Jupiter at opposition, sketched with cold fingers
Jupiter at its closest and brightest for the year, high in Gemini, two good belts, a hint of something in the south, and a sketch that took forty minutes.
Older notes, page 4
Stollen, with Morris doing some of the work
A Christmas stollen raised partly with the starter, written out in baker's percentages, with notes on why rich dough is slow and what I got wrong last year.
Geminids from the back step, at minus three
Three hours on the back step for the Geminid peak, two coats, one hand warmer, a frosted telescope I never meant to use, and 71 meteors despite the street lamp.
Dew, frost and the hairdryer of last resort
Winter nights are long and clear, and every glass surface I own fogs or frosts within forty minutes. What has actually worked, and what made it worse.
Barbari, and an oven I will never own
Twelve minutes inside an Iranian bakery, then my attempt at barbari in a domestic oven: same grooves, same glaze, a third of the length and a fraction of the heat.
November, according to NASA and my cloud cover
A short monthly sky guide from NASA, a big aurora night that I spent under cloud, and a purple ribbon called STEVE that turns out not to be an aurora at all.
The long nights are back
Dark by half past seven, a new four-minute habit of counting stars in the Little Dipper, and one minute of someone else's much better sky.
Twenty minutes from rye field to loaf
A German museum film follows winter rye from horse-drawn sowing to a wood-fired oven, and makes my bag of supermarket flour look like the end of a very long story.