larryhammer | Network

Scientists trace fertilizer microplastics from fields to beaches

Tiny plastic coatings from farm fertilizers are quietly reshaping the mystery of “missing plastics” in the ocean.

Plastic-coated fertilizers used on farms are emerging as a major but hidden source of ocean microplastics. A new study found that only a tiny fraction reaches beaches through rivers, while direct drainage from fields to the sea sends far more plastic back onto shore. Once there, waves and tides briefly trap the particles on beaches before many vanish again. This helps explain why so much plastic pollution seems to disappear after reaching the ocean.

That sounds like another problem that could be reduced with a ban on using plastic to make microbeads.

Current Mood: busy

yellowrosess posting in

icons

Fashion/outfits
Cats text
Fashion art
Yoga
Vampire Diaries cast

yr3014

rest HERE @ yellowrosess

teaotter posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

sweetsorcery

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

shadowkat

Had today off - since it's MLK's Birthday. (It's also a day of service, but alas, I'm being insanely lazy and resting my knees.)

Found out last night that my niece passed her EMT training and is a now a certified EMT. Also she may end up in Georgia at some point in May, with a course on how to prevent fires by setting them (burning off brush). My lovely niece is well on the way towards her goal of becoming a forest ranger. It's actually easier to protect trees than people. People are difficult. So, I'm glad she shifted from human rights to environmental protection and forestry.

I'm really enjoying my re-watch of Buffy and Angel. The later seasons hold up better than the earlier ones do - partly because the later seasons were done in the early 00s and not the late 1990s. So while there's still the errant - "I ran like a girl" - the other characters snort at it.

Season 7 and Season 4 Angel actually have some well-written episodes in there. Deep Down - S4 Angel, where Wes searches the ocean for Angel and rescues him, and Angel, Gunn and Fred confront Connor is a good episode. And Wes has become very interesting.

Also, the first episodes of S7 are really good. I find the series more entertaining now than I did when I initially watched it. Maybe because while I don't remember most of the details, I remember the final result, so don't have quite the same anticipation or worry that I had when I first watched it - when it aired for the first time in 1997-2003. Also, I'm not as invested in the romantic "ships"? I know they are all doomed. So, it's comforting in a way it wasn't back then. And, I'm not trying to figure out where it is going, or pulling it apart like a puzzle to figure out what will happen next. There's something to be said for not over-analyzing the plots of television shows?

Buffy S7 Takeaways?
( Lessons through Beneath ME )

And Angel S4 is more enjoyable than I remembered. It's kind of obvious though that the writers are writing out Cordelia.( Read more... )

Wes's arc is more enjoyable than Cordelia's. ( Read more... )

They brought in Gwen to chemistry test her against Angel and Gunn, as a potential replacement for Cordelia - I can tell. She got a back story and everything.

I don't remember most of this - or enjoying it nearly this much.

**

Outside of television watching - I did another watercolor. Not perfect. This is of a confrontation between a little old woman with a walker and big truck that I saw ages ago in Jamaica, but can still visualize.

stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

1word1day

bristlecone [ˈbri-səl-ˌkōn-]

noun

a pine, Pinus aristata, of the southwestern U.S., bearing short needles crowded into long, thick bundles and cones having scales tipped with a slender, curved spine; one of the longest-lived trees, useful in radiocarbon dating

examples
1. Ultimately, it's the rising temperatures and droughts associated with global warming that will significantly impinge upon Nature's finest masterpiece -- the near-immortal Great Basin bristlecone pines. Dr. Reese Halter: Saving the Ancient Pines by Reducing our Global Footprints, 2010

2. "There is a bristlecone pine tree that's nearly five thousand years old."
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

origin
first recorded use of the word 1893

unicornduke

Hey all, if you'd like to join the crafting hangout, it is tonight from 6-8pm ET!

Video encouraged but not required!

Topic: Crafting Hangout

Time: Mondays 6:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

Link

Meeting ID: 973 2674 2763

green

I made a post about this on Tumblr, but not here yet. Here goes.

I started a GoFundMe for dental expenses.

