Can the salvation of the Literature Club be something as simple as blackmail?
O Maidens in Your Savage Season, volume 2 by Mari Okada & Nao Emoto
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Just finished: Nothing.
Currently reading: Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple. This is a weirdly dense book—like, not in terms of content but in terms of typography where it turns out to be much longer than it looks. So it will take awhile and I'll no doubt have very scattered thoughts on it. I'm up to a weird point just before WWII where Piłsudski has done a coup in Poland and provided some kind of respite for the Bund there, while Molly's great-great grandfather Sam is in the US, trying to make it as an artist. The revolution in Russia has almost immediately turned sour. The Zionist movement is ascendant in Eastern Europe but still looked on as profoundly unserious by the Bundist majority, who are like, "you're going to be farmers in the desert? Good luck with that and also fuck you."
This is just such an important book, right now in our history with what was once the biggest current of socialist thought in Europe being whittled down to a few of us hobbyists in 2026. It's not just hereness, but a lineage that I think most Ashkenazi Jews are lacking, even ones like me who know a fair bit about the Bund. The majority of Jews in the West have accepted the Devil's bargain of whiteness: give up your culture for safety and assimilation into the power structure, sure celebrate your holidays but now you're part of the dominant culture. There have been times, watching the livestreamed genocide of Gaza, that I have thought, "well, can I just not be Jewish anymore? I want no part of it, I want to wash my hands of it, I cannot participate if this is what most of us feel is okay," but you can't, can you? I mean you can but not in any meaningful way that helps even a single person. It's better to have a history, to know why and how that history has been suppressed, not because of some nostalgia or historical LARPing but because of the whole "first as tragedy, then as farce" of it all.
Which is to say that this book is giving me a lot of feels. You should read it, probably.
Currently reading: Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple. This is a weirdly dense book—like, not in terms of content but in terms of typography where it turns out to be much longer than it looks. So it will take awhile and I'll no doubt have very scattered thoughts on it. I'm up to a weird point just before WWII where Piłsudski has done a coup in Poland and provided some kind of respite for the Bund there, while Molly's great-great grandfather Sam is in the US, trying to make it as an artist. The revolution in Russia has almost immediately turned sour. The Zionist movement is ascendant in Eastern Europe but still looked on as profoundly unserious by the Bundist majority, who are like, "you're going to be farmers in the desert? Good luck with that and also fuck you."
This is just such an important book, right now in our history with what was once the biggest current of socialist thought in Europe being whittled down to a few of us hobbyists in 2026. It's not just hereness, but a lineage that I think most Ashkenazi Jews are lacking, even ones like me who know a fair bit about the Bund. The majority of Jews in the West have accepted the Devil's bargain of whiteness: give up your culture for safety and assimilation into the power structure, sure celebrate your holidays but now you're part of the dominant culture. There have been times, watching the livestreamed genocide of Gaza, that I have thought, "well, can I just not be Jewish anymore? I want no part of it, I want to wash my hands of it, I cannot participate if this is what most of us feel is okay," but you can't, can you? I mean you can but not in any meaningful way that helps even a single person. It's better to have a history, to know why and how that history has been suppressed, not because of some nostalgia or historical LARPing but because of the whole "first as tragedy, then as farce" of it all.
Which is to say that this book is giving me a lot of feels. You should read it, probably.
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2026/059: A Legacy of Spies — John Le Carré
...how much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free? [loc. 3719]
Published in 2017, and very much a post-Brexit novel: at one point Smiley says to Peter Guillam "was it all for England, then? Of course it was... But whose England? Which England? England all alone, a citizen of nowhere? I'm a European."
Told from Peter Guillam's point of view: he's an old man now, retired to his family's farm in Brittany, but he's called back to London to explain his actions during Operation Windfall( Read more... )
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Hi all
The next book will be 'Death in the Andamans' by M M Kaye, which I am hosting.
I plan to start on May 19th (due to commitments earlier in the month). I'll post every Tuesday.
There are 24 chapters, so I'll do two at a time.
See you then!
The next book will be 'Death in the Andamans' by M M Kaye, which I am hosting.
