffee for sure...

So I went to the local Co-op because my knee is bad and I couldn't face the slightly longer trip to Lidl just to save 20p. The bargain bins were uninspiring, to say the least, and everywhere was chocolate and fancy Easter meals for people who eat fancy Easter meals because apparently that's a Thing. I resisted all those things with difficulty and bought a half gallon of semi-skimmed milk for £1.85 and 10 mixed weight eggs for £1.65. I wanted the eggs to go with chips for tea, and 10 of the bargain ones worked out 5p cheaper than 6 regular medium eggs. I spent noticeably more on animals than on myself, because Selkie has expensive tastes and I needed fat balls for the bird feeder. I also bought a rosemary plant for £3.50 from the super expensive but glorious Italian grocers, but even on a non-challenge day I find their food prices too much. I am not counting the rosemary as food because it's for the garden and not big enough to eat yet :-)

So £3.50 gone out of £30 leaves £26.50. I have chips and egg for tea with frozen spinach bites, and my posh-er Easter weekend food looks like being Chinese dumpling Night one night and Tapas night another, but I'm not sure about tomorrow. The fresh veg is mostly all gone, but I still have apples and bananas, 2 onions and a couple of honestly quite far gone carrots. I used my freezer burgers last night but still have both king scallops and some posh chicken in there. I may make another friends locked post with a full list of food eaten and available, or I may keep it private for now since I doubt it will be of much interest to anyone...

Food cupboard challenge day 2

Usually I only need to run the dishwasher once a week, on Wednesdays so Kim can put stuff away on Thursdays, but I am running it now because I did some actual cooking...

Day 1 food
Banana, 1,
Coffees, many
Mushrooms, about 150g fried and mixed into Bisto instant cheese sauce which was BB last November and was actually nom, served with
Toast, 2 slices, followed by
Hot Cross Bun, toasted and buttered
Stir fry made with carrots, mushrooms, pepper and tofu and a far too sweet ready hoisin sauce
Some nice wine I have had since probably pre Brexit.

Day 2 food
Banana and coffees, obviously
More mushrooms and instant cheese sauce on toast, this time with garlic flavour provided by rather old dried ramsoms I got in Flying Tiger in the Before Times.
Another Hot Cross Bun
Toast and marmalade, which is an absolute staple for me
One carrot, eaten raw when I thought maybe I should eat a vegetable.

Tomorrow I *may* tackle the carrot mountain with more actual cooking, but I may also look at freezing them, as soon I can can take anything at all out of the freezer...

Some vegetable thoughts on Food Cupboard Challenge Day 1

Before I even think about using stuff from the freezer I have to look at the fridge. Just now I tidied it up and made some lists, while drying out the vegetable drawer and cutting a few dodgy bits off of sad veg. There's not a lot of protein in the fridge except a pack of paneer and most of a pack of low fat cheddar type cheese, but alongside an embarrassment of condiments I do have plenty of butter and jam, which will help me use the toastable bread and three toastable hot cross buns from Shrub.
Also:
A nearly full tube of tomato puree
10 cherry tomatoes that are old enough they'll need to be fried
2 medium spuds from Shrub which will probably turn into chips with Freezer Thing
2 parsnips, possibly ditto - since I have an airfryer roasted veg is easy...
2 onions
(Not even any garlic, damn)
700g wonky carrots - this is what's left after I already used what I needed, but I bought the 1Kg bag because at 39p it was literally cheaper than two loose carrots
500g slightly sad mushrooms - from Shrub who had loads yesterday. They should last a few days now I have them out of the sweaty plastic box and onto paper
5 apples

And outside the fridge I have 6 bananas, not counting the one I ate for breakfast.

I don't have a lot of ideas of how to use the carrots and mushrooms, but surely one or other of them would go with paneer and sad freezer spinach in a curry?

After the fresh veg is gone, or gone off, I still have sadly dried up freezer spinach, frozen edamame, sweetcorn, and four individual portions of microwaveable veg which I bought to make myself eat more veg (spoiler, it didn't work.)

And then in the food cupboards I have tinned tomatoes, various beans (but no lentils, weirdly), pasta sauces, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, tomato juice and orange juice, more corn, tinned grapefruit, peach slices, various veggie soups, roasted peppers in vinegar, some other pickles and sun dried tomatoes and artichokes and olives. Yeah, maybe tapas night will be a thing.

But first I need to use up those mushrooms...

Entry tags:

foodchallenge23

April Food Challenge

The amount of food in my flat, and especially in my freezer, is getting out of hand. Yesterday my carer Kim helped me reorganise the freezer so I could fit some spare milk in there, but we could only do it by unboxing some things and using the teeny drawer meant for ice cube trays to store dumplings. The cupboards are not a lot better, I have rice from before Covid and at least some tins from before Brexit. Meanwhile I, an autist with what you might call food issues, am living on milk and toast, and my breakfast banana is often my one portion of fruit or veg for the day.

Also food is getting super expensive.

So I am setting myself a challenge which, unlike my £1 a day food challenge from the Before Times, should be achievable at modern prices. For the month of April I aim to only spend up to £1 a day on food. BUT I am allowed all the food I already have in whatever combinations I can stomach.

