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Books?
Jun. 15th, 2025 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dhampyresaHow many books are you usually reading?
I have a minimum of 5 on the gp at any given time: one each of fiction and nonfiction on both phone and ereader (no overlap) plus a paper book that can be either.
I have a minimum of 5 on the gp at any given time: one each of fiction and nonfiction on both phone and ereader (no overlap) plus a paper book that can be either.
Culinary
Jun. 15th, 2025 07:16 pmoursinLast week's bread held out very well.
There was even enough left over to make frittata with chopped red bell pepper for Friday night supper.
Saturday breakfast rolls: brown toasted pinenut, with strong brown flour.
Today's lunch: partridge breasts lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, panfried in butter with a little olive oil, deglazed with a splash or so of white wine, served with kasha, baby sugar snap peas roasted in walnut oil and splashed with elderflower vinegar, and asparagus steamed and tossed in melted butter + lime juice.
strawberry follow-up
Jun. 15th, 2025 01:52 pmredbirdAdrian made strawberry pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and raspberry pancakes, partly because we have all these strawberries to use up, and partly so I could try cooked strawberries, after the fresh ones made my lips itch on Friday.
I ate a bite of a strawberry pancake, and found it bland and uninteresting. I didn't react to the berry, but it was one small piece of strawberry, and I don't know whether a larger amount would have been a problem.
I may yet try something like a strawberry sauce over cake or ice cream. Adrian noted that raw and cooked strawberries are almost different fruits, but it also seems possible that a strawberry sauce will taste more like raw berries than like strawberries baked into pancakes.
I ate a bite of a strawberry pancake, and found it bland and uninteresting. I didn't react to the berry, but it was one small piece of strawberry, and I don't know whether a larger amount would have been a problem.
I may yet try something like a strawberry sauce over cake or ice cream. Adrian noted that raw and cooked strawberries are almost different fruits, but it also seems possible that a strawberry sauce will taste more like raw berries than like strawberries baked into pancakes.
In which science improves our habitat (hopefully), week 24
Jun. 15th, 2025 05:16 pmspiralsheep- Services to science: we're nearing the midpoint of 2025 so here are my awards for naming new fossil species so far this year, in reverse order....
3. From Australia: Weirdodectes napoleoni, "weird biter" "Napoleon", an 11-16 million year old marsupial described from a few teeth.
2. From the US: Tardisia broedeae, "TARDIS species" "Irene Broede", a 309 million year old arthropod related to trilobites and named for the Tardis because of the 100 million year gap between this fossil and its older relatives.
1. Joint first, from the UK:
1a. Punk ferox, "punk rock" "bold", 427-430 million year old deep-sea mollusc presumably named for its head spines, lol.
1b. Emo vorticaudum, "emo genre" "whorl tail", 427-430 million year old deep-sea mollusc supposedly named for its bangs and studs.
- Quote of the day: "A fossil specimen collected by Charles Darwin's friend, Joseph Hooker, was mislaid for 163 years at the British Geological Survey offices in London."
- Citizen science: still biologging &c. Met a random dogwalker who has been learning about plant galls with her toddler, and showed them some "fairy houses with little doors" as the toddler accurately described them. <3 :-)
( Birb log and my habitat. )
3. From Australia: Weirdodectes napoleoni, "weird biter" "Napoleon", an 11-16 million year old marsupial described from a few teeth.
2. From the US: Tardisia broedeae, "TARDIS species" "Irene Broede", a 309 million year old arthropod related to trilobites and named for the Tardis because of the 100 million year gap between this fossil and its older relatives.
1. Joint first, from the UK:
1a. Punk ferox, "punk rock" "bold", 427-430 million year old deep-sea mollusc presumably named for its head spines, lol.
1b. Emo vorticaudum, "emo genre" "whorl tail", 427-430 million year old deep-sea mollusc supposedly named for its bangs and studs.
- Quote of the day: "A fossil specimen collected by Charles Darwin's friend, Joseph Hooker, was mislaid for 163 years at the British Geological Survey offices in London."
