life is more than sexual combustibility
Aug. 4th, 2025 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestYesterday was Fruit Day. Beast and I picked
—small plums from the tree next to the patio
—tiny plums from the tree next to that
—large golden plums, possibly greengages, from one of the trees FIL planted. The big purple plums, while a fabulous colour, are not at all soft, and the medium-sized turning-red plums are still rock-like, so they stayed on their respective trees.
—blackberries from the front. I had picked another bowlful from the back garden on Saturday, and frozen them. It's good to have blackberries.
I then cut up the golden plums, stewed them briefly, froze them, and cut up the small plums, ditto. For such a lot of plums they did not take up much space—I have put them in bags inside small boxes, to freeze into blocks, at which point I will reclaim the boxes.
I have used the leftover juice to try and make kombucha, mixed with green tea. We shall see.
Then I made a blackberry and apple crumble. We had some of it for tea.
*
We finished watching Sense8 last night. I am so pleased that the creators had enough notice and were given the space/time to produce a film-length final episode to wrap up a bunch of plot, and indeed to provide an unexpected and very generous dollop of fanservice. I've enjoyed watching this show. The premise is unusual and very well done, and all eight of the core group are interesting in different ways. I like their besties, too. In fact, I cannot point to any one character as my favourite, nor as someone I don't care for. But I do think the prolonged sex scenes were a bit much—not that I object to sex, but when precious little *happens* in a scene apart from writhing nakedness, lingering on it lovingly for long enough to make a proper cup of tea feels like a glitch in the story telling process.
Still. I've reached to point of looking for fic. Does anyone have any recommendations? Has anybody written any plot-without-porn, perchance?
—small plums from the tree next to the patio
—tiny plums from the tree next to that
—large golden plums, possibly greengages, from one of the trees FIL planted. The big purple plums, while a fabulous colour, are not at all soft, and the medium-sized turning-red plums are still rock-like, so they stayed on their respective trees.
—blackberries from the front. I had picked another bowlful from the back garden on Saturday, and frozen them. It's good to have blackberries.
I then cut up the golden plums, stewed them briefly, froze them, and cut up the small plums, ditto. For such a lot of plums they did not take up much space—I have put them in bags inside small boxes, to freeze into blocks, at which point I will reclaim the boxes.
I have used the leftover juice to try and make kombucha, mixed with green tea. We shall see.
Then I made a blackberry and apple crumble. We had some of it for tea.
*
We finished watching Sense8 last night. I am so pleased that the creators had enough notice and were given the space/time to produce a film-length final episode to wrap up a bunch of plot, and indeed to provide an unexpected and very generous dollop of fanservice. I've enjoyed watching this show. The premise is unusual and very well done, and all eight of the core group are interesting in different ways. I like their besties, too. In fact, I cannot point to any one character as my favourite, nor as someone I don't care for. But I do think the prolonged sex scenes were a bit much—not that I object to sex, but when precious little *happens* in a scene apart from writhing nakedness, lingering on it lovingly for long enough to make a proper cup of tea feels like a glitch in the story telling process.
Still. I've reached to point of looking for fic. Does anyone have any recommendations? Has anybody written any plot-without-porn, perchance?
allbingo Crime Classics Bingo Card
Aug. 1st, 2025 05:58 pmthisbluespiritOkay, I knoooooow I am being rubbish at all my other bingos currently, but if ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
allbingo's August theme happens to be irresistible, everything will be different this time, right? XD
(Tbf, the odds are rather better than the last few weeks anyway...)
But, I give you a Crime Classics Bingo Card made from titles from the British Library's crime catalogue:
I love it. I even got the source for The Lady Vanishes, go me! Any suggestions? (With the usual caveat of me probably doing something else anyway, heh.)
allbingo's August theme happens to be irresistible, everything will be different this time, right? XD(Tbf, the odds are rather better than the last few weeks anyway...)
