Weather: Yikes, Again

Dec. 28th, 2025 06:55 pm
dewline: Highway Sign version of "Ottawa the City" Icon (ottawa-gatineau)
[personal profile] dewline
Ottawa City Hall has declared a Significant Weather Event tonight.

Poem: "A Stronger Woman"

Dec. 28th, 2025 05:58 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from [personal profile] fuzzyred, [personal profile] see_also_friend, and [personal profile] wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "Put me down!" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Fortressa thread in the Polychrome Heroics series.

Read more... )
yourlibrarian: Three for the Memories (THREE-ThreeCamera-yourlibrarian)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] common_nature


3 for the Memories' 2025 session will be open for posts on January 3, 2026 and will run for 3 weeks until January 24. Event participation is as follows:

1) Three photos only per person during each annual session. Members are encouraged to discuss the reason for their choices.

2) Photos can be hosted at Dreamwidth or elsewhere, and should not be larger than 800 px width or height.

3) All three photos should be in the same post. Cut tags should be placed after the first photo.

3 for the Memories is not a competition, and entries are not being judged. Rather, participants are encouraged to share photos they took in 2025 that they find meaningful in some way or which represent how they experienced the year.

Questions? Visit the announcement post at [community profile] threeforthememories

Wildlife

Dec. 28th, 2025 04:41 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The deep ocean has a missing link and scientists finally found it

Hidden in the ocean’s twilight zone, mid-sized fish are quietly powering the food web from below.

Scientists have uncovered why big predators like sharks spend so much time in the ocean’s twilight zone. The answer lies with mid-sized fish such as the bigscale pomfret, which live deep during the day and rise at night to feed, linking deep and surface food webs. Using satellite tags, researchers tracked these hard-to-study fish for the first time. Their movements shift with water clarity, potentially altering entire ocean food chains
.


For every thing like this that scientists discover, many more critical connections remain unknown to modern science -- and that's why changing "one little thing" in an ecosystem often has bigger, unexpected impacts elsewhere.

vital functions

Dec. 28th, 2025 10:35 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

Reading. Me, a few days ago:

... I picked up the bad and naughty book I'm not supposed to read after 8pm because it's too annoying It was annoying

So that's how The Story of Pain (Joanna Bourke) is going. Read more... )

I have also made a tiny bit more progress on Index, A History of the (Dennis Duncan), read one and a half magazines sent to me by Organisations Various that I feel bad recycling unread but which have a tendency to Accumulate in that state, and some of a Libby sample of Cloistered (Catherine Coldstream) based on one of you mentioning it mid-November, which I have just about got up to on my reading page. Also, I am up to mid-November on my reading page.

Added to the queue are Vespertine (Margaret Rogerson; courtesy of someone mentioning it a while back, probably [personal profile] skygiants, and my library Acquiring A New Copy), The Long Journey of English (Peter Trudgill; a present from my mother, in her capacity as a linguist), and Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes (Rob Wilkins; a loan from my father). For the sake of my spreadsheet of books (with the increasingly inaccurate filename books-2011.ods) I am probably going to be trying to finish rather than start things for the rest of the calendar year (not the Bourke) but we'll see how that goes.

Listening. ... an episode of Elementary that a relative was watching...

Playing. Scrabble! Monument Valley 3. Inkulinati (having another go at beating my head against a run at Master difficulty).

Cooking. Another batch of the quince and squash stew. Two days' worth of minestrone (with bulgur wheat because we are apparently out of tiny pasta, but not that), which worked well as Some Lunches. I think little else of note.

Eating. So much of my mother's cooking various, including a few last tomatoes from her greenhouse (!!!). Also my father's mince pies.

Exploring. Several stonks around Cambridge, including visits to some little free libraries and to various likely locations for snowdrops (mainly the grounds of Churchill, up at the chapel end, where they do indeed exist). Brief trip to Anglesey Abbey, which also has snowdrops coming out and one very enthusiastic daffodil; winter garden remains lovely.

Growing. The pineapple leafs are taller than the (remaining, trimmed) originals, as of... two weeks ago? Ten days? But I think I hadn't yet mentioned and it's still making me smile.

There is one (1) curry leaf cutting that is Not Yet Dead.

pairatime: (Angle kiss)
[personal profile] pairatime posting in [community profile] smallfandomfest
Title: His Something
Author: pairatimr
Fandom: Defying Gravity (1997 Movie)
Pairing/Characters: Trip/Scotty, references Pete/Griff
Rating/Category: R
Prompt: Griff/Pete; Event of the movie as seen from the point of view of someone else in the fraternity
Spoilers: the movie
Summary: Scotty and Trip deal with finding out about Pete, the houses reaction, and watch as Griff confronts Doogie
Notes/Warnings: the f word is used, and I don’t mean fuck.

Link:AO3

and mid the shadowy throng.

