rodo's journal

In the past couple of months, that is.

► Looking for a job. In this economy. Well, it’s going about as well as you’d expect.

► Keeping busy with the garden, ever since temperatures rose above freezing at night. The garden has been very neglected these past few years and since my mother is still out of commission, I’m doing the work of two people. But, the veranda is ready for summer and we’re on track with the vegetable garden for the year, unlike last year. If only this drought would stop…

► I’ve been replaying Skyrim for the first time in a decade. I do not remember it taking this long to get through – but then again, I manage maybe two hours a day, between the garden, cooking, running errands, etc. Sometimes, adulting sucks. But, I’ve built a house, adopted two children, and done a lot of quests that have zero to do with the main one, as usual. Finally managed to become arch mage and burned down too many beehives.

► Not sure what to make of the NaNoWriMo news. I didn’t participate last year because, well, everything happening in November for me, but I wasn’t sure I ever would again, after all the scandals. Right now I’m really wishing someone would make an International Writing Month with black jack and hookers. I miss the community aspect of it, even though that’s been suffering for ages, at least from my POV. People on Reddit mentioned that some people are working on replacements, but we’ll see what sticks. So far, none of them seem to be my thing. Maybe Rough Draft Month…

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted a lot lately. One reason for that is, as I mentioned, my recent obsession with dramas. Another reason is far more difficult for me to write about, since I lack all the vocabulary. Which is odd, really. My English is very good by now, but in some areas, I just don’t know how to express myself. Two of them being cooking/baking and gardening.

So while I spent a lot of time outside, I thought about what kind of flowers I would pick as a child, how vicious some weeds are, when which herbs were to be planted, which flowers to pick and so on and so forth. Oddly enough, I found out I already know most of the words – I might even feel confident in using them in fiction or a poem – I just had no idea what the thing behind the word is supposed to look like. I knew that lady’s smock is a wildflower with small blossoms of a pale violet, but I didn’t know that I used to pick them and arrange them with buttercups (which I am not supposed to call that, since this particular flower is only called that in the southern parts of Germany, according to wiki). I knew parsley was a common kitchen herb, but I didn’t know it referred to Petersilie. In a way, I think my knowledge of these words was as theoretical as the knowledge a blind person has of some visual terms.

( So this post means I’m working on my vocabulary, mostly. )

My next project is going to be the old herb garden, which is … well, there is no ivy and an immense redcurrant bush (my fault, too) instead of holly, which means it should be easier, right?