But, I give you a Crime Classics Bingo Card made from titles from the British Library's crime catalogue:
| Someone from the Past | He Who Whispers | Tour de Force | Fear Stalks the Village | Antidote to Venom |
| Family Matters | Foreign Bodies | Tea on Sunday | It Walks by Night | Green for Danger |
| Settling Scores | As If By Magic | WILD CARD | The Black Spectacles | Somebody at the Door |
| Twice Round the Clock | The Man Who Didn’t Fly | Excellent Intentions | Crossed Skis | Serpents in Eden |
| The Wheel Spins | Final Acts | Deep Waters | Not to Be Taken | Bats in the Belfry |
I love it. I even got the source for The Lady Vanishes, go me! Any suggestions? (With the usual caveat of me probably doing something else anyway, heh.)
FMA: Conqueror of Shamballa Icons
Jul. 29th, 2025 07:07 pmbemused_writerThe 23rd was the 20th anniversary for Conqueror of Shamballa! I won't lie, this was difficult knowledge, but I thought it would be fun to commemorate it with a bunch of icons, mostly from the movie, but a few from the 2003 anime as well. (^^) I rewatched it on Wednesday, and it really is a visual treat of a film!
( 115 icons under the cut... )
( 115 icons under the cut... )
icons i've made
Jul. 29th, 2025 04:47 pmmercuriosi am not particularly graphics-inclined (i know i've used photoshop, yet for the life of me i can't remember how) but i've made a couple of icons here and there (landcomms usually) over the years (these are all old as hell actually), so i wanna have them all in the same place :)
are they good icons? eh
( icons below the cut )
are they good icons? eh
( icons below the cut )
Sunshine Challenge #7
Jul. 29th, 2025 05:01 pmpensnestI seem to have skipped a couple, so may go back to them later.
Journaling: Life in fandom goes through ups and downs. Reminisce about the "wild ride" of your time in fandom or in other online communities.
It's not so much the Ups that matter. The exciting moments of being in a fandom—going to Trek cons, meeting people I knew only in writing (or hadn't known at all), having sparkly weekends and Camp Sparkle and some of the best laughs I've ever had in my life, going to concerts, and the highs of real feedback and the excitements of participating in challenges large and small, all those things—are why it's wonderful being a part of a fandom. The sadness comes when you fall out of your fandom and have not found anything to replace it, or else your fandom falls away. I fell out of ST:TNG fandom. Popslash fandom fell away from me. So these are the downs.
*
I have a new medication for diabetes now, the Jardiance having resulted in The Itch From Hell, of which I shall say no more except that when I stopped taking the medication, the itch stopped. (And the peasants rejoiced, etc.) So now I have something that will prod my pancreas instead, I hope.
*
Why Norwich celebrates Pride a month later than everybody else, I do not know, but it is so. I went into the city last Saturday, had tea and scone with a couple of my fellow knitters, and wandered out to explore the many stalls set out in the car park near the theatre. Didn't buy *much*, really. Three pairs of earrings and a couple of badges. (It's weird being the same age as old people.) I paused in town to have an early lunch of pasty and coffee, and met the beginning of the parade coming down the little lane I was in. Very glamorous, colourful, and fun. I even had the chance to say hello to a friendly and well-dressed dachshund.
It's nice to see *overt* tolerance being practised with pleasure and enthusiasm. Normal life is generally tolerant here, but in a passive way. But the city centre was *packed* with people in pride colours (and several in furry suits, who must have been very uncomfortable), either marching or waving and cheering.
Journaling: Life in fandom goes through ups and downs. Reminisce about the "wild ride" of your time in fandom or in other online communities.
It's not so much the Ups that matter. The exciting moments of being in a fandom—going to Trek cons, meeting people I knew only in writing (or hadn't known at all), having sparkly weekends and Camp Sparkle and some of the best laughs I've ever had in my life, going to concerts, and the highs of real feedback and the excitements of participating in challenges large and small, all those things—are why it's wonderful being a part of a fandom. The sadness comes when you fall out of your fandom and have not found anything to replace it, or else your fandom falls away. I fell out of ST:TNG fandom. Popslash fandom fell away from me. So these are the downs.
