Poor Olive has received ZERO interest. She's an incredible sweet cat, full of personality, loves humans and affection, and loves to play. Please click on pic for more information about Olive! via alt text:
Retired, sloppily attired, just plain tired...Reader, knitter, crossword enthusiast, and dabbler in watercolors. She/her.
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Poor Olive has received ZERO interest. She's an incredible sweet cat, full of personality, loves humans and affection, and loves to play. Please click on pic for more information about Olive! via alt text:
@nora.zone - Someone has probably tagged you with these already..but aren't they pretty?
For me: Crewneck (assuming they mean sweatshirt as shown) Hot chocolate Cinnamon bun and Stay home and read a good book.
Happy birthday and we’re all wishing the same thing.
What a lovely appreciation of the man. So glad to know he’s not a jerk.
What’s that noise? What is it??! Oh, it’s the ashes of my mother, rustling frantically in the ground. She would be so upset about this. I don’t sew but I’m upset on her behalf.
Please keep keeping an eye out, Edmonton peeps. Fiasco (grey floof) is still out there!
Don’t forget Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages…books that are…sort of…about her kids. And very funny they are, too.
Some ancient great-aunt thought I (and one of my cousins) was named after her. We weren’t but we both got silver porringers out of it.
🍁🦊Competition time! To celebrate the coming of autumn, win a cornucopia of delights! A signed copy of my book, Reynard the Fox & accompanying journal, A Fox for All Seasons, Apple & Blackberry chocolate, cinnamon knots, Caramelised biscuit tea & a fine fox companion. Follow, like & repost to win! 🦊🍂
I've been thinking of you all day...so glad that Franca has been found but...Fiasco!! Come home!!
trump can issue as many executive orders as he wants, perhaps coverage should reflect the fact that a lot of these have the legal force of a child's wishlist for santa
Our recently adopted cat was named “Twice Baked” by BARCS. And he was surrendered so they knew his name! (I find myself frequently hoping his previous people are doing okay.)
Well, fountain pens and shopping lust in the same sentence makes perfect sense. But I gotcha.
I agree. The pleasure of working with one of my fountain pens at least reduces a bit the tedium of drafting up yet another shopping list.
Now if we could just get rid of decrepit RFKJr.
After starting and giving up on a couple of library books, I am whizzing along in NK Jemisin’s Obelisk Gate. Meanwhile, John Gwynne’s Valor is glaring at me because it’s been waiting through all these library books to be picked up again.
Just a heads up. I was able to schedule my COVID vaccine appointment. Online it will ask “do you have a condition that puts you at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 virus.” Click yes and it will allow you to schedule an appointment. No questions asked. No proof required. Pass it on.
Just don't blame me when your pocketbook squeaks! 😀
Do you know about Jet Pens? Great store and for every fountain pen ink they sell they show how the ink behaves when water hits it. (Many stores do that, actually.) Some inks are, even if not water-proof, are very water-resistant. www.jetpens.com?gad_source=1...
They might… you know, just might… be considering she’s one to keep. For later…
Show about a public health inspector. Call it Law & Hoarder.
Mass shooters since 2018 who were transgender — 4. Mass shooters since 2018 who were not transgender — 4,193. Hope that helps.
Show about the illegal dumping of septic tank contents; call it Law & Ordure.
EDMONTON: HELP Mayday mayday SOS: both Fiasco and Franca have gotten out of the house through a busted window screen and the back gate was found open by my catsitter I am VERY FAR AWAY! If you are in the Highlands region can you keep your eye out
Amazing!
It makes me happy to see how much you too love each other. ❤️. And that may sound sappy and I don’t care.
This one is only for Blueskyers of a certain age.
Fishtopher, I'd like to introduce you to my newly adopted cat, Charlie...but he's sleeping. A not-uncommon state for him.
I swear, sometimes on bad mornings, Bill Penzey's email messages are such a salve for my soul.
That, and their adorably derpy expression.
Cool striping and those colors are yummy.
Any of my arty friends have an answer here?
Yeah...But...(ahem)...we just can't resist it, can we? (I'll see myself out.)
a little reminder in case you missed it: we're hiring for a creator to come and lead on our TikTok and Instagram!
These are wonderful. I particularly like the snail.
Good…I figured you probably did but figured “hey, just in case…” Their Resist pepper blend is wonderfully peppery and I am a little obsessed with the Southwest blend.
Nora, do you know Penzeys? They have wonderful spice blends. And it’s a great company to support. www.penzeys.com
And I look at them and think “Dear God, so many rooms to keep clean.”
Don't know why Bluesky wouldn't let me make a long string of posts...but maybe the numbers will help keep them straight if anyone's interested. Though I think, with all the cutting and pasting and re-cutting and re-pasting I was doing I messed the numbering up at some point.
[And as I read this, I realize I didn't mention William Mayne, another great British fantasy author I loved as a kid. His Hob books are for younger readers and he wrote a lot of excellent books for older kids.] 38/38
And Steve Augarde wrote a wonderful trilogy called The Touchstone Trilogy. The first volume is called The Various. The next two books are called Celandine and Winter Wood and I recommend them highly. [And this is the end of the list. Hope maybe you'll find something new to you on it!] 37/?