Last year, I broke one of my teeth, and since it's a front tooth, there's more to it than just pulling it out the way my insurance wants (and that's the only way they will pay for it, just if I have them yank it out). I went to a dentist I'm comfortable with (big deal for my anxiety and agoraphobia) and had an exam and got a treatment plan, but I haven't been back since I couldn't actually afford it. I thought I had time to save up, but then there were holidays and I did not save at all. Except now the tooth is infected, and I need to get it taken care of very soon.

I've been having some very lean months. Everything is so expensive. I don't know what to do, really, except ask for help yet again.

The GFM is specifically for the tooth (which is going to cost me about $2600 over 3 visits), but I also have a cashapp ($beingagreenmother) and ko-fi for grocery and bill money.

Thank you for listening.

Current Mood: sore

tellshannon815

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

Honestly, trope doesn't entirely resonate. I can remember years ago, seeing something about tropes and just not relating to any of all that forced to share a bed/enemies to lovers/coffee shop AU stuff. But I do have a theme, which is alternate timelines. What if So and so never died? What if the villain made the obvious choice that the original writers seem to have somehow totally missed? What if Character X was the one to move from his cancelled spinoff to the main show? I have done them all.

The first series I ever saw to completion was Once Upon a Time, where Jafar was the one to move across from the Wonderland spinoff to the main show (imagine his lamp ending up in Gold's shop and Zelena accidentally letting him out). Another one was The Flash, where Eobard manipulated Nora into giving Barry the metahuman cure and the finale showed a dystopian 2049 that resulted from this (at the time I started that, I was convinced that was the route canon was going to take; to this day, I still don't get why the writers wasted time on Cicada rather than pursuing this route and just letting Eobard be the bad guy). I've saved Sun, Jin and Sayid on Lost several times over (and after a prompt in last year's three sentence ficathon, I was even tempted to expand on my attempt at Smokey McSmokeFace going back to the classical Roman era to get off the island while he was still human).

And yes, I have a few ongoing such works which I'm determined to finish. The School Spirits one where Mr Martin chooses to possess Emilio instead and the impact this has on Charley and Yuri is barely started (the upcoming new season may help with that), and I am determined I will push past my mental block on a) the Lost series where Sun joined the others in 1977 (I lost heart after the decision in canon to kill her off, which I still strongly disagree with 15 years on) and b) the Dark series where Ulrich successfully rescues Mikkel from 1986 (at this rate, I think I'm actually going to end up going down the Choose Your Own Adventure route, one where Ulrich and Mikkel get their happy ending and the minimum of characters are erased from existence, and one where Claudia gets hers.)

kitewithfish

I am post- Arisia 2026* and I have come out of it with book recs and it was fascinating and I’m so so interested in sharing them with you and I’m tiiiired.

Some books and things that were mentioned in the panels I went to!

Moonwise Greer Gilman (out of print, may be on the internet archive) but part of a series that the author hopes to continue (I sense publisher problems)

Gillian Daniels is getting a book out! Jenny Will Eat You Now

Noble Train of Artillery

Carol Berg The Spirit Lens

Kingdoms of the Elfin by Sylvia Townsend

Out of the Dark David Weber

The Glass Pearls Emeric Pressburger – the panel that recommended this was interesting, as one of them mentioned that this book is full of the author’s memoirs of his youth in Hungary before he fled the Nazis and lost his family, disguised in the story as memories stolen from a Jewish victim of a Nazi war criminal. Pressburg was also a writer for film and some of them seem engaging.

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (movie)

There is no Antimemetics Division qntm

BLIT (short story) by David Langford in Different Kinds of Darkness

Dark is better Gemma Files

The Moment of Change Rose Lemberg (one story in particular but I didn’t actually log it with the title of the book)

Andrea Hairston – The Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays (This sounded very funny)

Jane Yolen Wizard Hall

Elisha Barber by E C Ambrose (also publishes as E Chris Ambrose)

Virconium M John Harrison

M.R James – various ghost stories

Rosemary Kirstein – Steerswoman

The Stones are Hatching Geraldine ……

Cemetery of Forgotten Books - Wikipedia

Library of the Unwritten Aj Hackworth

The Book of Joan Lidia Yukanovitch

Wearing the Lion – john Wiswell (however, did not enjoy Someone You Can Build a Nest in, but it showed promising elements)

