Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Kink Meme

Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?

Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

My favourite sumer food probably sounds very boring, but if one takes care to use the best quality possible, it’s delicious. Boiled white fish with new potatoes, clarified butter and chopped hard-boiled eggs. When I was a child the fish we used was northern pike, which my father or grandfather had just caught, but nowadays we usually buy fresh cod. The new potatoes come from the garden. The clarified butter must be real butter, and organic eggs taste the best. One can mix the butter and the eggs, but we prefer to keep them separate, so each can take after taste.

Also, for me this tastes best eaten outside the summer house, on dishes called “Grön berså” (green bower) by the Swedish designer Stig Lindberg in 1960.

What I finished reading in June was the first four books in the YA Lockwood & Co series by Jonathan Stroud, The Screaming Staircase, The Whispering Skull, The Creeping Shadow and The Hollow Boy. Husband wanted to rewatch the Netflix show, and as I hadn’t seen it, I joined in. I liked it, and as it ended after one season, which covered book 1 and 2, I promptly started to read the books.

The concept is that the UK is suffering from a spreading ghost infection, and as being touched by a ghost is fatal unless you get medical aid, it’s not a good thing. It doesn't help that only children and teenagers are able to actually see the ghosts. So gifted children work for ghost hunting agencies, which is a pretty nifty device for putting teenagers in the forefront of the action, while still not always being very sensible, because teenagers. The narrator is a girl, Lucy, who starts working for the very small agency Lockwood & Co, and gradually they are getting closer and closer to why this ghost infection has started.

I find the books very enjoyable. Lucy is a pretty engaging narrator, if not always a stellar character. But my favourite character is Skull, a ghost trapped in a jar that only Lucy can talk to.

I also actually counted the books I’m in various stages of reading… Yikes! I think I should focus on finishing some of them this month. Here they are, in no particular order.

The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud

Det ockulta sekelskiftet (The Occult Turn of the Century) by Per Faxneld. How occultism influenced a number of Swedish artists in the late 19/early 20th century.

Never Flinch and Fairy Tale by Stephen King

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (A re-read.)

A Better Man by Louise Penney

Furstinnan (The Princess) by Eva Mattson. A biography over the 16th century Swedish queen Catherine Jagiellon.

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle

The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

Towards Zero by Agatha Christie

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

The Treasure by Selma Lagerlöf

This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer

Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Journaling: I will try to actually write the posts about the Agatha Christie books I’m currently rereading. As well as continue talking about books that have special meanings for me.

I have lots of things to sew. Currently a Regency petticoat, and after that a Regency ball gown for a ball at the end of August. I’m also working on a Liberty of London aesthetic dress. I also need to change a couple of everyday clothes that don't fit me anymore.

Creativity: I’m still trying my way in making paper flowers. Here, have a tulip.