ofearthandstars | Entries tagged with access:public

I have been struggling with the "Basic Principles" of The Artist's Way, but I have been enjoying the sense of exploring the book within the

theartistsway cohort, so I have tried to rewrite them avoid some of the "Creator/God" language which was I really stumbling to connect with. I have rewritten a version for myself, and I may keep tweaking them as I'm not 100% sure they still fit. There are definitely other versions that have been created for secularists/atheists that may be better or more helpful for others. Admittedly, these are unique to my perspective/view of life and the universe, but I'm putting them here as a means to re-evaluate how I approach the series for the time being.

( cut because I care )

From

thefridayfive, and actually accomplished on a Friday!

1. What would you do right now, if money were not an issue?
Pay off the house, then buy houses for each of the boys and their SOs. Paying cash, so the issue of trying to get into housing is no longer an issue. Then I'd rage quit my job and wander into the sunset to rediscover myself.

2. What would you do for the next three years, if money were not an issue?
Write, heal, make art. Take a clay class despite them being so expensive. Engage in local groups and actually work on building community. Return to more active (and creative) activism. Why does capitalism interfere with our means/times to build community and improve the social fabric? Buy more art from my artsy friends, and then make more of my own.

3. What is bringing you the most joy right now that requires little or no money?
It usually involves sitting with the dog or cat and a decent book (can be free if from the library). Lately, sitting on the back porch in the evenings during storms and letting the wind and rains revive the parched world around me.

4. What types of things do you find enjoyable that require no money?
Hiking is usually free, except funds for travel and/or if we need to stay the night due to distance. We could camp but I am not sure we are good camping people, I'm technically allergic to much of the outdoors and either become a giant red welt or have trouble breathing. But sitting by the water is free. Sitting beneath or hugging a tree is free. Even clearing the yard, which is a pain until it's done, is largely free since most of the tools are acquired. Libraries are largely free. But I also believe that in the current social fabric, artists and writers and creators should be paid for their work, like reasonably and well-paid, and I love doing that for things that bring me great joy.

5. Is there anything you've been meaning to do for a long time, but put off because of money?
The clay classes. Going back to school and getting a new degree. Buying an electric vehicle/truck (this is also a matter of using what I have until it is unusable). Repairs, including energy-efficiency changes, on the house (replace screenings and questionable railing situations on back porch, new insulation and/or closing in the crawl space, new windows, new HVAC, etc.).

From this week's

thefridayfive

1. What is your favorite imaginary animal?
It's a hard decision between Mermaids, Centaurs, the Rockbiter, and Big Foot.

2. What fictional family would you like to be a member of?
Put me in The Addams Family. I am not nearly gothy enough and will be a standout, but c'mon... who can deny wanting to be around a love like that?

3. What would the title of your autobiography be?
"Harm None: How I F*cked It All Up"

4. When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?
I wish I could say brilliant scientist and climate researcher, but my mistake was taking the contracting vs. grant funding route. Maybe a climate communicator? Or maybe I will just be remembered as a quiet bog witch who tended moss and tried to talk to trees.

5. If you were independently wealthy and didn’t have to work, what would you do with your time?
I would need some time to decompress and figure that out. I like to feel useful, so I imagine I would do all the things I don't find time for now - volunteering at the Refuge and other spaces, get wildlife rehabilitation certified and licensure, spend time with the local Pride group and mutual aid groups, write just for fun (and I don't know, maybe putting my stuff actually out there?) and attend the local writer's group meetings. Write a memoir. Travel. Make vegan baked goods for my community. Spend time mending relationships with family.

A very late

thefridayfive:

1. What is something you like to do that other people would consider weird?
Eh, I'm not sure that I have anything very exciting or weird. I like identifying moss/fungi/trees/minerals, but I also find plant identification and foraging overwhelming. I like to repair things - mostly little stuff. There is a satisfaction to taking something old and worn and making it look new again or restoring its functionality and making it last a little longer.