Nothing in the Basement – Romie Stott

Press Enter John Varley

Tony Tulathimutte – Rejection

Brent Weeks The Way of Shadows

Christopher Moore A Dirty Job

St Joan of the Stockyards – Bertolt Brecht

*Arisia is ongoing, but I am not.

trobadora

In the first draft poll, 30% of respondents usually produce a first draft that's very close to the final draft, and no one usually produces first drafts that barely bear resemblance to the final draft. And most respondents (57%) at least sometimes produce a first draft very close to the final draft. *g*

For the "usual" question, slightly more people have too-wordse first drafts (25%, compared to 20% for too sparse), whereas in the "sometimes" question, too sparse is more common (38%) than too words (23%).

(70% of respondents believe that tickyboxes know no such thing as overkill, btw!)

As for me, it differs wildly - I used to produce very clean first drafts that didn't get changed much during editing/betaing, but for the last several years now it's been much more inconsistent. The more I struggle with either writing or finding time/energy to write, the worse my first drafts get - because sometimes I just have to get something, anything, down first, or I won't get anywhere at all. But it's pretty frustrating, so I want to get back to how I used to write, and I need to figure out how to do that with less time and energy than I used to have ...

One thing's remained the same, though: my first drafts are generally too sparse, which is why they always grow - sometimes considerably - during editing as I flesh them out and add in all the things that I had in my head but didn't put in the actual text. *g*

Today's writing

Again not as much as I'd like. I need to actually sit down and finish something, but it's hard to find the energy.

WED Question of the Day

Today I don't have a poll, but instead a request for advice: when you're low on energy, do you have any strategies that make it easier to write? Or to get started writing, at least? Because I often find myself just staring blankly at a page for way too long until I somehow get going, and I'd really rather not. *g* When I have more energy, I can usually get there much more easily, which is really unfair. :p

(I want to be writing! I feel better once I actually get started writing! But getting there is such a pain on some days. *grumbles*)

Tally

( Days 1-15 )

Day 16:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

chanter1944,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 17:

alightbuthappypen,

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

chanter1944,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 18:

badly_knitted,

chanter1944,

cornerofmadness,

luzula,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 19:

china_shop,

trobadora

Let me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)

owlmoose

The Scavenger Door by Suzanne Palmer : The third book in The Finder Chronicles; as much fun as its predecessors, and the end had me immediately turning around to start book four. ( Spoilery thoughts. )

Non-spoilery thought: Suzanne Palmer sure knows what it's like to live with a cat.

Um Actually live show: I don't subscribe to Dropout, so I'm sadly unfamiliar with most of their shows, but during high pandemic, they dropped a bunch of Um Actually episodes on YouTube, and T and I spent a lot of time watching them. So when we learned that there would a live show at this year's SF Sketchfest, we immediately decided to get tickets. The panel, which was not announced in advance, was Janet Varney, Marc Evan Jackson, and Tawny Newsome; they were an awesome group who played well off the hosts and each other, and we had a great time.

Current Mood: good

pattrose

I went to Google, looked him up, and have been reading all morning. I remembered a lot of it. It was nice spending the morning with him in my mind. I hope everyone else does the same thing.

( Moodboard )

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/01/19/allan-clayton-performs-hans-zenders-version-of-winterreise/

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny and cold.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and a lady cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen two starlings and a male cardinal.

EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night. 5:20 and I can still see light in the west. :D

Current Mood: busy

slippery_fish

Just found out that Spry Fox is going independent again.

!!!!

So maybe (maybe?) Cozy Grove 2 for the Nintendo Switch?

Pretty, please with a Spririt Bear on top?

davidgillon

My sister and I were telling my mother (who is in hospital again) that we had been meeting with her doctor, but he had to dash off because he's adopting and had a meeting with the social worker.

My mother instantly looked across at me and said "He can have that one".