- Citizen science: still biologging &c. Met a random dogwalker who has been learning about plant galls with her toddler, and showed them some "fairy houses with little doors" as the toddler accurately described them. <3 :-)
( Birb log and my habitat. )
D.O.P.-T.
Jun. 14th, 2025 09:10 pmweofodthignenYesterday evening I was washing up while cooking my dinner, with the back door open for the breeze, and kept hearing scrabbling sounds from the back porch room. All I could see through the plastic corrugated roof was black bird bodies and feet. It seems the crows were using it as a slide, or a prizefighting arena, or something.
Today, after dumping some water on the plants outside and before dinner, I did a bit of deadheading and moved on to cut back some of the ivy where it was starting to flow into the driveway. Then suddenly there was a grey ahnd cream patch staring at me with two baleful eyes. Mama Violet bedded down in the ivy. Time to stop clipping.
Today, after dumping some water on the plants outside and before dinner, I did a bit of deadheading and moved on to cut back some of the ivy where it was starting to flow into the driveway. Then suddenly there was a grey ahnd cream patch staring at me with two baleful eyes. Mama Violet bedded down in the ivy. Time to stop clipping.
in conclusion, age is a number
Jun. 14th, 2025 06:55 pmthistleingreyStupidly, I keep referring to my age without meaning to in conversation, then catching it only afterwards. I already know I'm a bit insecure about the age I turn this calendar year; it'd be fine if my mouth would quit confirming it, repeatedly.
OTOH, though I still can't go for a walk without detectable negative consequences, core strength remains approximately intact: I've just carried one microwave across two rooms and a doorway gate (the one that keeps tiny housemate in the kitchen---her paws reach the top bar if she lunges upwards, and on me it's between knee and hip height), then carried another microwave the same distance in the opposite direction. ( short and boring )
*tilts head* That seems to be enough words. Far fewer than I used to lob at related topics.
OTOH, though I still can't go for a walk without detectable negative consequences, core strength remains approximately intact: I've just carried one microwave across two rooms and a doorway gate (the one that keeps tiny housemate in the kitchen---her paws reach the top bar if she lunges upwards, and on me it's between knee and hip height), then carried another microwave the same distance in the opposite direction. ( short and boring )
*tilts head* That seems to be enough words. Far fewer than I used to lob at related topics.
two some good things
Jun. 14th, 2025 11:59 pmkaberettItem the first: I have no idea what the hell made the ominous donk-slither-donk noise in the portaloo at about midnight last night, but the phone I'd convinced myself it was was in a neat little pile with my laptop, in the tent, in the morning -- after I'd spent some time being sad about inadequate backups of photos of tiny sleepy rhinos -- which was an enormous relief (though I am also very pleased with myself for how well I handled things). (Especially given that my conviction that this was what had happened was in part based on being as aware as I could be of how abruptly my cognitive function had deteriorated with Surprise Unscheduled Migraine Onset.) (Still haven't worked out what on earth the donk-slither-donk was, but it's none of the obvious Truly Upsetting things to have lost, so I'm Currently Fine With This.)
Item the second: it is hot. This field contains lots of chamomile, and also lots of people. I am really enjoying the way it smells.
Item the third: I am really enjoying the dark chocolate + salt + nuts snack bars that crew welfare is providing, which I'd not previously noticed.
Item four: THE HALBARD THAT IS A SHARK.
#NoKings
Jun. 14th, 2025 06:27 pmredbirdThe three of us went out to the No Kings Yaas Queens combined Pride/NoKings demonstration today, despite my worries about my various joints. Or, at least, that was the plan. It didn't work out, but my knees, hips, and ankles are OK.
We got to Park Street and the Common, and found other people who were looking for the same event, a stage where someone was introducing the next speaker?performer?, and some tables and tents, but no focus. We wound up walking to the side of the Common next to the Public Garden, where we found the parade, smaller than we'd expected but with enough of a crowd I couldn't see much. So we went home, pausing moderately often to rest my joints and watch another bit of parade, which seems to have been heading for Government Center as originally planned, not the Common as we thought.
I'm both glad I went, and disappointed that I didn't actually make it to the first protest or rally I've felt physically capable of in too long.
I will probably update this tomorrow, to note how my joints are feeling. This afternoon, they've felt good enough for some PT exercises.
