Beter wordt het niet By Caroline de Gruyter

 This is a book that as far as I can find only exists written in Dutch, a Swedish translation and maybe German. Though I'm uncertain about the last. 

About

The author is a journalist who after living in Brussels for awhile she moved to Austria and Wienna. There she realized how strong the Habsbourg influence still is and how different the narrative her is compared to what she was taught about it. 

A theme of the book is this changing narrative. The modern day nostalgia over things they then complained about. Similar to how people today complains about the EU. Though that nostalgia might partially be because the time after was so much worse with the rise and fall of soviet. Stability is underrated until you loose it.

The book contains many interviews with different people, descendants of the former royal family, other nobles and politicians. It is the journalist influence.

More about the Habsburgs and today's Austria than it does about EU. But whole sections are about the Hungary whose position in opposition to the Habsburg definitely mirrors their complicated position in EU today.

It's mostly about the last parts of the empire and the time after. The slow decline that was in the end obvious and parallels to today where every crisis is talked about as if it will be the one to break the union. The most obvious parallel is the problems of keeping diverse people united and the need to continuously adapt to new pressures.

The Habsburgs led was a multicultural empire held together by bureaucracy and compromises. It's collapse was a messy time. People who had previously been able to move freely about the empire now found themselves living on the wrong side of a border. 

My thoughts

That it's written by a journalist and not scientist is obvious from the very start. This isn't really a problem it just means it has more of a narrative, less statistics and a lot of personal anecdotes. And it is a more pleasant read.

It's interesting but lacks something in structure. Not really clear what differentiate the theme if one chapter from the next. Mostly it's the same anecdotes, interviews with descendants of various people, histories about the family interviewed or about life in the empire. And how that relates to EU. I cant help but think Maybe simply naming the chapters would have helped.

A lot of the people interviewed were descendants of nobles. People whose family lost land and influence when the empire collapses and the area was conquered. While it is interesting to hear about the modern day Habsburgs and their thoughts. They might have a bias to the empire in a way that ordinary people might not have. 

It is positive about the EU points out that it probably wont collapse despite what headlines might say. Because at the end of the day being a part of it is better than not.

All in all its an interesting read about a place and time I know little about. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Habsburg for the Dutch version and here Habsburg for the Swedish version.

Making some regency stays.

So, long story short I need a new bra, and my preferred size is hard to find. At the same time my YouTube feed started showing two separate videos about people making regency short stays based on this redthreaded pattern. So I decided to take my own shot at it.

This is a PDF pattern meaning you get the pattern as a file that you then print out.  I payed a bit more to get one for both short and long stays. But lets face it I'm going to make a full size corset someday so I might as well by a pattern now when I can get a bit of a discount.

Once printed you just tape the papers together and cut out the pieces. For this one most pieces were quite small, so only one had to be taped together. 

This also makes this an excellent project to use up some of my scrap fabric. So if I like the end result I'll probably make more. 

Clearly I'm incapable to just follow a pattern or instructions. Because as usual i made some adjustments, rather than just the two layers of fabric needed I'm doing a third padding layer of a thick wool I have. I'm also going to have as little boning as possible. 

So, a layer of cotton,  on of wool and once the flannel I ordered for my pajama pants project arrives a layer of that.

Sewing

For the wool I only did the front piece that was all I felt was needed. I also did it without seam allowance on the edges since it's meant to be inside the rest. This fabric doesn't fray and be cause of its thickness it's possible to sew it together just edge to edge, which is what I did for the gussets. Doing the seams the normal way would have made it way to bulky.

For the rest I did as one normally do, Cutting out the pieces and stitching it together by hand. I do have a sewing machine but I like doing my sewing sitting on my couch and watching videos. But also this is lots of small fiddly bits which is in many ways easier to do by hand.  

While doing one of the gussets I realizing it looked wrong. After actually looking at the instructions I tried a different way on the next one. The third one I did was the one I liked the look of (I'm working on the outside layer so I want it to look good) so I ripped up and redid the others.

