anna_wing

This is the most recent Alliance/Union universe book (2019). It has languished in the pile since then, until yesterday, when I picked it up and read it.

This is the earliest chronologically, being about the period just before the Company Wars began, and the beginning of the Merchanters' Alliance, the trade cartel that features heavily in many of the Alliance/Union books. Like most Cherryhs it's dense, information-heavy, and nonetheless absolutely gripping, even though it's set entirely on one small, decrepit and fading space station, and the action mostly consists of people plotting, worrying, thinking about plotting and worrying about plotting, and also the political, economic and psychological implications of an era and specific location when both FTL and sub-light co-exist.

I had to laugh at a review that complained that the book did not consider "cultural diversity", because it's about nothing else. The action is entirely driven by the dramatic and incompatible interests, cultures and worldviews of:

1 Earth, with its multiple national governments and their historical obsession with territorial control, this time applied to space;
2 Earth Company, the intergovernmental consortium that controls Earth's space-related activity (amusingly, Cherryh is careful to point out that it is a generous employer; Cherryh has never dealt in easy stereotypes)
3 Earth Company staff (individually unethical and power-hungry, true) imposed on the hapless Alpha Station;
4 Alpha station administration (legally Earth Company employees but with their own local interests, such as keeping their station population alive);
5 the short-haul FTL ships dedicated tradng among to the tiny string of near-Earth stations anchored by Alpha Station (in desperate economic straits and also trying to stay both alive and solvent),
6 the giant long-haul, culturally alien FTL ships (their crews are giant extended matrilineal families) from the far reaches of human space, completely out of Earth's control,
7 the different space stations, all of them essentially independent polities that are nonetheless interdependent with each other and the FTL ships that support them
8 the shadowy threat of Cyteen, Cherryh's own take on 'Brave New World', not yet known as Union but already culturally alien in a completely different way from all the other human polities

The book is set at the instant where a "jump-point" - Cherryh's FTL enabler - has been discovered near Earth, but the information has not yet been made public. Earth has been cut off from its former colonies and their colonies except by years-long sub-light travel (the differences in psychology from the civilisations where FTL is normalised that this creates is also one of the relevant elements in the book). The inevitability of Earth rejoining space-based humanity is the basis of the constant refrain "Sol is coming" used by different parties with hope (more trade so we can survive!), dread (sudden disruptive intrusion of irredentist imperialists into a delicate political and economic stand-off in the far reaches of human space), and resignation (going to happen, how can we mitigate the damage and protect our own interests).

While much of the plotting is directed at trying to prevent Earth reviving the concept of war, this time at the interstellar scale, those of us who have read the other Alliance/Union novels know perfectly well that it's about to start anyway.

Excellent, except that now I have to go and re-read all the others.

If you haven't had the shingles vaccine, I would strongly recommend it. I went to visit my relatives on holiday and got shingles on the second day. Still recovering, a month later. Ugh. The rash is fading, but the pain is still there and has been joined by a persistent itch. And it wasn't even as bad as it could have been. When I took the sheaf of painkillers my doctor gave me I asked if I'd really need them (I did), and he said his most recent patient had been in so much pain that he had been vomiting. And the one before that had it on her face and in her eye, which I don't even want to think about.

I never want to have this again, so I'm getting the shots at the next opportunity.

I was reading about byssus, the sea-silk woven from the byssus filaments produced by the mussel Pinna nobilis, now only woven in the traditional way by one woman in Italy for educational purposes only. So of course started looking into whether anyone was (a) synthesising the stuff and (b) whether other shellfish also produced byssus that would be usable for textile purposes. And no surprise, there's a lot of interest, since shellfish byssus (which they use to attach themselves to rock or seabed) has all sorts of potentially useful properties.

For my specific interests, this French company, Bysco, seems the most hopeful, since it's producing thread for industrial and technical fabrics from the byssi of farmed edible mussels (Pinna nobilis is technically edible too but it is highly endangered and a protected species under EU law).

https://lampoonmagazine.com/article/2023/11/06/french-start-up-bysco-bio-based-textile-material-byssus-fiber/

And here is some interesting research into the bio-mechanical properties of Pinna nobilis byssus itself. Much too technical for my level of knowledge, but the conclusion that the byssus evolved separately in different mussel species is very interesting.

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2019/sm/c9sm01830a


Apparently the proteins from byssus are used to synthesise spider silk too.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-of-sustainable-clothing-new-breakthrough-in-synthetic-spider-silk-fabrication/

https://boltthreads.com/technology/microsilk/


I do hope that Bysco or some company in the same line does eventually succeed in either industrialising byssus as a fashion fibre, or even in synthesising it directly. Artisanal traditions are good to preserve, to be sure, but it would be fun have a dress that started out as moules marinières.

It's watermelon season. We have smallish, elongated oval, smooth, green-black ones with red flesh, roundish, green-black, loosely ribbed ones with golden-yellow flesh and huge oval dark and light-green striped ones with red flesh. All crisp, sweet and delicious. I am currently stuffing myself with this very simple salad:

As much watermelon as you want, cubed
As much feta as you want, crumbled
As many shelled walnuts as you want, roughly chopped
A few leaves of whatever basil you have, shredded.

Mix in a bowl, eat. I find dressing unnecessary. For dinner, I might add a nice slice of home-made toast, buttered. Housekeeper makes it with a mixture of regular bread flour and atta (Indian wholemeal) flour.