Dec. 28th, 2025 11:11 pm
goodbyebird: Tři oříšky pro Popelku: Popelku visits her horse in the stables. (ⓕ med kjole og slep)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 28


The Dark Is Rising
Watch for the Greenwitch by [archiveofourown.org profile] Selden (2,448 words). I never did manage to do my Dark Is Rising re-read this year, but at least there was fic. A different turn for Jane, this. (and a bonus delight to see [livejournal.com profile] sharp_teeth mentioned in the notes)
In the light from the bonfire the Greenwitch rose up, tall and ragged against the sky, like something from long ago. Not the fine past of the grail, of long spears and iron, thorny, intricate poetry and patterns. Not even the past, thought Jane, of neat sharp flints laid out on red velvet under museum lights, axes and arrowheads. Something older, like rough rock, the rings of yellow lichen spreading out through the years like ripples from a stone thrown into still water.
jesse_the_k: kitty pawing the surface of vinyl record (scratch this!)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

More soothing video.

Rosie Heydenrych is a UK luthier who makes Turnstone guitars. Follow along as she makes an instrument for Martin Simpson—in prose and/or via YouTube video playlist, autocraptions). How does it sound? Guitar World reviews another Turnstone instrument with words as well as video (17:11" YouTube Link, more autocraptions). Zip to 13:27 to enjoy Clive Carroll making beautiful music on it.

(crossposted to Metafilter)

Birdfeeding

Dec. 28th, 2025 03:01 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] birdfeeding
Today is cloudy, windy, and cool.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

It started raining, and the sky is weird colors, so I am done for the night.

Birdfeeding

Dec. 28th, 2025 03:00 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy, windy, and cool.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

It started raining, and the sky is weird colors, so I am done for the night.

[ SECRET POST #6932 ]

Dec. 28th, 2025 03:51 pm
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6932 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #990.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
cmk418: (Oz)
[personal profile] cmk418 posting in [community profile] sweetandshort
Title: Rehearsals on the Road
Fandom: OZ (HBO)
Characters: Martin Querns, Tim McManus, Sean Murphy
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 300
Prompt: Mistletoe
Summary: When Querns' car is in the shop, he has to ride with some of his staff. It may be a decision he comes to regret.

Rehearsals on the Road )
vriddy: K-9 Volume 1 Cover (k-9)
[personal profile] vriddy
No birb here.


Making choices | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.6k words | rated T

Summary: Had Kagari drawn his sword, it wouldn't have been so bad. But Fujimaru was taken down too early to say the word, and so Kagari didn't.

Read it on Dreamwidth on AO3.

{10 out of 20]: Poirot: Gen

Dec. 28th, 2025 02:48 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: coffee (coffee)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi posting in [community profile] sweetandshort
Title: That cup
Fandom: Poirot
Rating: Gen
Length: 300
Prompt: singing Christmas carols
Summary: Poirot is aggrieved by Hastings' cup.

Read more... )

Fandom Trees 2025: Needy Trees

Dec. 28th, 2025 02:31 pm
spikedluv: (winter: mittens by raynedanser)
[personal profile] spikedluv
[community profile] fandomtrees has some needy trees! If you’ve got the time and the spoons, please check out the spreadsheet linked in this post to see if there are any prompts you can fill.


Fandom Asides:

~The first time I saw the challenge frattweek mentioned, I thought it was a college!AU.

~I’ve discovered that in addition to Bluey, Toddler A (known formerly as Baby A *g*) loves Wicked and K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Culinary

Dec. 28th, 2025 06:47 pm
oursin: Frontispiece from C17th household manual (Accomplisht Lady)
[personal profile] oursin

Last week's bread held out adequately.

On Wednesday I made Angel Biscuit dough (this year I had active dried yeast) which was enough to provide for Christmas, Boxing Day and Saturday morning breakfast. Turned out rather well.

For Christmas dinner we had: starter of steamed asparagus with halved hardboiled quails' eggs and salmon caviar; followed by pheasant pot-roasted with bacon, brandy, and madeira and served with Ruby Gem potatoes roasted in goosefat, garlic-roasted tenderstem broccoli (as noted with previous recent tenderstem broccoli, wish to invoke Trades Description Act re actual tenderness of stem), and red cabbage (bought-in, as not only is it an Almighty Faff, making it from scratch would involve ending up with A Hell of A Lot of Red Cabbage). Then bought-in Christmas puds with brandy butter and clotted cream.

Boxing Day lunch: blinis with smoked salmon, smoked Loch trout, and the remaining salmon caviar, and creme fraiche with horseradish cream, and a salad of lamb's lettuce and grilled piccarello pepper strips, in a walnut oil and damson vinegar dressing. Followed by mince pies.

Yesterday lunch was the leftover blinis and smoked fish. For yesterday evening meal I made the remains of the pheasant into a pilaff, served with a green salad.

Today's lunch: chestnut mushrooms quartered in olive oil, white-braised green beans and cut up piccarello peppers, the Phul-Gobi (braised cauliflower) from Dharamjit Singh's Indian Cookery, and blinis made up from the last of the batter, a bit past its best.

Postcard of the Day

Dec. 28th, 2025 01:50 pm
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