Birdfeeding

Dec. 23rd, 2025 01:30 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and cool, almost warm -- too warm for a jacket even.  That's warmer than even the January thaw used to get.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/23/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/23/25 -- I did more work around the patio.





.

Today's Cooking

Dec. 22nd, 2025 10:20 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today I'm making rosemary-lemon holiday cookies, somewhat inspired by this recipe, but I'm using lemon powder and Maine pine bitters. The dough tastes good, at least. It's currently chilling in the fridge before I attempt to roll it out and cut little evergreen trees. Cutout cookies are not what I do best, but rosemary cookies just deserve that shape.

EDIT 12/22/25 -- The cookies are done! \o/ They turned out quite delicious. The first bite just tastes like sugar cookie, but then the lemon and pine flavors bloom. Rosemary cookies are tricky to balance. Too sweet and they're just sugar cookies, not sweet enough and they taste like crackers; too little rosemary and they're sugar cookies again, too much and it tastes like you're baking with floor wash. But these are perfect.

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Here are the timeline notes for "Along These Sympathetic Fibers." They compare divergences between local-Caribbean and Peculiar-Caribbean events in history.

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] see_also_friend. It also fills the "Rainbow" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Peculiar Obligations.

Read more... )

Happy Yule

Dec. 22nd, 2025 04:55 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This was too good to pass up.

Winter solstice banner 

Affordable Housing

Dec. 22nd, 2025 02:46 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
What Would It Take to Approve a Housing Permit in 24 Hours?

In its Housing-Ready City Toolkit, Strong Towns recommended a 24-hour turnaround for permits. That's not an exaggeration.


Before reading onward in the article, here's how I would set it up...

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Dec. 22nd, 2025 02:09 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and cool.

I fed the birds.  I put out a new suet cake.  I've seen a huge flock of mostly sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/22/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/22/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/22/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/22/25 -- I filled the trolley twice with berry-laden twigs from the brushpile in the parking lot, and put those in the firepit.

I saw the great horned owl fly from somewhere near the parking lot into the trees around ritual meadow.  I heard woodpeckers squeaking but didn't see them.

EDIT 12/22/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

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

Monday Update 12-22-25

Dec. 22nd, 2025 02:10 am
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "The Unicorn Door"
Poem: "The Coracle in the Forest"
Poem: "The Unknown Depths of Our Lives"
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Climate Change
Today's Adventures
Poem: "Creativity, Ingenuity, Compassion, and Perseverance"
Space Exploration
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Economy
Poem: "The Community Couch"
Poetry Fishbowl Report for December 2, 2025
Poem: "Mamalokshen"
Unsold Poems for the December 2, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl
Crafts
Safety
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 12-19-25: Languages and Linguistics
Dinosaurs
Moment of Silence: Gil Gerard
Birdfeeding
History
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Three for the Memories Coming Back Next Month!
Early Humans
Hard Things

Food has 47 comments. Trauma has 46 comments. Affordable Housing has 78 comments. Robotics has 119 comments.


The 2025 Holiday Poetry Sale has closed, with a massive amount of material to post. It will take me a long time to get it all online, so please keep an eye on the sale page.


Winterfaire 2025 is still open!.List a Booth for anything you sell that would make good holiday gifts, or comment with what you're shopping for to crowdsource ideas. There are links to two similar shopping events online. if you know others, please pass the word.


"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv. It needs $72 to be complete. Shiv and his classmates discuss magical weather, magical geography, natural resources, plants and animals, history, and other aspects of worldbuilding.


The weather has been cold and snowy here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of cardinals, and two mourning doves.

Poem: "The Unicorn Door"

Dec. 22nd, 2025 12:27 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It was inspired by the "Twilight" square in my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Coracle Shores and follows "The Coracle in the Forest."

Read more... )

Poem: "The Coracle in the Forest"

Dec. 21st, 2025 11:13 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the November 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] helgatwb. It also fills the "Journey" square in my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It begins the new series Coracle Shores. Its sequel is "The Unicorn Door."

Read more... )

Happy Yule

Dec. 21st, 2025 10:23 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (muse)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
We did our Yule ritual tonight. :D


Yule banner

ysabetwordsmith: A paint roller creates an American flag, with the text Arts and Crafts America. (Arts and Crafts America)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] readera. It also fills the "After the Fog" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.

Read more... )

Climate Change

Dec. 21st, 2025 12:48 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Global warming could trigger the next ice age

Earth’s climate control system may cool so hard after warming that it freezes the planet over.

Scientists have uncovered a missing feedback in Earth’s carbon cycle that could cause global warming to overshoot into an ice age. As the planet warms, nutrient-rich runoff fuels plankton blooms that bury huge amounts of carbon in the ocean. In low-oxygen conditions, this process can spiral out of control, cooling Earth far beyond its original state. While this won’t save us from modern climate change, it may explain Earth’s most extreme ancient ice ages
.


It's not missing and it's not new.  This aspect of prehistoric climate change has been discussed for decades.  Also several decades ago, as climate change began to attract more attention, there were debates over whether the bounce effect would cause global cooling instead of global warming.  For a while there were disaster novels with an ice theme instead of a fire theme, before the current warming trend became more obvious.

However!  Even global warming will making some areas drastically colder.  Once the oceanic conveyor belt breaks -- which is already wobbling -- places like Britain will lose their warm currents and thus chill.

Birdfeeding

Dec. 21st, 2025 12:45 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and cool.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.  Some birds are singing in the south hedge.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/21/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/21/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/21/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

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