swear i can hear every heartbeat in this place

Yesterday's all-day singing was woefully underattended—literally half the people who could have shown up were not available, for perfectly respectable reasons—but we did some really good work on our new song and sounded surprisingly good for such a small group. Usually, the fewer singers, the more bitty the sound. Perhaps the more 'individual' voices were those who couldn't make it. But we had our usual good time and a nice chat with a new nearly-member, who seems likely to fit in very well.

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Poor Beast was among those who could not be there. He's still getting positive Covid tests, and has been busying himself looking up advice on how long one must isolate. Which, naturally, varies from five days to ten. How helpful.

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We ate half (!) the summer pudding today, with some Oatly cream, and it was very good indeed! Just raspberries and blackberries—well, I say 'just', it's hard to see how adding anything else could make it *better*—and nice white sourdough bread, and a little sugar. And there is more for tomorrow! And the brambles are groaning with blackberries, just as the apple trees are heavy with fruit. And the 'cerryplum' turlough identified is producing much fruit which is ripening nicely, though may require ladder access. I may not be able to keep up.... sadly, I don't think the sweetcorn is going to come to anything. There are three and a bit stalks remaining, one having been snapped off by a squirrorist (I suspect). Better luck next year.

Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?

My grandma grew raspberries. She had a lovely square patch of canes, and I often helped pick them, which was a great way to sneak extra raspberries into my mouth instead of into the bowl. Delicious berries. And they remind me of my grandma, which is never bad.

FIL also grew raspberries. Back when he had two allotments (!!) and a respectable back garden, he used to make raspberry jam, which was *excellent*. However, he also used to freeze raspberries with so much added sugar that they tasted more like sugar than raspberries, which was a practically criminal waste.

I have my first serious raspberry harvest this year! Picked a good bowlful on Sunday morning, and my Boy came round for lunch and interview prep. We had a generous portion each (fresh raspberries! from my garden!) and there was still enough for me to enhance my breakfast for a couple of days afterwards.

There are more on the canes. \o/


Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes.

Hmm. I spent two hours yesterday drawing people, in the final class. Copying a photo is so much easier than drawing from life! We spent half an hour on the photo (an elegant Black woman in profile), then drew one another for five-ten minutes using pencils, graphite sticks, charcoal and oil pastels, then one final 'portrait' in whatever medium we chose. It was actually easier to do the 5-minute ones, because there was no expectation that we'd do it well....

All this to say, I'm out of drawing today.

As far as summery food goes, I guess I eat more salad in the summer and more soup in the winter, but salad merely involves cutting/tearing and throwing into a bowl a selection from: lettuce and similar, from a head or a mixed bag or both, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, spring onions, feta cheese, salted cashews, sprouting beans, mushrooms, anything else I have that seems reasonable.

I am, however, inspired to create a Summer Pudding. Nigella has a recipe here https://www.nigella.com/recipes/summer-pudding but all you really need to know is: pudding basin, slightly stale white bread, mixture of berries, sugar. Line the basin with the bread, fill the centre with lightly heated berries and sugar, saving some of the delicious juice to coat all the bread. Cover the top with more bread, and juice that, then put a weight on top and leave it in the fridge overnight. Serve slices with double cream.

Eton Mess is good, too, with the additional benefit of not mattering what it looks like.

Icon is Pedro Pascal because he is also delicious.