At this point I did have to watch a video to figure out how some things should be done. Like the fold in the back and how the shoulder straps are meant to attach. There weren't any picture in the instruction and I don't understand what the text mean. I also decided that I want some boning in the front so I added the boning channel.

Then the project was put on pause.  I needed some ribbon to bind the edges but the fabric store isn't open on the weekends during the summer. There are probably others stores but not in walking distance. So I have to wait two weeks until my vacation to get the ribbon. Vacation starts and first Monday I'm there. Only to realize they have closed for lunch 14 to 15 which is odd time and right when I there. So I do some other errands first. Maybe I'll take it on the way home. This is starting to feel cursed.

I planned on buying black ribbon for the binding, but picked a dark blue instead, But now it's time to put it all together.

The back edge folds back and is sewn into channels for the boning, this is mostly to give stability for the lacing. I had decided to use leather for boning partially because it's easier to find. So four thin strips for the back boning and one thick as a center front busk. I'm putting the boning as much on the outside as I can. 

Something interesting happened. I have been unhappy with the fit for a while and I have been adjusting the shoulder straps to try an fix it. Some parts were too wide and some to short. Today I put in the eyelets and could for the first time wear it properly laced. All of a sudden the fit is so much better. I even moved the straps back to the original position. 

In the end I attached the straps the easiest way. Edge to edge and then covering the seam with the binding. Not the most elegant way but all the mess is on the inside so it doesn't matter.

Eyelets are put on to the straps and front the and then its done. I did consider not having eyelets on the front and just sew on the ribbon. But I decided I wanted to be able to change ribbon color in the future.

Results 

In hindsight I should probably have watched the videos to see how they did the binding before I started. On the other hand it worked out fine despite doing it completely differently. If I do this again I'll probably just make the straps and back piece into one part and avoid all this.

But it is comfy. More so than several bras I have since underwires sometimes dig in. It is meant to be worn with a shift or tank top underneath and something on top. Trying this it doesn't look too bad. 

Unfortunately the eyelets aren't as smooth as I would have wanted and I can feel them catch on the ribbons when I lace it.

Between the pattern, the eyelets and the ribbon for the binding (I already had the ribbons for the lacing) It was roughly double the price of just buying a bra. But the pattern was a one time purchase. And there is roughly forty eyelets left. So if I ever want to do another the price would be significant lower. I would basically just need the ribbon to bind the edges and that's mostly decorative.  

A review of Ember knight By Hwandaeng

In my late teens I used to watch a lot of anime and read a lot of manga. Then I stopped. There wasn't really any reason for it it but the manga got replaced with fanfiction and anime with other videos.

But one was recommended on Drawfee a youtube channel I follow. The person recommending it was the same that recommended Gideon the Ninth so I'm inclined to trust it. Also you can read it for free on webtoons so why not.

Plot

Nagyunn is weak. Well he's a normal person surrounded by people with anime powers. The kind where someone gets thrown into a stone wall the wall will take most of the damage. His identical twin brother Najin is a prodigy and training to be a knight. Until one day Najin is killed by a group of masked people.

Nagyunn seeking revenge decides to take his brothers place in knight training hoping that once the masked people hears that Najin is still alive they will show themselves. Except he's still weaker than everyone else and can't actually win against them. He solves this by outsmarting them. Predict their movement and creating strategies to win. All while keeping his secrets, and finding out more about this group their tragic backstory and why they targeted Najin (so far all I know is they have a history but it's unclear). 

There's also a war brewing with the eastern continent, mages doing... something and a variety of groups who wants to destroy the knights as an organization. All of various intelligence and with different levels of intricate plans.

