#they did pick up a lot of hobbies during lockdown tho

[quinnhayden]

long time listener first time caller but I would love to hear how the trio handled COVID after living through the outcome of the last pandemic in the 20s.

The Spanish Flu hit hard in 1918 and 1919. It lingered a little bit in 1920, but my research says it wasn't much of an impact. So, Bucky was born in March 1917, Steve in July 1918, and Quinn in November 1920. (I did find out that there was a serious problem with pregnant women catching this Influenza variant and their children were born with a lot of health issues so who has a new headcanon that Sarah Rogers was a survivor of the flu!)

With that said, the trio's parents all remember. This was around the time that Quinn's pa, Benny, was just getting to Kentucky and he remembers the chaos. Gravediggers were getting sick and dying so fast that the military had to bury bodies. Cars and horse-drawn carts were just heaped with bodies. That's only in Kentucky. There's no imagining what New York was like during this time.

That said, you best believe that Quinn (a doctor) and Steve (a chronically ill man who lived during a time when people were hot for eugenics) were put under house arrest by Bucky because they wanted to have "words" with anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers.

[cherrymoonxx]

I didn't experience flooding in my streets but a few streets ahead did. Enjoy your healing time away from the hustle and bustle 🧘‍♀️ Are there any TV shows you're currently watching? Or any favorites? I've always been trying to get back to working out but I've been lazy too 🥲 it's difficult to stay consistent. I plan to get back into yoga and did a few asanas yesterday. After that I felt so much at peace. Hopefully I can remain consistent lol. Crochet is such a cool hobby! What got you interested in it?

I’m glad you didn’t experience any flooding! And thank you! I definitely am enjoying this time away💖

I’ve been watching a lot of kdramas lately. Right now I’m watching “Hotel De Luna,” which is pretty good so far. I also finished watching another show called “The Great,” which was also good (not a kdrama tho). On and off I’ve been watching “Sex and the City,” and “One Piece,” but I’m closer to finishing Sex and the city than I am to one piece 😅 I also need to catch up on some animes but I’ve been slacking off lol. Are there any shows you’ve been watching lately?

And omg yes! It can be soo difficult to stay consistent when working out😭 it’s good that you’re getting back into yoga! I should really get into it as well!

I started getting into crochet during lockdown because I was looking for a new hobby, but I haven’t been investing as much time into it as I would like. I’m definitely gonna pick it back up tho! It’s super relaxing and it’s fun too!

[pumpumdemsugah]

how did you end up knowing how to talk to people after/during uni? i had friends in high school but came out and got depression in uni, lost all my friends and with the last few years being online, it was easier than ever to isolate. ive done therapy and i can keep up a short convo(im funny and usually that leads to people wanting to hang out more but that’s where i blank)but really connecting and keeping the friendship up scares me. i think i also prefer my own company after so many years having to amuse myself lol

I think there's a difference between preferring your own company and making excuses for being in an undesirable situation and in your own words, being " scared". Don't let isolation lie to you. You've said people like you, so you just need to practice picking up when someone is open to hanging out and practice how to ask to hang out

If someone wants to hang out, organise something lol. Suggest you watch a movie they mentioned, go eat food you talked about in that convo. It's not magic you just have to ask to do things in context ( doing a painting class suggests gallery hopping ) or convo relevant.

I taught myself how to stop being shy during secondary school and sixth form so around uni I was good at talking to people. It's lots of little baby steps, practice and taking every small opportunity to practice convos and getting comfortable with things I was bad at. I mostly realised I liked talking to people and figured out what a fun convo meant for me and others . I had to figure it out without any of the resources available now by trial and error. Have no shame looking shit up. There's decent advice on YouTube about making friends, how to ask people to hang out. If you find you suck at talking about something, practice a loose script of good open questions, answers or topics etc, until it comes natural and feels obvious. The secret weapon is practice and learning to manage discomfort

Meetup.com is your friend. People make friends in structured areas or activities, and adulthood is mostly about YOU making that structure through attending groups, workshops, getting a hobby instead of school and uni providing that

I was lucky I made a couple friends in uni ( even tho they didn't go to uni with me ) but every additional friend I've made besides them I've met them cause I went to some group and was like, hey give me your number and let's go ' X thing we talked about during our convo '