2. What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?
Leave it better than you found it. This advice was given by a mentor in college, while we walked in the rain one day, and she leaned down to pick up a discarded battery from the path. I carry this through for places and people as best I can (acknowledging I am not always successful).

3. What is your most memorable birthday?
Probably my 17th birthday because of Hurricane Fran. I seem to recall we were released from school early (I can't recall if this was the day before, but it was when early rain bands started moving in and winds were starting to pick up, as I rode a bus), which of course I proclaimed was in honor of my birthday. It was my first memorable experience of a large inland hurricane with significant winds, where the eye actually passed over and the winds and limbs which battered the house changed direction. We had no power and limited water for a couple of weeks after that, and there was extensive damage around the area, but somehow my parents let me have a party with close friends (after the storm) and we sat out on the patio playing cards and taking intermittent dunks in the pool to cool off late into the night. That party spawned a relationship-turned-marriage among two friends!

4. When do you feel like you're the most authentic version of yourself?
Probably when it's just me and the dog and cat around the house. Best when they are sitting aside of me while I'm reading. Other than that, when I am in the deep woods of the mountains.

5. Where is your favorite place to vacation?
Probably anywhere along the Blue Ridge. It's one of the few places I feel like I am home, like I can take a deep breath, like I am a part of things that are much bigger than myself, like I could lie down on the Earth and if it was somehow so kind as to absorb me, then my role here would be complete.

Orbital reads like one long piece of prose poetry, except that occasionally the descriptives get so heavy you feel like you might be plodding through The Odyssey, and then you remember to back up and pay attention because the perspective is constantly shifting and there are few clues around the dialogue and so everyone and everything melds together a bit, like it does when you zoom out from Earth.

Is it beautiful? Absolutely.

Does it adequately convey the sense of drifting and being lost in self and time and place (whilst also furiously trying to rigidly document one's absolute self and time and place)? 100%.

Does it evoke the sense of wonder and fierce love for a planet full of life and wonder and empty of borders? Oh yes.

The plot is aimless, but, there's also ( potential spoilers ) enough to grasp the tiny bits of humanity in the vastness of everything else.

I can see why it's divisive, but I felt like the novel conveyed what it wanted to convey, and promised nothing more, in both title and format - the monotony of circling, the rigid ordinary of routine, all while sitting in the wonder of hurtling above sixteen sunrises and sunsets and inches from near-vacuum.

Perhaps it is the first step
across a dark, yawning chasm
or the feeling of hanging, lightly,
surrounded by nothing
(to catch you),
surrounded by everything
(to catch you),
leading you to focus on the breath
rushing through your lungs,
the landscape, flowing
through your bloodstream.
( Read more... )

From last week's

thefridayfive:

1. Do you like to spend time outdoors?
I am very much an I-would-live-outdoors-if-it-wouldn't-kill-me type of person. I love hiking and even just working around the yard, because there are so many interesting geological formations/plants/moss/grasses/trees/rocks/insects/birds/fungi/animals/etc. that make up our world, and I feel more at home/in awe when I'm among them. I genuinely love hiking any time of year (we just returned from a wonderful trip to Grandfather Mountain.). Unfortunately, I have a lot of outdoor allergies and other overactive immune conditions, so I have to manage my time outdoors carefully.

2. What is your favorite flower?
Hmm, this is tough. I really do adore sunflowers but also lilies, and orchids are a special kind of beautiful - especially the tiny wild ones that are often overlooked.

3. Any favorite warm weather activities?
Hiking, wading in streams, walking riverside, listening to thunderstorms. I do also appreciate occasional trips to the ocean to gaze at the beautiful blue-green Atlantic, feel the sand on my feet, and watch the ghost crabs and shore birds scurry about. I'm really fortunate to live in a place that gives me access to both ocean and mountains, within a few hours drive.

4. Have you ever kept a garden? If so, what did you grow?
We kept a small garden before moving to our current home which is on a heavily wooded lot which nearly full shade. We grew herbs (basil, fennel, dill, lavendar), tomatoes, peppers of all sorts, squash and zucchini. We tried a pumpkin on a whim. I do miss it from time to time and have been thinking about how/where to incorporate a small patch here. I currently have some herbs and small flowers in pots that I move about the yard as the seasons change.