The Rules

I have £30 to last the month. This will have to cover milk, bananas, and other fresh fruit or veg, so it's not going to be enough for much more.
I allowed to accept free food and drinks as long as I'm not getting them just because of this challenge. So for example I can have the free coffee I get for volunteering at Shrub, but I can't get someone to give me chocolate because I can't afford it with my £30.
Also from the Shrub I am allowed to get things like bread and spuds from the food sharing. I am only allowed to take things that there's a lot of left over, so I won't be taking from people who need it more than me, and I must donate the recommended amount for any food although that money won't count towards the £30.
I will try to go to actual shops for food, but if I have to do a food delivery order I may need to order more stuff to make up the amount. I am allowed to buy household supplies, cat food etc, which will help with this, but in case I need to I can order some other store cupboard food ONLY if I have already used up and enjoyed the food it's replacing.
I will try to document the highlights of what I end up eating here and on Facebook, but I won't tie myself to doing every single thing.

I have set up a link for people to donate to Give Directly, but please only do this if you can afford to.

https://fundraisers.givedirectly.org/campaigns/fv26ccc6cdeb7054c10af0b82efa7a6be11

So what do you think? Is this easy or hard? Let me know and wish me luck!

Books read 2022

In 2022 I read (at least) 82 books, most of them historical or vintage mysteries or online rational-ish fiction. There may be a few missing, but this is what I had recorded...

Amongst Our Weapons (Rivers of London 9, 2022), Ben Aaronovitch
Jumping Jenny (1933), Anthony Berkeley, published 1933
The String Glove Mystery (1936), The Porcelain Fish Mystery (1937) and Three Lost Ladies (1949) all Simon Brade mysteries by Harriet R Campbell
Fire in the Thatch (1946), Murder in Vienna (1956), Death Came Softly (1943), Accident by Design (1950), The Last Escape (1959), Murderer's Mistake (1946) all Robert Macdonald mysteries by ECR Lorac. I do wish they'd get on and release all of them so I can read them in order.
Touch Not The Nettle (1936) by Molly Clavering, which turned out to be a romance rather than a whodunnit, but still pretty good.
Found Floating (1937) Freeman Wills Crofts whose writing is so turgid that I skipped vast chunks and was still displeased with the ending.
Doctor Disappears (1941) and Mask for Murder (1940) mysteries by Max Dalman
The Ides of April (2013), Enemies at Home (2014), Deadly Election (2015), The Graveyard of the Hesperides (2016), The Third Nero (2017), Pandora's Boy (2018), Capitol Death (2019), The Spook who Spoke Again (2015), A Comedy of Terrors (2021) all Flavia Alba Roman mysteries by Lindsey Davies.
Medicus (2006), Terra Incognita (2008), Persona Non Grata (2009), Caveat Emptor (2010) all Gaius Petreius Ruso Roman Empire mysteries by Ruth Downie.
Heirs of the Body (2013), a Daisy Dalrymple mystery by Carola Dunn
Death of a Bookseller (1956) by Bernard J Farmer - I am loving all these British Library Crime classics
Seven Clues in Search of a Crime, Bruce Graeme (1941) - another bookseller related one, I found out a lot about Bookshops acting as private libraries from this.
Commandments Six and Eight (1936), The Punt Murder (1936) by E. Aceituna Griffin - 1936 must have been the peak year for mystery publication.
The Night Hawks (2021) and The Locked Room (2022) both Dr. Ruth Galloway mysteries and a Brighton mystery called The Vanishing (2017) all by Elly Griffiths
The Mysterious Mr Badman (1934) by W F Harvey, yes another bookselling related mystery, Amazon clearly like to recommend in themes.
The Keeper of Lost Things (2017) by Ruth Hogan, a terrible no good very bad book, twee with a nasty dose of very unpleasant classism.
May Contain Traces of Magic (2009) by Tom Holt - I've kind of gone off these ones and the plot was unnecessarily convoluted especially at the end Innes,
Stop Press (1939) by Michael Innes - also convoluted by OK
Comet in Moominland (1946), Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) and The Exploits of Moominpappa (1950) by Tove Jansson - I didn't get the Moomins as a kid so I get to enjoy them now :-)
Murder After Christmas (1944) by Rupert Latimer
A Red Rose Chain (2016), Once Broken Faith (2016) and Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day (2022) by Seanan McGuire. I have now run out of October Daye books on Kindle and will have to buy physical copies if I want to finish the series, which is very annoying.
The Mirror Dance (2021) by Catriona McPherson - one of the few modern period detective writers I keep up with
Arrest the Bishop? (1949), The Warrielaw Jewel (1933) by Winifred Peck
Somebody at the Door (1943) by Raymond Postgate - rather too 'experimental' with interminable backstories for every suspect which add little.
The Tin Tree (1930) by James Quince
Mr Campion's Farewell 2014, Mr Campion's Fox 2015, Mr Campion's Abdication 2017, Mr Campion's War 2018, Mr Campion's Visit 2019, Mr Campion's Seance 2020, Mr Campion's Coven 2021, Mr Campion's Wings 2022 by Mike Ripley - all modern continuations which don't match up to the original Campion but but be readable given how many I got through.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020) by V. E. Schwab. Pretty good premise and similar to Claire North which I love
The Quantum Curators and the Missing Codex (2021) by Eva St John
Escape from Yokai Land (2022) by Charles Stross - just a mini Laundryverse story
Another Time, Another Place (2021), A Catalogue of Catastrophe (2022) and Santa Grint (2022) by Jodi Taylor - chaotic time travel comedies
The Draycott Murder Mystery (1928) by Molly Thynne
This used to be about Dungeons, Books 1 & 2 (ongoing web series) by Alexander Wales,
Worth the Candle Books 1-8 by Alexander Wales (complete web series, weird ending)
The Templeton Case (1924) by Victor L Whitechurch
Midsummer Murder (1937), Murder in Blue (1937) by Clifford Witting
Mr Campion's Farthing (1969) and Mr Campion's Falcon (1970) by Philip Youngman-Carter