William Nicholson wrote a great series called The Wind on Fire, the first book of which is The Wind Singer. I liked this trilogy a lot. 36/?
Penelope Farmer is another wonderful British fantasy writer. I loved her book The Summer Birds when I was a kid. but really all her books are good. Charlotte Sometimes (time-travel-y) and Emma In Winter aren’t really sequels but Charlotte and Emma are in The Summer Birds. 35/?
Carol Kendall’s book, The Gammadge Cup, and its sequel, The Whisper of Glocken are about a little village of people called the Minnipins. They are vaguely Hobbit-ish in feel. My daughter liked these, too. 34/?
His parents named his older brother Tick…but the noise he made turned out to be “tock, tock, tock.” So they named their second pup Tock…and of course, he makes a “tick, tick, tick” sound.) Lots of word play in Tollbooth. 33/?
(He drives his little car past it…and is suddenly in a strange land filled with strange characters, like Tock, the watchdog…a dog with a large watch embedded in his side. 32?
And, in Un Lun Dun, you will positively fall in love with an empty crumpled milk carton named Curdle. How could I forget The Phantom Tollbooth!? The story of Milo, who is bored, and who receives a strange cardboard tollbooth in the mail. He sets it up, because he has nothing better to do, 31/?
I mentioned China Mieville to you and he has mostly written books for adults, but he did write a book called Un Lun Dun which is meant for younger readers. It is a strange and trippy voyage into a strange and trippy world and I love it. 30/?
Y’all probably already know about Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series. How about Philip Pullman’s books? Both excellent series. 29/?
Your daughter may already know Joan Aiken’s books…they are fine. I’d start with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. These aren’t really fantasy, but more alternate histories…and are full of excitement and adventure. [Dido Twite forever!] 28/? [The Edward Eager post should have been 27.]
I mustn’t forget Edward Eager! These books are classics. He mentions E. Nesbit in his books and obviously loved her books. [I hesitate to recommend these books now...there is casual racism that is better left behind. A pity, because the books are, otherwise, fun.] 26/?
On the American side of things, Jane Langton has written some great fantasy…starting with A Diamond in the Window. (And, as a plus, the reader learns a tiny bit about Thoreau and his philosophy.) [That was sort of a tongue in cheek comment but the books are very New England.] 26/?
And speaking of charming…one has to mention the Moomintroll books by Tove Jannson. Yes, the Japanese have sort of taken over the Moomins, but the original books are lovely. Funny and sweet with an underlying poignant sadness. 25/?
Alison Uttley wrote a great time travel book called, appropriately enough, A Traveller in Time. A girl named Penelope travels back in time to find herself caught up in a conspiracy involving Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. 24/?
Goudge’s books for grown-ups could be very God-y…if there is a lot of God-y stuff in this one, I’ve blocked it out. [I would bet there is and that I just ignored it, as I did with the Narnia books. I was not a God-y child.] 23/?
Another charming old book is Elizabeth Goudge’s The Little White Horse. There’s a mystery, and magic, and pirates (I think I remember pirates…) and a wonderfully cozy sort of world with just enough peril mixed in…old-fashioned but good still. 22/?
His book The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris is a hoot. Two schoolboys in the early 1800’s in England want to see if a wolf really will adopt an abandoned baby and borrow the baby sister of one of the boys for an experiment. Hijinks ensue.) [My mom loved this book, too.] 21/?
(And since I mentioned Alan Garner, I need to mention Leon Garfield who I think was his contemporary. His books aren’t fantasy, though he did at least one ghost story I can think of…think of them as Dickens novels for kids. 20/?
The Moon of Gomrath and Elidor. They have more elements of high fantasy – wizards and orcs and unicorns. He wrote a book called The Owl Service, which I would say is more YA than kids, but which is also wonderful. 19/?
Another great English fantasy writer is Alan Garner. I first read his book, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, at about your daughter’s age. [I wish I could remember exactly who I had written this list for...I was about 10-11 when I read this.] There are two more in that series... 18/?
...it’s about a refugee boy who is housed at the house one summer at the same time there is an escaped gorilla on the loose. They end up meeting and spending the summer together. Warning: The ending is not a happy one. 17/?
These books usually have modern kids (well, modern for when the books were written) interacting with ghosts of children from earlier ages of the house. My favorite of the series (A Stranger at Green Knowe) actually has very little, if any, magic... 16/?
(The house is modeled on the house where she lived, which I read somewhere was reputed to be the oldest continually inhabited house in Great Britain – it was built in 1130. She also wrote a somewhat chilling book for adults set in the same house called Yew Hall.) 15/?
I can’t explain why I love this book so much. [Pay attention to the locations each night.] One of my very favorite fantasy authors is L.M. Boston, who wrote a series of books set in a house called Green Knowe. 14/?