This is funny cause I was saying to my friend what if covid lockdown has made me weird at talking to people again and people will think " wow wtf is wrong with her??" but I don't have anxiety about that because being out of practice and not knowing how is different. Everyone has sort of been a little isolated so I think people are probably more open to people being weird and uncomfortable

Really it's just practice. Communication and socialising is a skill, some are naturals but everyone can improve

[mieczyhale]

a messy explanation of things and unnecessary information about life lately

soooo... right. i’m sorry i haven’t really been around aside from popping in here and there, and that i’ve been taking longer than usual to reply to things / not replying to things at all. it’s NOT that i’m upset with anyone or trying to ignore / avoid anyone, and it’s not that i don’t care / don’t love talking to you (whomstever you may be) i love chatting with y’all and wish i could get myself to reply to things quicker but i do not control the me lmfao honestly my sleep has never had a schedule but in recent weeks it’s kinda been operating like there’s a lil gremlin in my head who spins a wheel and picks my sleeping times at random - and it’s either like.. two hours or most of a day. there hasn’t been a lot of in between so that’s a thing!!

also in a fun added mix of maybe sleep?, missing meds, being stuck in the house more often than not, and the FUCKING EVERYTHING happening in the world right now my mental health is... probably run by the same goblin that runs my sleep schedule lmao consistency whomst?? since the lockdown started the depression has of course been around more but actually, worse than that, is how my anxiety - and by extension: my ocd - have really amped up and i need y’all to know that the struggle is painfully real (and another thing that affects shit like my replies and writing. reading as well. fics have been kinda stressful and that should be illegal. who authorized this?) i don’t hate talking about it but i don’t really like it either?? especially like.. in depth. but i will say there has been crying, screaming, pain!, and i’ve acquired a few physical injuries.

so

yeah

on a personal level - a ‘just me’ level - shit is an even bigger mess than usual lmao but all these things will get better eventually - they always do. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NOW

ON A PERSONAL LEVEL - THE FULL LEVEL - THINGS.... are pretty great actually! i mean aside from the state of my fucking house e__e but Josh has been working from home for two (2) months now and it’s been really nice - people complaining about their partners being home?? can’t relate. yknow what?? i just might love that tall bastard even more from all this.fuck all y’all miserable fucks

we’ve been going out for drives and we’ve gone fishing and the only place i’ve gone too that’s re-opened is goodwill. because i require.. the shop. they do have a masks required rule! (at least at the one here) and, alongside that, the places we’ve gone that never closed (like grocery stores and the gas station and the hardware store) have social distancing rules and stuff in place which i love. can we keep social distancing after this is all over?? more things here in wisconsin are opening up and we might go to some. idk though. we also might not. either way its still a weird kind of exciting to see things opening back up?? even though i do think we’re not totally in the clear because most of our gov. sucks (our mayor tried to extend our stay-at-home order - keyword there is TRIED. we are the land of cheese, cows, and no fucking braincells for anyone) 

having pets is obviously not a new thing for me but it’s still a thing. so it takes time and effort and energy and patience and love and a certain disregard for your own safety (claws. they really be as sharp as you think) so... it can be stressful, especially cuz we’ve had to keep them inside more as it gets hot out and something keeps breaking our porch screens (our cats are allowed onto our screened in porch or they can go out in a harness but we will never let them run free outside. fuck that noise)  my bbies are all so cute and their personalities and idiosyncrasies are just... *chefs kiss* i love em and they’re definitely a part of what has made quarantine better

i’ve seen my mom a few times, like for my birthday and when she needed help moving Isaiah from one dorm to another and such, but that’s primarily been an option because she has become anti-mask and anti-stay-at-home-order. initially she wasn’t - she gave Isaiah and i fun lil masks since at that time trying to buy them would be impossible and she thought nothing of staying home - but i guess either as its dragged on or as she’s consumed her middle-right wing news that changed s o. she does take social distancing in public very seriously though, so at least there’s that. our favorite coffee shop, where we - pre-lockdown - always went one (1) or two (2) times a week to do art for hours re-opens on monday and that’s one of the few things i’ve truly missed.

josh’s camping trip for this weekend with his friends had to be cancelled because the parks weren’t going to open in time. so today they’re going somewhere to do at least some of the things they would have done if they had gone camping. bikes, bonfires, and cigars. i’m kinda jealous negl but he was really excited about it so mostly i’m happy

trying to figure out how human services was running things during lockdown was rough but thankfully it didn’t take much to get it sorted. mostly because my mom made the phone call i was supposed to lol (the phone anxiety is on its own level) so wednesday afternoon my mom sat with me while i had the appointment with my psychiatrist over speakerphone (which was.. an experience)

ummm.....