That was the year I guess

In Numbers - this year I:
Read 109 books
Words of fiction written - just over 30k, which is more or less what I said I'd do in Nanowrimo
Events organised - 1 Plus Sized Clothes swap, 1 Bi+ event and a bunch of training.

1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?
Kitten! All the things to do with having a new kitten! Stayed in one city for literally a whole calendar year, got vaccinated against Covid (three times.) Finished a tiny dolls house room kit.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
It's not a thing I do, and given the year it's been I'm very glad, but I did adopt a Theme (as per this video) of Routine, and managed to improve my routines for things like personal care.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not as such, but a cat that I met briefly had a kitten who I love to bits :-0

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully. I am very glad that I noticed when Cat-who-is-not-my-cat Dmitri's flat was for sale so I knew he hadn't died, just moved away. It still made me sad though it did lead to Selkie acquisition in the end :-)

5. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?
A Visit to somewhere that isn't Edinburgh.

6. What countries did you visit?
Ha! I literally stayed in One City, in One Country and the places I went were: furthest North - Edinburgh Cat Protection League in Leith to look at a cat, furthest East - an address in Niddrie to actually collect my kitten, furthest South - Morningside Vets to get said kitten spayed and furthest West the big Sainsbury in Gorgie which isn't far from my home.

7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
4th April, which is Selkie's birthday :-)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Kept a kitten alive, healthy and happy.
Gave good support to BiCon people.
Also at work I am most proud of my contribution to this article.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I don't want to mark anything I didn't do as a failure this year, because global fucking pandemic.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Many kitten scratches at first, nothing major.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Kitten! Also very much appreciate my Disney+ subscription, Zelda Breath of the Wild stuff and various useful things like a new printer.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Everyone who organised accessible things for me to do online.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Virgin media customer support, everyone who unthinkingly let Covid measures make their services less accessible to disabled people. And the UK Government, obviously.

14. Where did most of your money go?
I am fortunate enough to be financially secure, so I don't think it was any one thing

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Can you guess? Kitten! (Also Zelda BOTW, but mostly kitten.)

16. What song will always remind you of 2021?
The song I made up for my kitten.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
No, no I am not.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Being in any way outside my flat.
.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Moping about being indoors.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
On my own with Selkie and a nice lunch and a bunch of small gifts because of lovely friends I organised gift exchanges with.

21. Did you fall in love in 2021?
Only with Selkie :-)

22. How many one night stands?
So much nope to this!

23. What was your favourite TV programme?
The Magicians, which I binge watched twice.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No, I don't think I have the energy to actually HATE anyone anymore, though there are people who definitely shouldn't be in any kind of power.

25. What was the best book you read?
Probably Moominland in Winter.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The entire Magicians soundtrack, but especially Under Pressure.

27. What did you want and get?
Selkie! Nice big new TV. Beautiful new curtains.

28. What did you want and not get?
A holiday.

29. What was your favourite film this year?
I'm not a big film person, but I like Vivo.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 55. Er, that's it.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Moar swim!

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?
Slouchy dress and dressing gown = Zoom chic.

33. What kept you sane?
Well that was a bold assumption!

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I fancy characters not actors, but Eliot Waugh in The Magicians is smoking hot.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Covid response and/or trans rights.

36. Who did you miss?
Everyone :-( Especially my BiCon friends who don't live in Edinburgh and my mum.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Some of the new BiCon volunteers are pretty cool :-)

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021:
Looking professional is so last decade!

39. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
My mum - as she's one of the few people I know who prefers phone calls.

40. Quote a song that sums up your year:
"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur! Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr!"

41. What was your favorite moment of the year?
When I found Selkie the first time she got lost.

42. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
My meltdown when I got my Covid boost was hard, but at least it was in a good cause. I think some of the BiCon community backbiting earlier in the year was actually harder, because it was so unproductive.

43. Where were you when 2021 started?
In my flat.

44. Who were you with?
Alone.

45. Where were you be when 2021 ended?
Same.

46. Who will you be with when 2021 ends?
Same.

47. What was your favourite month of 2021?
August - when my Spa finally reopened and I could SWIM.

48. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2021?
Really not a lot at all.

49. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2021?
Only prescription ones.

50. What are your plans for 2022?
Let's not make plans, eh?

The Books of 2020

2020 was a good year for reading. Well kind of. I did read a good number of books, but most of them were super lightweight, and a lot were short - novellas or kids books. I refuse to feel bad about this under the circumstances. These are not in the order I read them, because I didn't record that - maybe I will next year, but don't hold your breath. These are all, complete with publication dates, from the giant spreadsheet of books I have read ever, which doesn't contain ALL the books I have read ever, but does contain 2924 books. What can I say - I like lists.

