Birdfeeding

2025-09-12 05:52 pm
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Today is partly sunny and hot. It's 89°F in mid-September. :P

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches. I saw a fox squirrel running through the trees along the east edge of the yard.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/12/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/12/25 -- I did more work around the patio.








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ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
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Today's theme is Iron Man.

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Sustainability

2025-09-11 11:01 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Designing for Decay

The products of growth-driven design are easy to recognize. They gleam. They dominate. They shout, “I will last forever.” From reinforced skyscrapers to single-use electronics, the ideology is the same: resist entropy at all costs.

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We made this tonight.

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Poem: "But an Empty Shell"

2025-09-11 04:25 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Independent Woman" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It belongs to the Kraken thread of the Polychrome Heroics series and is the prequel to "Beautiful, Damn Hard, Increasingly Useful."

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Today's Cooking

2025-09-11 05:09 pm
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Today I'm making Edwards family meatloaf.  :D  This should go well with what's left of the tomato-basil bread, which is about half gone now. 

Birdfeeding

2025-09-11 04:00 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and warm.

I haven't fed the birds yet.

There were lots of sparrows and house finches at the red birdbath though. The honeybees drained the small metal one again.

We walked around the yard listing things that need to be cleaned up or cleared out, since a tree service left us a flyer. :D At minimum we want to get the two downed tree-sized branches removed. Hopefully we can get the parking lot cleared of brush and a path re-established to the east edge of the yard. Maybe something else. They're willing to break down the quotes for sub-projects so we can figure out what will fit into our budget.

EDIT 9/11/25 -- I fed the birds.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/11/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/11/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/11/25 -- I watered the irises, patio plants, and old picnic table garden.

EDIT 9/11/25 -- I watered the new picnic table garden, septic garden, telephone pole garden, and savanna seedlings.

I picked 2 red cherry tomatoes.

EDIT 9/11/25 -- I sowed 2 pots with crabapples.

I did some work around the yard.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Braille Reader

2025-09-11 04:35 am
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Tiny explosion-powered braille screen could boost literacy for blind students

Scientists have created a new, durable, multi-line braille display device, which is water and dirt-resistant.

Interestingly, it can simultaneously display multiple lines of braille and even complex graphics like emojis.

Hobbies: Knitting

2025-09-11 12:02 am
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Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Knitting is a fibercraft hobby of making things from yarn with a pair of pointy sticks, mostly clothes but also toys and other stuff. If you feel frustrated by planned obsolescence, artificial intelligence, and other current issues then consider knitting as a form of protest. Nothing says "Fuck off, fast fashion!" like knitting a 100% natural-fiber garment that will last for years and years.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like [community profile] crafty, [community profile] everykindofcraft, [community profile] dwsockclub, [community profile] get_knitted, [community profile] justcreate, and [community profile] knittingpix.

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Today's Adventures

2025-09-10 10:39 pm
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Today we went to Mattoon.

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Music

2025-09-10 06:17 pm
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This flash mob put on a complex performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody."

It reminds me very much of the "musical dimension" -- the world in which people naturally, spontaneously form into teams for song and dance routines. People here are just using prosthetic technology to substitute for whatever energy phenomenon allows that in Musical Land. :D

Birdfeeding

2025-09-10 02:30 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly cloudy and hot.

I fed the birds.  Lots of sparrows and house finches today.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/10/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a male cardinal.

I picked several groundcherries.

EDIT 9/10/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/10/25 -- I watered the new picnic table, telephone pole garden, and some of the savanna seedlings.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
 

Cuddle Party

2025-09-10 12:04 am
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a
cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

Today's Cooking

2025-09-09 10:46 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Tonight I'm making the Tomato Basil Bread on page 15 of Hello! 365 Tomato Recipes.  It uses dried basil flakes and sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, rather than fresh, so it can be made any time of the year.  We are planning this as an accompaniment to a meatloaf later this week.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- The result is ... interesting.  Way sweeter than we expected.  It will probably work as an accompaniment to meatloaf, but I'm not sure it'll work as sandwich bread.

Libraries

2025-09-09 07:55 pm
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Library Loot on [personal profile] chroniclesofreading 
Library Loot is a weekly event that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.
See the tag feed.

Exoplanets

2025-09-09 03:33 pm
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Planet birth photographed for the first time

For the first time, a growing planet outside our solar system has been discovered to inhabit a gap in a disk of dust and gas.

Astronomers have directly spotted a rare young planet, WISPIT 2b, still forming within the gap of a dusty ringed disk around a star like our sun—something long theorized but never observed until now
.

Birdfeeding

2025-09-09 02:46 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus one tiny brownish-olive bird I couldn't identify.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- I bagged up 21 Ginger Gold apple seeds with damp sand to cold-stratify in the refrigerator.

I watered the telephone pole garden and some of the savanna seedlings.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- I did some work around the yard.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- I did more work around the yard.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- I watered the irises.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- I watered the old picnic table plants and the new picnic table plants.

I picked some groundcherries.  :D

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
 
ysabetwordsmith: (moment of silence)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I spotted this, for those of your interested:

Online Memorial

In case you have not signed up and would like to, a Virtual Memorial for Alice Stewart/Acelightning has been set up as a Zoom meeting starting Sept 13 2025 at 1:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada).

To sign up please send an email to MemorialForAceLightning@gmail.com to get specific details.

Thanks to all that want to come.