He meets a girl named Hatty in the past. Every night he goes back and every night she’s little older…though he stays the same age. And that’s really it. There’s a twist of sorts at the end…but it’s just this wonderful book of the boy and Hatty making this connection over the ages. 13/?
One of my favorite fantasy books is called Tom’s Midnight Garden. This is a book where not a lot really happens…a young boy, forced to spend a summer at an aunt and uncle’s while his brother has measles, begins time traveling every night when he hears the clock in the house strike 13. 12/?
[Argh! Wonky things are going on!] The Borrower series by Mary Norton is the one I mentioned above. A tiny family living beneath the floorboards of a house…and their adventures. I read these as a kid but they weren’t really my favorites. They didn't click for me but might for your kid. 11/?
Now...older fantasy. There is, of course, the grandmother of them all, E. Nesbit. Her books are dated but full of magic. Start with The Five Children and It and if that is found to be appealing, continue the adventures of those kids in The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet. 9/?
It starts with The Carpet People and then goes on with Diggers and Flyers…though maybe not in that order. These books would be a lot of fun to read out loud. [Here I recommend that my friend also try Pratchett.] 8/?
Another author I want to mention is Terry Pratchett. I love his books. He wrote a series about a witch named Tiffany Aching which your daughter might like. Wee Free Men is the first of the series. He also wrote a series about tiny people, much like the Borrowers, that she might like. 7/?
[With Jones, you might want to start with] Howl’s Moving Castle. She may also like the Chrestomanci series. I can’t say a lot about these books – they were my daughter’s thing at an age when I was no longer reading aloud to her. I really liked her Dalemark Quartet, recommended for 12 and up. 6/?
Not that the Harry Potter books aren’t okay…but they weren’t the lightning bolt from the blue that I think a lot of American critics saw them as. [If I were writing this now I would be harsher on these books but the girl I was writing this for loved that series.] 5/?
Before I start on that list, let me mention Diane Wynne Jones. These were books my daughter loved/still loves…and [JKR] owes a huge debt to Jones. Rowling’s books were built on the back of a long line of great English fantasy. 4/?
This list is going to have a lot of books that I loved as a kid…so these are going to be older, may not always be easy to find (but hey, might also be free on the Kindle!). They will also probably be a little slower than, say, Harry Potter. A little more leisurely. 3/?
I did mention her, and I left the mention in there. My current comments about/changes to the list (I made this in 2018, I think it was) will be in brackets. [Like so.] Because I think I will have some comments now. So...let's go. 2/?
#booksky The other day I found a list of fantasy books I love that I prepared for a friend. For those tired of Harry Potter, or disgusted by JKR, here are some alternatives. This is going to be a very long thread. It was written before JKR revealed herself to be the terf she is. 1/?
Yeah, let's take those drugs away from menopausal women. You want to see rage, buddy? You have not seen rage until you see menopausal rage.
And we know it’s the ugliness inside that makes him despicable.
I found a long list of fantasy books (ostensibly for kids but really for everyone) that I had written up for a friend when her kids were small. There are so many fantastic fantasy authors out there who aren’t the Chief TERF. Maybe I should transcribe it into a long thread here later.
Damnatio straight! ✊
That man is so ugly inside and out.
Whoa! Twenty-seven pages of patterns using fingering weight yarn and mosaic knitting! There are some beauties here. www.ravelry.com/patterns/sea...
Oooh, yeah. That’s lovely.
When I was a teenager, my brother and his girlfriend used to read Dickens aloud to each other (and me, if I was around) and I thought that was so cool.
AMERICA: “It’s a mental health issue.” REST OF THE WORLD: “We have those. But don’t have mass shootings.” AMERICA: “It’s video games.” WORLD: “We have those too. But don’t have mass shootings.” AMERICA B: “It’s cause they took Jesus out of the classroom.” WORLD: “God, you’re stupid.”
No, you're not ineligible for the vaccine. Let me introduce you to the concept of lying.
Gee...did they just get a big donation from someone whose initials might be JKR?
But now they'll be so ready to fight forest fires!!!
Obama's got good taste in books!
These socks use a neutral in combination with it in a stranded pattern, as suggested before. 2/2
There are 26 projects made with this yarn/colorway on Ravelry - www.ravelry.com/projects/sea... Most of them seem to just embrace the stripes, which are very wide, so a slip-stitch isn't going to do much to break the colors up. 1/2
God. That’s gorgeous yarn! Sort of hard to say without seeing how it works up on stockinette, but maybe something that incorporates slip-stitches? Now I’m intrigued. Going to get on my desktop and see what comes up on Ravelry.
It gives lovely English-cottage-garden vibes. And I think subbing the yellow for the green maybe wouldn’t initially look as harmonious, but I think it would be more useful in the set.
Soft buttery what, Wizard? Soft buttery what!!??
I did...but I ordered the two-legged version. Unless it broke in transit, I guess that's not mine.
Studio Apartment Available: - Pet-friendly - Located next to bridge - No strings attached