I plan to start on May 19th (due to commitments earlier in the month). I'll post every Tuesday.
There are 24 chapters, so I'll do two at a time.
See you then!
(![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trailer_spot Apr. 22nd, 2026 10:46 am)
trailer_spot Apr. 22nd, 2026 10:46 am)Ladies First HD1080p 32MB
Satire based on a French film in which the script is flipped when a ladies man (Sacha Baron Cohen) finds his life upended when he wakes up in a parallel world dominated by women. With the rules of engagement changed, he goes head-to-head with a fiery female colleague (Rosamund Pike). Charles Dance, Emily Mortimer, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw, Weruche Opia and Kadiff Kirwan are also part of the cast. Directed by Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters, Me Before You, The Beautiful Game).
Will probably turn out to be a lot more harmless than expected. But this looks pretty funny. Will start streaming on Netflix on May 22nd.
The Dog Stars HD720p 31MB
Trailer for the latest movie directed by Ridley Scott (The Martian, American Gangster, Kingdom of Heaven). It's an action drama based on a book by Peter Heller, set in a world where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice. It tells the story of Hig (Jacob Elordi), a young pilot who, together with a military survivalist (Josh Brolin), has carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in a brutal post-apocalyptic world until a mysterious radio transmission spurs him to venture into the unknown in search of the hope and humanity he still believes exists. Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce and Benedict Wong are also part of the cast.
Jack Ryan: Ghost War HD720p 31MB
Action movie based in the most recent TV series incarnation of Tom Clancy's character. CIA analyst Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) is reluctantly thrust back into the world of espionage when an international covert mission unravels a deadly conspiracy, forcing him to confront a rogue black-ops unit, and the clock is ticking. Operating in real time with lives on the line and the threat escalating at every turn, he reunites with battle-tested CIA operative Mike November (Michael Kelly) and former CIA boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce). Backed by an unlikely new partner – razor-sharp MI6 officer Emma Marlowe (Sienna Miller) – Jack and the team navigate a treacherous web of betrayal, facing a past they thought was long put to rest.
Will start streaming on Amazon Prime on May 20th.
Practical Magic 2 HD720p 18MB
Teaser trailer for the sequel, to be release 28 years after the first film. It returns to a world steeped in moonlit mischief and powerful ancestral magic, as the Owens sisters (Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman) must confront the dark curse that threatens to unravel their family once and for all. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest will also return. New cast additions are Joey King, Lee Pace and Maisie Williams. Directed by Susanne Bier (After The Wedding, In a Better World, Love Is All You Need).
Maybe I should watch the first film.
I Love Boosters HD720p 29MB
Even more colourful, high-energy full trailer for this comedic drama about a crew of professional shoplifters (Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu) that take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven (Demi Moore). It’s like community service. Lakeith Stanfield, Eiza González, Will Poulter and Don Cheadle are also part of the cast. Written and directed by Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You).
Satire based on a French film in which the script is flipped when a ladies man (Sacha Baron Cohen) finds his life upended when he wakes up in a parallel world dominated by women. With the rules of engagement changed, he goes head-to-head with a fiery female colleague (Rosamund Pike). Charles Dance, Emily Mortimer, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw, Weruche Opia and Kadiff Kirwan are also part of the cast. Directed by Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters, Me Before You, The Beautiful Game).
Will probably turn out to be a lot more harmless than expected. But this looks pretty funny. Will start streaming on Netflix on May 22nd.
The Dog Stars HD720p 31MB
Trailer for the latest movie directed by Ridley Scott (The Martian, American Gangster, Kingdom of Heaven). It's an action drama based on a book by Peter Heller, set in a world where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice. It tells the story of Hig (Jacob Elordi), a young pilot who, together with a military survivalist (Josh Brolin), has carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in a brutal post-apocalyptic world until a mysterious radio transmission spurs him to venture into the unknown in search of the hope and humanity he still believes exists. Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce and Benedict Wong are also part of the cast.
