Today, Sunday, I have been battling simultaneous waves of exhaustion and exuberance. This week has been productive. Nay, it has been giant-freaking-capital-P Productive. Between rearranging my garden (the joys of containers!) to make way for a sowing of winter kale, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower and parsnips, drowning in a wonderful vat of buttons for Loumms and making slow, slow progress on my Aurantium Blossom shawl, I have -- wait for it -- been working on my thesis.
I KNOW! It's insane, unheard of and utterly outside all you hold true, but there you have it.
I have indeed been working on my thesis. Or at least one 6,000-word section of it, which will tomorrow be turned over to a board of editors for their approval/red pen before it is published. I do still have about five paragraphs, maybe eight, that I need to work through, but they cover little more than 1,000 words and I have just this morning worked out why they haven't been working out.
In the words of my lovely friend Judith: There will be other papers. Not everything has to be in this one. Silly though it may seem, I hadn't fully consciously recognised that idea. 'There will be other papers. Not everything has to be in this one.' Just saying those words aloud takes off so much of the pressure I was putting on myself.
This morning, I am home alone. A friend of ours is flying off on an 8-month South American adventure in as couple of weeks and last night was her leaving party. Matthew went on behalf of us both. She has a tendency to throw amazing all-night bonanzas that don't even peak until well after breakfast the next day, so Matthew is either collapsed in a heap somewhere in her house or gulping down uppers.
As my reward for being so close to being done, and as consolation for being at home, I decided to make my breakfast a bit special. I frequently do this when Matthew's on tour or has a gig outside London that I can't be at: mealtimes turn into wonderful explorations of vegan food. And they are always delicious.
This morning it's SusanV's Sugar-free Peach and Vanilla Muffins, which due to a lack of the specific ingredients her recipe calls for became Sugar-free Plum and Orange Muffins in my hands. Aside from this recipe in particular, I owe SusanV an enormous debt: ramekins as muffins cups. Genius! Other than halving the recipe, I followed her instructions to the letter using the following substitutions:
1 c. unpeeled Victoria plums, chopped,
3/4 tsp. cornflour
1 tbsp. warm water
1 tsp. orange extract
1/8 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 c., plus 3 tbsp. unsweetened soya milk
1 c. plain flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 c. castor sugar
1 tbsp. chopped pecans
1 tbsp. whole pumpkin seeds
Next time, and there will be many next times, I might add a bit of orange zest as well.
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