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Monday, June 9th, 2025 11:46 pm
Today I started making liquid fertilizer from Russian comfrey. Begin with Part 1: Jugs. With those done, I harvested leaves.
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
Monday, June 9th, 2025 10:57 pm
Today I started making liquid fertilizer from Russian comfrey. This plant fills a lot of guild roles in permaculture including fertilizer, miner, mulcher, protector, attractor. I have been using it primarily as a bee plant that I can also slash-and-drop several times a season. I grow it under many of my trees and there's some in the prairie garden too.
There are various ways to make liquid fertilizer from comfrey. I will be testing two: 1) a small amount of comfrey leaves in a large amount of water, and 2) only comfrey leaves crammed tightly in a jug. (See Part 2: Leaves.)
( Walk with me ... )
There are various ways to make liquid fertilizer from comfrey. I will be testing two: 1) a small amount of comfrey leaves in a large amount of water, and 2) only comfrey leaves crammed tightly in a jug. (See Part 2: Leaves.)
( Walk with me ... )
Monday, June 9th, 2025 10:52 pm
What? You mean that cookie dough from over a year ago can go bad? Even if it's frozen?
... The freezer now has a lot less cookie dough in it. RIP last spring's cookies. The aroma of freezer burn invaded my kitchen when I baked you. It was not meant to be.
- Finn Amara (he/him)
... The freezer now has a lot less cookie dough in it. RIP last spring's cookies. The aroma of freezer burn invaded my kitchen when I baked you. It was not meant to be.
- Finn Amara (he/him)
Saturday, June 7th, 2025 05:29 pm
Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup
A comic tale of a writer taking off into fantasy romance for a break. And to escape her frustrating job.
Her notion of a heroine hits the actual heroine, who is middle-aged, a widow, and the mother of two children trying desperately to protect them.
( Read more... )
A comic tale of a writer taking off into fantasy romance for a break. And to escape her frustrating job.
Her notion of a heroine hits the actual heroine, who is middle-aged, a widow, and the mother of two children trying desperately to protect them.
( Read more... )
Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 06:24 pm
I really hate to give up on a book, but sometimes, there are too many other tempting things on the horizon to keep ploughing through an active read in the hopes it gets better. Today I put aside Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling. While I would have liked to have gone all the way to the end before making a judgement, there just over 9 hours still to go on the audiobook and the book has simply not given me enough to power through that.
At nearly 9 hours in (about halfway) my overall feeling towards this book is indifference. Towards the plot, towards the characters, towards the setting. It's very generic fantasy and just doesn't give much to bite onto outside of that. The first half of the plot has some fun adventure elements, but when the mentor-figure, Seregil, becomes incapacitated partway through, the youthful protagonist Alec is simply not enough to carry the story. The second half of the story is more political intrigue, and I can't help but compare it to The Traitor Baru Cormorant which I'm also currently reading, and that comparison does Luck in the Shadows no favors.
Seregil and Alec's escapades are fun, and it's interesting to see the creative ways they go about their tasks, but for me it's not enough to make up for the lackluster plot and detailed but unremarkable worldbuilding.
Seregil and Alec's escapades are fun, and it's interesting to see the creative ways they go about their tasks, but for me it's not enough to make up for the lackluster plot and detailed but unremarkable worldbuilding.
There's a disappointing dearth of women in the story, although one of the fantasy kingdoms in which the second half of the story takes place has been ruled by a succession of queens for centuries. There is some casual queerness in the story which I liked, but when I looked for more reviews on this to help me decide if it was worth pressing on, I learned (SPOILER) that Alec and Seregil become a couple later on. Given that Alec is barely sixteen at the start of this book, and Seregil is a middle-aged man, I'm just not here for it.
This is the first book of a series (the Nightrunner series), but my general feeling on series is that it's a cop-out to rely on later books to make up for weaknesses in earlier books. Particularly here, where each book gets longer, the author is asking for me to take a lot on trust that this story will get better with time.
I really wanted to like this book, as I really want to like all fantasy novels, but it's just not worth the amount of time investment needed. Also, in general, not looking for stories about adults falling in love with teenagers. Disappointing, but there are other things to move on to.
Tags:
Monday, June 2nd, 2025 10:55 pm
Catburglar of the Constellations by John C. Wright
Starquest book 3. Spoilers for the earlier books ahead.
( Read more... )
Starquest book 3. Spoilers for the earlier books ahead.
( Read more... )
Monday, June 2nd, 2025 05:53 pm
Last night I finished The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernandez, book #9 from the "Women in Translation" rec list. This book was translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer.
The Twilight Zone is a nonfiction book, part memoir, part investigative journalism piece by Fernandez, first published in 2016. It concerns Fernandez's study of and memories of growing up under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The author is haunted by the traumas of the regime, both those she experienced firsthand and those she heard about from others, and the book in some ways feels like an exercise in simply trying to reconcile those feelings.