Jack Ryan: Ghost War HD720p 31MB
Action movie based in the most recent TV series incarnation of Tom Clancy's character. CIA analyst Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) is reluctantly thrust back into the world of espionage when an international covert mission unravels a deadly conspiracy, forcing him to confront a rogue black-ops unit, and the clock is ticking. Operating in real time with lives on the line and the threat escalating at every turn, he reunites with battle-tested CIA operative Mike November (Michael Kelly) and former CIA boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce). Backed by an unlikely new partner – razor-sharp MI6 officer Emma Marlowe (Sienna Miller) – Jack and the team navigate a treacherous web of betrayal, facing a past they thought was long put to rest.
Will start streaming on Amazon Prime on May 20th.
Practical Magic 2 HD720p 18MB
Teaser trailer for the sequel, to be release 28 years after the first film. It returns to a world steeped in moonlit mischief and powerful ancestral magic, as the Owens sisters (Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman) must confront the dark curse that threatens to unravel their family once and for all. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest will also return. New cast additions are Joey King, Lee Pace and Maisie Williams. Directed by Susanne Bier (After The Wedding, In a Better World, Love Is All You Need).
Maybe I should watch the first film.
I Love Boosters HD720p 29MB
Even more colourful, high-energy full trailer for this comedic drama about a crew of professional shoplifters (Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu) that take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven (Demi Moore). It’s like community service. Lakeith Stanfield, Eiza González, Will Poulter and Don Cheadle are also part of the cast. Written and directed by Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You).
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If you follow me on Comradery (or Patreon), or elsewhere, you may have heard me mention a tedious-to-work-on current project that I’d be sharing soon. Well! I’m serialising another book!! The tedious parts were doing an edit and breaking the book up into nice chunks (and queueing it). Starting June 21, 2026, I’m serialising The Consoling Divide! You may remember (or have been signed up to get the emails for) The Audacity Gambit, this is both a sequel to TAG and also a story that can stand on its own.
If you’d like to know more about this upcoming story, check out the info page here! Also please, enjoy the cover and a blurb:
Here’s the blurb:
Five years ago, Emily Anderson of Royal Oak Court Trailer Park was declared the Chosen One and sent on a quest to the Sidhe realm to end the exile of the adults who raised her. She succeeded, because that’s what Chosen Ones do, but the aftermath left her alone and in charge of the rest of the children in the trailer court.
Since her return, they’ve all found a kind of peace and stability, but nothing can stay the same forever. When Emily learns she has to plunge back into the fairy world she gladly left and reopen emotions she’d even more gladly bottled up, her reluctance is met by the one thing she knows is true: she can only rely on herself. One of the children Emily raised needs her, but first she needs to find them. The world she’s returning to is a different one than what she experienced as a hopeful teen, and even when it is familiar her place in it is no longer as clearly defined, the path not so easily followed.
I had fun going back and getting this ready to serialise, I hope all y’all have a nice time reading it. In case this is a blog post and not just an email (I am writing this ~ in the past ~ oooOOOhh ~ here’s a signup for getting The Consoling Divide delivered to your inbox. Of course, as always, you can as easily add it to your RSS, which is very sexy too.
If you were signed up for updates for TAG, I’ve (I believe) set up things so that you either start getting emails for the new story as before and can also easily unsubscribe from TCD updates if you prefer. Please let me know if you have trouble with it! Goodness knows its been a bear from my side.
The intent is to be annoying (ie: somewhat regular, rather than easily distracted) about promo’ing this one, I have promo images and everything. So expect to keep hearing about this for a bit! It may not start until mid-June, but hey, I’ve got plenty of other stuff for you to read until then.
Two things I like to see in my TV shows: women who are allowed to get justifiably angry, and women who are allowed to eat. They're not the greatest things about Rome, but they're up there.
Walking back to my place instead of taking a bike, I spotted a cardinal in the park, perching inside the flowering cherry blossoms. A male, easily identified, a darker red than the surrounding pinks, and it fit very nicely in with all the petals. I thought to take a moment to rummage through my bag and grab my phone, then decided not to bother. I stood and listened a bit, and felt satisfied with that. I took note of the last lilacs and magnolias, and felt satisfied with those.
It didn't last, but it was nice in the moment.
