I have some barley flour! I got it because I wanted to try to make biblical barley loaves. I think barley does have a modicum of gluten? But nothing like wheat.

Life is really accustomed to the rise and fall of the river--it happens every year, just some years more than others.

One of my other friends sent me this--she said they judge how high the water will get by how high it is upriver in Iquitos, Peru:



If I'm reading it right, the black line is this year. So pretty high!

Houses that are close to the water are on high stilts, and there are also floating houses that just sit on the ground when the water's low. And other houses are just far enough away that they don't get flooded, by and large? Though this time two of my friends (my tutor and my other friend) did send me pictures of the water essentially knocking at their doors. Where the river will go and how it will rise are pretty predictable? People even count on the floods for agriculture (because the river deposits fertile soil.) You can see the high-water mark from the previous season or earlier seasons way up on trees in the dry season.

Thanks for the tip about Sketchbook! I mainly draw analog, but I might indeed like to do more digital drawing, so if I decide to, I'll look at that.