5. Do you know how to swim?
Yes. Growing up my parents invested in one of those aboveground pools that are about 4-5 feet deep and built a deck to go around it. So in summers in middle school and high school I would spend many of my days out there. Not a huge amount of space but it gave me the means to swim and enjoy the water, and I spent a lot of time with my mom there. In college I took more formal swim lessons (was required for graduation, guess they didn't want their graduates to accidentally drown). I really enjoyed those as well as it taught me to better manage my breathing underwater.

I am way behind on everything, but I am happy to report that our trip to the mountains was in fact very lovely and a huge success. The weather held and so we were able to complete our planned hike from the Grandfather Mountain Extension Trail to Calloway Peak, as well as go out the next day to check out trails on the east side of the park.

I am having troubling finding the weight of words to describe how amazing the hikes were. The trail to Calloway Peak is an advanced trail with lots of exposed ridgeline, slippery runs supported by cables, soooo much boulder scrambling, a "chute" that is a steep slide of rockface that involves hand-over-hand scrambling (that I failed to get photos of because I wanted to not die), and 17 ladders that help climbers along the trail and access the various peaks (MacCrae, Attic Window, Calloway), tunnels, and viewpoints along the way. Sometimes the ladders are vertical, sometimes they are horizontal, sometimes they have fun angles in the middle. Sometimes you are basically scrambling on hands and feet across the edge of a rock face with nothing between you and the wild glory of the Blue Ridge. (Side note: a very large number of rocks required hiking my feet well above hip height to scramble, so I am very glad for mobility exercises.) ( +4 )

The trail is breathtaking, but the work to get up it will teach you something about yourself. I have always loved climbing (trees, rocks, fences, you name it) but there were even moments here where I wondered briefly if I was in over my head. ( +2 )

My photos do not do it justice. There is so much fir that parts of the trail smell like Christmas, while early blooms of mountain laurel, bluots, sand myrtle, and jewelweed, among others, sprout around and through rocks. ( +1 )

We ended up climbing 2,191 feet of elevation to arrive at Calloway, which is 5,946 ft about sea level. We stopped to have lunch on MacCrae peak along the way, so it took us about 4 hours to reach Calloway - luckily we were able to scramble down at a much faster 2.5 hours, and we opted on that route to take the Underwild trail to avoid having to retreat down a few of the more challenging ladders in reverse. However, even the Underwild is its own beast of navigating trails that are little more than an assortment of rocks to pick through.

The view from Calloway Peak

The full album of photos from the Grandfather Trail is here.

The next day we had been expecting rain and cold temperatures. The cold temperatures remained but the chance of rain dropped to zero, so we headed out to the pick up the east side trails via the Asusti and Tanawha trails, cutting over to the west on the Nuwati, south along the ridgeline on the Cragway until Flat Rock, and then looping back on the Daniel Boone Scout and Tanawha trails. The Asusti, Tanawha, and Nuwati trails reminded me very much of the creekside trails of Stone Mountain, but once we reached the Cragway we were in for another strenuous climb along a rocky ridgeline. That day was partly overcast, and as we climbed we would get warmer, then pause to bundle up as the winds picked up and the clouds cleared out. But the Cragway views looked almost autumnal, thanks to the early color of budding trees. It was hard to believe we were only about 2 miles from Calloway Peak.

A view from the Cragway - I love all the budding tree color!

A view of the colors of the Cragway.( +1" )

While this was a significantly easier hike (only about 700 ft of elevation gain), we still had lots of good opportunities to run around on rocky peaks, interspersed with groves of rhodendron and azalea. We stopped to have lunch along a Crag, before making our way to the next vista.( +1" )

The Cragway eventually takes you to Flat Rock, which is, as promised, a large, flat rock overlooking the valley. Trees have grown up around it, but if you find the right spots you can still get a decent view. ( +2" )

The full album of photos from the Nuwati-Cragway-Tanawha loop is here.