Walking back to my place instead of taking a bike, I spotted a cardinal in the park, perching inside the flowering cherry blossoms. A male, easily identified, a darker red than the surrounding pinks, and it fit very nicely in with all the petals. I thought to take a moment to rummage through my bag and grab my phone, then decided not to bother. I stood and listened a bit, and felt satisfied with that. I took note of the last lilacs and magnolias, and felt satisfied with those.
It didn't last, but it was nice in the moment.
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So Marvel Trumps Hate, a fannish charity auction that I have occasionally participated in, has people offering fic and art and various other fannish crafts and services for charity. There are usually a few people offering fanbinds of Marvel fanfiction, and in 2024, a bunch of people got together and organized a group bid for ![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
zerosconsort to bind two of my stories. I had no idea this was happening! It was awesome!
So I talked with Zero about it -- mostly in the spring and summer of 2025 -- and we settled on doing two anthologies of my shorter Steve/Tony fic, split by POV. So there would be one Steve book and one Tony book. I know we talked about what stories should go in there and how to balance the word count, but this was also the period of time where I was getting 20-25 migraines a month for about five months straight, so I don't actually... remember... a lot of last year especially well, my capacity for coherent reasoning was at about 0%, and I figured whatever Zero wanted to do was probably going to be good and I would just be pleasantly surprised when Books Got Here.
(I am really sorry. It was a lot of migraines.)
Zero did also mention that she was additionally working on a fanbind of my Trek AU and would send me that too, and I thought that was really sweet of her. She commissioned additional art, also, which is definitely above and beyond. It's really nice art.
So I was expecting three books in the mail yesterday and opened the box and got FIVE BOOKS and my first thought, honestly, was, "Oh, my God, I have had so many migraines, and I don't remember talking about five books. Is this something we actually talked about that I was supposed to know about or is this supposed to be a surprise that I don't know about?" But it was in fact not a thing I was already supposed to know! It was a surprise! So that's good! I didn't entirely break my brain! Whew.
Yeah. It has been A Time.
(The two additional books, that I did not know about, are Thrust Issues and my Ults soulmate AU. The Ults soulmate AU has every occurrence of the word "soulmate" in red. Hooray for rubrication.)
Anyway, if you want to see them, I personally am terrible at taking pictures so nobody wants me to take any, I promise you, but Zero made a very nice masterpost on Tumblr with more detail about all of the books.
The Star Trek AU is black with SILVER SPARKLES. Like spaaaaace. Eeee.
So I talked with Zero about it -- mostly in the spring and summer of 2025 -- and we settled on doing two anthologies of my shorter Steve/Tony fic, split by POV. So there would be one Steve book and one Tony book. I know we talked about what stories should go in there and how to balance the word count, but this was also the period of time where I was getting 20-25 migraines a month for about five months straight, so I don't actually... remember... a lot of last year especially well, my capacity for coherent reasoning was at about 0%, and I figured whatever Zero wanted to do was probably going to be good and I would just be pleasantly surprised when Books Got Here.
(I am really sorry. It was a lot of migraines.)
Zero did also mention that she was additionally working on a fanbind of my Trek AU and would send me that too, and I thought that was really sweet of her. She commissioned additional art, also, which is definitely above and beyond. It's really nice art.
So I was expecting three books in the mail yesterday and opened the box and got FIVE BOOKS and my first thought, honestly, was, "Oh, my God, I have had so many migraines, and I don't remember talking about five books. Is this something we actually talked about that I was supposed to know about or is this supposed to be a surprise that I don't know about?" But it was in fact not a thing I was already supposed to know! It was a surprise! So that's good! I didn't entirely break my brain! Whew.
Yeah. It has been A Time.
(The two additional books, that I did not know about, are Thrust Issues and my Ults soulmate AU. The Ults soulmate AU has every occurrence of the word "soulmate" in red. Hooray for rubrication.)
Anyway, if you want to see them, I personally am terrible at taking pictures so nobody wants me to take any, I promise you, but Zero made a very nice masterpost on Tumblr with more detail about all of the books.
The Star Trek AU is black with SILVER SPARKLES. Like spaaaaace. Eeee.