Fernandez's book is of course very specific to the Chilean experience, and yet core parts of her incisive commentary about both the absurdity and the cruelty of autocracies rings true around the world. The exercises the regime goes through in its constant quest for self-preservation are both ridiculous and brutal, feelings Fernandez captures in her title. The surrealist sci-fi hit show of the 70s fits very well as a metaphor for the often-flailing yet eminently dangerous police state.
Fernandez does an excellent job of using her prose to say things not neatly spelled out in words. I was reminded of reading The Things They Carried in high school, and how revelatory it seemed to me at the time how the author could use the style of prose to suggest a character's mental disarrangement without simply saying he was deranged. Fernandez's prose stood out to me in a similar way—how she uses the structure of her words to capture the feelings at play.
Equally compelling is the obviously copious amounts of research Fernandez put into her work. She portrays herself as a woman consumed by a quest to find answers about this regime, and it comes across in her work. Names, dates, places, timelines — Fernandez has clearly put in the leg work to piece together the final days of the highlighted victims of the regime as much as can be done.
However, the book never comes across like a textbook. Fernandez ably weaves her research into a compelling narrative. Neither does she ever seek to blur the line between the facts and her imagination—she keeps a clean line between what she knows and what she wonders, or imagines. Nevertheless, the questions and suppositions that populate Fernandez's mind feel regrettably natural for anyone in the aggravating circumstances of a mendacious autocracy. She does an excellent job of showing how crazy-making it is to live under such a government, where you are constantly being lied to in direct contradiction of visible facts, and yet there seems to be nothing you can do but either accept the truth or taste the knuckles of the regime.
I really enjoyed this read. It breezed by and I can absolutely see what a national treasure Fernandez is as a writer! I would love to see if more of her work has been translated into English; she has a wonderful voice.
Sunday, June 1st, 2025 12:57 pm
Welcome to June's monthly theme post. This month we're thinking of the smaller areas within a larger space with the theme 'nooks & crannies' - interpret this how you will but a few examples could be little used drawers, shelves you haven't checked through for a while, the space beside a cupboard/chair or behind a seating arrangement.
Basically anywhere that might not get looked at very often will fit the bill for this month - it may be that all the space needs is a clean to be free of dust, or it might actually be an easily forgotten space that we use as a temporary measure for storing things we plan to deal with later - if you are anything like me, they'll be things I've soon forgotten about.
So we'll tackle a different room each week and try to check up on the forgotten spaces or the forgotten clutter. We'll start this week with the bedroom. Here's hoping that unexpectedly most of the spaces will just need a bit of a clean!
Just in case I miss a week or am late posting, here's the monthly plan:
Week 1: Bedroom
Week 2: Kitchen
Week 3: Lounge/Living Room
Week 4: Your choice but could be bathroom/spare room/study/cupboard in the hallway/garage/loft or attic space or even a garden shed! Or if you feel like you're making good progress and would rather revisit one of the earlier rooms that works too.
Have a good month - I'll post as often as I can - tell us how you get on.
Basically anywhere that might not get looked at very often will fit the bill for this month - it may be that all the space needs is a clean to be free of dust, or it might actually be an easily forgotten space that we use as a temporary measure for storing things we plan to deal with later - if you are anything like me, they'll be things I've soon forgotten about.
So we'll tackle a different room each week and try to check up on the forgotten spaces or the forgotten clutter. We'll start this week with the bedroom. Here's hoping that unexpectedly most of the spaces will just need a bit of a clean!
Just in case I miss a week or am late posting, here's the monthly plan:
Week 1: Bedroom
Week 2: Kitchen
Week 3: Lounge/Living Room
Week 4: Your choice but could be bathroom/spare room/study/cupboard in the hallway/garage/loft or attic space or even a garden shed! Or if you feel like you're making good progress and would rather revisit one of the earlier rooms that works too.
Have a good month - I'll post as often as I can - tell us how you get on.
Saturday, May 31st, 2025 09:06 pm
Well, the main thing is we’re staying at our current house for the foreseeable future, which is good since we still have quite a bit to clean up before we could ever move. I’m not 100% sure about the Buick, though.
So as far as the garage is concerned, the only thing I’ve gotten rid of is a pitchfork. I know I’ve donated something else from there, but I can’t remember it anymore. I should go through our toolbox before July 21st when Ridwell will collect hand tools. 🧰 Unsure if I’m going to have to wait until it’s cooler to possibly clean out the playhouse. The deck for it is rotting.
I’m contemplating whether I should go through my CD collection. I rarely play them anymore because I don’t have a player near my nightstand or one with a remote like I did decades ago. I could also take the holder over to where the Giving Tree is. I’ll probably try hunting down vinyl versions of most of my CDs, though.
So as far as the garage is concerned, the only thing I’ve gotten rid of is a pitchfork. I know I’ve donated something else from there, but I can’t remember it anymore. I should go through our toolbox before July 21st when Ridwell will collect hand tools. 🧰 Unsure if I’m going to have to wait until it’s cooler to possibly clean out the playhouse. The deck for it is rotting.
