But She's A Girl

New post: Productivity rethink

In which I discuss a change in my tools and workflow, prompted by a trial of Sunsama, and the release of OmniFocus 4.

I’m really loving this book. So many bits of wry humour.

Finished reading: The Puppet Show by M. W. Craven 📚I wasn’t sure if this was going to be too gruesome for me. Thankfully, those parts were not too frequent, and the excellent characters and pacy plot made it very enjoyable.

Today’s sewing music is Han’s Zimmer’s soundtrack to Interstellar. Grading seams has never felt so epic!

New post: Christmas Crafting

In which I talk about my sewing and knitting activity over Christmas.

Apparently I’ve adopted yet another hobby (English paper piecing), simply in order to use the offcuts and ‘waste’ from one of my other hobbies (garment sewing).

Finished reading: Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose 📚 This was quite a fun, Regency-set romp.

Finished reading: Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear 📚

New post: TOTEM keyboard number two or three

They breed like rabbits!

Nice colour sky this evening.

If it is winter where you are, can I recommend spending just over 12 minutes in Panama, looking at the Cornell Lab Bird Cam compilation from their feeder in Panama? So many beautiful bird species!

New post: Review of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

My review of Katherine Rundell’s wonderful biography of the Elizabethan poet.

Finished reading: The Book of Why by Judea Pearl 📚

Finished reading: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers 📚Absolutely loved the first of this new series of optimistic sci-fi by Becky Chambers. I’m invested in the characters and can’t wait to read more.

Wow. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction outside of work, and even less biography, but this book was an amazing ride. I plan to write about it in more depth, but I need to let it settle in for a while.

Finished reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 📚A gentle and humane time-travelling yarn.

Fingerless mitten knitting progress: not too shabby, though I have anxiety about tackling the thumb when I get to that point. The ribbed bits sweep across the hand and form the thumb gusset and thumb, while the hand will be formed from the plain stockinette section.

New post: Reading with Kobo

In which I rave about my new Kobo e-reader, and the joys of Libby.

Currently reading: The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey 📚 A Medieval detective story of sorts, this is rich in convincing period detail. I loved this and felt for the impossible position of the protagonist, the village priest.

Finished reading: The This by Adam Roberts. I found the start of this book intensely irritating (I think it is supposed to be), and nearly abandoned it. Glad I persisted though. It gets compelling and even rather moving by the end. 📚

Well. I have just finished amalgamating my many book wishlists into the app Book Track, and it seems I have a total of 78 books on my wish list 😨 Better get reading…

Finished reading: Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes 📚 Fresh view from the perspective of the mythical ‘monsters’, with some great touches of humour, but also great empathy and pathos.

New post: Friendly streets

In which I think about what makes for a friendly and liveable street.

Hearing “In the Meantime” by Spacehog in the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 reminded me (again) what a perfect song “Telephone and Rubber Band” by The Penguin Cafe Orchestra is. The Spacehog track has a sample of the PCO track, but the original is so much better in its quiet simplicity.