Birdfeeding

Sep. 30th, 2025 01:55 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and sweltering. It's 85°F here. The migration is heavily impacted -- we drove past the lake yesterday and there was no sign of waterbirds, whereas normally this time of year there would ducks, pelicans, etc. in fairly large flocks.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 9/30/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.









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(no subject)

Sep. 30th, 2025 01:24 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Photo of the grand dragon conclave shows a lot of top NCOs sitting next to the shoulder stars. I didn't realize they were roping the CSMs in as well as the officers. You really could decapitate the military that way . . .

Tuesday goose/duck report

Sep. 30th, 2025 12:48 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Mixed flock of maybe four dozen out at the cemetery this morning. Guess they found out that segregation is now illegal. Only the geese seemed to be grazing out among the graves, while both geese and ducks were hanging out around the pond.

One roadkill porcupine on the other side of the road at about mile five on my route, smear of green guck across the asphalt at about mile nine. The latter was probably porcupine stomach contents left when the corpse went elsewhere. Both locations are known porcupine death zones.

Asters blooming in profusion along with the other usuals. Most of the red maples have dropped their leaves in the bog while the upland trees have barely started to turn. Touch of yellow on some of the tamaracks.

Got out on the bike when the temperature reached 60 F, up to the country club and over to the road through the bog and home. Not a lot of wind, comfortable biking weather. Did not die.

15.33 miles, 1:28:43

The social contract

Sep. 30th, 2025 07:36 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
The Emperor is required to provide enough bread and circuses to keep the masses from open rebellion. It's right there in the rules.

Abomination of desolation

Sep. 30th, 2025 06:52 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 50 F, wind near calm, sunny if the sun ever bothers to rise. A few gulls patrol the far side of the park, but whatever draws them seems to be on the wane. Plan to snatch a bike ride from the jaws of advancing winter once the world warms up a bit. Any one of those may be the last of the year . . .

Today's Adventures

Sep. 29th, 2025 11:07 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we went to Grissom Family Orchard.

Read more... )
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[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Shopping and Sharing
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1858
[Tuesday, May 5, 2020, early afternoon]


:: During Ed and Aidan’s trip to the food bank, they have an interesting encounter. (Plot crept into this, all of which is a spoiler spree.) Part of the Edison’s Mirror series. This story was written for the September 2025 Feathering the Nest prompt call, from a suggestion made by [personal profile] readera, with my thanks.


:: Pay Special Attention: some innuendo, that Aidan destroys without seeming to notice anything. ::



Back to Meeting an Ally, part 4
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to (Un)Employment




The drive to the food “bank” had been bewildering and enlightening in equal measure, though not always answering the questions that it created. Aidan smiled immediately when Ed chose to interact with anyone or anything, and when the boy insisted on a large bag of potatoes, the older man would have ruffled the boy’s curls, if he had any.

“What do you want to make?” Aidan asked as he fitted the clear bag into the wheeled pushcart that Shandiin had guided them to as soon as they had been enrolled.

“Lots of things. But…” Ed blinked away the wetness clinging to his eyelashes. I miss boxty.”

“What is that?” Aidan asked. He picked over the yellow onions individually, putting them into a paper sack which might hold two pounds if he was careful with the fragile container.
Read more... )

(evening writing)

Sep. 29th, 2025 05:46 pm
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[personal profile] elainegrey

Back from vacation which was lovely if exceedingly laid back. I forgot my antidepressants, which i suspect are more of an ADHD med for me, and simply underscored my plan to try not to plan to do much.  Friday had some bright weather, but then it was grey. The grey made for nice beach walking.

Carrie was ... OK with the beach. She was initially terrified by the very high tide line with the dried seaweed. I carried her across the first time, she did some remarkable leaps, and eventually she could cautiously make her way across.  She eventually discovered delight in rolling in the drier sand, and did enjoy walking along the wet sand.  By our last morning she was just beginning to get water curious but still didn't want the waves to lap around her feet.

I butterflied and broiled a half pound each of white (aka green tail) and brown shrimp -- it was delightful to see how differently they tasted from our grocery store shrimp, and tell apart the two. Christine said the white tasted more like langostino than shrimp. I thought sweeter.

