Birdfeeding

Oct. 24th, 2026 12:34 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.







.
umadoshi: (autumn - carved pumpkins (wilde_hearts))
[personal profile] umadoshi
Reading: I read Siren Queen (Nghi Vo), which was unsurprisingly gorgeous, and I've started reading Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat (Bee Wilson); I'm also technically still rereading Wilson's The Secret of Cooking, but haven't made recent progress. Oh, and I read a few more chapters of the Dungeon Crawler Carl webcomic.

Last night I suddenly got a normal daily update email from Goodreads. No indication of why it stopped for a couple solid weeks. We'll see if it continues.

Watching: Last night I saw eps. 25-26 of Zhan Zhao Adventures (of 37), so I'm getting there! Just not quickly. I'm still not following the politics well at all, which is in character for me. And during the week [personal profile] scruloose and I saw an episode or two of The Apothecary Diaries.

Weathering: We've had a few rainy, windy days here, but the weekend's weather is looking good. This weather note is really to say that Cape Breton got some snow over the last day or two. o_o Hopefully it isn't sticking around.

Smelling pretty smells: The BPAL Hallowe'en release dropped this week, and after a day or so of agonizing, I (mostly) succeeded in convincing myself (because it's true) that no matter how lovely it all sounds, and despite there being sixteen or so scents I'm interested in (they are on my wishlist spreadsheet, largely in hopes that writing them down has exorcised them from my brain), I absolutely do not need to go in on a decant circle. (Even if it has been about twelve years since I caved on decant circles and I do eventually want to get some newer Samhain...so I can let it age to the point that I like it, but have something newer than 2014.) I essentially don't wear the scents I have; I haven't even tried all of the scents I have (and IIRC have still literally never entirely used up an imp, although part of that is the hoarding instinct, not because I couldn't have worn a favorite enough to be finished with it); the exchange rate and shipping would make it stupidly expensive; and it has been an expensive month here in general.

It did all at least remind me break out my existing Weenies stash and wear scents on a few days.

Farmshare: This is the second-last week of our farmshare for the year (we both lean toward doing it again next year, but the short eight-week one with a fairly small number of openings that's picking up immediately after this one filled up before we decided whether or not to sign up), and by midweek we still had rather a lot of last week's veggies left to work through. Thursday, when we were roughly planning to go do our weekly pickup, wound up being busy and exhausting, so with the end of the farmshare season arriving so soon, we decided to put this week's pickup off until tomorrow (and here's hoping I'm right that the farmshare week rolls over between Sunday and Monday). That'll mean our pickup for the final week is also a weekend one, but we won't be risking a steadily-increasing backlog.

Instead, Thursday night we washed and froze the black kale and celery, the latter of which we also first ran through the food processor. The kale and some of the celery are destined (barring incident) for Samin Nosrat's Tuscan bean and kale soup tomorrow, and that'll leave us some amount of celery for future soups (although so many recipes call for a number of stalks that it'll all be an estimate). Then last night we used up all of our potatoes and leeks and a remaining half of a Savoy cabbage in a second batch of potato leek (with cabbage) soup, so the produce situation is much more under control...until tomorrow.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Nine works new to me: Three fantasy, one mystery, two SF, and three TTRPG (fantasy), of which at least fourish are series.

Books Received, October 17 — October 23, 2026


Poll #35245 Books Received, October 17 — October 23, 2026
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Wrecker’s Point by Dave Allen, Clive Oldfield, Simon Wileman et al (Q2 2027)
1 (5.3%)

Consider the Ravens by Cressida Downing (July 2027)
8 (42.1%)

A Curse Carved in Ink by Tzeyi Koay (January 2027)
4 (21.1%)

On the Road to Ruin by Brian McClellan (May 2027)
1 (5.3%)

The Disintegration Loops by Ray Nayler (May 2027)
6 (31.6%)

Brightfire by Jordan Rivet (July 2027)
2 (10.5%)

Twilight Sword Core Rules by Riccardo ​“Rico” Sirignano, Simone Formicola, et al (October 2026)
5 (26.3%)

Twilight Sword Lands of Radia by Riccardo ​“Rico” Sirignano, Simone Formicola, et al (October 2026)
2 (10.5%)

Moonshine Becomes You by Olivia Waite (June 2027)
9 (47.4%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (5.3%)

Cats!
15 (78.9%)

Days 19-24

Oct. 25th, 2026 12:50 am
mific: (A pen and ink)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] drawesome
Title: Days 19-24 on my DW journal
Artist: [personal profile] mific
Rating: Gen
Fandom: mostly original works, plus Dracula.
Characters: Dracula. a Cheshire cat, but not the one from Alice.
Notes: Made in Procreate for the prompts: potion, jack o' lantern, black cat, crystal ball, witch hat, candy.

see DW post for details


Drawtober 24th

Oct. 24th, 2026 04:30 pm
leecetheartist: A lime green dragon head, with twin horns, and red trim. Very gentle looking, with a couple spirals of smoke from nose. (Default)
[personal profile] leecetheartist posting in [community profile] drawesome
Title: Drawtober 23
Artist: [personal profile] leecetheartist  
Rating: G
Fandom: - n/a
Content Notes:
 
Drawtober 24. The prompt here is 'candy'.  It's thought that in early to mid spring, so it's a bit past that now, that Nyoongar people might have made cuts in the bark of the jam tree, or Mangart, to encourage the outwelling of its edible, sweet sap for collection in the hot Birak and Burnulu times later in the year.
 
When cut the wood is sweet, fruity smelling.
 
I haven't damaged my tree, I'm going to let it give me sap if it wants to, at this stage.
 
Drew this with the Pelikano and Van Diemen's  August 2024 Ink.