We got to Park Street and the Common, and found other people who were looking for the same event, a stage where someone was introducing the next speaker?performer?, and some tables and tents, but no focus. We wound up walking to the side of the Common next to the Public Garden, where we found the parade, smaller than we'd expected but with enough of a crowd I couldn't see much. So we went home, pausing moderately often to rest my joints and watch another bit of parade, which seems to have been heading for Government Center as originally planned, not the Common as we thought.
I'm both glad I went, and disappointed that I didn't actually make it to the first protest or rally I've felt physically capable of in too long.
I will probably update this tomorrow, to note how my joints are feeling. This afternoon, they've felt good enough for some PT exercises.
Experimenting with the <details> tag
Jun. 14th, 2025 12:02 pmsanguinityExperimenting with a thing pangolin20 advised over at gremdark's journal:
...and here is the additional detail inside the tag.
...and here is the additional detail inside the tag.
The second one has
Edit: works as advertised! And with the second one, it is much more obvious that you can click both the arrow and the text and that something will happen if you do.
pangolin20 advised over at gremdark's journal:This is a "details" tag with no additional styling...
...and here is the additional detail inside the tag.
This is a "details" tag styled with "cursor:pointer"...
...and here is the additional detail inside the tag.
The second one has
style="cursor:pointer" placed inside the details tag, and should make the whole thing more obviously interactable-with for mouse-users. (They should both be interactive via keyboard navigation.)Edit: works as advertised! And with the second one, it is much more obvious that you can click both the arrow and the text and that something will happen if you do.
Where would I even begin?
Jun. 14th, 2025 05:28 pmoursin(And didn't we have something similar, like, maybe 20 years ago on LiveJournal?)
Thing going round on bluesky recently-
'Ten authors you've read five books by'.
*Looks around just one room and its bookshelves*
Me: Maybe I could break this down into groups, I dunno, perhaps?
Thrillers? Sff? Litfic? (might break this down further into Obscure Victorian/Edwardian Novelists, Middlebrow Women Writers of the 20s/30s, the 60s Generation???) Bloke writers for whom I have a weakness? Beloved childhood faves?
And then I think, nah, this is too much effort.
I was a bit took aback by suggestions that people might be curating their 10 to look Cool or SRS or at least, not given to ingesting The Wrong Sort of Book, perish the thort.
D.O.P.-T.
Jun. 13th, 2025 10:06 pmweofodthignenIt's been Friday the 13th. I came really close to getting run over on my morning walk—on one of the crossings by the main park entrance, of course. I got the walking man sign and started to cross, and the driver of the small blue pick-up waiting at the light started turning left right through my path. I sped up, turned to face him and unloaded at him. I don't think he was going to stop till I shouted. He rolled down his window and said sorry in a not very sorry way, rather startled. A pedestrian crossing the street with the walk sign, how novel. Had his dog on the passenger seat, a Border Collie type dog, who wisely kept silent during the brief conversation.
Usually it's a Tesla. But so far it's always that intersection.
Usually it's a Tesla. But so far it's always that intersection.
strawberries
Jun. 13th, 2025 11:06 pmredbirdI fear that I may have developed an allergy to strawberries.
Cattitude came home from the farmers market with two quarts of strawberries, so we sat down to eat strawberries this evening. Adrian washed a plateful of the berries, and we all started eating.
They're very good strawberries, but I realized after eating a few that my lips were starting to itch. They were tasty enough that I had four or five more before saying anything. When I did, Adrian suggested I go wash my face. I rinsed my lips with plenty of cool water, took a benadryl, complained about the situation, and got Adrian to make me herb tea. I hope I haven't developed an allergy to a fruit I like, after eating them without problems for more than fifty years.
ETA, after responding to people's comments:
It may not be just strawberries. Raw kiwi makes my mouth itch, and I think I remember having a problem with the kiwi on a mixed fruit tart. Possibly-underripe figs also made my mouth itch once, but cooked figs (fig Newton cookies) are OK, and a fig that was ripe enough to fall off the tree at my feet was fine. I think I need to do some reading.
