Dr Siân Robyns

@drsian

PhD Literary Translation Studies; freelance editor; reader; occasional writer; translator, A Tale of Love/ Conte de l'amour bifrons by Linda Lê (Mākaro Press); knitter, mad, mad knitter.

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Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 1d

#kai Impulse purchase. Abiding regret.

A jar of Fix & Fogg’s newest peanut butter, Banana Caramel. It’s an abomination.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 8d

Wordle 1,873 3/6 ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Not a bad start to the day: Wordle in three and a personal best in Codecracker.

A screenshot of the congratulatory message generated by the Post’s Codecracker game, which your clever correspondent completed in a personal best of one minute and five seconds.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 20d

#kai Variations on a theme … more beluga lentils, fennel, leeks and red cabbage. This time with the addition of rocket, currants, almonds and preserved lemon. Topped with panfried lemonfish and roasted lemon slices. This was so, so good!

A bowl of lentil salad, less brown and sludgy than last night’s, topped with chunks of fish and charred lemon slices.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 21d

#kai Also of note today: pear and black tahini on Vogel’s for breakfast, and roast tomatoes with creamy cannellini beans and leeks for lunch.

Two pieces of toast, topped with black tahini and slices of pear, sitting on a well-used chopping board.

A pile of beige creamy beans and leeks (with a handful of wilted spinach stirred through), accompanied by a roasted tomato daubed with chilli crisp, in a blue and white patterned shallow bowl.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 21d

#kai And there we have it: the last of the duck, served with lentils, braised leeks and fennel, roasted red cabbage, a small handful of cranberries and almonds, and a few slices of fresh pear. It looks very brown and sludgy, but it tastes of Christmas.

A brown and sludgy yet delicious duck and lentil salad.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 21d

#kai Punchy little buggers.

An opened packet of kachori, a fried Indian snack, comprising a spiced stuffing in a wheat and gram flour shell.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 23d

#kai Because a whole duck goes a long way when there’s just two you. And it’s not the same as last night’s salad: today’s edition includes golden and red beets, more oca, more rocket, avocado, celeriac and kūmara, as well as almonds and, since we have no pomegranate, a handful of Chilean guavas.

Another mess of rocket, chopped roast vegetables and duck in a blue-patterned bowl.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 24d

#kai Dinner: salad of roast duck, yam (oca), kūmara, celeriac, rocket, and avocado, dressed with hemp oil, lemon, chilli crisp and mixed seeds. Really rather good.

A blue and white shallow bowl holds a mess of vegetable matter and chopped duck. Components as listed in post.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 25d

#kai Mu-u-um! She’s doing things with toast again! Cottage cheese, golden beet slices, basil pesto and sunflower seeds.

Two pieces of toast topped with white cottage cheese, golden discs of beet, bright green pesto and grey sunflower seeds, on a worn chopping board. To the right of the image is another, uncut beet. It all looks good enough to eat, so I am.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 27d

#mokai An elder of the neighbourhood seemed to think I was the right person to ask for dinner.

A senior light ginger (cameo perhaps?) puss with a white blaze on his nose, white cheeks and chest caught mid-wail. Piercing, it was. Piteous, too.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 28d

🧶🇳🇿oh, and two more: recreations of hats I made in 2020/21 and lost within a matter of weeks.

A charcoal grey hat in soft and fuzzy merino/alpaca. The pattern is Repos by Sol le Roux.

A light teal slouch hat with a rolled brim worked in Zealana Rimu DK. Pattern from Church Mouse Yarns is out of print (sorry!).

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 28d

#kai A salad of rocket, pear, blue cheese and tamari almonds in a mustardy vinaigrette.

Green leaves, white pear, blue-flecked cheese, and dark-skinned almonds.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 28d

🧶🇳🇿Two more recent knits …

Midori Hirose’s Chaika jumper knitted in charcoal grey with a contrasting collar in deep ochre/orange.

Fuzzy blues: a modified Winter Garden jersey, with lace taken from the Creekside Shawl. Worked in a very vintage wool/mohair double knit. (So vintage, it came in 25 g balls. )

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· 28d

🧶🇳🇿A few knits … little bits of warmth and softness against the winter chill.

A lacy shawl, worked in a fuzzy merino possum blend, draped over a weathered garden bench. Maggie Shawl from Comfort Zone Knits.

Another lacy shawl, this time in a grey merino alpaca blend, draped over the same weathered garden bench. Nurmilintu from Heidi Alander.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Jul 13

Finished Ingrid Horrocks’ All Her Lives. (Thoroughly recommend!) Demolished an eminently forgettable Japanese crime novel. Started The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin.