One by One They Disappeared: A Golden Age Mystery, Moray Dalton, 1929
Death at Breakfast, John Rhode, 1936
The Mouse and his Child, Russell Hoban, 1967 - I hadn't read this before. It is certainly ODD.
G is for Gumshoe, Sue Grafton, 1990 - I working my way through this series but I can never get them in the right order.
The Burglar in the Library, Laurence Block, 1997 - I'm pretty sure I'd read it before, but it must have been in the days before the Great List.
N is for Noose, Sue Grafton, 1998
Q is for Quarry, Sue Grafton, 2002
R is for Ricochet, Sue Grafton, 2004
S is for Silence, Sue Grafton, 2005
Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis, 2007 - I had had this on my wishlist since it came out, so I kind of had to buy when it was 50p. Not my style of book any more really, but still funny
T is for Trespass, Sue Grafton, 2007
U is for Undertow, Sue Grafton, 2009
Time Riders, Alex Scarrow, 2010 - I like kids books, I like time travel, but it didn't grab me enough to care what happened
V is for Vengeance, Sue Grafton, 2012
Death of Yesterday, M. C. Beaton, 2013
The Games House, Claire North, 2015 - I read some of this online when it was on her website in separate stories. The ending is quite satisfactory but maybe a bit too gothic for me.
The Case of the ‘Hail Mary’ Celeste, Malcolm Pryce, 2015
Shot in Southwold, Suzette A Hill, 2017 - I read the first one of these because I know Southwold, but in retrospect that's not enough reason to have read another.
The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry, 2017 - I'm sure this was a book club kind of book, which may be why I don't get it. More atmosphere than sense.
The Lonely Hour, Christopher Fowler, 2019 - I was reading this at the start of 2020 so it goes into that year. Bryant and May are always good.
Murder in the Merchant City, Angus McAllister, 2019 - fairly meh modern detective fiction
Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch, 2019 - I love her Lingthusiasm podcast so much, but this was a little bit disappointing maybe because I was familiar with a lot of the ideas already. Definitely worth reading, but don't bother buying the physical book - the typesetting and production quality is poor and there are no diagrams or anything to make it worth while having on paper.
Becoming Jo, Sophie McKenzie, 2019 - this is not good, it loses far too much of what makes Jo March excellent.
False Value, Ben Aaronovitch, 2020 - I love all things Rivers of London, so yay
Tales from the Folly, Ben Aaronovitch, 2020
The Constant Rabbit, Jasper Fforde, 2020 - I usually love everything by Fforde, but wish I hadn't bought this. Do not read this if you don't like bad things happening to rabbits.
Bryant & May: Oranges and Lemons, Christopher Fowler, 2020 - a new Bryant and May book is worthy of celebration in such a year
The Blind Side, Patricia Wentworth, 1939 - having read all the Miss Silver books I am now working through her other stuff. This one at least is less formulaic.
Who Pays the Piper, Patricia Wentworth, 1940
Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman, 2017
Doctor Who: The Shakespeare Notebooks, Anthology, 2014 - I skipped a lot of this, some of it was cringeworthy and none of it was great
Just One Damned Thing After Another, Jodi Taylor, 2013 - I ended up reading every book in this series in 2020, well the library was closed and they were cheap on Kindle, and I do love time travel
The Very First Damned Thing, Jodi Taylor, 2015
A Symphony of Echoes, Jodi Taylor, 2013
When a Child is Born, Jodi Taylor, 2013
A Second Chance, Jodi Taylor, 2014
Roman Holiday, Jodi Taylor, 2014
A Trail through Time, Jodi Taylor, 2014
Christmas Present, Jodi Taylor, 2014
No Time Like the Past, Jodi Taylor, 2015
What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Jodi Taylor, 2015
Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings, Jodi Taylor, 2015
Lies, Damn Lies, and History, Jodi Taylor, 2016
The Great St Mary’s Day Out, Jodi Taylor, 2016
My Name is Markham, Jodi Taylor, 2016
And the Rest is History, Jodi Taylor, 2017
A Perfect Storm, Jodi Taylor, 2017
Christmas Past, Jodi Taylor, 2017
An Argumentation of Historians, Jodi Taylor, 2018
The Steam Pump Jump, Jodi Taylor, 2018
The Battersea Barricades, Jodi Taylor, 2018
And Now for Something Completely Different, Jodi Taylor, 2018
Hope for the Best, Jodi Taylor, 2019
When Did You Last See Your Father, Jodi Taylor, 2019
Why is Nothing Ever Simple?, Jodi Taylor, 2019
Plan for the Worst, Jodi Taylor, 2020
The Ordeal of the Haunted Room, Jodi Taylor, 2020
The Quantum Curators and the Faberge Egg, Eva St John 2020 - recommended to me after I'd read all the Chronicles of Saint Mary books, and very similar really, although rather less white.
The Glass Room, Ann Cleeves, 2016 - I would enjoy Vera books more if they didn't mention how fat she is every other paragraph...
Murder at Melrose Court, Karen Baugh Menuhin, 2018 - I often get impatient with "period" detective fiction by modern writers, but this one gets a pass for being funny. I nearly gave up though when he flew his Sopwith Camel home from France in 1918 to his father's deathbed!
The Borrowers, Mary Norton, 1951 - a reread when I found the boxed set of the first four books (I've since found out there's a fifth which I still haven't read)
The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton, 1955, - I may have read this as a child, but not sure. I got the box set of the series in the shop I volunteer at, which was a win.
The Borrowers Afloat, Mary Norton, 1959
The Borrowers Aloft, Mary Norton, 1961
Portrait of a Murderer, Anne Meredith, 1933 - very much a psychological thriller rather than a whodunnit.
Finding the Fox, Ali Sparkes, 2006 - The 1st Shapeshifter book, I got this in a charity shop, and was so good I ordered the whole series from Amazon.
Running the Risk, Ali Sparkes, 2007 - Shapeshifter 2, still good
Going to Ground, Ali Sparkes, 2007
Death by Detention, Ali Sparkes, 2018 - I read this while I was waiting for the rest of the Shapeshifter books to arrive. It's not as good because it's a bit too silly.
The London Eye Mystery, Siobhan Dowd, 2007 - A bit too much like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime in it's treatment of autism, but still enjoyable.
Checkmate to Murder, E.C.R. Lorac, 1944 - I liked this because it did seem to have a more realistic picture of London in the war than most popular fiction, as confirmed by my mum, who was there...

