– bread! at last, proper sourdough bread with only wild yeast. i’ve done a couple half rye, half wheat loaves that turned out beautiful! <3

– cutting my index finger and nail while chopping a slice of said bread. :( when your job is 90% conveying words and instructions via a keyboard, this is most inconvenient. my other fingers have tried to make do, rearranging themselves haphazardly around the keys, stretching into unmapped paths. it’s slow going, but getting better.

– landed a 2-months free trial of skillshare, and i’ve been checking out random stuff. mike lowery’s sketchbook class was quite fun, and prompted me to draw silly stuff this week.

– still thinking about how these forced periods of staying put have given us the chance to recalibrate some things, not just opportunities to explore and improve stuff within our own homes, but also within ourselves. i’m looking forward to traveling again like everyone else, but i’m also starting to see travel in a different light lately. i read this bit on craig mod’s newsletter and it made sense:

Travel is an astounding gift. When “done well,” (slowly, thoughtfully, with respect for the local culture, in ways that minimally disrupt, that add to the richness of the place you’re visiting, that are cognizant of your own impact as a “foreign body” on the landscape) it becomes a cornerstone of building empathy and personal growth. My hope is we keep this a little more front-of-mind going forward. That getting on a plane, “teleporting” across the world is remembered for what it is: A freggin’ miraculous dance between politics, science, infrastructure, and human ingenuity.

And, similarly, that we remember to give time and attention to the “boring” commutes and “dumb” adventures to be had in our backyards. Of which, of course, exist enough to fill a curious lifetime.

– this blog turned 17, whoa!

– fuchsia dunlop gave a talk about gong bao chicken, telling the story of the dish and its permutations in different provinces, and i’ve been thinking about it for a few days. the next time we visit asia, i want to do a better job of learning about dishes and trying new things — there’s so much to discover!

– the daffodils are popping off the ground and blooming! been spending a bit more time in the garden lately, just 15mins or so per day, weeding and pruning, getting some vitamin D and getting stuff ready for planting. it’s unlikely we’ll go anywhere before the end of the year, so maybe it’s time to grow stuff again.

– the boy turned 40, and we spent the day stuffing ourselves with nice food, birdwatching and solving a murder mystery.

– looking back at miguel araújo’s 2020 new year’s concert in porto, and being almost hypnotized by the crowds and by the energy of it all, wondering when scenes like this will be possible again.

– we finished watching good omens, and i enjoyed it a lot. the story is nice, but the 2 main characters make the show.