OH YEAH! Probably absolutely my favorite thing that’s happened is: WE’RE STARTING THE SEARCH FOR A NEW HOUSE!!!! it doesn’t mean we’re gonna be moving soon or anything, we don’t want to make the same mistake twice (buying the first house you tour that you love) because while it is a great house ultimately it is way too small for us. i mean there’s me and josh, all six cats, and ALL OUR SHIT. listen: i have an entire room dedicated to my various hobbies. and a walk in closet that isn’t big enough. and we both have collections we love and want to display (right now upstairs its hello kitty and downstairs its astronomy and the titanic. and then there’s pop figures, mtg, collectibles, our bottle collection and various knickknacks, etc.) plus all our books! then furniture and cat furniture (i.e towers) and all their shit because they are spoiled babies. and god forbid we ever have a human kid?? yeah. it’s just not big enough. 

so we’re gonna take more time with this choice but what we do know is:: we wanna live out in the country (i’m paranoid and don’t like to be looked at and he loves the outdoors, lived on a farm for awhile. i also enjoy the outdoors but mostly since we moved into this house i’ve struggled with doing anything outside... while we only have one neighbor on our road. but there’s one across the road and one at the other side of our backyard and that’s just too much lol) 

lets see.. um.... my birthday was may 2nd and that was pretty nice, for a pandemic birthday. there’s been a lot of stuff happening involving josh’s family but that’s not something i really wanna get into on here, tho i will say things have been better in recent weeks and it’s been... really nice. josh and i went to his mom’s house the other night and got drunk with her for fun and i actually had a really good time?? and didn’t complain about going?? that’s kinda unheard of.

i don’t have a job anymore - haven’t since early march-ish - and it kinda sucks but also the universe really did me a solid because my choices were either allow myself to work until i have a mental break again or quit. and i was leaning towards quitting (things had been going down hill with the owner and other employees and just the business as a whole for awhile and there’s a limit to the amount of bullshit i can take thanks) but now it doesn’t seem i have to. why do i think i’m jobless? i was barely working anyway, bc of the snow business was slow, and in march i got really sick and stayed home for a week. the day i was supposed to go back i was still sick, and covid19 was starting to become more of a serious situation everywhere, so josh called in for me and explained that between still being sick and my anxiety over covid (asthma + a not so great immune system) i wasn’t going in that day. i never heard from them again. so. 

but it’s all good - there are some options but i’m not looking into them seriously until it’s safe to.

SO

THAT’S ALL OF FUCKING THAT ON THAT

i felt it wouldn’t be a bad idea to come on here and explain A. what’s been going on and B. where i’ve been and C. that if i haven’t responded to you or acknowledged something you sent me / tagged me in it’s literally just because i either forgot to (for all reasons and none) or i don’t have the mental space / energy to. but that doesn’t mean you have to stop talking to me! even if i don’t respond or respond immediately i do read everything and i would die for any one of you fuckers (especially my clowns and the tom hardy movie) 

oh! and just btw - sometimes i don’t get notifications (quelle surprise) tumblr and skype should really pair up and talk about their truly great systems that function so well /s 8| ANYWAY: the best and most reliable ways to get my attention are twitter ( @/mieczyhale) and discord (same name) because i have yet to see their notifications fail. ahem.

i feel like i’m missing things / forgetting things but honestly this post is long enough and also enough of a rambley mess that i’m just gonna try and ignore that feeling and carry on with my goddamn day so i might actually accomplish something. sorry if there’s spelling off or missing words. i’m not taking the time to re-read this and might even delete it bc it’s already giving me anxiety bUT WE’LL SEE ALRIGHT HI AND BYE I LOVE YOU GUYS <3

[neuronspaghetti]

Quarantine Questioning

Thanks @inspiralynotes for tagging me!

