The view from my home office is making me think of autumn.

Not for the first time, I wonder how people with larger and/or hungrier families manage to cook dinner. 500 g of pasta just barely fits in a standard strainer. I can just about fit noodle stir fry for four in our largest cast-iron pan if I’m really, really careful when stirring. It’s a good thing I no longer need to eat quite as much as I used to – I balance out Adrian’s and Ingrid’s appetites (Adrian growing, Ingrid going to the gym).

Årsjön and Bylsjön both had gangs of ducks who were all very used to being near people. They were pretty obviously expecting to be fed. After we washed up our breakfast dishes in the lake, some snacked on our porridge scrapings.

Adrian and I went on an overnight mini hike to Tyresta (Årsjön). This late in the season, the camping area wasn’t crowded at all. The trails on the other hand were full of people, 80% of whom seemed to be carrying baskets for picking mushrooms. Seems to be this year’s hot thing.

Busy times at work lead to unhealthy eating habits. Whatever I can eat at the computer with little to no prep.

Possibly my last lunch out on the deck for this season. With a jacket and a blanket. If I put the bench at the very far end of the deck, I get a little bit of sun on part of me at least.

I keep forgetting my lactose intolerance. I do remember it when I’m doing my grocery shopping. But for some things there are no lactose-free alternatives, and then I just buy the normal stuff and plan to take a lactase tablet when I eat it. Yogurts, for example. There are very few lactose-free alternatives and none of them taste well. Or anything with ricotta cheese.

The problem is that when I get to actually eating these things I forget about the tablets. I’ve been eating normal yogurt for decades so I just do it on autopilot. And a few hours later my stomach feels like a balloon and my clothes literally don’t fit me any more.

Knowing that my waist circumference at this point is 4 cm larger than normal, I wonder if could you calculate the volume of intestinal gas from that, and then the amount of lactose that was digested by bacteria instead of myself.

I had a photo from today’s bicycle trip to the recycling centre. And just as I was about to start editing it, it disappeared from both Lightroom and Finder. Nowhere to be found. And it was a rather pleasant one, too, with my bike standing next to a nice little bridge surrounded by lots of vegetation. Bleh.

I started hearing occasional snapping, crackling noises in my home office. There should be absolutely nothing there to make such noises.

It took me a day or two to figure out what was causing them. It turned out to be my power bank, and the snapping noises were from its casing splitting open due to pressure from the swelling lithium batteries inside.

Lithium batteries are not supposed to look puffy.

Right after I took this photo, I put the battery in a metal container to contain the fire hazard. I guess I’ll be taking a trip to the recycling centre as soon as I can.

I’ve been thinking thoughts of lemon & poppy seed cakes since early summer. Since May, even, I think. Dropping hints occasionally when Adrian has said he feels like baking. (He always ends up baking either mud cake or chocolate chip cookies.) And I still haven’t done anything about it myself. A basic cake batter takes, what, fifteen minutes? Twenty? It’s nothing. But I just haven’t been able to muster the energy it takes to start even this humble project. Starting things is hard.

Until now. I feel inordinately pleased by this small accomplishment.