We eventually made our way back to our cabin (which was also lovely, it sat on 12 acres and had a lovely little creek, many beautiful trees, including my favorite tulip populars, and even a perfect rock ledge of its own), where we were able to soak back in some warmth.

All in all, we felt very accomplished. For myself - I can't explain, but being in the mountains, surrounded by the wild...it always feels like coming home. The beauty there brings me to tears every time, and I just feel more a part of everything. There is also something to just soaking up nature and clean yummy mountain air and stretching your body in fun and challenging ways under the sun and clouds and sky. Especially with the one you love. We were sad to leave, but are still thinking about it and already thinking about our next big excursion. I may be talking about it a while.

May you be well, may you be loved, may you be at peace, may you find beauty in any given moment. ♥

Getting to

thefridayfive late this week:

1. What decade did you attend/are you attending high school or college?
Mid-90s through early 2000s.

2. What clothing fashion from that time are you glad/do you wish went out of style?
Babydoll dresses. Every once in a great while I miss grunge before remembering that some folks just showed up dirty. Also there are far fewer folks wearing black lipstick these days.

3. Do you still listen to the music from your high school/college years on a regular basis?
Sometimes I spool up 90s songs at the gym or in the car, but mostly I find it playing in public spaces. Hearing "Sex and Candy" at the grocery store (the original or as a Muzak version) or NIN's "Closer" while at physical therapy have been a little disconcerting.

4. What hairstyle/hair color did/do you wear during high school/college?
In high school I pretty much wore my natural hair color, probably fried a little with Sun-In because we were not a family that could afford salon highlights. In college, I probably went through 20 different hairstyles, from long to bob to pixie. I tried the Rachel but on me it just looked like bad layering. Also my hair color went from bright blonde to deep auburn to dark black. An old acquaintance once joked that I would change my hair after every major life decision, and she wasn't wrong. It may have been my way of trying to combat the depression I was in.

5. What was/is "the cool thing to do" while in high school/college?
Gods, I have no clue what this would be, I was a social outcast. I came of age in a podunk area and being an outsider to them, wasn't able to fit in anywhere. I spent a lot of high school lunches hiding in my teachers' rooms as the cafeteria was brutal. I had my first child early in college/at age 19, which is an entirely different story unto itself, so I didn't have a typical experience there, either. That said, that is the age in which I discovered Livejournal, and met several lifelong friends. ♥

There's a friending meme over at

3weeks4dreamwidth (which is starting today!)

Colorful image that says 3weeks4dreamwidth friending meme

Yesterday, a far-right authoritarian dictator was ousted from government, much to the relief of Europe and much of the rest of the world. This particular dictator is one whom the American administration has modeled many of its tactics after, including its targeting of transfolks and erasing of LGBTQIA+ individuals from public life, and so to see it ousted with such deafening victory gives a small sense of relief, even as the danger continues to lurk, there and elsewhere.

~o~

I either ate or came into contact with something I shouldn't have, as the last couple of days have yielded a fine but irritating rash all over my face/neck and arms, and some light difficulty getting a deep breath. I did do a little yard clean-up on Saturday, but I kept it minimal due to the dryness and the pollen. I scrutinized my meals and didn't find any different ingredients beyond what I expected, so, unless I am reacting more to bell peppers or peanuts while other allergens are in the air, I'm not sure it's that. I need to try to follow up on my injection meds today and I'm not looking forward to it given the attitude I received on Friday. But also... breathing and not having painful itchy skin constantly would be great. Thankfully, L. took on the mowing of weeds along the front of the house/road yesterday, and I decided to stay in.

I had moved the dormant trees that I received to water soak and then to pots, but with the complete lack of rain and extended drought, it is requiring a certain amount of vigilance to keep them happy. I also found a tulip popular seedling has landed right behind the house in my "to be" herb garden bed. I tried to measure off to confirm that it is at least 15 feet from the back porch, and it seems that it is, so I may well leave it where it is. Tulip poplars are one of my favorite natives, but they are also troublesome to have too close given that they grow more swiftly than other trees, and are known for more breakage. We have at least 3-4 others in the yard of various ages - the largest is along our property right between the two houses, and is quite tall, but I have yet to see it flower, so it is presumably still a tween.

