Poem: "A Stronger Woman"
Dec. 28th, 2025 05:58 pm( Read more... )
Three for the Memories Coming Back Next Month!
Dec. 28th, 2025 05:30 pm
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
Wildlife
Dec. 28th, 2025 04:41 pmHidden 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 pmReading. 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
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.
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 pmRec-cember Day 28
The Dark Is Rising
Watch for the Greenwitch by
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.
Rosie Heydenrych Crafts A Guitar for Martin Simpson
Dec. 28th, 2025 03:25 pmMore 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 pmI 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 pmI 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⌈ 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.
10 out of 20 - OZ (HBO) - Martin Querns, Tim McManus, Sean Murphy - Rehearsals on the Road
Dec. 28th, 2025 02:22 pmFandom: 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 )
New K-9 fic: Making choices (Ren/Oboro/Fujimaru/Kagari)
Dec. 28th, 2025 07:59 pmMaking 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 pmFandom: 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 pmFandom 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 pmLast 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.