First post of 2021

Sorry to those who still do Facebook and see this twice, I am trying the idea of repeating important posts from FB on here, with maybe a bit more detail, as many people now hate Facebook a lot. I too hate Facebook a lot, but many OTHER people are still there. So. Compromise...

I haven't done New Year resolutions for several years anyway, but this year (or I guess I should start by saying this winter) I am doing seasonal themes as described in this excellent video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGuFdX5guE

My Theme for Winter (i.e. until end of February) is Routine. I want to have more things that I do at mostly regular times, and less time spent twiddling my thumbs because I don't know what to do next. The idea is also that I might be able to tell days and times of day apart from each other, which might otherwise be difficult.

So today I started by being up before noon, and also (just) before my mum phoned. The hope is to move that time back slowly to maybe 9-10am and have my call with mum at 11-12ish.

The next things in today will include New Year bath, emptying the dishwasher of New Year clean dishes, tidy up a bit and them have a Zoom with Sandy before Doctor Who, which I think should be enough routine for one day. Also if I run out of spoons for some of that it's OK, which is the good thing about themes over resolutions.

Happy New Year all!

Entry tags:

actual blog

The improvement of everyday things

This link (https://www.gwern.net/Improvements) is a great list of things that have improved since the 80s. Not all of them are universal, and some have knock on effects that are bad for other people or the planet (the clothing one is especially bad, and I would not have included it in that form), but a lot are unquestionably good and I'm sure there are more.

I am a good bit older than Gwern, and can remember most of the 70s. Also I live in the UK which makes a difference. So here is a list of small things that have improved during my lifetime in addition to Gwern’s list:-

Beds: Duvets rather than itchy blankets are now the norm, and anti allergen mattress toppers exist. Memory foam is also great for a lot of things, although it can make beds too warm for me.

Ambient temperature: in Scotland I don't have to worry about air conditioning, but central heating and double glazing are now a lot more common (though not universal) and I have a flat at a temperature I like all year round.

Bathing: As Gwern says, hot water on demand is awesome. In addition to that most houses and flats now come with showers, at least over the bath, and you don’t need to buy a weird plastic shower thing to fit onto taps just so you can rinse your hair.

Photos for me started with Kodak Instamatic, but were only for holidays because of the price of film and developing. Never having to get films developed is great, and I can now afford to try to improve my photography.

Batteries: We need a lot fewer, but also there are rechargeable AA and AAA batteries that work and keep their charge for an impressively long time.

Plugs come fitted to things by default and you don’t have to know how to wire a plug.

Mobility aids: I didn't need them as a child, but I am grateful that folding walking sticks are now a thing, chairs with footrests that come up are reasonably common and rise and recline chairs, though expensive, are not beyond my means. (And I'm not talking about political and social improvements here, but can I get a Hell Yeah for disability rights, however imperfect.)

The kitchen:-

Material science for the win! Non-stick pans are now the norm, and silicone oven gloves are baking pans are a thing. I love my silicone spatula which Has Not Melted!

Coolwall kettles and toasters are so much better! And kettles in particular are no much faster that it barely makes sense to say "I'll put the kettle on."

Dishwashers are common and have reduced domestic arguments in many homes- I vividly remember when we got ours in the 80s, (sadly not long before I left for university and had to wash dishes again)

Washing machines leave clothes dryer than they did even when they are not a dryer as well (I have Views about combined washer driers, which may be outdated because I'm sure they've improved as well)

I also remember when we first got a freezer, which revolutionised our home (and inspired my parents to buy half a sheep, but that was before we could readily access a specialist frozen food shop, which was a thing once upon a time.

Instant foods: yes, I know that plastics are bad, and everyone should know how to cook, and so on, but I'm glad that we are way beyond Smash instant mash now. I remember when cup noodles began, and as a disabled peron I'm very glad they did (also that other companies are a lot better at it and some now come in cardboard not plastic)

Freeze dried coffee is so much better than the old powdered instant.

And in My Day™ we didn't even have microwaves at home! (This is how I learned to like cold coffee.)