~o~

It seems fitting to oust an old-world mindset at the beginning of spring. Here's hoping that what buds in its place can be nurtured into a more democratic and just world. Here's hoping its tendrils spread and grow and provide bravery and strength for the rest of those that need it.

From this week's

thefridayfive:

1. What was the last book you read (or are currently reading)?
Still working my way through The Urban Bestiary (Lyanda Lynn Haupt), Hidden Potential (Adam Grant), and Silent Spring (Rachel Carson).

2. What was the last movie you watched?
Project Hail Mary, which we enjoyed immensely.

3. What television series are you currently watching?
The Pitt (HBO Max), Paradise (Hulu), Hacks (HBO Max), Reservation Dogs (Hulu)

4. What are some of your favorite blogs or communities online?
Argh, I don't have a good answer for this one, my blog reading is limited to blogs of personal friends, and I do not have a lot of specific communities that I follow, but I do love my Reading Page/DW Network! I have also crafted a nifty BlueSky feed of climate scientists, renewable energy/energy efficiency experts, biologists/ecologist, historians, and astronomy/astrophysics accounts that is pretty affirming. Which reminds me, someone created a feed of cats watching the Artemis II splashdown last night that was pretty fun to scroll.

5. What social media do you belong to and check often?
Dreamwidth and BlueSky are the only places I check regularly. I have a FB account to maintain contact with some folks that I can't otherwise see elsewhere, but I largely keep it deactivated and check in only here and there. The platform is largely unusable to me these days and mostly foists AI slop, communities/personalities I don't follow or care for, or ads...not to mention the issues of maintaining an account tied to your government name while trying to exist as a person part of communities that are being actively attacked by the U.S. government. For the people in those communities that do feel comfortable enough to still post there, you are very brave, I am not. Other than that, I do occasionally read through some communities/book clubs on Fable.

Artemis II. Amaze Amaze Amaze. 💚💙💜

Yesterday was very full of chores - the house was cleaned, the yard cleared of the last storm remnants and pollen pods (spoiler alert: new storms today), and then I worked on some sketching and reading before making a curried tofu dish for supper. I caught up on 4 more back episodes of WTNV,

Today we sorted out the menu planning and grocery shopping. I have managed to get chapters covered in each of the three books I am reading (Hidden Potential, The Urban Bestiary, and Silent Spring). I worked more on filling out the sketching (not really pleased with the outcome, but it's okay - you never get good at anything by avoiding it, so I am learning to settle for "good enough for what I was going for").

I also managed to secure my mom's banana bread recipe from my sister, and then reproduced it with some minor tweaks to get it vegan (all hail the flaxseed egg!). This was a little bit of fun because my sister only had a photo of the top side of the recipe card, and not the back - so I had the ingredients, but not all the instructions. But I made some deductions and it came out good! It is not very healthy, unfortunately. And alas, I swear my mother put raisins in everything. It has pecans, too. Anyway, childhood flavors unlocked. ♥

I finally took the time to unbundle the trees/plants I'd acquired (white dogwood, eastern redbuds, washington hawthorns, crabapples, and crape myrtles) and begin soaking them, and have acquired some temp soil to give them places to rest while I figure out their permanent placement according to light/shade needs.

I have managed to flesh out my weekly planner, and took time to feel out my March reflections and adjust my April goals. I am feeling moderately hopeful that this will be a good month.

I don't know that I have it in me to do NaPoeWriMo this year, but lhe local writer's group is hosting an April poetry contest. I placed 2nd the last time I entered, but I'll need to think on the topic and guidelines provided to see if I can get anything of merit together for this year's submissions.

May your week be pleasant (don't look at the news, don't look at the news, don't look at the news). ♥

I do not usually have the patience for videos, especially those longer than a minute or two, but this gorgeous experiment to capture fire burning from underneath in slow motion is genuinely beautiful.