Current Mood: Hmmph!
Current Location: Not wanted on voyage

newredshoes

I am sitting in Gingko's favorite chair, which is an immensely comfortable yellow wingback that perfectly takes advantage of the sunny south-facing windows, which are extra sunny today because it is hideously cold and will continue to be so and worse for a week at least. Gingko is also sitting in this chair, which is not large enough for both of us, but my smart girl is making it work. This is a day where I am finally, after three days of ~decompressing, interested in things other than screens. Maybe it was taking that Adderall this morning? But I've been cleaning the leather accessories I've been collecting, plus polishing up some wood that's desperately thirsty (including a nice little cigar box from the thrift store!).

I'm spending so much time trying to find the next living spare where I'll land that I haven't made much effort to make the most of this one. ( Spaces, pruning, money... many thoughts )

But, okay, activities I prioritize and treasure and would like spaces for:

Crafting — printmaking, paper-mache, watercolor, comics, collage, tunnel books, dioramas, so much!

Tea and tea display, not just this big glorious shelf but an actual tea ceremony kind of spot (not low enough to the ground that Gingko could destroy it, though; sorry to any coffee tables, I don't think you're really in my foreseeable future)

Altar and tarot table + display — the presence of household altars was something I learned from shadesofbrixton and visiting Santa Fe, which I absolutely loved, alongside this phenomenal altered wall cabinet at chicagoprintmakers that I can't find a photo of but trust me, I really want to replicate it

Music — I need to mount my banjo, ukuleles, accordion and other assorted instruments where I will see and want to play them!

Yes, I have a rowing machine which I love and which is collecting so much dust, but once my arm is better, I want to get it down again, I freaking love using it and I want a regular space for it in the next place

Reading nook!!!! With lots of plants!! What if!!!!

This is what I want to build!!! Not to mention space for hosting parties, including dinner parties, which my table deserves to see again!! It's really not true that everything will fall into place once I get this one thing (permanent living space) done, but it really feels like maybe it kind of will!!

Current Music: "When You and I Were Young (live)," Missy Gossip and the Secret Keepers

rebeccmeister

One of the highly useful media literacy heuristics I ever learned was from

siderea, who taught me to ask, "What is new and different in what I am reading/hearing about/seeing?"

I frequently teach this heuristic to students. Part of being a student is learning how to learn and how to summarize. This heuristic is really useful for summarizing information from a textbook chapter or a lecture. Don't try and include everything, focus on what's new and different.

In this article, the analogies of the "centaur" and "reverse centaur" are really useful, and new to me:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur

What are some of your media literacy heuristics?

shewhostaples posting in

fancake

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairings/Characters: Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane (not requited - yet)
Rating: G
Length: 12,200
Creator Links:

nineveh_uk
Theme: crack treated seriously

Summary: Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey have triumphantly solved the Wilvercombe murder, and only want to return to London. But first they must solve a new mystery: why they have woken up in one another's bodies, and what on earth are they going to do about it?

Reccer's notes Bodyswap is a pretty cracky trope, but here

nineveh_uk uses it very effectively to explore the nuances of the complicated and touchy relationship between Peter and Harriet. As the summary suggests, it's set straight after Have His Carcase, where in canon they seem somehow simultaneously closer to and further away from resolving their relationship than ever. The bodyswap twist doesn't make things any less confusing. The voice is pitch perfect: if Dorothy L. Sayers had thought to write this premise, this is exactly what it would have sounded like.

Fanwork Links: My True Love Has My Heart

glitteringstars posting in

writethisfanfic

Hello all!

How was writing today?

Today's discussion question: what are some recent influences on your writing? This is less of a question about what fandoms you write for, but rather, what has influenced your writing style or your craft?

oursin

I mentioned that I was reading Dream Count for an intended new in-person book group of fairly local people connected through being (mostly) women historians (most of) whom I already know.

The gathering to discuss Dream Count was yestere'en in Highgate, at a destination to which there is a bus service from the nearby main road, though on Sunday evenings the service is a little more sporadic than habitual and I arrived a bit early, even after some difficulty finding the house in question. (Serious FAIL by local residents to actually have house numbers visible, ahem, not helped by several houses actually being nos XX-YY which adds to the confusion and in fact I ended up going to the wrong house first.)

