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It feels like snow.

Just got back from picking up my bike from its servicing. Cycling down the hill toward the river and then along the riverside and through Stourbridge common, letting the cold air and the scent of autumn rush over me, stilling my thoughts and washing jumbled thoughts and Latour and French philosophy out of the crevasses of my mind. Solitude, freedom, just me and my lovely blue bicycle working in harmony. A few minutes of perfect happiness, in the nearly-winter twilight.

Of course it was disturbed by being thrown off my bike by the stupid cow gate, but it was nice while it lasted.

While the idea of a month in NZ is lovely, I'm afraid it's realistically going to be too expensive (unless I stayed in a hostel, and I can't do that, I'll go insane). New idea: the bodily technique and meaning of corset-wearing. I can do that in the UK, and I can have a huge amount of fun at any Voller's seller for a tenth the cost of a month in Auckland. So, it's early days yet, but how many of you would be willing to talk to me sometime in March about a) goth shopping or b) the wearing of a corset or c) the observation of the corset-wearing of others? If you don't want to volunteer in public please email or PM me.

I'm pleased to report that at least some of the missing maple syrup from the Great Maple Syrup Heist has been recovered! Our pancakes can breathe easier now, knowing that Canada's strategic reserves will be refilled.

Yes! My first real veg box challenge. What would you do with two kohlrabi?

I'm spending today and tomorrow going through books and getting rid of some of them. Is anyone in Cambridge or Londonish looking for something new to read? I've already got some cookbooks and a handful of others, and there will likely be more as I finish sorting through. I suspect some fiction, cs and maths.

Today I have:
- Helped pack some boxes
- Vacuumed a lot
- Went shopping
- Received a new sofa
- and made several preserves (I got damson jam in the jars, and have the mixture for two different kinds of mincemeat)

And now, once more into the breech! For I still have a kilo of damsons (tiny, annoying damsons) and so am going to make some jelly with them, as soon as I wash my preserving pan.

So, I'm overtaken by a momentary burst of madness, wherein I have a great desire to learn to spin, weave, and dye fabric so that I can have the most handmadest apron dress ever. (Weaving is something I've actually got prior experience with, it's annoying to set up a loom but it's not hard.) Anyway, I'm basically wondering how much trouble it would be to spin enough wool to weave perhaps 40 feet of wool fabric on a rigid heddle loom (usually they're 20 inches wide, I figure I need five panels around at that width for a gored dress, but will work out the details later, plus some for a cloaks). Thoughts? Ideas?

(Mind, I'm on on particular schedule for this project, since I'm not making it for anything, but basically just because.)

So, what are your thoughts on the Worldcon Orlando bid?

Any photoshop wizards feel like doing me a favour? Or gimp. Or coloured pencils, I don't really care. I need some backgrounds turned transparent in back of singular, well-defined foreground objects - original images are CC share-alike or public domain. This is one of those things that if you know how to do it it's simple but if you don't (like me) it's going to take forever. Am willing to throw a small amount of money at the problem if necessary. and I will <3 you forever.

I somehow bought a small stuffed hedgehog at Trelleborg. Using my usual inventiveness for stuffed animal names, I've named it "Hedgehog". (Though maybe I"ll change it to "Pindsvin", since it is a Danish stuffed hedgehog after all.)