That meme again...

Questions from oursin 

(Ask me if you want some questions of your own)

 1. What's cooking?

Tonight: sea bass baked with lemon, served with patatas bravas (going to try nduja in the sauce rather than chorizo this time for a bit more spice), charred peppers and spinach.  Followed by a baked Bramley apple (stuffed with pecans and maple syrup) and custard (of the Waitrose variety).

2. How does your garden grow?

It hasn't had a good summer, like most UK gardens this year, I think. But I have a couple of hundred tulip and spring bulbs to plant so next spring should be lovely.  I'm still mulling over where to put another flower bed -- I want to plant a rose in memory of my heart donor, and also to make more room to indulge my plant obsession.

3. Read any good books lately?

Some re-reads, yes -- lots of Antony Price, whose craft never ceases to impress me.  But everything new I've tried recently has foundered on a preference I had never recognised before.  I require a book's protagonist to demonstrate a certain level of competence and a basic ability to communicate when communications would um, you know, kinda significantly improve matters. Two books recently -- one highly recommended by people I trust, and one I had been looking forward to for a couple of months have disappointed. The first has a plot that only works if the two protagonists never talk to each other; and the second has two protagonists who seem to spend their time running away from every problem they encounter -- even little ones.  Perhaps the books improve as they go on, but I DNF.  My tbr pile is (digitally) high enough that I am getting ruthless these days.

4. If you could be anywhere else, where would it be?

I'm wildly jealous of a good friend who flies out to Antarctica tomorrow (well to Madrid, then South America for a couple of weeks, and then a boat to Antarctica. I don't envy the travel but would love the destination.

5. What do you wish they would make a movie/TV series of?*

This is a hard one... I rarely watch TV or movies these days and am not convinced they can ever improve on a book. Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch) might be fun. Or perhaps a series based on The Witness for the Dead (Katherine Addison) or Imperial Mars (Chaz Brenchley).  Plenty of quiet competence in all of those.