My thoughts

This was everything I expected. It has fights, auras of murderous intent, weird weapons (spears, swords, oversize swords, an umbrella and more). There are people wearing bandages for no apparent reason and named fighting moves. It's every manga cliche ever and I can't stop reading. I wan't to to figure out the evermore complex wed of secrets, lies and people trying to outsmart each other. 

As downsides it has a very large cast of characters and several of them are introduced at once. This makes it hard to keep track of who is who and to get any feel for them. Most of the apprentices are a bit of a blur for me. Which is a shame because they clearly aren't meant to be. They all have unique looks, abilities and slowly revealed backstories same as everyone else. I just have a difficult time connecting faces to names.

The bigger problem is that I've now reached the end of the uploaded episodes and will have top wait a whole week for the next.

What I did this summer part 2

Same as the earlier post but this is for the smaller projects I worked on in the last months. I'm taking the time to fix some pieces that didn't end up quire like I had wanted or completing half finished projects. This isn't all I've done just the ones that didn't warrant a post of their own. 

Fixing my trousers 

Some time ago I sewed these breezy summer trousers. I used some nice wooden buttons that I had left over from another project, it looked bohemian. Unfortunately the first time I put them in a washing machine the buttons cracked I assume because of the water. The crack wasn't visible once they dried  but I refuse to have clothes I can't wash and so the buttons need to be changed. I chose some blue plastic ones I had in my jar of buttons (if you are a crafting person you will inevitably end up with various random materials). I then spent an evening sewing them on and expanding the button holes. I like the look slightly less but practicality must take priority. The wooden buttons gets set aside for another project.  

The chair

I've been haunting the local thrift store looking for kitchen chairs for a while now. I got rid of the ones I had before when I moved and have been using folding chairs waiting for one to show up. This has been harder than it sounds like, there is a specific aesthetic I want. Also for some reason most chair-backs end up digging into my spine or shoulder blades after just a few seconds. So during almost half a year I have only found one and that one needed some work. I don't have any before pictures but it was white with slightly peeling paint. The reason it's peeling is that the paint hadn't really stuck to the lacquer beneath. 

I scraped of some of the paint leaving some details white. I plan on getting more chairs and since they will at most look somewhat similar I figure giving them a similar paint job will make them look more cohesive. So the legs and part of the back rest will be with and the seat and the rest of the back will be wooden.

I considered using oil and even bought some but having tried it on a bookshelf I changed my mind. I didn't really like the color want the glossy surface lacquer give. 
Now I've bought a mahogany stain and lacquer I need and it's time to get it done. First sanding of as much of the remaining paint as I could. After an hour and a half and I decide it was done. There is some really diminishing returns to this. 
One question remains will the stain stick to the still lacquered bits? I don't know, but to be one the safe side I'm trying to take as much of it off as I can. The stain does stick to the old lacquer. But I have spent several hours over the last few days to get rid of it. A thing about taking of paint or lacquer is that at almost every point in the process it will look worse than when you started. 

Halfway through staining it I realized that I probably should have done this outside. At least I opened a window. I should also have changed clothes and not worn my only summer dress. 
However I managed not to get any stains on my clothes. I did get some on the white painted bits that I hadn't covered properly. 
I left this to dry and a day later I added a layer of lacquer, this time I did remember to cover the parts that wasn't supposed to get painted before I started, also to open a window before I begun. 
Then sanding some of the uneven spots and a second layer.
Now its just waiting since apparently it takes 10 days to fully harden. Still I was happy with the results.

The stain and lacquer I used were both Herdins, I'm not sure If they can be found outside of Sweden but there are similar stains and lacquers here but I can't vouch for them.

Blue shirt

I originally made this one to test a pattern, then I realized I didn't need two identical shirts so I never made another. The pattern had three-quarter sleeves that I didn't like, wanted bishops sleeves instead. This didn't work they were too short, not by a lot but still, also too tight. The fabric is not elastic at all so the tight cuffs makes it hard to move. Because of this I have barely used it and decided I needed to do Something about it. I'm not sure what yet but seam ripping the cuffs of was a natural first step.
It all made more difficult by the fact that I don't have any more of this fabric. In the end I decided to do it like the pattern had said. Cutting up the cuffs into shorter bands and sewing them back on.