1. Are you staying home from work/school?

Uni has closed in the lockdown, so I have no choice! It’ll probably be shut for the rest of the academic year, ‘til September, so guess this is my life now. Still have loads of work to do tho lol

2. If you’re staying home, who’s there with you?

I moved into my boyfriend’s place for lockdown which is pretty nice :3

3. Do you have pets to keep you company?

Only my 12 plant babies

4. Who do you miss the most?

My uni friends! Zoom just isn’t enough.

5. When was the last time you left your home?

Yesterday, for my Government Mandated Single Form of Exercise

6. What was the last thing you bought?

Some special release pins from Ukiyo-e Heroes. They’re coming from the USA though so no idea when I’ll actually get them!

7. Is quarantine driving you insane or are you finally relaxed?

The past month has been Easter break so it’s not made a lot of difference? I’m meant to be back at uni now though, so I’m starting to feel sad about all the things I’m missing out on!!

8. Are you a homebody? 

Sometimes I think if I had a big enough house and garden I’d probably rarely leave, and sometimes I just want to travel forever. 

9. What movies have you watched recently? 

I finally watched Kiki’s Delivery Service the other night which was super cute. Before that, Parasite I think? I’m pretty terrible about watching films tbh

10. An event that you were looking forward to that got cancelled?

Our college summer ball!

11. What’s the worst thing that you’ve had to cancel?

A month long trip around Australia this summer which I’ve been planning for a year😭

12. What’s the best thing you’ve had to cancel?

E X A M S (though I didn’t cancel them the uni did and they’re not cancelled just postponed but still)

13. Do you have any new hobbies? 

Sort of, more revisiting and reviving some old ones though? I started taking 1:1 skype lessons in Wing Chun (I used to study Hung Ga), and have picked the acoustic guitar back up after a verrrryyy long hiatus.

14. What are you out of? 

Cereal. 

15. What music are you listening to? 

My playlists at the moment are mostly lo-fi hip-hop, metal, or K-pop??

15. What shows are you watching? 

I’ve been rewatching The Good Place ‘cause my bf hasn’t seen it (disgraceful I know). Finished Crash Landing Into You and Sabrina recently and haven’t found new things to fill those voids yet!

16. What are you reading? 

The Idea of the Brain (Matthew Cobb) and about to start The Silence of the Girls (Pat Barker)

17. What are you doing for self-care? 

Trying to keep a routine going so that I don’t lose all the good self-care habits I’ve already got! Biggest new thing is trying to forcibly go outside most days.

18. Are you exercising? 

I will literally go insane if I don’t exercise. I’ve been practising Wing Chun and trying to keep up strength exercises a few times a week too (I even bought some new dumbbells just before Lockdown started)

19. How’s your toilet paper supply?

Fine lmao

20. Have you made any changes to your hair during quarantine? 

No, though it desperately needs a cut. I’m a frizzy fluffy little m e s s right now D:

 /// Don’t mind me just keeping up the lets-be-friends vibe and tagging a bunch of people I think are neat  // @sometimesstudious @inginieur @psyykkinen-lintukoto@studyghibli @thatpsychologystudent @correlation-causation @beccastudiesbiology @jemma--studies @meandpsyche @studyingatsunrise @thinkdeeplyandstudy  @actuarystudies @psychologyhermione @adventures-of-a-nd-psych-student @dasistjed// it’s okay to ignore lol ///

[bentenharuki]

I generally don’t do these but...

I will do this because it’s a badge of honor and a thank you for @todayintokyo who gives me a daily vibe out of my second fav Country in the world (first one is my own, of course. My messy, chaotic, genius Italy).

So for everyone interested (I won’t tag people either... if you are among my 250+ readers, do it as freely as you like to share this unexpected hard time along others. Sharing makes us all feel less stranded I guess :)) 

1. Are you staying home from work/school? Yep. My University (Milano Bicocca) holds in-house lessons and curses and also exams and testing are/will be online. What I miss most are the lab works and the exchanges with foreign schools. I took one a few months ago in London and I was supposed to have another in May but... NOPE, of course.