Tree sketch Skinny leaf

Fossils

Oct. 24th, 2026 02:22 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Four giant footprints reveal how T. rex walked 66 million years ago

Four giant footprints in North Dakota are likely the first trail left by an adult T. rex, and they suggest it walked at a brisk human pace.
ysabetwordsmith: Text says New Year Resolutions on notebook (resolutions)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[community profile] goals_on_dw is a community for people who like goals and goal setting. A key focus is New Year's resolutions, that being among the most popular contexts for such activities. Although the most common time is January 1, "new year" can also refer to other calendars or cultures, whatever works for you. Alternatively, just pick a time that works for you and go for it. You can introduce yourself or make new friends here.

We talk about different goal systems, pros and cons of resolutions, arts and crafts for tracking goals, human psychology, and more. You can share your resolutions or other goals. There are weekly check-in posts in January, and monthly ones in the rest of the year, for folks to talk about their accomplishments. December-January is the most active period, and it starts ramping up in November as lots of people begin thinking about their goals for the next year.

2026 Free Printable Calendars, Planners, and More is the guide post for this years goal-setting activities. For more details on relevant topics, see "Things You Can Talk About Here."

( Read more... )

Philosophical Questions: Transporter

Oct. 24th, 2026 12:15 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

If the transporters in Star Trek existed and you used it, your particles would be disassembled and then reassembled, do you die every single time? Are you ever alive at two places at once? Are you ever completely dead?

( Read more... )

Lakes and rocks

Oct. 24th, 2026 06:51 am
angrboda: Viking style dragon head finial against a blue sky (Default)
[personal profile] angrboda posting in [community profile] common_nature
We went to Sweden for our summer holiday this year. Even though are countries are neighbours, most of Sweden is on a rocky underground and with one small exception Denmark is one a chalky limestone underground, so there are some rather noticeable and, from a Danish perspective, dramatic differences.

There may be a few of you who have come over from Pillowfort and you may have seen some of these pictures before as I've been posting them in a steady stream there.

A view of a lake with a lot of rocks in a long structure jutting out into it

( Six more pictures under the cut. )

Weekend Cooking: Chicken a la king

Oct. 24th, 2026 12:41 pm
snowynight: colourful musical note (Default)
[personal profile] snowynight
 16 portions, ¾ cup each.
 
  • ½ cup chicken fat, butter, or margarine
  • 6 tablespoons chopped green pepper
  • 3 cups canned mushrooms
  • ¾ cup sifted all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 3 cups milk
  • 6 tablespoons finely cut pimiento
  • 3 pints diced cooked chicken
Instructions:

Melt the fat and cook green pepper and mushrooms in it about 5 minutes. Blend in the flour and salt, then add broth and milk. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add pimiento and chicken. Blend well.
 
To serve immediately. Heat the mixture thoroughly and serve on biscuits, hot, buttered toast, or in timbales.
 
To freeze. Cool the food quickly. Pack in freezer containers, leaving head space (p. 4). (Pint containers are preferable to larger ones because large blocks of chicken a la king are difficult to thaw.) Seal and freeze immediately.
 
To prepare for serving. Without thawing, heat frozen chicken a la king in the top of a double boiler, about 30 minutes for 1 pint.
 
Menu suggestion. Serve with asparagus and stuffed tomato salad, and upside-down cake.

Today's Adventures

Oct. 23rd, 2026 11:29 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] common_nature
Today we went on the Fall Foliage Tour at Whiteside Garden.

Sourgum leaves are turning red.

Sourgum leaves are turning red.

( Read more... )

Today's Adventures

Oct. 23rd, 2026 10:46 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we went on the Fall Foliage Tour at Whiteside Garden.

Sourgum leaves are turning red.

Sourgum leaves are turning red.

( Read more... )

How to Write without AI

Oct. 23rd, 2026 07:32 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
How to Stop Using AI to Write: Introduction
by Rascal Hartley in [personal profile] duckprintspress

editor’s note: Duck Prints Press is highly anti-gen-AI in all usages, but we recognize it’s very easy to say “don’t do that” and very hard, for people who have gotten used to using a tool, to actually stop. That is the spirit behind this series of posts: not simply “don’t do that,” but a concrete guide for people who have gotten into the habit of using generative AI to do their heavy lifting and want to stop but aren’t sure how to do so.


Excellent plan. I'll add some resources for this...

( Read more... )

Halloween Music offering

Oct. 23rd, 2026 09:07 pm
senmut: spooky cat on a jackolantern (General: Halloween 3)
[personal profile] senmut
28 Halloween themed songs over at [community profile] communal_creators. Neat little list, crowdsourced from my discord with several of the CC people contributing to making it. All vids open in their own tabs (or should) and please go browse to inspire you this upcoming week!

New Music

Oct. 23rd, 2026 08:31 pm
senmut: Notes of music above a rainbow swirl (General: Musical Rainbow)
[personal profile] senmut
Cyndi Lauper with Cyril as well as Tones and I - "Time After Time" dance mix was a little catchy.

Dave Fenley - "Gettin' Older" is very calm country and I liked it.

Ayron Jones - "Glad You Came" is a hard rock vibe that works for me.

John Legend with Pharrell Williams - "Are You OK?" has a smooth vibe.

Music Travel Love with Dan Lagroma - "Winds of Change" cover, they kept the whistling, softened it, cut the music back a bit... it's good.

Tiffany with Chris Holmes and also Vinny Appice - I expected to ignore this cover of "Edge of Seventeen" because Stevie Nicks has the lock down on her songs for me. EXCEPT. This decided to go hard rock instead and I think I like it.

Didn't care for the last The Rolling Stones new one but - "Who You Callin' Crazy" actually worked well for me.

(80s girl power this week, with Cyndi Lauper, Tiffany, and Debbie Gibson (not good) all showing up)

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