Honestly there are too many things to list. Just looking around me I can see noise cancelling headphones, a robot hoover, a landline phone you can take off its base and carry round the house while you talk, a visa card with contactless payment so I don't need to write a cheque, a modern nail file that's not just a bit of steel with scratches in it, a touch on touch off lamp, a roll on deodorant, soft brush like felt tip pens and nitrogen filled binoculars which are lighter than my dad's old ones and haven't gone mouldy.

Yes, I really should tidy up, now I come to think of it :-) What are your great improvements?

The Waves, the Mountains, and the Rose: the language of life and death on Tide

[This is the first draft of an introduction to the first text book about the languages of Tide, a world which, like those in Ursula K leGuin's Changing Planes, can be reached under conditions of great boredom and a certain amount of stress, such as a pandemic lockdown.]

There are two fundamental differences between the world of Tide and our own, one relatively minor, and one huge. The minor difference is that their moon is larger than our own and their tides are bigger and fiercer, and the major one is that the people of Tide live five lives.

When you first visit Tide and it is the smaller difference which is the more apparent – the pattern of settlement and building reflects the grave danger of being too close to the ocean at the wrong time, alongside the importance, for the majority coastal peoples at least, of being able to access the fertile intertidal zone. Coastal agriculture and cuisine is influenced by the great wealth and variety of species that thrive in these zones, and for coastal Tiders farming and gathering these treasures is rewarding but highly dangerous, and the concept of tides, of ebb and flow and rip currents and rockpools, influence every aspect of their art and culture.

And until you have learnt some aspects of their language, that might be all you see.

But even through a translator there are hints of the greater difference. My first clue came because I had forgotten how to translate my age from Earth to Tide years for a moment, and when I was asked how old I was I said “Fifty, no, fifty five.”

“Oh you poor thing,” my interviewee said, “to have died so young! It’s almost like you are new born!”

I was at that time doing field interviews to a very strict format, so I did not take the time to understand what that person was saying, which set my studies back by several weeks. Please, whoever is reading this, do not do as I did, but listen before you ask, always.

Later on I realised that my translator had been using the most commonly used form of the second person pronoun when I asked “how old are you?” I have called this the embodied second person and it means that what my interviewees heard was more like “how old is your body?” On the other hand, when my interviewee asked me my age, they had been using a different form, lost in translation, which I heard as “how old are you, yourself?” but which means, "how old is your soul?" (The soul's age being the sum of the different lives you have lived.) If we had been speaking the inland, rather than the coastal form of the language, there would have been a third option, the form which asks not how many years, but how many lives have you had, and to which the answer can be only be one to five.

I do not intend to spend too much of this book recounting my early errors, and so by using scientific language it may look as if I always understood the five lives and how Tiders relate to them, but please remember that it was not always so obvious, and that something so fundamental to our own cultures may not always be spoken of aloud, but rather felt as an undercurrent in every assumption we make and every choice of words.

Eating my way around the world

I've had this idea going round my head for a while where I eat some food from every country in the world, for some definition of 'from' which includes recipes, takeaway, restaurants meal and sometimes single items depending how much I struggle with some countries. The definition of 'country' may also need to be a bit flexible, but since I don't actually know how to get food from most of the disputed territories I know about (except Palestine) I won't be stressing over it...

I know this is a silly idea, and I am unlikely to finish the list, but so far I have had Canadian style poutine from BRGR, which I wasn't sure I would like, but did, and a Malaysian takeaway last night from a little cafe in Gorgie Road who also happen to do some traditional Mongolian dishes so I may be back. I liked the prawn thing with coconut, chilli and I think thai basil. It was served with an 'egg sauce' which was basically flavoured mayonnaise. I also got a curry which was too hot for me but I will finish today anyway.

Some countries are going to be hard to do (what is traditional food from the Vatican?) and others I've already eaten a lot of so I might not seek them out specially, but I look forward to this challenge.

Countries I know for sure I have already eaten 'from' at some point in life
Europe

UK, including specifically Scottish and Welsh foods, but not Northern Ireland so I may have to visit there...
Ireland, soda bread, colcannon, Irish stew, plus I was actually there on holiday when I was a child.
Spain - also I am hopefully going there this year
Portugal - been there and also can buy traditional pastries right near my house
Germany - I have loved many German sausages (fner) and visited Berlin several times
Poland - I have a Polish supermarket right near me
France - mais oui
Italian - I've been to Venice, which may be the only place in Italy with terrible food, but also eaten plenty of Italian in restaurants
The Netherlands - I have been there and eaten many fast foods, often while stoned out of my skull
Belgium - I have been there and eaten not very memorable food and very memorable chocolates
Sweden - if Ikea meatballs count
Norway - Gjetost is one of my favourite cheeses, not sure what else I've had from there
Denmark - Danish blue cheese and Danish bacon, but I'm sure there is more to explore
Hungary - I have had 70s style Hungarian goulash, but want to seek out something more authentic
Greece - many meze snacks and a bazillion olives
Switzerland - does homemade fondue count?