2. If you’re staying home, who’s there with you? I am alone in my apartment. At first it was supposed to be shared rent with somebody else but then my parents just bought this out and lent it to me. I know. I am spoiled. But very grateful for what I have. I always try to give back the best I can because no one has merits in being born in a family instead of another. (pieces of second-rate philosophy in all my LONG answers courtesy of my mum and her influence on me. She’s a University Professor and her field is.. guess what.. ETHICS PHILOSOPHY)

3. Do you have pets to keep you company? Nope. Not allowed. But I like cats. Cats. CATS. They are elegant, refined, very clean, and they give you consideration and affection ONLY if they like you. I prefer to conquer somebody’s love instead than to have it by default. Then I am naturally a cat person instead of a dog’s. But I like all animals (I like snakes as well, so my range is pretty wide ;)), even though I don’t feel missing any in  house. Generally I would be out of home most of the day and no pet would be happy in staying that much alone. I miss my grandparents’ kitty tho :)

4. Who do you miss the most? Family. Friends. Meeting new people when out. And... (is it fine to say it?) Well... in these lockdown times I miss... human touch. (You get what kind). I was seeing a guy when this all started and my old boyf also came back into the picture somehow. All on hold. And I avoid to think how that makes me feel because even in case I’d figure it out, what comes if one can’t act on the awareness? Exactly. So I put it all in a LONG pause. But yeah... I miss contacts. A LOT.

5. When was the last time you left your home? I go out every Thursday to buy all my grocery stuff. I am very methodic. My supermarket is pretty near and it’s BIG and I get there right before it opens (well... one hour almost before it opens, so I can be among the firsts in line). I look like a ninja: very sporty and technically dressed (like for a running competition!) with clothes and shoes which are easy washable, tech mask (it is for cycling competition, with filters specifically medical: the mask is washable as well after you’ve used it, while the filter is obviously not), cotton fit gloves and over them medical gloves (I can’t wear directly medical gloves because my skin is very sensitive and I suffer from nickel allergia, which makes latex gloves a NO NO directly on skin), teck googles which cover also the side of my face (those are from cycling items too) and of course PODS in my ear because I can’t live without music :)

6. What was the last thing you bought? I bought online a few garden tools for my biggest balcony. I have ZERO skill with plants (and I am supposed to become a biologist... the nerve! LOL) but I am keen at making grow at least rosemery for my recipes. I have a little peach tree and it is all fine so far. I have hope I can do better and anyway I have time now ;)

7. Is quarantine driving you insane or are you finally relaxed? I try to keep my routine as it was before. I wake up and perform all my tasks exactly as I was doing before this all started. I am VERY organized and to lax on that would ruin me, so I carefully focus on what I can control the best I can. It feels strange to say it maybe but... this way my mood isn’t particularly affected by this heavy revolution in my (and everyone elses’s) life.

8. Are you a homebody? NOPE. I love people, I love my Milan and its being always full of people everywhere. I love living in my town a TON, I love meeting friends anywhere, go dancing, I love to live my University life in this beautiful and renewed part of Milan; I like being surrounded by my people and meeting new ones. So being stuck at home would seem insufferable for me. But I learnt from this (there’s always something to learn in any experience) that I can be surprisingly ok with staying home too. I came to know better my neighbors. I feel a sense of community with everyone living nearby and I have come to love my domesticity too. It was a surprise for me first ^.^

9. What movies have you watched recently? In Italy, Italia 1 channel has had the WONDERFUL idea to rebroadcast all Harry Potter saga every Monday and Thursday. Today and tomorrow there are the last two installments, so I can say that is what I looked out the most for as in movie things these past weeks (funny how I never particularly adored the books of HP, I mean, I liked them but... being a Tolkien’s devotee Rowlings’ literary efforts always seemed lackluster to me.. and still I have always liked the movies. It’s incoherent I know ;)). But I have Sky at home so I can watch whatever movie I like to whenever I want to. And that leads to VERY little watch actually. I am reading a ton though. I watch what passes on in the National channels actually, out of digital and cable and decide to watch it or not. For instance last Friday Rai 1 (main Italian Channel) broadcasted one of my fav movies from the past three years, GIFTED (with Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer) and I rewatched it with immense pleasure.