There is a bit of a hack to get pleats even. Put a pin on the seam running down the sleeve, then put another on the opposite side. Divide the part between the pins in two and mark it with another pin. Then keep dividing the distances by two until you have as many pins as the you want pleats. Then take the cuff  and do the same keep dividing in half and marking the centers. It's important that there are the same amount of pins or other marks on both. Then when you attach the pieces simply line up the pins. I used eight so one eight of the sleeve end up on one eighths of the cuff.
Result
The sleeves are good. Though as I said three quarters isn't my preferred length, I get cold easily. That being said I'm still not entirely happy with the shoulders, they are a bit wide. However this is a much bigger fix and setting sleeves is an annoyance and even if I tried I don't know if it would help. So that's for another day. For now hopefully it will see a bit more use I say as if I'm not the one who decides what clothes get used.

Review of A marvellous light by Freya Marske

Only days after I decided to buy less new books I went out and bought this one. The rule would be not buy anything by an author that I haven't read before. Unless I couldn't get it through a library. This decision mostly came after cleaning out my bookshelf and seeing how many bad purchases I have made made.

Anyway less than a week after this decision I brought this one, mostly because it was recommended in the bookstore. But I can't say I regret it, quite the opposite. 

Plot

Turn of the century London and the young baronet Robin Blyth starts his new job in an unknown office of the government. Taking over after his predecessor Reggie Gattling disappeared (he dies in the prologue but they don't know that) he only accepts to help his family's financial situation. At least until he, on the first day meets Edwin Courcey and finds out what the job is actually about. Acting as liaison between the the British government and the magical society in their midst. Edwin being the Liaison for the magical assembly.

But Reggie took his secrets to the grave and his killers aren't giving up. Assuming Robin knows anything about this they curse him to make him find what Reggie had hid. Instead Robin enlists Edwin for help and the two of them leave London for Edwin ancestral home and the magical library there. Leaving Robins work in the hands of his Secretary the excellent Miss Morrissey who unlike Robin actually knows what shes doing.

It doesn't take long for feelings to develop between the outgoing and athletic Robin and the bookish and closed of Edwin. As they working together to break the increasingly painful curse and find out what Reggie had gotten himself involved with it becomes clear that the assailants are not far behind. 

My thought

 I like the characters a lot Edwin hiding in the library using precision and knowledge to make up for his comparative lack of magic. But mostly just hiding to avoid his thoughtlessly mean sister and his deliberately cruel brother. being standoffish and pushing people away to protect himself from hurt. And yes this does cause trouble with his budding relationship with Robin. 

There is a bit of a theme in the book about low-or non magical people in a magical world and how they handle it and the pitying scorn form the rest. How having a non magical person in the family is seen as a source of embarrassment. Even when Reggie is found to be dead his family doesn't seem to care that much. It is also heavily implied that Edwins father did nothing to stop Walter (his brother) from bullying him because Walter had so much more magic.  

There is also Flora Sutton who for being a woman was also denied formal magical education and responded by creating a whole other system of magic in secret. All these and many other characters all responds in different but all very believable ways.

Robin too but as a newcomer is mostly...not indifferent but doesn't see it as a lack in himself. To him its more like a nice parlor trick they can do but feels no need to emulate them. He's generally secure in his identity. Athletic, social and good at being the person others want to see. Something he developed as a response to his narcissistic parents. 

The plot is quite good even if more focus is given to the characters and slowly revealing the magic system. That being said it's not obvious who the antagonists are before they are revealed, expect from a meta perspective there are only so many named characters. Then again they were more focused on solving the curse rather than figure out who put it there. There are magical police in this world and it's assumed that they are solving the murder though we never hear from them. Why they didn't bring the cures to them on the other hand is never clear.

