Planning plants

I injured my back a couple of months ago, making me more or less immobile for several weeks. Unfortunately this happened at the time when I should've started planting seeds for the summer's plants, so I missed the opportunity to grow my own seedlings.

At least we can enjoy pretty flowers indoors, like this spring cactus.

Thus there's nothing new and exciting on the balcony yet, but I plan to remedy that soon! Sellers at the market already have all sorts of pretty things for sale. I just need to decide on a colour scheme for the year. I'm leaning towards mostly large red flowers this summer, with a few small-flowered white ones for contrast. What do you think?

While I decide, I can enjoy and nurture the little bit of green that's already present on the balcony. The perennials have survived another winter and are waking up. Won't be long before they cover that whole corner!

The Illusion of Life

This week I have spent quite a bit of time planning my second year at uni. There's the obligatory courses of course, but also room for a few optional ones. There's only one more Italian course left that I can take next year, alas, so I've been going through the other options.

After much pondering I have decided on a couple of courses in visual studies, which ought to add an interesting mix of biology, psychology, visual communication and design to my studies. Sounds like it'll be right up my alley and will provide a nice break from the usual computers and maths. Should be fun!

With perfect timing regarding visual studies, Mr Morrgan showed me a neat little video this morning. It explains the principles of animation with the aid of a charming cube, of all things. Take a look!

The illusion of life from cento lodigiani on Vimeo.

Happy May 1st!

Hooray, it's the 1st of May! The day of picnics in the spring sun and the first ice cream of the year!

...or not. After a pleasant and sunny +20C/68F last weekend, this morning greeted us with a freaking snowstorm, which in the afternoon turned into delightful slush rain. No picnic or outdoors ice cream for us, methinks.

We had already made nice picnic food plans, though, and it would be a shame to let all those go to waste. We'll just have to make do with an indoors picnic instead!

Our May 1st treat: gluten-free Red Velvet Mug Cakes, just before going into the oven. Once they come out, they'll be slathered with cream cheese icing.

Our special treat this year are the red velvet mug cakes pictured above, of course as a Morrgan-safe i.e. gluten-free version. These are currently in the oven and some pretty delightful scents are beginning to waft over, so I predict a fine May 1st afternoon despite the weather.

Have a good one, all!

The mug cake recipe can be found here, check it out!

I do still have fish, by the way

I realized it's been AGES since I posted anything to do with my fishies. This was probably the last post and that's over four years ago! Whoops!

Well, first of all, the big tank is still around! Here's how it looks nowadays:

Many of the fish from the old post are still around, but one major change is that the tank is now also home to a trio of kissing gouramis, two natural green ones and one pink piggy. The green ones arrived not long after the previous post, so they're about 4 years old now, but the pink one is a bit younger with a mere 3 years.

This is Alpha Lips, also known as Känkkäränkkä or Känkkis among friends, showing off his impressive lips. As the name suggests, he (or she?) is the boss of the group and of the whole upper half of the tank. This guy is incredibly curious about his surroundings, as are the other two kissies. When I walk past the tank in the morning, Känkkis is always there in the nearest corner to say good morning. When we have guests over he can barely contain himself from all the exitement. If he were a dog he'd be the kind that jumps all over everyone. People! Yay!

You'll recognize Fishmeat the red-finned shark from the old post, he's about 5 years old now and still as handsome as ever. This is Känkkis' nemesis, and Känkkis is Fishmeat's. They have a kind of truce going on, where Känkkis rules the upper half, while the bottom is Fishmeat's kingdom. Here they're both at the border of their respective domains, hence the reasonably peaceful picture.

Here's Mr Kissington on the right, the other green kissing gourami. Along with Känkkis of course, who is too curious about what's going on to stay out of the photos.

He doesn't get to visit the bottom of the tank much though, Fishmeat makes sure of that! Hence this is the only Känkkis-free photo in this set. These guys, posing so nicely in a row for me, are three of my horseface loaches (I'm sure you can see where they get the name). The big one in the back was in the previous set of photos too, he's the the oldest at more than 7 years and is nearing 15 cm (6 inches) in length. The two little ones I got 4 years ago. Quite a size difference!

So here we have a few old faces and a few new ones. There's a bunch more fish in the tank I can introduce to you, but let's save some for another time!

February so far: Busy times, dull weather... Mostly.

My my, what a trying month so far. Piles upon piles of homework threaten to drown me and the grey slush pouring from the heavens seems to have the same plan in mind.

The only way to get through it is to try harder to find joy in the little things. The other day I was walking home from uni, feeling tired and hungry, feeling like I'd already had enough of the day. Then I looked up and noticed this view.

There's something magical about lights in the mist, isn't there? Something mysterious and fairytale-like?

After seeing this view and pausing to let my thoughts get lost in the mist for a moment, the day didn't seem so bad anymore.

The snow is here!

I was beginning to think it wouldn't happen, but for once I'm glad I was wrong.

Finally, there's snow!

Photo by Mr Morrgan

Just look at all that white stuff on the ground! Hooray!

Photo by Mr Morrgan

It's actually genuinely cold! Cold enough for me to finally need to wear my Totoro mittens!

Photo by Mr Morrgan

Oh happy day!

(I will no doubt be thoroughly sick of the cold in about a week or so, but hey, best enjoy the excitement while it lasts! Complete with excessive use of exclamation marks!)

Happy New Year 2014!

Goodbye to good old 2013 and welcome to new and shiny 2014!

Last year was in many ways an exciting and eventful year. Here's a few of the highlights:

• In March, I got tired of being a sad weakling and started going to the gym, with the simple goal of getting stronger. At the end of December, after a little over 9 months of training at the gym, 2 times a week on average, I was able to deadlift 1.5x my own weight. I call that a goal achieved. B)
• In May, I got to experience my first ever case of pneumonia, although a mild one. It sucked. Muchly.
• In August, I returned to university for another few years of study. I may be 10 years older than most others, but that's not a problem. This second time around I know how it works from the start, so my studies are going very well as I now know how to combine studying with the fun stuff. ;)
• In September, I started learning Italian and it's awesome. Buon giorno, i miei amici! Come va?
• In October, I had progressed far enough in the programming classes (which are part of my studies) to be able to program my own little text adventure in Python. Oh, what a proud moment!

Aaaand basically none of this showed up on the blog at the time. Oops. Truthfully, it was a sad and pathetic year blogging-wise, but I aim to change that this year. Honest!

A picture from spring 2013 as there are no lovely snow-covered vistas for us this year. It's been an unusually warm winter, we've hardly gotten a glimpse of snow at all. There goes my ambitious skiing plans (i.e. trying skiing again for the first time in about 8 years).

In fact, here's a little list of some things I plan to do this year:

• Make a few changes to my Etsy shop, including changing the currency to Euros (already done) and thanks to that change, being able to accept Etsy Gift Cards (also already done, hint hint).
• I'm working on a bunch of new patterns that I plan to release one at a time over the year. The first one should be ready for release in January, if all goes well!
• Being able to deadlift 2x my own weight. B)
• Blog more.