10. An event that you were looking forward to that got cancelled? OLYMPICS. I was supposed to be back in Japan with a a couple of friends and my bro for experience the Olympics (especially the volleyball tournaments) between July and August and that got (of course) cancelled. We plan to move it all to next year of course. But it hurts SO MUCH because it was easily what I was looking forward to BEST for all 2020. Hands down.

11. What’s the best and worst thing you’ve had to cancel? Look up. For the other question, I never plan things I don’t like (or at least I try my best not to) and I almost never find myself in the position of being happy for something I had going on which I had to pass due to circumstances. I am a very honest (sometimes to the point of bluntness, though with age I got trained in the fine art of diplomacy, which for me is declined especially in the “IGNORE WHAT IS NOT WORTHY degree) person and if there is something I don’t like I tend to not get involved with it in the first place.

12. Do you have any new hobbies? Eh... the longest list... I love so many things. Sport don’t count as hobbies to me because I treat them as part of my daily life constantly. So take them off. I like to write, to draw, to paint... I like reading, I like learning... I am a tech geek; I like gaming (but that I have to cut it or it would absorb me too much)... I like TRAVELING (that is cut off too of course nowadays), and many other things so I guess I don’t literally have SPACE for new hobbies. My many ones makes it impossible to fall for new things though lately I am becoming a better cook out of needs ;)

13. What are you out of? My lists are made as soon my things become “two items in from having 0″. This way I can’t run out of anything. Did I say already I am a HUGE control freak? THAT ;)

14. What music are you listening to? My itunes collections lists so far 12376 ALBUMS. Then I have the random songs. Latest one I bought (because I buy them all) is Achille Lauro’s latest 16 Marzo 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb-9RESbeWA

I am also listening a lot to one of my bro’s fav bands Radiohead and as usual a lot to my beloved Imagine Dragons. My mum and dad are also telling me to listen to Bill Withers (who recently passed away) whole discography because he was amazing. I love many music genres. I love ALL which makes the spirit soar and rage and evolve and love and cry and hope.

15. What are you reading? So far in quarantine I read 5 books. I have now to start ORIGINS by Dan Brown. I pick the books I have left unread randomly and that was the pick this time (people gift me with books constantly because they know I am a bookworm when I have spare time).

16. What are you doing for self-care? Keep loving myself and life and the world exactly the way I used to before this all started.

17. Are you exercising? Yup. Tapis roulant, golf training, stepper (all in my house lucky me) and mat and weight training. I have a routine for which I have to train at least one hour a day. NO EXCEPTION. I miss swimming but I will do. I am also in recovery after January’s knee meniscus intervention so my schedules are also taking that into consideration.

18. How’s your toilet paper supply? I'm OK. :)

19. Have you made any changes to your hair during quarantine? Nope. I love to stylize my hair but I don’t have specific cuts. It grows long and then I play with them hairstyles: braids, buns, ponytails, partitions and the likes.. But I have bleached hair and I had to follow my hairdresser advice because I can’t allow ugly roots to take dominance of me ^.^ So I bought the necessary to self bleach them. No need to say as soon as I will be able to, Hairdressers and Massages and SPA will be my first destination ^.^ (beside visiting family and friends of course).

I am fairly sure I put lots of typos and mistakes in this but I have my online lesson just starting in 8 minutes and I can’t review this (I generally never do it anyway). So forgive me and have a beautiful day ;)

STAY SAFE OUT THERE!!! Hugs K.

[queeranarchist]

7, 14, 15, 26, 32, 40, 65, 87, 92, 93 for the end of year ask meme

7) Which change, eg. home office, would you like to keep once it’s all over?

Online schooling. Like okay I can 100% agree that I get less out of it then in class, but I love being able to multitask my cleaning and cooking and the lack of travel time is golden

14) Anything new you tried to learn during lockdown?

I taught myself and Fred how to jump! And started eventing, a lot of falls and one broken bone later and we’re getting the hang of it :P

15) Any old hobbies you took up again during lockdown?

I never really dropped horse riding but I was doing it a lot less frequently and not competitively so ig I picked that up.

26) Dumbest impulse buy?

Honestly nothing really, pretty much all my money this year was funnelled into horses.

32) Favourite book you read that year?