The book takes place at the very beginning of the suffragette movement, and has a number of excellent female characters. Many but not all chafing under the lack of opportunities but doing things anyway. Along with the insistence that women really shouldn't be taught magic. Most of this weight is carried by Robins younger sister Maud who are running a persuasion campaign on Robin to be allowed to go to university. 

That people with little or no magic gets looked down on and yet women supposed to be taught any more than the most basic of magic, does sound like a contradiction. But it's not in a way that feels unbelievable. 

As for Robins and Edwins relationship, it's good they complement each other well and bring some emotional support that they both clearly need. Edwin more than Robin but I feel he made the most character growth in the story. The inevitable end of second act argument is convincing. It stems from something that Edwin actually planned to do and was made worse by their respective insecurities. They also even in the argument doesn't try to hurt one another and does attempt to work through the issues. It doesn't work but an attempt was made. I have realized that as a reader for me to like a book the characters needs to try to solve things, they don't have to succeed but they have to make the effort.

There are sex scenes in the book but only three. They are a bit long for my taste but they had enough character development or exposition woven in that I didn't feel the need to skip them. Also not so spicy that I was uncomfortable reading the book in public.

All told I'm definitely going to read the next in the series even if, from what I understand, Edwin and Robin wont be the main characters. Also I'll probably reread this one someday. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Marvellous on Amazon.

Culture Night in Lund

I'm uncertain if that's the right translation or if there is a specific phrase that's used regardless every year at the end of september Lund, a city close by, has a city wide event showing of art, culture, music and since it's a university town various lectures. 

It's this Saturday and I'm going.

While it might be called night this is not entirely true since the first event starts at 9 in the morning with the majority of things happening in the afternoon. Having checked the program I could conclude that nothing I'm interested in starts before 1. This gives me enough time to bake some bread and do some cleaning also eat lunch at home.  

It's unseasonably warm right now but my apartment has heating issues so it's rather cool which means that I made the decision to wear both a sweater and jacket. This  meant that the brisk walk to the first even left me a bit overheated. But I justify my actions by thinking that I'll need it later in the evening.

As I said I had checked the program in advance and had everything planned out. At the first place (the Pufendorf Institute) I saw two lectures, they had a theme of food and sustainability. I should say, all the lectures I watched were about 20-30 minutes I realize there are a few of them.

The first was about using liquid carbon-dioxide as a green solvent for oil extraction in the food industry. With the aim to replace hexane. 

The second one was about Using yeast and plants to control pests in crops. Rather using yeast or genetically engineered plants to produce pheromones more cheaply than creating them artificially. Then using the Pheromones to disrupt the insects mating.  This also included and explanation of how the moths make their pheromones in the first place.

The next lecture here was about food that makes your teeth whiter but as is usual at this types of events  there are many things happening at the same time and there were a lecture about ancient Greek robots that sounded more interesting. So I headed of to the Lux building (this is one the main humanities building at the university). 

Here I had a bit of a time gap so I took the time to get a soda hoping the caffeine would help my headache. By the way did you know Pepsi has artificial sweeteners in their cola. And I'm not talking about the sugar-free version it had both sugar and sweetener. I'm fine with the sugar but I don't like the taser of sweeteners hence why I don't buy sugar free things. This makes me feel distinctly cheated. 

Anyway here I did run into my aunt that were here for a different lecture. 

The robots (technically the title for the lecture was AI in the ancient Greece and Rome) were mostly in Homers Iliad and Odyssey. Basically the gods doesn't have slaves but also can't be doing manual labor so there are just automatic things like doors and ships. Homer liked things doing thing by themselves. unlike Virgil who doesn't have any.  

The next lecture here was Space archaeology. Using different methods to see how the landscape has changed in the last couple of thousand years. How sedimentation can cause a harbor to now be miles inland or below the water.