From this week's

thefridayfive:

1. What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?
At the time (maybe 1999/2000?), I was working for an environmental nonprofit, and a coworker introduced me to the Livejournal site. I think they might have regretted it, as I was going through a stage of re-examining every belief I had ever been taught regarding religion, spirituality, sexuality, etc., and I wrote all the time. I changed journals there at least twice (maybe more), but settled as beuatyofgrey. I moved to DW not long after the Russian acquisition of LJ, and have undergone a few different variations here. I used to cross-post a lot, but I found the ever-changing format of the LJ site and the mods that made it more, well, modern internet...really no longer felt right.

2. How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?
I'm subscribed to 39 DW communities, though the majority of them are very quiet. I haven't logged into my old LJ account in a very long time - my last visit there was simply to download and collect digital photos I had uploaded, which included many old grainy photos of my kids in their youth. I miss the old LJ communities vegan_cooking and fatshionista, though.

3. Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?
I enjoy awesomeers and agonyaunt, one of which provides encouragement, the other which provides advice (though I think sometimes I would never offer my own life up for examination by agonyaunt, because while the advice is sometimes quite lovely it also comes from our own limited understandings of the circumstances and decisions that led letter-writers to where they are.)

4. How did you pick your user name?
*sigh* It actually came from a quote by Neil Degrasse Tyson, which I used to have in a sidebox on my page before he was accused of sexual assault and before it became apparent that he is really quite full of himself. The quote was:

“The knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on earth - the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars- the high mass ones among them- went unstable in their later years- they collapsed and then exploded- scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy- guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems- stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky, and I know that yes we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up- many people feel small, cause their small and the universe is big. But I feel big because my atoms came from those stars.”

5. If you could change your user name, would you?
Every once in a while I think about changing back to a temporary name that I used for fiction and poetry writing, but because I have already renamed my journal once, I think I am unable to rename again and it is impossible to revert to the prior name. But that's okay! I have frequently moved my journal and contents and identity throughout my life because I am constantly changing as a human, and my understanding of life and where I am at changes as well. For now, ofearthandstars still fits.

Yesterday we cleaned the house early (caught up on 4 more back episodes of WTNV), then went out to see Project Hail Mary at the theatre. Both L. and I have read the book, and were anxious to see how its adaptation to film went. Personally, I really enjoyed it! For starters, it's just cinematographically beautiful—the visuals and music are stunning, the portrayal of the astrophage engines and the Petrova lines was gorgeous, and Rocky's unique form and movements were handled well. You can be drawn in and forget that a large portion of the film is Ryan Gosling talking to himself and/or a puppet. The science teacher tee shirt game was also on point! But I really appreciated - other than some serious trimming down/speeding up of timelines and having to avoid some of the more notably nerdy chemistry of the book - that the film stayed fairly true to the novel. Also, I read that some folks were annoyed by the pick of Gosling, but I thought he did justice to Dr. Grace's character, especially as the film went deeper. There are few overly goofy bits, but they were overshadowed by other aspects of the film. Anyway, definitely think it is worth the watch!

Today has been much more lackluster. Budget sheet, meal planning, and grocery shopping is out of the way for the week, and I have just wrapped up our 2025 taxes. Federal are filed and in queue, the state will have to be mailed physically since we don't qualify for any of the free e-file options. I do need to work on my next 3-month goals and updating my planner, which I'll do shortly once I finally put the laptop away for the day.

It has been a beautiful weekend out, but The Pollening has seriously started in. I used to berate myself for not doing more gardening and outdoor spring planting, but the current state of being unable to touch nearly anything that has gone outside and being unable to get in and out of cars or go for walks without a physical reaction reminds me why that is.

I recently tried downloading Hoopla to see if it offered more options than Libby, but for my local library, the answer is no. I thought there was a secret trick somewhere to getting access to more library offerings for free, but at this time the most I can find is links to getting a non-resident card for an annual fee. (I mostly use my local county library for e-book offerings, but their selection is limited in a lot of ways.) I am hoping to read along with a work-based book club that has kicked off, but also do not want to necessarily need to purchase everything they cover. I do have some Bookshop.org gift money available, but I have reserved that for fun/want to reads of my own choosing.