However, once I got there it was agreeable to see auld acquaintance and talk of how things had been going -

- I am not entirely persuaded that having a sit-down at a table supper was actually a great idea, or maybe that was just me who had not all that long ago had a large late lunch.

Discussion of actual book did not get started for some while. Everybody seemed to have a rather mixed response, though it did, at least, provide a basis for discussion along several directions.

Future plans to meet at 6 week intervals - not to have full dinner party (relief!)* - next book will be Anna Funder's Wifedom about Eileen Orwell (already have the ebook yay).

Kind lift not all the way home but to useful point with lots of buses from Our Hostess.

*Snacks instead - should I take foccacia and Famous Aubergine Dip? Y/N

james_davis_nicoll

The tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of early 19th-Century folk horror.

Bundle of Holding: Sleepy Hollow

annathecrow posting in

dreamwars

Hi,

welcome to the weekly chat corner. Have anything SW-related to talk about? Come and tell us.

~ ~ ~

Do you ever interact with Star Wars fans who aren't shipping-fandom fans? What has it been like?

I have a coworker who's a SW fan, and it's weird. He knows a lot of the lore, especially the older EU stuff, so I've had some really good talks with him, but the amount of times I did a tire-screech stop in the middle of saying something because oh SHIT, nope, that's shipping fandom, I will not openly admit to the guy I've read erotica about his favorite character...! XD

rebeccmeister

And a super cute photo of George at the end, too!

( Read more... )

Anyway, quite the project roundup. So here's George, "helping."

I had to kick him out while I sewed. Too many exciting little things to bap around.

petra

The great imponderable of toasted cheese (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin
Additional Tags: Drabble, Natural Philosophy, Baffle them with bullshit
Summary:

Jack engages in natural philosophy.

*

A cuppa (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jane Drew & The Lady (Dark is Rising)
Characters: Jane Drew (Dark is Rising), The Lady (Dark Is Rising)
Additional Tags: Drabble, Hope
Summary:

Jane has tea, not quite alone.

*

How to apply torture (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leia Organa & Darth Vader
Characters: Leia Organa, Darth Vader
Additional Tags: Drabble, Alternate Universe - Soulmates
Series: Part 3 of The Shoop Shoop Soulmate Song
Summary:

Common wisdom says everyone has one soulmate, but common wisdom has forgotten the Force.

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Coffee and tea and the java and me

littlefics posting in

seasonsofdrabbles

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Note: AO3 recently announced it'd be down for scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, January 21. We'll do our best to get assignments out ahead of the downtime, and will let you all know ASAP if we expect otherwise.

lannamichaels

Of all the sports I do not follow, american football is certainly up there as a sport I do not follow.

However, of all the sports I do not follow, american football is one where I think they are doing their post season completely correctly: as single elimination.

Can you win a game? No? Okay, season is over, bye bye.

Yes, yes, the season goes on way too long into weather not appropriate for the sport; american football makes sense as a summer or autumn sport, not so much when it's snowing.

But they pick the location of the super bowl years in advance, they hype the fuck out of it, they make it an event, and they know three years in advance what day it will be.

They have achieved marketing perfection and among the reasons they can do that is: SINGLE ELIMINATION PLAYOFFS.

aurumcalendula posting in

thisfinecrew

H.R. 7013 (Greenland Sovereignty Protection Act) was introduced by Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) last week: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7013

It prohibits the use of Federal funding to facilitate the invasion, annexation, purchase, or other form of acquisition of Greenland.

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: hopeful

lydamorehouse

Image: Laser-eyed loon flying away with the "Don't Tread on Me Snake" in her beak. The words "Don't Tread on US" appear in laser light trails around her head (by Cas Fern, local tattoo artist.)

I took a break on Sunday. The weather here in Minnesota has finally stepped up to join the resistance. Today we are expecting -20 F/ -29 C windchills and yesterday the windchills were around -11 F /-23 C. I won't lie. I let Mother Nature take my shift. There were things happening, including my singing group, but I spent the day baking hot cross buns and snuggling under blankets.

Rest is resistance, too.