Okay we’re doing top three bc I read so many good books this year; in no particular order:

Hope and Other Luxuries by Clare Dunkle (this is a 464 page book I read in 2 days because it was just that good)

Because We Are Bad by  Lily Bailey (one of those books were you end up so gutturally disappointed that the author has only written one book)

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Tbh I could list many others but these three now live in my brain rent free so.

40) Favourite album that was released this year?

Long suffering sigh...all new music this year was trash - If we’re counting singles as albums “The River with No Name by Radical Face” is v good.

65) Did you panic buy anything?

Um not corona related but when we got those 40 degree days at the very start of spring I was ready for this summer to be another one like last and bought 50 bails of hay...anyway it’s been raining for the past 2 weeks straight and hay is at super low prices so hmm huh. Tho my boys eat SO much hay so we went through that stash way quicker than imagined.

87) Did you do something this year that you never did before?

Broke a bone on the right side of my body - why has it always been the left before? Anyway, highly inconvenient would not recommend.

92) New Years Resolutions you broke this year?

Haha so many. Rip travel resolutions. 

Oh and marathon (tho technically at the start of this year bc my ankle was fucked I had revised that to “listen to my body more” - which I high key nerfed, as I think I’ve spent the entirety of this year slightly, or very, injured and exhausted).

And learning how to make pastry, it’s just so hard and the frozen sheets are so accessible and cheap.

93) NYRs you kept?

Reading more! I had tears of goals, of 50 being the MAX, then 25, then 20 books. I’ve read 45 - probs cld squeeze in another 2-3 but wouldn’t get to 50.  Though if you count the picture books I’ve read when tutoring then I am waaaay past 50 so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

More time with horses! Hit this in a very big way, got a second horse, a horse float, multiple jobs with horses AND started competing again.

Getting through uni without failing anything - haha by the skin of my nose but I did it.

Average 10k steps a day. Currently at an average of 13 103 so smashing that.

Getting a second job! Or like um 3.

[sheliesshattered]

#ooooooh#what a nice thicc loaf#(i am not sorry for saying that deal with it)#but HOW DID YOU CONVINCE IT TO RAISE LIKE THAT#THAT IS A ROOOOOUND ONE#my bf has taken up sourdough breadmaking as his lockdown hobby but hasn’t succeeded yet#first one was a disaster#then he switched recipe to a french guy (with truly adoragle accent so fun to repeat his words)#which is always a 10/10 idea bc FRENCH BREADS#and it started to resemble a bread dough and not just goo#it raises well while in the process#but once he plomps it into the bread pan and puts it into the oven it doesn’t raise AT ALL#just sort of fills up the bottom of the form like a liquid and does. not. rise.#it has a small top#a tiny arch#from all the rising before#but doesn’t make a LOAF#ohhh if all my problems were this pressing...#bread#our sourdough is named eugene btw#eugene lives in my fridge#he used to be on the shelf but now he’s in the fridge and gets fed only once a day#eugene loooves food (via)

Okay, first of all, your tags are cracking me up, and second, I’m not sure if I can actually be any help at all, but I thought I’d reply on the off-chance any of this leads to better sourdough for you.

I cannot claim to be an expert bread-maker by any stretch of the imagination -- in fact, I lived under a yeast curse for almost two decades, where no commercial yeast would rise for me, ever, at all, but that’s a whole other story -- but I seemed to have kind of lucked into perfect sourdough that really only required a little bit of fiddling with the recipe and the cook times to make sure that it was baked all the way through without burning the top. Since I’m far from an expert, I really don’t know which of the things I’m doing led to that success, so here’s a rundown of my whole set up.

I got my sourdough starter from mistressdough.com who I found on Etsy. She’s located in my general geographic area, so the wild yeasts in her starter are at least relatively local to me. No idea if that helps, but I figure it can’t hurt. And she’s got great reviews on Etsy and wonderful customer service, which is always a plus.

Second, I don’t own a kitchen scale and I’m sort of morally opposed to them, so I do the whole thing by volume and just sort of eyeball the look of the starter and the dough. As I’ve gotten my method and recipe down to a reliable pattern, I’ve learned to recognize when the starter has had too much water or too much flour, when the dough has been kneaded enough, etc. I’ve been feeding Guinevere (my starter) 1/3 cup distilled water and 1/2 cup bread flour to 1/2 cup of starter, and she seems pretty happy with that.