The week ahead looks fairly quiet, except I have a therapy appointment that I am looking forward to/very much need.

May you be safe, may you be healthy and well, may you be content, and may you find beauty and joy in your present moment. ♥

Current Mood: productive

I finally finished reading An Immense World by Ed Yong this morning. Part of me felt guilty for taking so long, but, well, the paperback version I purchased had ridiculously tiny print, so required reading with both reading glasses + reading light, and is not something I could simply lie down and absorb passively. Also, each chapter is so full of interesting research and covers several different species and their unique senses/Umwelts, and so it is definitely a book that requires a little bit of savoring and time for adsorption. It's Ed Yong, though, so it's accessible, and views the world with Delight, which is as it should be.

I also finished up Patchwork Dolls a little bit ago. I enjoyed it, the feel of it reminded me a lot of "Tales from the Loop", but with a bit of a feminist undertone. My book reviews are saved here.

Podcast wise, I am behind in everything, but still enjoying catching up on back episodes of WTNV while cleaning. One day I will be caught up (except they keep producing -- not that I'm complaining!) That said, the Weather in one of the episodes I heard today was absolutely stunning.

We are still watching "The Pitt" (♥ though the formula is predictable); "Reservation Dogs" (♥ adore, and genuinely funny); "Hacks" (decent); and "Tiny Beautiful Things" (not sure how I feel about this one yet). I'm also catching up on Grey's Anatomy (which, I know, okay, but I started that show by binging the first 8+ seasons while recovering from hip surgery and having to pass a lot of time on a stationary bike, and now I must just see it through). Also enjoying new episodes of "Bridgerton", and I do not care if L. refers to it as my smut, it is fancy woke Regency fantasy smut, and I will enjoy turning off my brain and letting myself enjoy the inanity of it all because...pretty flowers, pretty clothing, pretty peoples.

Anyhoo...the house is cleaned (~*\o/*~), the back porch is swept, and I have a little time to relax before this evening's festivities.

May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be content and at peace. ♥

From this week's

thefridayfive:

1. Do you know of any other words for snow? What's your favourite and why?
The main other languages I know any of are Spanish, French, Italian, or German, so: nieve, neige, neve, or schnee. I think my favorite is just snow, though, if that's okay. The Spanish/French/Italian versions also elicit a sense of the quiet calm that comes with the event, though.

2. What's your ideal temperature range for winter?
40-56°F, with maybe a couple of days in the 20-30°F range. The cold makes me hurt.

3. Favourite winter activity? What about it makes it your favourite?
Probably making hot cocoa, because it's a special drink that everyone looks forward to, and can be a nice reward for any outdoor work. I also tend to bake more in winter, since it helps to warm the house, and we try to avoid using the oven as much as we can the rest of the year.

4. What are three things you can't do without when winter arrives?
Armwarmers, warm socks, a hot drink.

5. Do you have favourite winter holiday activities?
I love a bonfire, or even just a candle, burning through the solstice. I also love the clarity of the winter night sky, but I do not get out to enjoy stargazing as much as I used to.

From this week's

thefridayfive:

1. What made you happy this week?
I managed to knock out a fair amount of tasks at work, and also achieved some monthly goals (planning for upcoming trips/birthdays). Feeling accomplished is good.

2. What made you sad?
I can't say that I've felt particularly sad over the last week, but I've been doing a lot of continued grieving over work and personal life changes in the last year.

3. What made you angry?
The news—from Kansas, from Minnesota, from EPA, from Iran, from everywhere. I'm so tired of terrible people being terrible.

4. What are you looking forward to in the next week?
My SO has a birthday next weekend, and we'll be celebrating that as best we can.

5. What are you not looking forward to?
My daily work is a bit of a slog right now, and it's hard to stay mentally motivated and engaged.

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Grey

July 2026

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