At this point I meet up with my family they had made the decision to not come here until three. As I suspected this upset my carefully constructed schedule. They being of the, we'll go somewhere and see whats there strategy. In previous years this has resulted in many hours of aimless wandering.

They wanted to go to the Astronomy house to listen to the science lectures there. I just need to point out how badly they had handled their ques. Mainly how the ques for looking at the sun through a special telescope filled the access ramp and covered the door. The lecture here was about dendrochronology (measuring time through tree-rings). Also all the things one can learn not just about the climate but also things like frequency of forest fires. It can also be used for dating buildings, paintings or other wooden things. 

The last lecture I wanted to see was unfortunately canceled which I didn't find out until we had gotten there, but I also had seen quite a few by then so it wasn't a huge loss. I feel I should say, there are a lot of other things to do and see not just lectures but that was what I chose to do.

At this point my plan was to go to a cafe and eat dinner while listening to stand up comedy. But when we got there it was full so we had dinner from a food truck instead. The things I ate were quite underwhelming it was filling but terribly bland with no spices or even salt but a very hot sauce. The sauce didn't really make up for it since it was hot but didn't really have much taste.  As is usual there were no seating so we ended up sitting on some steps to eat.

A few short stops. There was someone teaching about coffee but it turned out to be mostly selling their brand. I asked them about which coffee is the least bitter but didn't get any good answer(they claimed coffee shouldn't be bitter) and their coffee when I tried it was very sour so not an improvement. 

A quick look through a bookshop buying the poetic Edda not the thing I was looking for but something I have been meaning to read. 

Then home. It's nice that I now almost never need to wait for a train. I did unfortunately forget to take any pictures. So this post is looking a bit dull. And no even as I was walking home it was warm enough that I didn't really need my jacket. I had been carrying it around all day for nothing.

What I did this summer part 1

This is a collection of various things I've done lately, Smaller things that don't warrant an post by them self but that I still wanted to share.

29 June

This day I went to a concert in the park. A free concert organized by the city. I'd seen about it while looking up whats happening at work. I'd written down time and location Willow pond park but not what or listened to how they sounded. 
I honestly didn't really feel like it. I'm introvert and I'd had a lot of things happening that week between  work, and celebrating my sisters birthday the day before. Visiting my parents to cut their lawn meeting a friend. All in all I'd had a lot of social interaction and at this time I mostly wanted to lay on my couch and watch Youtube with some tea and cinnamon rolls. But I can do that every day so I decided to go anyway. After all if I didn't like it I could just go home. 
I did take the time to fill a thermos with cranberry juice and ice to bring and doing some more involved makeup trying out my eye-shadow. I then ended up wearing sunglasses the whole time so the effort was completely wasted. 

I arrived there late partially because google said it would take 10 minutes, I had assumed 15 and it took 20, but also because I had to stop and check where I was going. I got slightly lost on the way but on the plus side I found a place where you can pump your bike so that's good.
I have been to this park and this stage before but had apparently forgotten what it looked like. I thought it would be basically unlimited space, forgetting it is an amphitheater. Between that and getting there late all of the seats were taken and I got to sit on the slope to the side and slightly behind the scene. Also looking almost directly into the sun.

There I found out that it was Ida Nielsen & the funkbots.
Apparently funk is that one melody in Seinfeld but in this case as a full song with lyrics and also better. Unfortunately all their songs sounded like that plus or minus some freestyle rap. The songs were all good but very samey. So 45 minutes I left. 
As a bonus since the event had started at 19.00 by the time I got home there were still plenty of time for tea and cinnamon rolls before bed.
This is why I wanted to live in the city. Travel adds an hour to everything and I probably wouldn't have gone if that was the case but with the barrier to entry so low I did.

13 July

For my birthday last year I got among other things a gift certificate for a Sherlock Holmes themed escape room. And now that people have time me and my sisters went. The place also has a cocktail bar again Sherlock themed, the menu looked like an old newspaper and some of the drinks were named after characters. It was very nice and a place I might go to just for drinks. Or to try one of their other games.

