Challenge #4

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

1. Ellita
2. Feeling hopeful about work (but also nervous)
3. Watching Ted Lasso with E (y’all were SO right! Thank you for encouraging me to stick with it)
4. My plants/garden
5. Sitting in the hammock with Ellita and talking with E
6. Having the time and energy to read
7. HEB Peach Guava sparkling water
8. Postcrossing
9. Changing up my work wardrobe
10. Having my ear piercings reopened so that I can wear earrings again

Today is cloudy, mild, and damp -- so cloudy that the light is dim.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches plus a pair of cardinals.

I put out water for the birds.

It's starting to drizzle.

EDIT 7/13/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/13/25 -- I refilled the birdfeeders again.

I've seen a fox squirrel.

As it is still wet out, I am done for the night.

For fans of the Marketplace series of kinky books by Laura Antoniou, the author has the rights back. 

My parents showed me a picture of their new garden gnomes. They found one playing the drums first and got it, and then my mom found these others to make the rest of the gnome band.

My dad pointed to each one and told me, "Bucky the drummer, and the singer is his brother Benny, and then there's their friend Dwight." He's so funny, such a quiet guy but he comes up with these goofy things sometimes. Mom was mocking him for this. He just went along, telling me the names of "all my gnomes in the backyard, Paul and Tessa together. And I can't remember what the other two names are..."

I didn't know they had any gnomes, and it turns out they have a whole crowd now! With names!

I was planning to post about The Hound of the Baskervilles in sections for the Sundays in the summer (i.e., before the boys return to school). I was intending to start last Sunday but my anxiety about the job was so high I could barely function so let's see if I can catch up a little but keep with the plan.

The Hound of the Baskervilles was published in The Strand from August 1901 - April 1902.

I actually managed to view a first edition (or at least an early edition) of it in an antique shop in one of the malls in Las Vegas when I visited there 2 years ago for the BTS concert.



It is the Sherlock Holmes work which has been most adapted, I think, into other media (film, TV, radio plays, etc.). I did a little research on the many adaptations but if you have a favorite, please drop it in the comments.

I only have the bandwidth to do the first chapter today.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 we get a deduction (which is my favorite part of any story). A prospective client has left behind his walking stick (called a Penang lawyer) and Watson and Holmes deduce characteristics of its owner. In The Annotated Holmes one scholar remarks:

It is curious how frequenly Holmes' clients took insufficient care of their property. The result was always highly satisfactory for Holmes invariably made a reconstruction of the missing client from the missing article.

[We see this in "The Blue Carbuncle" with the hat.]

Here's Holmes looking at the stick.



We will meet the owner of the stick in Chapter 2 and learn what business he has with Holmes.


Chapter 1 page 2 of the manuscript

Challenge #4

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so!

So it’s time for the next Sunshine revival post already! So behind the cut is a bunch of things, most with pictures.

( Read more... )

Now I’m gonna have a flop and there’s a Vienna concert thing on tv which I’m gonna watch (and thankfully the heat has cooled down!)

Adjusting to the job, I am behind on...everything. I am still figuring out when to do things and how to engineer motivation to do things and how to prioritize and what things will have to be cut from to the to-do list permanently because there simply isn't as much free time as there was. So please bear with me (I am speaking to myself more than you because I have discovered over and over again that my friends are MUCH kinder to me than I ever am to myself).



Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.
Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like

In 2023 and 2024, I did Fannish 50 so I have a nice list of things I like. Mysteries & detective stories, ghost stories, poetry, audiobooks, puzzles, collage, BTS, miniatures, art, libraries, coffee, chocolate, Christmas & Halloween, okapis & sea turtles, the ocean, the moon, tea, bees & honey, tarot, fireworks, autumn, Snoopy.

I watched the latest Venom movie last night. Parts of it were very good. I am glad they left The Girl out of it this time. I was glad Mrs. Chen got a beautiful cameo. I can't say it 'got my heart pumping' but I enjoyed it.

I finished the jigsaw puzzle below yesterday [Around the World in 50 Plants, 1000 pieces, art by Lucille Clerc, a decent puzzle, well-fitting pieces], and there is ALWAYS a satisfaction at putting the last piece in. Is it better than sex? My ace-spectrum self says YES. I also like poetry and this is poem #26 from Jo Bell's book 52: write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going. The prompt was erotica. I write PLENTY of explicit fic and have written explicit poetry, too, but I combined it with the journal prompt of the Sunshine Revival.

jigsaw by okapi

they spill into the lid. like shelling peas
like wheat from chaff. or sheep from goat.
soft noise, soft rhythm, fingers flick with ease
and satisfaction. bedlam’s antidote.

define fine boundaries and orient
the scene. an orgy. orifice and limb
are rife. there’s wanting and there’s turgescent
as error and trial make order of whim

But there. And there. And there. No. Yes. the frame
takes shape. union by union. head to tail
and tail to head. with time, the eye can name
the subtleties of hue and pattern scale

reward is the breath held ‘til the last piece
has found its way home, then sigh of release

Another week down. I was excessively tired this past week, so I didn't do much at all. (Even the writing I planned to do 😭) Such is life.

Onwards to other things (somehow mostly Ultraman this week lol):

( Read more... )

If you're playing along, try to ID the whales. Also some forest pictures and some dead fish that wash up en masse this time of year.

( whales! )

I've been camping on the hottest days of this summer. We just got home and I've had a shower and am drying off in front of a fan.

I am so grateful for electricity and indoor plumbing.

Infrastructure is great.

There are ice cubes in this house! I'm lying on a bed that won't deflate under me!

I started back at university part-time last week! It was very confusing for the poor IT systems, which didn’t cope very well with someone being a returning student after 16 years (or ‘a very long time ago’, as the IT person who made me repeat my date of birth several times called it).

I am only doing one course at a time, so at the moment it is Japanese. In honour of which, I am posting the notes from a film I watched back in March. I have been telling people I’ve gone back to uni because I’m sick of my work, but maybe I should have been blaming it on Kurosawa :p

Ikiru (1952)

As a public servant, I felt attacked by this film.

Watanabe has worked in public relations for the city council for years and years, leading a dull life, until he learns (despite the doctor’s refusal to admit it) that he has stomach cancer.

( After which ... )

I love "rare" exchanges, so I'm really happy that the timing of this exchange finally lined up for me. As always, this letter is meant for inspiration purposes only - if you already have something in mind for one of this ships, please go for it! I'm sure I'll love whatever you create. ♥

I do have gifts enabled, and treats are always welcome.

( In general... )

( Crossover: Matthew Cuthbert/Willy )

( Naruto: Tobirama/Kagami )

( NU:carnival: Eiden/Yakumo )

Melting glaciers are awakening Earth's most dangerous volcanoes

As glaciers melt around the world, long-dormant volcanoes may be waking up beneath the ice. New research reveals that massive ice sheets have suppressed eruptions for thousands of years, building up underground pressure. But as that icy weight disappears, it may trigger a wave of explosive eruptions—especially in places like Antarctica. This unexpected volcanic threat not only poses regional risks but could also accelerate climate change in a dangerous feedback loop. The Earth’s hidden fire may be closer to the surface than we thought.


Somehow OH SHIT just doesn't seem like enough. O_O  I have noticed that the volcanoes seem more restless than they used to, and now wonder if this could be a contributing factor.