Cattitude came home from the farmers market with two quarts of strawberries, so we sat down to eat strawberries this evening. Adrian washed a plateful of the berries, and we all started eating.
They're very good strawberries, but I realized after eating a few that my lips were starting to itch. They were tasty enough that I had four or five more before saying anything. When I did, Adrian suggested I go wash my face. I rinsed my lips with plenty of cool water, took a benadryl, complained about the situation, and got Adrian to make me herb tea. I hope I haven't developed an allergy to a fruit I like, after eating them without problems for more than fifty years.
ETA, after responding to people's comments:
It may not be just strawberries. Raw kiwi makes my mouth itch, and I think I remember having a problem with the kiwi on a mixed fruit tart. Possibly-underripe figs also made my mouth itch once, but cooked figs (fig Newton cookies) are OK, and a fig that was ripe enough to fall off the tree at my feet was fine. I think I need to do some reading.
obviously
Jun. 13th, 2025 09:27 amthistleingreyWhen I was a kid, it was expected that the school-day began with the whole class standing to recite the pledge of allegiance. It was nearer the McCarthy era, and the Cold War was still a thing. One effect of doing this in greater Los Angeles is that when Spanish class was first period (the start of the day), obviously we recited the pledge in Spanish.
After Latin, dead French, and other dead languages with only intermittent use of diacritics, my sense of modern Spanish orthography is a bit impressionistic; I'm not checking where the acute accents would go. But my inner 12yo holds the sounds:
We landed hard on the first word, such that it sounded like juró, "one swore"; and dios mediante is for "under god" in English, but they aren't quite the same, are they. Anyway, para todos: sí.
After Latin, dead French, and other dead languages with only intermittent use of diacritics, my sense of modern Spanish orthography is a bit impressionistic; I'm not checking where the acute accents would go. But my inner 12yo holds the sounds:
Juro fidelidad a la bandera de los estados unidos de américa y a la república que symboliza---una nación, dios mediante, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos.
We landed hard on the first word, such that it sounded like juró, "one swore"; and dios mediante is for "under god" in English, but they aren't quite the same, are they. Anyway, para todos: sí.
Various & misc
Jun. 13th, 2025 04:54 pmoursinDon't think I've previously either come across this or posted it, but who knows: Out on the Town: Magnus Hirschfeld and Berlin’s Third Sex: 'Years before the Weimar Republic’s well-chronicled freedoms, the 1904 non-fiction study Berlin’s Third Sex depicted an astonishingly diverse subculture of sexual outlaws in the German capital'.
***
Something else suitable for Pride Month: Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer Love (review):
provides an original and stirring account of a non-commodifying queer love between two women and nonhuman nature—a love that was the defining relationship of Carson’s life and yet has been downplayed in heteronormative tellings of her story. So, too, is Maxwell’s work a convincing argument for this queer love’s formative role in the writing of Silent Spring, as well as an empowering message about how embracing queer feelings might function as a catalyst for “political and personal power” in contemporary environmental politics.
***
I think I have some copies of The Pioneer journal associated with this club, but they are somewhere in the maelstrom (I am gearing up to Doing Something About this, having acquired intelligence of a body that will collect books for charity): The Pioneer Club (1892-1939): A ladies' club at the forefront of late Victorian social reform, which suffered a long, slow decline in the early 20th century.
***
Peter McLagan (1823-1900): Scotland’s first Black MP:
[S]ources suggest that McLagan’s mother was probably of Black Caribbean or Black African descent.... McLagan’s father, Peter McLagan (1774-1860)... enslaved over 400 people on his plantations and personal estate in Demerara.
In fact there is strong evidence as mentioned in that article that he was by no means the first Black MP. Issues of class and family connections clearly played a significant role up to the mid-C19th.
***
An ancient writing system confounding myths about Africa:
'How come a country that did not have a colonial past in Zambia had so many artefacts from Zambia in its collection?'"
In the 19th and early 20th Centuries Swedish explorers, ethnographers and botanists would pay to travel on British ships to Cape Town and then make their way inland by rail and foot.
....
The Swedish museum had not done any research on the cloaks - and the National Museums Board of Zambia was not even aware they existed.