Asia

Chinese, because obviously
India, same
Pakistan and Bangladesh - I have definitely had these when ordering 'Indian' but I want to do them again and consciously recognise the difference. Same with Nepal
Thailand, including a salad with chilli oil which is hard to forget

Americas

Canada - mostly maple syrup and that poutine
USA - mainly burgers, obviously
Mexico - at least in a UK interpretation
Brazil - there used to be a Brazilian cafe that served avocado milkshake which I loved
Caribbean - but I don't know enough to separate it into nations, which I want to

Africa - apart from Morocco this is mostly a culinary blank to be honest, there used to be a South African restaurant I ate at, and I think I've had Ethiopian style bread, but will revisit this

Australasia
Er, I've had very tasty authentic pavlova made by a lovely New Zealander, and I had a regrettable kangaroo burger from an Australian bar that one time, but otherwise not sure...

Current Mood: accomplished

Meme of some use

So it won't be every day, but here is another set of words. Go me!

One thing I miss about LJ is that I got a much better picture of my friends lives from the longer form of posts than I get from the tiny contextless snippets of Facebook. One thing that did this reasonably well was some of the memes (back in the day when a meme was a quiz rather than a picture with words on.) Nowadays I feel very isolated in general, possibly because I am, but I also feel I don't know enough about my long distance friend's lives. As an example I recently found out from a third party that someone I knew had moved cities in a complicated way I knew nothing about.

Of course people are free to share or not share any aspect of their lives, but there is a tendency not to mention IRL facts which may just be habit, or not knowing when to bring it up in conversation, and for this reason I present my answers to "What is your actual life like?" A meme quiz by me. I'd love if other people would do this, and add or subtract questions as they please, but no-one has to

Name: Rowan Alison, some of you may also remember me having another name, which is still my legal name, but the only person who gets to use it is my mum

Age: 53 years old, which I am struggling to get my head round tbh

Living in
My own ground floor flat in Edinburgh for the last four and a half year. It has a garden and is literally the best thing I have ever bought

Relationship status
Single, living alone. I split up with my last boyfriend in 2016 and don't have any desire for another relationship most of the time. The idea of a non-sexual nesting partner is appealing, but I have no idea how to get from here to there or if it would be worth it when I did.

Children
None. I never wanted kids, but I do sort of feel sad that there are no children in my extended family and that I'm not close enough to any families with children to spend any time around them

Sexuality
Currently defining as asexual, but I am still keeping the label bi meaning biromantic, partly out of attachment to the bi community and in recognition of my past. I used to define as bisexual, and I don't want to completely disown that, in fact my sexuality change may be down to age/menopause and a strong case of cba, but asexual does feel most accurate now.

Gender
I don't have a gender so the label is agender. I used to define as female, but I had some issues with it which do look like clues in retrospect (though that may be selection bias) Again there may be a menopause element, but don't know if that was a cause or merely a source of gender euphoria for me. I don't get much if any gender dysphoria, but I do feel better for not wearing bras or trying to perform femininity any more. I prefer they/them pronouns.

Health
I have worsening osteoarthritis and therefore chronic pain and poor mobility. I use a rollator or a walking stick and can't climb stairs. I also have a bunch of depression/anxiety/SAD which is I have had for so long it seems normal. When I say I am depressed I mean really depressed...

What do I 'do' for a living?
I am on disability benefits, which are enough to live on but mean I have to jump through hoops every so often to keep them. I also do some 'permitted work' for the Equality Network which means I am getting paid to do actual bi activism after many years of doing it for free.

What am I doing for fun these days?
Learning French (or refreshing my school French) on Duolingo, Doing quizzes on Sporcle, playing Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite, reading, watching a lot of old TV (currently working through Big Bang Theory and started Rick and Morty)

What am I not doing anymore/ at the moment?
Pottery - haven't been in for months. Knitting, haven't really done any since I got stalled on a project last Christmas. I feel I should try to take both of these up again because I used to enjoy them. Birdwatching I don't do because I can't walk far enough and also it's super cold right now, but I miss being in nature and want to work out a way to do it.

Current issues in my life
Social isolation is a big one, plus I am waiting on a diagnostic procedure which I am trying not to think about. Other issues may appear in a more filtered post...

2018 as was meme

This is a 2018 summary post which started off using some of the questions from the meme people have been doing, but turned into something else. Since I consider the first few days of January to be intercalary until the 'proper' year starts on 12th Night this post is Not Late.

Significant Milestones
Started working a day a week at Equality Network and have therefore been PAID to run a bi event and other bi activism! Since I've been doing unpaid bi stuff since 1989 and ran my first big event in 1992 I feel this needs more exclamation marks than is quite seemly!
As part of the above got paid to deliver actual intersectionality training to actual service providers!
Got a super short haircut and now have no dyed bits at all (first time in decades)
Got my very own dishwasher for the first time - bliss!
Felt properly housebound by combined disability and snow for the first time :-(

Other achievements
Ran a BiCon on four months notice!
Organised getting a new kitchen fitted including all the tiling and floor and painting
Organised getting a tap fitted in the garden which is super useful
Bought a bench which was lush in the great summer we had

Significant Failure
Running out of spoons for my Virgin Trains complaint half way through. I hate doing this as it makes them think they got away with it

Especially lovely things that happened
Going to the posh spa with Sam several times - always bliss!
The fabulous unicorn pool party at BiCon - provided by someone wonderful who both paid and did all the work :-)
Too many lovely supportive friends to mention
Lovely summer weather
Getting a new giant plushy at BiCon (see icon)
Getting the giant globe drinks cabinet of my dreams hand delivered by Jenny