Yum.

I wish everyone a safe, peaceful and healthy Christmas and New Year!

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/nov/22/we-are-creating-a-material-monster-the-false-logic-of-faux-leather


There is a time and a place for synthetic fabrics. Synthetics are cheaper to buy and much easier to keep clean and uneaten by vermin. And if I ever get to another walking holiday in Japan, I am certainly not going to give up Gore-Tex boots and Uniqlo Heat-tech. The technical materials are generally superior, performance-wise, for the functions for which they are intended, as is a simple, plastic raincape that can be folded up and put in a pocket for emergencies.

But if I want something that looks like leather, I'll get leather. Not plastic, whether it calls itself 'vegan' or not (OK, anything claiming to originate from Alpha Lyrae would certainly attract my attention).

I've bought myself a vintage wool cape from an Italian designer label with a fur collar from Etsy Ukraine. The fur looks fine, but the seller reported that the fabric had a lot of little moth-holes. I intend to try to repair them using felting wool/wool roving; the technique looks very interesting and quite doable for an amateur, from the videos online. I shall see when it arrives. It's off-white. and the fur collar is dark brown, so I am mulling over the colour for the wool roving. If the holes are numerous, using black or very dark-brown would give a nice contrast effect. Sartorial kintsugi.

To my massive annoyance, a whole row of roselle plants (Hibiscus sabdariffa) picked up a virus due to the unduly prolonged monsoon season, just as their hips were ripening nicely, and the whole lot of them had to be pulled out and disposed of. We couldn't even use the leaves for soup (they make a nice sour soup, in the same way that sorrel does in temperate climates).

The papayas look all right so far, fingers crossed and I would have expected them to get sick more than the roselle, because they are dreadfully finicky. An interesting, small, roundish fruit, rather than the long ones I'm used to.

The office garden passionfruit did well. There're some new yellow hybrid ones in the market, from Thailand, so we'll try those out. And multiple packets of different sunflower seeds and one of a spectacular white Strelitzia from Australia, which may or may not grow, but seems worth trying.


We have started feeding a little ginger and white female cat who hangs around outside my gate. She is clearly the offspring of one of the neighbour's garden cats, and was presumably chased out by bigger relatives. Cat 4 cannot be adopted, since the Beastie Boys would have conniptions (they are 10 years old and set in their ways), so we are trying to get her tame enough that she can be handed back to neighbour, possibly as a new house cat. We are currently feeding her the expensive cat food that I bought to try to replace the brand that stopped production, and which the Beastie Boys disdained. When that runs out, we will move on to the freeze dried venison which was likewise rejected. She already knows mealtimes.

The intense blue flowers of Clitoria ternatea the Blue Pea, are used in island Southeast Asia as a food dye (soak the petals in hot water, and the blue comes out) and in mainland Southeast Asia to make a pretty, pale blue drink of no discernible flavour. However, if you squeeze lime or lemon juice into it, it turns an equally pretty pale purple colour, basically purple lemonade, but it's quite fun to watch it happen. One could presumably get a nice little science lesson for children out of it.

There are white and pale blue cultivars, and a very rare lilac-coloured cultivar, but obviously those are of no culinary significance.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=clitoria+ternatea&atb=v385-1&iax=images&ia=images

A concept to which I was introduced recently.

It made sudden sense of some previously rather baffling interchanges of the past, which I had attributed to general cultural misunderstandings, but which I now suspect were attempts at said "armour-piercing questions". Which failed, obviously, because they relied on shared cultural context, shared assumptions and shared moral priorities, that were simply not present. So actually they really were cultural misunderstandings, just probably not the kind that I thought they were.

Found this in an op-shop on a recent visit to Melbourne (about which possibly more later). Read it again with pleasure but re-donated it because the premise was unbearably irritating. Though kudos to Roger for being a jerk with common sense.

That wretched cursed dinner service or whatever it really was? It's not owls or flowers, you idiots. It's crockery. Eat your lunch off it in peace, or put it up for Antiques Roadshow.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/aug/23/how-to-make-the-perfect-strawberry-ice-cream-recipe-felicity-cloake

"Perfect strawberry ice-cream

Makes About 1 litre, to serve 8

500g ripe strawberries, hulled
150g white sugar
50ml lemon juice
350ml double cream
150ml condensed milk
A pinch of salt

Cut the hulled strawberries in half, then put in a bowl with the sugar and lemon juice, and stir until the fruit is well coated. Cover and leave to steep for at least two hours, and longer, if possible, until the strawberries are sitting in bright red juice. Puree the fruit, leaving a few small chunks if you like… then add the cream, condensed milk and salt. Stir well, then chill thoroughly for at least an hour.

Churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine and serve at once."

This is quite similar to the gelato recipe that Housekeeper uses, except that we use regular milk, rather than condensed, and single cream. I dislike the high-fat, high-sugar style, which I find too sweet and sticky for my taste (if I want sweet and sticky I will get baklava). And obviously we use frozen strawberries, either from Thailand or from the local bakery supplies wholesaler. Cheaper than fresh, especially out of season, and just as good for culinary purposes. Plus the good Japanese/Korean/Thai varieties are better eaten fresh anyway.

I try strawberry ice-cream whenever I come across it on a menu, the way I do Apple Crumble, just to see if it's better than mine...