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Jinwoo Park, Oxford Soju Club (2025): character-centric spy thriller from a Canadian publisher, which I picked up while glancing at a different library epub (by someone who blurbed Soju Club). Subject line is from ch. 5.
If you know which Korean surnames are border-straddlers, you'll find them well represented amongst Soju Club's associates, either directly or via central-casting allusions to kpop/kdrama stars' names (including the voice actress for Meitantei Conan's Korean dub, if I'm not mistaken). One character totes around a copy of The Golden Compass, thus named. The Oxford around Soju Club and another pub is barely sketched in, a liminal space for crossings, as though to assert that there's no need for the Arctic; southern England is unlikely enough.
Soju Club is the type of novel that, while layering secret-handshake refs that most readers wouldn't see (I caught the doublings related to Sacheon in Yeongnam, but I know I've missed a bunch), tries suggesting that it doesn't matter that gyopo Park did his homework for those resonances and evocations as though preparing for a Suneung he never took. If you catch the Korean bits, you won't catch the UK-related or NorAm-related ones.
All you need are the sense that you won't catch everything Park has learned while touring himself out of some boxes, and the fact that he did a master's at Oxford and then some writing/managing for computer games. The latter furnishes the novel's vignette-driven scrambled sequence: turn the page or tap the screen to find the next puzzle-segment.
I think that Park, with this debut novel, doesn't imagine the author to be dead.
If you know which Korean surnames are border-straddlers, you'll find them well represented amongst Soju Club's associates, either directly or via central-casting allusions to kpop/kdrama stars' names (including the voice actress for Meitantei Conan's Korean dub, if I'm not mistaken). One character totes around a copy of The Golden Compass, thus named. The Oxford around Soju Club and another pub is barely sketched in, a liminal space for crossings, as though to assert that there's no need for the Arctic; southern England is unlikely enough.
Soju Club is the type of novel that, while layering secret-handshake refs that most readers wouldn't see (I caught the doublings related to Sacheon in Yeongnam, but I know I've missed a bunch), tries suggesting that it doesn't matter that gyopo Park did his homework for those resonances and evocations as though preparing for a Suneung he never took. If you catch the Korean bits, you won't catch the UK-related or NorAm-related ones.
All you need are the sense that you won't catch everything Park has learned while touring himself out of some boxes, and the fact that he did a master's at Oxford and then some writing/managing for computer games. The latter furnishes the novel's vignette-driven scrambled sequence: turn the page or tap the screen to find the next puzzle-segment.
I think that Park, with this debut novel, doesn't imagine the author to be dead.
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I logged off yesterday around 4:30 and started the process of making whipped ganache, and as per usual, the amount of time it takes to get the temperature of the ganache down to 75°F is RIDICULOUS even when I put the bowl on the window sill with the window open (there is a screen) and a cold breeze coming in. I guess the one good part about how long it took was that I was able to make and eat dinner in the middle of it, so I didn't have to do the whole thing hungry. Then I loaded those dishes into the dishwasher and started separating eggs to make vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. And got some yolk in with the whites so had to start over. And then cracked an egg and it was frozen, so unusable for my purposes.
I did eventually get 4 egg whites in a bowl with a cup of sugar and set it over the pot of simmering water so I could whisk it until it heated to 160°F because aside from my own fear of salmonella, the whole point here was to celebrate my pregnant co-worker so I absolutely needed to make sure everything was safe. It's always amazing to me how they double in size as you whisk and heat them and eventually they hit the temp, so I whipped them into stiff peaks (not by hand), which took about twice the amount of time it normally does (physics! always working against me!), but did eventually happen. All was well as I added in the butter, but then I added the vanilla bean paste (gotta have the specks!) and it curdled. So I had to reheat it to melting, chill it, and whip it while adding another 1/4 cup of butter, but it did eventually whip up beautifully. Both frostings piped like a dream, too, since they were not cold. Pics are here. And they were much appreciated by my co-workers! At the end of the day, when I went into the lunchroom to put the leftovers in the fridge, I found someone packing them up to take home. She was like, did you want them? And I was like, no, I was just going to put them in the fridge for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure she did not know I was the person who made them, but that's okay.