That’s another thing I don’t know if it’s making a difference or not, but I only use distilled water and King Arthur bread flour (which is sorta where Guinevere got her name, lol), and use the same for baking loaves. I read that tap water can have chemicals like calcium that can interfere with a good rise, and bread flour has more gluten which allows for longer chains and thus a better rise, so I committed early on to only using those. Again, no idea if it helps, but hey.

Because I don’t (and won’t) own a kitchen scale, I had to try to find a recipe guide that uses (US) volume measurements instead, and after a lot of looking around settled on this recipe: https://anoregoncottage.com/easy-sourdough-artisan-bread/. I adapted it just a little during my first few loaves, so now I use just 1 cup of distilled water to 3/4 cup of starter, which means that with my starter and local humidity level, I end up using about 3 cups to 3 1/2 cups of bread flour, rather than closer to 4 cups that I needed when I was using more water. It gives me a slightly smaller loaf, but even at this size the one issue I’m running into is the top of the loaf hitting the top of the French oven during the first leg of baking, so smaller in this case is better anyway.

And the French oven is the other really useful tip that I picked up from that recipe, and I think it probably helps a lot (tho I haven’t done any comparison tests to see how it turns out baked any other way). I follow the advice in that recipe and shape the dough into a more or less round shape and put it on parchment paper while the French oven heats up for 40 minutes in the (real) oven. Then I slice an X into the top of the dough and use the parchment paper to lift the whole thing right into the hot French oven and put it back in the oven with the lid on.

My oven is old and can be really odd with cook times/temperatures, so I had to play around with it to get the right level of baked all the way through but not scorched on top. The time listed in the recipe wasn’t nearly enough. Right now, I’m baking it with the French oven lid on for 13 minutes, then taking the lid off and baking uncovered for another 27 minutes. When I take the lid off the tallest bit of the loaf has juuuust started to hit the inside of the lid and singe a bit, so in the future I may try lowering that to 12 minutes covered (and also shift to 28 minutes uncovered, because the inside is perfectly cooked).

Let’s see, what else... Guinevere lives in my fridge and gets taken out the night before we want fresh bread, which is usually about twice a week. I let her warm up just a little on the counter, then feed her, then immediately measure out the 3/4 cup of starter and put it in the mixing bowl that I’ll use to make the loaf in the morning. The rest of Gwen goes right back into the fridge, and the mixing bowl gets covered with a big plate to keep in moisture, and when I get up in the morning to make bread, I can see that it’s been bubbling overnight. The few days when Guinevere sits in the fridge, I can see bubbles slowly forming and the volume slowly increasing. 

Every now and then we’ve gone ~5 days between feedings, and she’ll start to get a bit of “hooch” liquid on top, but I just pour that out and maybe do one extra feeding before making the loaf, but generally she seems pretty happy with just being fed once every 3-5 days, and bubbling away slowly in the fridge. The 3/4 cup of starter that I measure out for the loaf stays at (overnight) room temperature, and has usually been fed about 6-9 hours before I start working on the loaf, so it’s hungry again and ready to start eating all the gluten in the flour the recipe calls for, and rises well during the pre-baking phases.

I started out kneading with dough-hooks on my mixer, but the dough gets so dense that it nearly burned out the motor, so I’ve switched to kneading by hand. It takes a few minutes longer, but I like being able to feel when the dough has reached a really solid state, where it feels less like cake batter and more like dense elastic bread dough. And also because I need that mixer to whip cream, and I’d rather knead dough by hand than whip cream by hand, lol.

I do the “turn and stretch” thing recommended in the linked recipe, three times during the first three hours after mixing (roughly once an hour, but that loaf pictured, I actually overslept straight through the second one, and the loaf turned out fine), then let it sit and rise for two hours. Then just shape it like I mentioned above, so really all the work is in mixing and kneading it at the start.

I think that’s about it? Like I said, I have no idea what combination of the above is giving me good results, but after so many years of not being able to make yeast breads rise for me, it’s really a pleasure to be able to make fresh bread again. I hope some of that helps! Give my regards to Eugene. ;)

Possibly the worst part about baking sourdough is letting it cool for half an hour before cutting into it, while the whole house smells amazing and the rest of the meal is ready to eat.