I found this amusing.

Today is sunny and cool, a beautiful spring day.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches at the hopper feeder, and a male cardinal flying around.

I put out water for the birds.

Several of the gardens are now bursting with flowers. Honeybees are swarming over the flowers. :D

More of the fruit tree seedlings have sprouted in their jugs. The ones in the house are sprouting more too. The willow cuttings in water have rootlets over half an inch now!

EDIT 3/8/26 -- I filled 18 pots in a flat with potting soil.

EDIT 3/8/26 -- I planted fruit sprouts in most of the pots: Ginger Gold apple, Pink apple, and yellow pear. I'm pretty sure that I ran out of Ginger Gold and Pear sprouts. There are some Pink sprouts left, so I'll probably finish the pear row with those.

A fox squirrel was scolding from a tree overhead. I've also seen a dark-eyed junco flying around.

EDIT 3/8/26 -- I finished the last three pots with Pink Apple sprouts, and put labels in all but those. I still need to make the last few labels.

EDIT 3/8/26 -- I labeled the last 3 Pink Apple pots. I put a tub over the flat to serve as a greenhouse.

I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/8/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

EDIT 3/8/26 -- I set up another 12-cell tray indoors with Green Striped Cushaw Winter Squash, seeds I saved from a tiny butternut, Landrace Zucchini, and Lofthouse Landrace Muskmelon. I gave each variety 3 cells, and I put 2 seeds in each cell.

I did not use this video in Actresses, costume designers, art directors, and casting directors at the Oscars for International Women's Day because the majority of nominees this year are men.

We went out shopping today.

( Read more... )

A lot of the country is very cold, but where I am right now we're having unseasonably warm weather for March. Still cold in the mornings, but it starts to feel actually kind of hot in the afternoons. It's still snowing, but temperatures are spiking into the sixties on a pretty regular basis and a few people have told me how unusually warm it's been. I'm going to blame it on global warming. There's still snow misting the top of nearby mountains but none where I work and live.

Some of the birds are out here already. We're not really getting spring flowers or anything start to emerge... I'm not actually sure we get spring flowers in this part of North America, but regardless the trees aren't putting out buds.

Finished Venomous Lumpsucker. It's very bleak and depressing, which are emotions that it's fair to have about the sixth mass extinction but make for a downer when reading. It was a good book, though. I've never seen anyone write about self-hatred induced by complicity in ecocide that well before. I'd intended to then read In Amazonia, and then after that read Annihilation, but it looks like I'll probably read The Fox Hunt instead, despite the latter not being a library book and so not being time-limited like the others.

Foxes have been on my mind a lot. I'm trying to paint a gray fox but keep putting it off. Maybe writing about it here will mean I actually get on it, though I'd originally intended to start tonight and now it's too late in the evening. It'll be a gift, when I'm done. Someone I've grown close to over the past couple years is very foxy, though not a fox therian.

Perhaps that's why I've grown so fond of foxes, lately.

Today is cloudy and cooler, but still comfortable.  It stormed again last night.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.  A skein of geese flew overhead, honking quite loudly.

The almost-black miniature irises are blooming.  :D  The first of the bluebell shoots has appeared.

I am done for the night.

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Was the agricultural revolution and the explosion of civilizations that came from it an overall good thing for humans or a negative? In other words, would it have been better or worse for people to stay in small tribes?

( Read more... )

I took some pictures around the yard today. These are from the savanna. (See the house yard.)

( Walk with me ... )

Today was unseasonably warm and sunny, so I took pictures around the yard. The first few are from indoors, then the rest are the house yard. (See the savanna.)

( Walk with me ... )

And maybe not tomorrow, either - I did a TON of knitting the past three days and my hands are OUCH, so I need to rest them. Gonna take a break and read tonight.

Worst case scenario, we'll get back to it next Friday with more FFXI: Wings of the Goddess.

Water bears on Mars: Tardiguardians of the Galaxy?

Tardigrades – also known as water bears – are tiny animals about 1 mm or less in size. They’re known for being able to survive in extreme environments.
Tardigrades can survive in simulated Martian regolith, researchers found … if you rinse it with water first.
Future astronauts could use tardigrades to help grow plants and survive in habitats on Mars.


Tardigrades are interesting little extremophiles. They can survive a wide array of harsh conditions, such as radiation and starvation. Some live in desolate conditions; others live in warm, green places hence their nickname "moss bears." This implies that they excel at colonizing harsh terrain, but they can also take advantage of better conditions. They're about as close to indestructible as life on Earth has gotten. So it makes sense to take them along for space exploration.

Today is mostly sunny, unseasonably warm, and windy. It drizzled on and off yesterday and last night. Today the wind is drying things out some.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen any yet.

I put out water for the birds.

Lots of flowers are blooming -- the crocuses are open and I spotted a winter aconite.

EDIT 3/6/26 -- I took some pictures around the yard.

I saw a turkey vulture wheeling overhead. I've also seen a small flock of house finches and some sparrows at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 3/6/26 -- I transplanted volunteer snowdrops from the parking lot to the apricot tree.

EDIT 3/6/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/6/26 -- I tried using a pruning saw on one of the remaining saplings in the parking lot. I managed to make a small cut, but clearly this method is too inefficient to bring down a sapling. *sigh*

EDIT 3/6/26 -- I transplanted more snowdrops from the parking lot to the apricot tree.

The first Ginger Gold apple seedling has appeared in the milk jug, and indoors, one of the apple seeds has also sprouted. :D 3q3q3q!!! All my willow cuttings are leafed out. Last night the lower stems had tiny white dots; today they have distinct little root buds. Their speed is impressive.

The first peony shoots are appearing in the tulip bed and under the apricot tree.

EDIT 3/6/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 3/6/26 -- I started trimming brush along the north edge of the house.

I am done for the night.

This month is the marchmetamatterschallenge, where folks are encouraged to archive their old meta so it doesn't get lost and/or post new meta. In honor of that, today's theme is Meta. So this month, save your meta, make some new meta, and crosspost to meta communities to keep them active. \o/ See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.

( Read more... )

Recently Charles de Lint shared the story "ICE Out," from his urban fantasy setting Newford. So I decided to write one of my own, from the world of Monster House.

Warning: Here there be monsters.

( Read more... )

"ICE Out" by Charles de Lint (free PDF version)

ICE came to Newford. Big mistake.


For:
Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres
Geraldo Lunas Campos
Víctor Manuel Díaz
Parady La
Renee Nicole Good
Luis Beltrán Yáñez–Cruz
Heber Sánchez Domínguez
Alex Pretti
murdered by ICE


I've been an activist for decades. I've done marches and letter campaigns and all the usual stuff. The technique I've found with the highest throughput of people saying, "I did the thing!" is plain old storytelling. Stories are part of what makes us human. Stories bind the past, explain the present, and imagine the future.

For bards, this is our fight. This is how we fight. Pass it on.


EDIT 3/5/26 -- My contribution is "The Express Bus to Crazy-ass Death Land."