*
I have a new medication for diabetes now, the Jardiance having resulted in The Itch From Hell, of which I shall say no more except that when I stopped taking the medication, the itch stopped. (And the peasants rejoiced, etc.) So now I have something that will prod my pancreas instead, I hope.
*
Why Norwich celebrates Pride a month later than everybody else, I do not know, but it is so. I went into the city last Saturday, had tea and scone with a couple of my fellow knitters, and wandered out to explore the many stalls set out in the car park near the theatre. Didn't buy *much*, really. Three pairs of earrings and a couple of badges. (It's weird being the same age as old people.) I paused in town to have an early lunch of pasty and coffee, and met the beginning of the parade coming down the little lane I was in. Very glamorous, colourful, and fun. I even had the chance to say hello to a friendly and well-dressed dachshund.
It's nice to see *overt* tolerance being practised with pleasure and enthusiasm. Normal life is generally tolerant here, but in a passive way. But the city centre was *packed* with people in pride colours (and several in furry suits, who must have been very uncomfortable), either marching or waving and cheering.
A post
Jul. 27th, 2025 01:31 pmthisbluespiritThings continue much as before. I wanted to make a post, but I haven't quite the brain for reviews or the like, so here are two random quick things:
1. Back when we were all making top 100 lists,osprey_archer did a picture books one, and there was a discussion in the comments about US vs UK picture books, so I did a UK one, with the best/most popular/influential picture book illustrators I could think of (up to 2010 when I stopped being a children's librarian and, indeed, anything much), but it took ages to try and make sure I wasn't missing people and put all the covers on, and then I kept forgetting I'd made it.
It's here for those who like clicking on books in a list.
(I apologise for the lack of 2010s and 2020s; but I have not kept up at all! Also I included picture books only for the most part, with a few honourable exceptions, so this means there are very few early reader type books & no comics, but there are picture books for older readers. It needs to be an unorthodox size and shelved in the kinder boxes! Also, I focused on illustrators not authors. Plus a tiny handful were just personal favourites, but it is my list. ;-p)
2. I was talking about Outrageous, the U&Drama/Britbox TV series about the Mitfords last time. It continued to be excellent and it finally occurred to me that I could link the trailer, which would be helpful:
1. Back when we were all making top 100 lists,
osprey_archer did a picture books one, and there was a discussion in the comments about US vs UK picture books, so I did a UK one, with the best/most popular/influential picture book illustrators I could think of (up to 2010 when I stopped being a children's librarian and, indeed, anything much), but it took ages to try and make sure I wasn't missing people and put all the covers on, and then I kept forgetting I'd made it.It's here for those who like clicking on books in a list.
(I apologise for the lack of 2010s and 2020s; but I have not kept up at all! Also I included picture books only for the most part, with a few honourable exceptions, so this means there are very few early reader type books & no comics, but there are picture books for older readers. It needs to be an unorthodox size and shelved in the kinder boxes! Also, I focused on illustrators not authors. Plus a tiny handful were just personal favourites, but it is my list. ;-p)
2. I was talking about Outrageous, the U&Drama/Britbox TV series about the Mitfords last time. It continued to be excellent and it finally occurred to me that I could link the trailer, which would be helpful:
Sunshine Challenge #4
Jul. 25th, 2025 12:10 ampensnestSo, I've managed to get behind on the Sunshine Challenge, but never mind, I can still have a go. This is #4, I think.
Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
( List is in pretty random order )
For a wee bonus, https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DMrBhsi6e/?mibextid=wwXIfr Gorgeous.
Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
( List is in pretty random order )
For a wee bonus, https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DMrBhsi6e/?mibextid=wwXIfr Gorgeous.