As a feature you could take drinks with you into the rooms and on the way there we made fun of it. Why would anyone think alcohol would help with puzzle solving. Jokes on us as we all got drinks. It was a nice drink though. 

The game was meant to be 45 - 60 minutes. We did it in 30. Proving what we all knew. We only needed a hint on one part though even after we couldn't figure out what the system had been. The hints and exposition was all prerecorded conversation between Holmes and Watson. All in all a fun time.

3 August

Nothing much happened. I took a walk in the park because it was nice weather and I needed inspiration for an up coming project. My plan was to draw pictures of different landscapes scenes. But I ended up only drawing two and taking pictures with my phone for the rest. It's hard to draw while standing and holding everything.

10 August

I haven't done much so far, mostly I've just been working. But yesterday was my last day of work and will be for a long time. I took a bit of an easy first day. I finished writing a post, started reading a new book, then lunch, some cleaning and I'm off. There's a festival in the city this week and I'm going down to see a thing about green cities. On the way taking a picture of the book I'd just finished. I'm hoping that if I take pictures of the books I've read rather than copying the cover I can trick the google algorithm into liking me. Update the algorithm still hates me but I like the pictures so I'll continue with it. There was some music on the way so I stopped to listen to some thing called Rydm crew. It was sort of advertisement for a longer gig they were playing later that day. unfortunately it was at the sale time as another thing.

The green city's thing was a disappointment, it was literally just a container with information on placards and some trees in flowerpots. Wandering around aimlessly I walked by the main stage. They were preparing for the next event which was an opera. I went in search of my other goal for the day ice cream. My plan for this day had been to make a mojito but my mint had Aphids so that idea got scrapped and ice cream seemed like a good substitute. I found some lemon sorbet and pistachio ice cream that was quite delicious and sat on a fountain eating it listening to the ungodly noise that is an orchestra warming up.

This went on for about an hour while the audience grew. But finally it started. The opera was an abridged version of Giuseppe Verdis opera Giovanna D'arco. It became more interesting once I realized that they provided subtitles on a screen.
It was enjoyable until halfway through when it started to rain and half the audience left along with the musicians who scrambled to protect their instruments. At which point I went home. Because I was starting to get hungry and was not dressed for any cold.

For the rest of this week I have been down there most days. I didn't listen to any music because most that seemed interesting was too late. On the other hand I listened to some of the actual green cities lectures that was interesting. 

22 August

I found a fossilized coral in a pile of dirt and stone. Sometimes the thought just strikes you that you have become like your parent. I didn't set out to looking for it either. I was on my way to a larger thrift store, where I wanted to look for kitchen chairs (there wasn't any) I found some blackberries. On the way back I picked some and looking for some more I found a  parking lot. At least it was a place where people had parked their cars it did not look in any way official and was tucked next to a train track. There wasn't any more black berries but glancing at a dirt pile probably left over from some construction that I passed I found two coral pieces. They now live in my bookshelf. 

24 August

I've decided there is a limit to how much time I should spend inside. So far I have used most of my vacation for errands and proofreading my next book. Hoping to remedy my shut in ways I took a trip to the park partially to take pictures of some books.

There I found some berries and considered picking them but apparently the seeds are poisonous so I decided against it they did look tasty though.

This it the closest park to where I live and is next door to the gym I used to visit. Despite this I have never been here before. Its a very functional park. There is a pool for kids, place for dogs, an outdoor gym, a playground. With neither kids nor dogs less useful for me and the rest is mostly a lawn with trees along the edges. I still stayed for a while enjoying the late summer warmth and reading. On the way back I found a hidden path which was nice except for the dead rat. 

And that's all. then September arrived and although it was nearly 30 degrees several days i do not count it as summer. But stay tuned for the projects I did.