Places I went
South London to visit mum
Salford for site visit and then BiCon
Stirling for site visits then BiTastic
Portobello beach

Didn't manage to get a holiday :-(

"Experiences" had
I didn't make it to Nineworlds or Bi Camp so this is a shorter list than I'd hoped. Plan is to get a larger list next year and include more 'experiency' things, but still count smaller things like exhibitions visited

Little Holland House with mum
Edinburgh art exhibition I've forgotten the name of
National Museum visit including giant balloon balloon
Quite a lot of PokemonGo Community Days
Equality Network parliamentary reception
Stonewall Bi Role Models
Meadows Fair
Edinburgh Pride
My First Trans Event
Out of Sight Out of Mind Exhibition
Glass Class, BSL class and Pottery class

Some good TV shows I saw
The Good Place
New Sabrina
Old Poirot
BoJack Horseman (so wow!)
Happy (haven't finished watching yet)
Travellers

Song of the Year for my one a year playlist

Currently The HU's Wolf Totem

Current Mood: Humbug

All the information I can glean from a Christmas card from my aunt

I received a card from my aunt. It has six words hand written on it (plus a squiggle that probably means 'and'), but it still says a lot, in a way...

The card is from Waitrose, which is information even though it is no surprise given her position of rather further up the middle class than my parents
Waitrose donates 10% of the selling price of these cards to be shared equally between four charities which are carefully selected to appeal to as many Waitrose shoppers as possible while offending no-one. They are a "British-based nature conservation charity", a mental health charity for children in schools, the Alzheimers Society, and a charity with 'Royal' in the name who support 'local volunteers' to go into hospitals and such. All charities listed operate in England and Wales but not Scotland.
The paper in the card is 'responsibly sourced'. Jolly Good.
It is a Christmas car - I can tell because it says 'Joy to you at Christmas and throughout the year' in it. This would never pass in Scotland surely - it doesn't even say Happy New Year.
It is addressed to my old name. I know I did tell her what I prefer to be called, but either she forgot or she doesn't care.
It is in her handwriting, so even though her husband's name is on it this needn't mean anything. This is normal.
The message would be equally suitable to any level of acquaintance.
It does not contain her address, phone number or email address, so I still have no means of contacting her.
Given the lack of any other personalising features, she likely doesn't much want me to.

Entry tags:

nanowrimo

Happy New Year! (Again Again)

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year) there are approximately umpty-ten days in the year which could count as New Year’s Day for some purposes, and that doesn’t even include days like the first day of the autumn term, which still seems like the start of a new year to me even though it’s thirty one years since I actually had term times, unless you count the start of adult education classes, and why the hell not? In fact since lots of people also count their birthdays as a kind of fresh start that technically makes a potential New Year’s day for every day of the year…

This profusion of fresh starts is especially handy, I find, when Everything is Poo and you need to turn over a new leaf asap. For practical purposes (since I personally only have one birthday a year) this can happen on:-

21st December: midwinter, the shortest day, and therefore the day when the light starts to come back. In practice it’s difficult to celebrate this as a New Year when there’s still Xmas to get through, but I do celebrate it...

1st January: the obvious one, and even more so since I’ve lived in Scotland. In my misspent youth I used to find the traditional Scottish holiday more appealing, but it still marks the date of ‘thank fuck winter holidays are over’ even when these days I’m more likely to be in bed as soon as the bloody fireworks shut the hell up.

3rd January: this being the day after the extra bank holiday we get up here to allow for Hogmanay hangovers. Certainly when I had a Real Job™ I was adamant that New Year resolutions did not kick in until I was back at work.

2nd February: this is a dubious one, as few modern pagans would call it a New Year’s Day as such, but my Imbolc ritual involves sweeping the house and opening the windows wide to greet the bloody freezing but technically spring air, so I have been known to count it as a fresh start. Some pagans treat it as a day for making promises about the year to come. My promises tend to evaporate as I shut the doors and windows until it’s actually warmer.

21st March: the spring equinox - now the days will be longer than the nights! Hurrah!

1st April: or whenever the start of the financial year is in your organisation. For some people this is more of a deal than others - e.g. if you are an accountant or more likely someone who doesn’t know if your job will be funded past this date…

1st May: the first day of summer, the day after the Beltane Fire Festival which I can sadly no longer go to. There is absolutely no reason to see this as a New Year, Celtic or otherwise, but then the more widely recognised “Celtic New Year” is also pretty sketchy, so whatever.

There are no New Year’s Days in summer, because that would be silly.

1st September, or the start of term: as I said, it’s a nebulous concept when I don’t strictly have a term, and in Edinburgh the kids go back to school in August anyway, but I’m still stuck on the dates I knew as a child in Englandshire, and in any case you can’t have a new term until after your summer conventions and the end of the Edinburgh Festival, can you?

2nd October: it’s my birthday and I’ll call it a New Year if I want to.

1st November: the day after Samhain, and the start of the neo-pagan year. The idea of it being a “Celtic New Year” has little basis in fact, but it still counts for me this year as a day to start my personal accounts and generally pull myself together. Also the first day of Nanowrimo - so here I am, writing again and actually putting some words in a place where people can see them, so go me!