If you are not from around here and/or would like to watch

naomikritzer talk about her experiences "commuting," and talk generally, along with Diana McCleery, about what things are like on the ground here in Minneapolis and St. Paul. My friend Cliff interviewed her on an SFF videocast:

Watch on YouTube

It's a good watch? I will say that the guy who opens and closes the video, Bob, is a bit of a character, but if you can get past that and some of the echo in Naomi's microphone, it's very informative. Naomi recently did a ride-along with the folks who are self-organizing to follow and harrass ICE vehicles and so it's fascinating to hear how it's being done.

I always feel that people don't quite talk enough about the mutual aid that folks are up to--but the truth is the quiet revolution just isn't splashy enough for the front page.

adrian_turtle

I know this seems like a petty thing, in these parlous times, but I am having a hard time finding bookends. We are finally, finally getting all the books out of storage and sorted and on shelves and they might almost fit if we have enough bookends. (If you're going to do part of a shelf as 2 rows of paperbacks, that needs at least 1 bookend to keep the last ones from falling into the larger books that are going as single rows.)

Where can I find plain metal bookends, like the kind they use in libraries? I do NOT want to get them from Amazon, for political reasons. Neither do I want to get them from Target. Once, I might have tried Home Depot, but it turns out that they are cooperating with ICE in deeply distressing ways so I don't want to do business with them either. Etsy is generally recommended as an alternative to Amazon, but they just have decorative standalone bookends. Some of them are really pretty but they are too bulky for this purpose.

heleninwales

We managed two walks last week, both just 4 miles. I had a lot to do in the week, so on Thursday we just walked to Penmaenpool and back. The weather was dull, so I didn't take any photos worth sharing. Saturday, however, turned out quite nice. Again I didn't feel like doing too long a walk so I drove us to Penmaenpool, left the car there and walked along the Mawddach Trail to Abergwynant, headed inland and walked back the short way through the woods.

Looking across to the sunny side of the valley.

( More here... )

Heading back to Penmaenpool. I always used to call this the Long Boring Bit when walking alone, but if walking and talking with a companion in sunny weather, it doesn't seem so long.

In further news of spring, there was a song thrush singing loudly somewhere in the trees beyond our back garden this afternoon. That's the first time this year that I've heard it. I know the song of the thrush, blackbird and robin, and also wood pigeon, seagull and buzzard, but I want to learn more bird calls and have just downloaded the Merlin app which many friends have recommended.

summersgate

Snow Squall. We were just having a snow squall when I looked out the window so I tried to recreate what it looked like. I probably should have made the lines more diagonal. The wind was blowing really hard. A whiteout. Now it's perfectly clear.

Skye now has an appointment next Monday for some kind of better defining x-ray or scan (I can not remember what it's called) that will tell us if she is a good candidate for surgery. She'll need to be sedated for the scan.

rebeccmeister

I started tracking bike maintenance a couple of years ago, and am trying to be pretty systematic about it. According to my records, I put the prior set of brake pads on Frodo on December 21. Between then and now, I rode a total of 166 miles.

For comparison, the prior 3 sets of brake pad changes occurred with elapsed mileages of 703, 599, and 646 miles.

When I was in Seattle, I bought a couple sets of KoolStop brake pads to try out, although I couldn't remember the specific differences between the different colors when shopping, so I wound up getting 2 sets of the salmon and 2 sets of the black. I can already tell you that they feel NICE.

We'll see how long they last.

heleninwales

It's starting to be a little lighter in the mornings when I wake up. Not actually light, but no longer pitch dark. Someone mentioned this last week in the weekly Welsh chat and our tame native speaker said that day length increases each day now "fesul cam ceiliog" (by a cockerel's stride). We all thought this was a lovely idiom. I don't know whether all Welsh classes are the same, but we always like to collect idioms.

And speaking of idioms, I'm reading Still Waters by E. C. R. Lorac and one character used the idiom, "A Parthian shot". I vaguely recall seeing it before but these days it's normally, "a parting shot". Having looked it up. the original saying came from the habit of the Parthian light cavalry of, when they were retreating (or feigning retreat), they would suddenly turn in the saddle and shoot an arrow straight back at the soldiers chasing them. It seems that some people still have the riding and archery skills to be able to do it, though this chap has a modern saddle with stirrups. The original Parthians didn't have that help.

elainegrey

Bleep Marlowe. She attacked my ankle -- just a few stinging claw punctures -- as i went over to the cat barrier where she'd confronted Bruno. I hope he learned that the barrier protects him. Ugh.