***
Artist's work to restore damaged shell grotto (I put this in a short story once.) (My own theory is that it was originally A Folly. Doing things with shells was as I recall quite A Thing in the C18th and Mrs Delany and her mate the Duchess of Portland had a rather less concealed shell grotto?)
In which there is a priceless collection of embarrassing splurging
Jun. 13th, 2025 04:10 pmspiralsheep1. What item would you be embarrassed for people to know you own?
Why would I own anything I'd be embarrassed about? I mean, I have some things on display in my house that other people might find disconcerting but if fossil horse teeth or whatever bother you then don't come to my house. XD
2. What is something you splurged on just for you?
Everything I own, lol, but I'm willing to share my preciousess with people provided they play well with Others. I do own one rock sample that I bought rather than collected myself, but it only cost about £10 including cutting and polishing and delivery from India. To be honest my taste in material objects, apart from art, is practical and based on performance. I suppose the splurgiest things I own are original paintings but the most "valuable" are all by artists I know so I bought them at mates rates.
Re Q1. I do have an expressionist nude on the living / sitting / drawing room wall, and I did have it up when both the subject and the artist were my neighbours but to be fair a lot of us had naked paintings of those neighbours on display and mine is much less realist than most (ETA: another of my neighbours has some extremely detailed drawings by / of a different artist / model pair whom we know but the owner has them tucked away somewhere, which is probably for the best as we also know the model's mum socially).
3. What is something that you own with no real world value that is priceless to you?
My own time technically has a real world value but is worth infinitely more to me than its market price. I think this would be true for most people? A lot of my rocks / fossils / archaeological artifacts have happy memories attached, and most of those would have minimal resale value (although various museums or educational collections might think they're priceless acquisitions?). My Lego too, obviously, although that probably does have resale value. Mostly memories, especially of showing children (and occasionally adults) a wonder for the first time: wildlife, plants, weather, fossils, rocks, art, whatevs.
4. Do you collect anything?
Dust? Micro-meteorites set in dust? "Weeds" in my garden. Snobby bee: "I'm not visiting those flowers for essential nectar because they're weeds and only tasteless / scentless over-bred flowers count... x-x ". I don't intentionally "collect" anything but I will admit my rocks are carefully curated and labelled (for when I die).
( And y'all? )
Why would I own anything I'd be embarrassed about? I mean, I have some things on display in my house that other people might find disconcerting but if fossil horse teeth or whatever bother you then don't come to my house. XD
2. What is something you splurged on just for you?
Everything I own, lol, but I'm willing to share my preciousess with people provided they play well with Others. I do own one rock sample that I bought rather than collected myself, but it only cost about £10 including cutting and polishing and delivery from India. To be honest my taste in material objects, apart from art, is practical and based on performance. I suppose the splurgiest things I own are original paintings but the most "valuable" are all by artists I know so I bought them at mates rates.
Re Q1. I do have an expressionist nude on the living / sitting / drawing room wall, and I did have it up when both the subject and the artist were my neighbours but to be fair a lot of us had naked paintings of those neighbours on display and mine is much less realist than most (ETA: another of my neighbours has some extremely detailed drawings by / of a different artist / model pair whom we know but the owner has them tucked away somewhere, which is probably for the best as we also know the model's mum socially).
3. What is something that you own with no real world value that is priceless to you?
My own time technically has a real world value but is worth infinitely more to me than its market price. I think this would be true for most people? A lot of my rocks / fossils / archaeological artifacts have happy memories attached, and most of those would have minimal resale value (although various museums or educational collections might think they're priceless acquisitions?). My Lego too, obviously, although that probably does have resale value. Mostly memories, especially of showing children (and occasionally adults) a wonder for the first time: wildlife, plants, weather, fossils, rocks, art, whatevs.
4. Do you collect anything?
Dust? Micro-meteorites set in dust? "Weeds" in my garden. Snobby bee: "I'm not visiting those flowers for essential nectar because they're weeds and only tasteless / scentless over-bred flowers count... x-x ". I don't intentionally "collect" anything but I will admit my rocks are carefully curated and labelled (for when I die).
( And y'all? )