Work itself was fine - we spent most of our team meeting eating cupcakes while everyone else talked about their cats - but I was 3/4 of the way there this morning when I realized I'd left my ID badge in my old bag (I got a new bag for work recently, and used it for the first time today, and I think I like it. It is quite large but the strap is the perfect length for a large crossbody, imo), but thankfully they have guest ID cards so I was able to go about my day without interruption. I did make myself a note to remember my ID card next month when I go in. (well, unless there is a LIRR strike, but there probably won't be.)
***
Today's poem:
The Thing Is
to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you down like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.
—Ellen Bass, from Mules of Love, 2002.
***
I did eventually get 4 egg whites in a bowl with a cup of sugar and set it over the pot of simmering water so I could whisk it until it heated to 160°F because aside from my own fear of salmonella, the whole point here was to celebrate my pregnant co-worker so I absolutely needed to make sure everything was safe. It's always amazing to me how they double in size as you whisk and heat them and eventually they hit the temp, so I whipped them into stiff peaks (not by hand), which took about twice the amount of time it normally does (physics! always working against me!), but did eventually happen. All was well as I added in the butter, but then I added the vanilla bean paste (gotta have the specks!) and it curdled. So I had to reheat it to melting, chill it, and whip it while adding another 1/4 cup of butter, but it did eventually whip up beautifully. Both frostings piped like a dream, too, since they were not cold. Pics are here. And they were much appreciated by my co-workers! At the end of the day, when I went into the lunchroom to put the leftovers in the fridge, I found someone packing them up to take home. She was like, did you want them? And I was like, no, I was just going to put them in the fridge for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure she did not know I was the person who made them, but that's okay.
Work itself was fine - we spent most of our team meeting eating cupcakes while everyone else talked about their cats - but I was 3/4 of the way there this morning when I realized I'd left my ID badge in my old bag (I got a new bag for work recently, and used it for the first time today, and I think I like it. It is quite large but the strap is the perfect length for a large crossbody, imo), but thankfully they have guest ID cards so I was able to go about my day without interruption. I did make myself a note to remember my ID card next month when I go in. (well, unless there is a LIRR strike, but there probably won't be.)
***
Today's poem:
The Thing Is
to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you down like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.
—Ellen Bass, from Mules of Love, 2002.
***
Spring is springing around these parts! I have decked out my back porch hayracks with pansies, alyssum, and daffodils, even though I know I'll be pulling them out in a month for summer flowers. The spring color is worth it after a long winter. I'm growing zonal geraniums from seed under the grow lights in my home office, so the summer containers will be much cheaper than the spring ones. Maybe next year I'll finally grow my own pansies to save some money.
Meanwhile, it's a veritable daffodil party in the yard. The succession starts with the cheery mini yellow Tête-à-Tête, followed by the tall white and yellow Ice Follies, then the fluffy double Lingerie, and finally some demure yellow and orange Cornish Dawn. In the backyard, there's a little stand of Golden Echo under our cherry tree. None of the newly planted purple tulips are open yet, though they are showing a hint of color. A couple of the old yellow and red tulips have popped up despite everything, though they've also mostly been beheaded by squirrels or rabbits. The early crocus met a similar fate, though I got to enjoy them for a few days before they disappeared overnight into a critter's belly. I should probably stick with daffodils.
In the fall I also planted some blue Siberian squill, which was all very pretty until I learned that it's terribly invasive, so I went outside and dug it up while it was blooming. Sigh. Hopefully I got ahead of that problem.
Spring also brings some less welcome ephemerals, namely lesser celandine, which is really nasty stuff. There are two giant patches in the backyard. I realized what it was too late last year (there's a short window to treat it because it's an ephemeral), so I've been doing my best to eradicate it this year, though I suspect it will be a multi-year effort that involves herbicide. I am mostly opposed to herbicide, but I make exceptions for invasive plants, since stopping their spread feels like the greater good. (I do spot apply it with a foam brush since that's a more controlled application than a spray.) I've been pulling out black swallow-wort ever since I moved here--that's just mechanical removal by digging--but last year I also used herbicide to kill a tree of heaven and a white mulberry that had sprouted up on the property line. There's something else on the property line that is suspiciously green and cheery for this early in the spring, so I suspect I may need to deal with that soon. The folks on the other side of that property line really neglect their side yard, which is where most of our invasives come from. Though I did convince them to cut down the white mulberry by pointing out that it was growing way too close to their foundation.