I am so easily distracted.

I feel a little guilty having today off work and nothing more than "try and get myself moving" as the order of the day. Plus tomorrows walk out protest and my conflict in attending (because work, which is whole point, i get it). Plus [deleting incomplete list and replacing with] all the other distressing issues with the slide to fascist government in the US.

Time passes

I have attended the Pendle Hill hybrid worship. There was a moment of clarity for me: a sense that released the guilt, a wave of grace, a sense that it is right to engage in zest in living. Not much more clarity than to turn my attention to my usual forward.

And then looking at the temps for Ohio as my travel dates begin to show up in the ten-day forecast: yikes. So far a high of 21°F and a low of 8°F. More concerning is the snow event on the day i need to get to the airport. I know better than to trust the call for 7" of .. snow? But....

vriddy

Lots of bonus sketches in this volume! In order of appearance:

( Bonus sketch - Mother and child )

( Bonus sketch - Oboro and Kagari )

( Bonus sketch - Teasing Fujimaru )

( Bonus sketch - Eden heights )

( Bonus sketch - Fujimaru )

( Bonus sketch - Kagari in boyhood )

( Fujimaru's profile )

( Kagari's profile )

( Sasakura and Domon short profiles )

( Oboro's clothing )

( Bonus sketch for chapter 8 )

( Bonus illustration )

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: enthralled

js_thrill

Today's Song: "Thanks for the Dress"

Watch on YouTube

The first version I loaded up on youtube had weird sound artifacts at the start, but then I found a different version, which also had them, and I guess that's just how it is supposed to be. The annotations describe how it is inspired by and drawn from the Euripedes play Medea, and how Darnielle can't really get back into the mindset he had when he wrote it. I'm sure there is a lot to say about it as a piece of musical experimentation, but it just really isn't for me.

Current Music: Thanks For The Dress — The Mountain Goats

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Larry Hammer

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January 2026

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ysabetwordsmith - Safety
yellowrosess in icons - icons
teaotter in snowflake_challenge - Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10
sweetsorcery - Gift Fics!
shadowkat - More Buffy/Angel rewatch, among other things...
stonepicnicking_okapi in 1word1day - Monday Word: Bristlecone
unicornduke - crafting hangout
green - dental woes
tellshannon815 - (no subject)
kitewithfish - (no subject)
trobadora - Write Every day 2026: January, Day 19
owlmoose - Monday Media Musings: 01/19/26
pattrose - I'm remembering Martin Luther King Jr. today.
chickenfeet - Allan Clayton performs Hans Zender’s version of Winterreise
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
slippery_fish - I like rocks. ... Goodbye.
davidgillon - He can have that one
newredshoes - A four-day weekend is so nice.
rebeccmeister - Media literacy heuristics
shewhostaples in fancake - Lord Peter Wimsey: My True Love Has My Heart by Nineveh_UK
glitteringstars in writethisfanfic - Check In: Day 19
oursin - Yesterday I went out and was social
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Sleepy Hollow
annathecrow in dreamwars - Chat corner 2026-03, socially awkward edition
rebeccmeister - The photographic evidence [projects, bicycling, rowing]
petra - Aubrey-Maturin and The Dark is Rising donation thank-yous; Another soulmate drabble
littlefics in seasonsofdrabbles - Matching update: check your email!
lannamichaels - this is a post about sports that is not brought to you by dayquil
aurumcalendula in thisfinecrew - H.R. 7013 - Greenland Sovereignty Protection Act
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry question
lydamorehouse - Your Daily Laser Loon Art from the Resistance
adrian_turtle - bookends
heleninwales - Recent walks
summersgate - monday later
rebeccmeister - So, yeah, about those brake pads [bicycling]
heleninwales - Idioms
elainegrey - (morning writing)
vriddy - K-9: Volume 2 extras, with translation
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry rec
js_thrill - This Year 365 songs: January 19th

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