I’m contemplating whether I should go through my CD collection. I rarely play them anymore because I don’t have a player near my nightstand or one with a remote like I did decades ago. I could also take the holder over to where the Giving Tree is. I’ll probably try hunting down vinyl versions of most of my CDs, though.
Tags:
Saturday, May 31st, 2025 11:21 am
Big BIG doings this month! My decluttering motivation went into overdrive, mostly due to home renovation and shortened timeline for moving.
My bedroom is empty except for my bed, the (empty) hope chest my sister and brother-in-law hand made for me when I was in my teens, and a bureau that was originally part of my parents’ bedroom set. My closet (i.e., wardrobe) has been downsized and neatly organized.
The guest bedroom contains only a bed, an empty chest of drawers (also part of my parents’ bedroom set), a computer desk & chair. The closet is completely empty.
The smallest bedroom was used as a home office/library but now is completely empty, as is the closet in that room. I am using it now as a staging area for packing boxes as I gear up for the future move.
The upstairs, which includes a large family/rec room, a full bathroom, a large bedroom, 3 walk-in closets plus some floored attic space – IS COMPLETELY EMPTY! That space is currently being renovated to make the house more saleable.
• Finished rehoming ALL of my fanzines, nearly 200 in total
• Decluttered a bunch of other fandom treasures and memorabilia – three big boxes
• Gave away my son’s old children’s books, all his art supplies, games and puzzles to neighbors with young children (my son didn’t want any of it) – two boxes worth
• Gave away the last of my jewelry to a niece
• Donated slightly more than 400 books to my local library
• Donated old purses and wallets, kept two purses and one wallet
• Donated/rehomed small decorative household items – four boxes
• Flattened and took a lot of old cardboard boxes to the recycle bin
• Took a nonfunctional old printer to the electronic recycle bin
• Small closet purge – donated four knit tops and two sweaters
• Donated one set of bedroom drapes with matching tiebacks
This was a huge, busy and very successful decluttering month, but there is still more to do, absurd as it seems.
This is such a kind and encouraging community and I am grateful to have a place like this to report on what is – and will continue to be – a physically difficult and emotionally challenging project. And I do hope that my progress might serve as a beacon of hope to everyone who struggles with clutter and downsizing, to see that through baby steps, it totally is possible to reduce your excess possessions down to whatever level is comfortable to you.
My bedroom is empty except for my bed, the (empty) hope chest my sister and brother-in-law hand made for me when I was in my teens, and a bureau that was originally part of my parents’ bedroom set. My closet (i.e., wardrobe) has been downsized and neatly organized.
The guest bedroom contains only a bed, an empty chest of drawers (also part of my parents’ bedroom set), a computer desk & chair. The closet is completely empty.
The smallest bedroom was used as a home office/library but now is completely empty, as is the closet in that room. I am using it now as a staging area for packing boxes as I gear up for the future move.
The upstairs, which includes a large family/rec room, a full bathroom, a large bedroom, 3 walk-in closets plus some floored attic space – IS COMPLETELY EMPTY! That space is currently being renovated to make the house more saleable.
• Finished rehoming ALL of my fanzines, nearly 200 in total
• Decluttered a bunch of other fandom treasures and memorabilia – three big boxes
• Gave away my son’s old children’s books, all his art supplies, games and puzzles to neighbors with young children (my son didn’t want any of it) – two boxes worth
• Gave away the last of my jewelry to a niece
• Donated slightly more than 400 books to my local library
• Donated old purses and wallets, kept two purses and one wallet
• Donated/rehomed small decorative household items – four boxes
• Flattened and took a lot of old cardboard boxes to the recycle bin
• Took a nonfunctional old printer to the electronic recycle bin
• Small closet purge – donated four knit tops and two sweaters
• Donated one set of bedroom drapes with matching tiebacks
This was a huge, busy and very successful decluttering month, but there is still more to do, absurd as it seems.
This is such a kind and encouraging community and I am grateful to have a place like this to report on what is – and will continue to be – a physically difficult and emotionally challenging project. And I do hope that my progress might serve as a beacon of hope to everyone who struggles with clutter and downsizing, to see that through baby steps, it totally is possible to reduce your excess possessions down to whatever level is comfortable to you.
Tags:
Saturday, May 31st, 2025 11:30 am
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888/1889 by Frederic Morton
A discussion of Vienna before, around, and after the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf.
Discusses all sorts of people. Some famous, some to be famous, others never to be more than footnotes. Creates a mood piece, possibly shaded. Discusses politics and arts. How the Hapsburgs set about modernizing Vienna by tearing down its walls, and more.
A discussion of Vienna before, around, and after the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf.
Discusses all sorts of people. Some famous, some to be famous, others never to be more than footnotes. Creates a mood piece, possibly shaded. Discusses politics and arts. How the Hapsburgs set about modernizing Vienna by tearing down its walls, and more.