One of the gardening people that I follow in Instagram has said she's no fun at parties because she knows too much about invasive plants. I kinda get it.
What signs of spring have you been enjoying?
Meanwhile, it's a veritable daffodil party in the yard. The succession starts with the cheery mini yellow Tête-à-Tête, followed by the tall white and yellow Ice Follies, then the fluffy double Lingerie, and finally some demure yellow and orange Cornish Dawn. In the backyard, there's a little stand of Golden Echo under our cherry tree. None of the newly planted purple tulips are open yet, though they are showing a hint of color. A couple of the old yellow and red tulips have popped up despite everything, though they've also mostly been beheaded by squirrels or rabbits. The early crocus met a similar fate, though I got to enjoy them for a few days before they disappeared overnight into a critter's belly. I should probably stick with daffodils.
In the fall I also planted some blue Siberian squill, which was all very pretty until I learned that it's terribly invasive, so I went outside and dug it up while it was blooming. Sigh. Hopefully I got ahead of that problem.
Spring also brings some less welcome ephemerals, namely lesser celandine, which is really nasty stuff. There are two giant patches in the backyard. I realized what it was too late last year (there's a short window to treat it because it's an ephemeral), so I've been doing my best to eradicate it this year, though I suspect it will be a multi-year effort that involves herbicide. I am mostly opposed to herbicide, but I make exceptions for invasive plants, since stopping their spread feels like the greater good. (I do spot apply it with a foam brush since that's a more controlled application than a spray.) I've been pulling out black swallow-wort ever since I moved here--that's just mechanical removal by digging--but last year I also used herbicide to kill a tree of heaven and a white mulberry that had sprouted up on the property line. There's something else on the property line that is suspiciously green and cheery for this early in the spring, so I suspect I may need to deal with that soon. The folks on the other side of that property line really neglect their side yard, which is where most of our invasives come from. Though I did convince them to cut down the white mulberry by pointing out that it was growing way too close to their foundation.
One of the gardening people that I follow in Instagram has said she's no fun at parties because she knows too much about invasive plants. I kinda get it.
What signs of spring have you been enjoying?
Tags:
(james_davis_nicoll Apr. 21st, 2026 06:51 pm)
james_davis_nicoll Apr. 21st, 2026 06:51 pm)And I know 700 pages PDFs are a vote-loser.
Any of my reviews from 2025 that people especially liked?
Any of my reviews from 2025 that people especially liked?
2022 2024 2025 2026
Novel 1151 1420 1078 1153
Novella 807 962 739 807
Novelette 463 755 394 414
Short Story 632 720 610 507
Series 707 677 621 687
Graphic/Comic 340 457 265 362
Related 453 775 431 479
Dramatic, Long 597 763 610 650
Dramatic, Short 386 490 451 471
Game -- 334 298 357
Editor, Short 319 530 322 305
Editor, Long 182 254 162 234
Pro Artist 233 270 214 228
Semiprozine 312 338 334 324
Fanzine 243 286 243 224
Fancast 384 693 376 370
Fan Writer 368 363 329 308
Fan Artist 230 180 186 176
Poem -- -- 219 202
Lodestar 451 345 268 244
Astounding 416 349 341 290Tags:
Wow, good to know, Rufus the Amazon AI. I've been sleeping on Wuthering Heights all these years
Trying to remember how to make icons feels like trying to pry open a rusty can of paint in the back of my mind. I've just gotten worse at it over the years. But, still, only so much you can do with a few pixels and some programs have gotten worse. I made icons with clear text in paint ages ago, paint can no longer do readable text that size.
I've made a few hockey icons, and hopefully will keep making some until I find ones I am happy with. I also cleaned out some old icons.
I've made a few hockey icons, and hopefully will keep making some until I find ones I am happy with. I also cleaned out some old icons.
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