The cover of Emma Darwin’s The Mathematics of Love.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Jul 2

#kai. And she’s back on that toast nonsense again: cottage cheese, chioggia beets, basil pesto and sunflower seeds on toasted Vogel’s. Rather good. Will play again, perhaps with a whipped feta.

A mid-century Denby lunch plate in the famed green wheat pattern holds two pieces of toast topped with snowy cottage cheesecake prettily striped beet slices, verdant pesto and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Just visible at top left is another pretty beet.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Jul 1

#kai. Dinner in green: following @swampy-kiwi.bsky.social’s examplewith Hetty Lui McKinnon’s chargrilled broccoli salad – with the accidental inclusion of black beans rather than chickpeas and perhaps rather more spinach than prescribed. Still very good, but.

A large serving of a very green broccoli and black bean salad, also featuring Parmesan, capers, chilli, garlic , almonds and lemon. Oh, and spinach.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Jun 30

#kai. Fabulous salad from the lovely folk at Newday in Newtown. Mesclun, olives, pickled onions, cucumber pickles, fresh walnuts, zataar, red pesto and dilly chicken salad.

A bowl chockful of fresh and tasty goodness. Components as listed in post.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Jun 28

#kai Dinner: shiitake and almond pilaf with baby spinach, peas and smoked kingfish and a generous squeeze of lemon. Tangy, fishy, spicy, warming.

A heap golden-spiced rice and vegetables, topped with chunks of smoked fish and a messy blob of Greek-style yoghurt.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Jun 25

#kai Simplicity does it: roasted cauliflower, kūmara, buttercup and celeriac served with spinach, avocado, halloumi, tahini, lemon and chilli crisp.

Golden halloumi draped over a heap of roasted and fresh vegetables, as described in post.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 26

#kai a rather good dinner of kimchi fried rice with shiitake, spinach and gochujang, sprinkled with black sesame seeds and nori.

A plate of red-tinged fried rice and vegetables. Plenty of spice in there

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 21

#kai Today’s me is enormously grateful to Sunday’s me who had the presence of mind to prepare a generous batch of roast kūmara, parsnip, celeriac, onion and cauliflower. Tonight’s serving was tossed with spinach, air-fried tofu, and the most perfect avocado. Chilli crisp and lemon juice to finish.

dinner as described: a symphony in beige and brown, enlivened by the fresh greens of spinach and avocado.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 21

One page into this, and I’ve already chuckled twice. Hurrah for escapist literature. #pukapuka

The cover of R F Kuang’s Katabasis, black and white with gilt details and featuring Esther-like staircases, ivory towers and a cat.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 17

Finished The Beauty of Humanity. Movement – will be looking for more by Camilla Gibb – and Lauren Richie’s Mila and the Bone Man.

The cover of Camilla Gibb’s The Beauty of Humanity Movement , featuring Philadelphia blossom and a two hands holding a stack of softly coloured soup bowls.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 15

A lot of work reading/editing, but I also managed to make time to catch up with The Beauty of Humanity Movement ( which is actually by Camilla Gibb, not (not) whatever I said it was!), and to read a short story from an exquisite edition of Tail of the Taniwha by Courtney Sina Meredith.

Beatnik Publishing’s 2016 edition of The Tail of the Taniwha. Glittering gold covers with the title and author name embossed in brown.

A page spread from Tail of the Taniwha: serif print in white and light blue on dark blue stock. A book produced with love and attention to detail.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 10

And what I did with quarter of it: Vogels, avo, kimchi, tahini and mixed seeds

Two pieces of laden toast for (components as listed in post)on a plate edged with a pattern of small stylised leaves.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 10

#kai Some avocado!

Two halves of a reed avocado on a kitchen scale. The scale shows their weight as 383 grams.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· May 7

#kai Hugh F-W’s seeded black rice with leeks, edamame, avocado and prawns, finished with black sesame and preserved lemon.

Dinner : pale green veg, black rice and pretty pink prawns.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Apr 16

#kai two small bits of tuna, soba, brown button mushrooms, ‘super slaw’, spinach and black sesame, all seasoned with soy, Kaitaia Fire, black Sriracha, garlic and ginger. Whipped up in no time at all.

A plate of noodles, salad vegetables and two lumps of fish, sprinkled with small black seeds.

Dr Siân Robyns@drsian· Apr 7

Spending time with the Lost Children Archive. www.theguardian.com/books/2019/m...