The next day i  broiled sheepshead (probably aka convict fish), sea trout, and red drum. The red drum filet was pretty big. I tried all three at the same time. I enjoyed them, but really couldn't distinguish them that much. The sheepshead was most tender.

I have read lots, a couple collections of short stories from Amazon Originals, two Mary Russell novels i hadn't read before, then broke down and joined Kindle unlimited to reread almost all the Murderbot stories and an Anne Leckie novel, Translation State.

I've gone through feeling the feels off and on; the novel reading since getting home feels like a return to avoidance. Although, admittedly, not having my antidepressant/motivation med in my system was probably a little odd.

Christine was mostly good about the trip, although the drive involved stretches of highway that wasn't limited access but instead was at much reduced speed through little eastern North Carolina towns or dotted with evangelical signs. She dreaded the return drive back through.

Somehow, i edit and see the shape of the land, the trees, the rivers, the quirky signs of humans. And while things could be better, instead of critique my mind goes more to trying to interpret things like what are the things that look like foundations in the edges of the fields at 35°52'46.2"N 76°33'15.3"W . A check of the county GIS shows the owner of the structures and some of the water bodies is JCT, LLC, 100 LAKE DR, Clinton, NC, which is different than the owner of the fields. That appears to be a hog farm, which has at least a few  environmental enforcement actions against them -- hog farm waste ponds in eastern NC being the source of some nasty environmental horrors after heavy rains (hurricanes).  Let's see ... Somerset Farm ... permit "Swine State COC" AWS940001 ... DEQ map of feeding permits... found the farm, history of permits and site inspections. Hmm, looks like they weren't going to upgrade as needed circa 2023 so shut down.

Well, that was yet another distraction.

Gotta get ready for vacation to end.

(no subject)

Sep. 29th, 2025 04:58 pm
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

Food

Sep. 29th, 2025 03:26 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Junk food can scramble memory in just 4 days

Scientists discovered that high-fat junk food disrupts memory circuits in the brain almost immediately. Within just four days, neurons in the hippocampus became overactive, impairing memory. Restoring glucose calmed the neurons, showing that interventions like fasting or dietary shifts can restore brain health. This could help prevent obesity-related dementia and Alzheimer’s.


Of more immediate application: if you need to study for anything, don't eat junk food while doing so. Eat brain food.

Birdfeeding

Sep. 29th, 2025 03:01 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and sweltering.  In late September.  Fuck climate change. >_<

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/29/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and some savanna seedlings.

I saw a huge corn devil in the field across from us that was harvested recently.  This wasn't the usual 10-15 foot tall kind.  This was a wide, strong spiral of air that threw corn leaves hundreds of feet into the sky.  Impressive.

EDIT 9/29/25 -- I watered the irises, old picnic table, and new picnic table.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

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

(no subject)

Sep. 29th, 2025 03:16 pm
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[personal profile] jhetley
Some topics are poisonous to touch. This ranges from a poison-ivy itch to blue-ringed octopus level of poisonous.

Nature

Sep. 29th, 2025 01:38 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This post has an interesting discussion about human/wildlife relationships.

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(no subject)

Sep. 29th, 2025 11:32 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Ash trees continue to amuse. Some are bare, some defy the season and remain green. I have no idea how much of this difference is genetic and how much environmental.

Oopsie observed

Sep. 29th, 2025 10:32 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
House on my walk route had the driveway repaved a few weeks back. Today's saunter around the neighborhood found a crew tearing up that driveway, prior to repaving. Did not interrogate said crew further.

(no subject)

Sep. 29th, 2025 07:50 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Hark, hark! the dogs do bark,
Beggars are coming to town.
Some in rags, some in jags,
And some in velvet gowns.

Götterdämmerung

Sep. 29th, 2025 07:00 am
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[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 48 F, wind southwest 4 mph, sunny. A few gulls across the park, also a couple of crows. No coordinated advance apparent. Ambitions limited to a walk, maybe to include meet-up with a cat friend.
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