Reading

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carnivorous pitcher plant

While hiking in a conserved wetland, I saw an informational sign about native pitcher plants. I had no idea we had these in New England; I always thought of carnivorous plants as a tropical thing. But I took a look around and they were certainly there!

three cups formed out of green leaves with red veins

three cups formed out of green leaves with red veins

This appears to be Sarracenia purpurea which has a lot of names in English, including Common Pitcher Plant. The specialized leaves form cup-shaped traps with nectar at the bottom that attracts bugs, which can't escape and are digested to provide nutrition for the plant. In this species the traps sit on the ground, and I don't know if I would have noticed them if I hadn't been looking.

( pitcher plant flower and habitat (2 photos) )

I Am Proud To Announce

... That the inbox category that's been purged over the past week is finally at an acceptable number of recent messages. [confetti]

Also went through the DW inbox recently, and it's back down to reasonable numbers.

- Finn Amara (he/him)

Current Mood: satisfied

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kites in the sky

The only birds of prey I see here in my tiny town in south-eastern Sweden are Red Kites (Milvus milvus). They're usually soaring far too high up and away over the forest to get acceptable photos of. This morning however a pair was kind enough to come down low enough I could take ( these... )

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Birds in Flight

I interrupt my travel series to share some photos from the last months of birds. This barn swallow was caught almost by accident as it headed off, coming towards us in the parking lot.

( Read more... )

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Just Create - Monitor Edition

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky

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Hood River

Our destination for day 2 was Hood River. We loved this spot, both because of the view and the convenience of its location, parking and our rooms over the breakfast area.

This photo was the view from one of our rooms. It was not only a pretty view but one that changed all day long, as people at the inlet end point took kayaking, paddleboard and canoeing classes. I'd never seen a motorized paddleboard before but they were in use too, along with jet skis out on the river and parasailers.

We also got to watch birds diving for food, and trains and cargo barges go by on the river. We even saw a cruise ship once!

( Read more... )

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Book review: "The Once and Future Witches" by Alix Harrow

On Monday I finished The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow, about a trio of sisters in the American city of "New Salem" in Massachusetts in 1893 who take it upon themselves to revive witches' magic.

The Once and Future Witches dovetails historically with the movement for women's suffrage, creating some parallels between seeking the right to the vote and seeking the right to practice magic. I would have liked to have seen this carried more through the latter half of the novel, but I suppose I can see why it wasn't, particularly given it would be another nearly thirty years before the passage of the 19^th Amendment granting women the right to vote. The suffragettes played a long game.

The core focus of the novel is sisterhood, both blood and otherwise. Harrow presents a beautifully wounded and layered portrait of siblinghood in the relationship between the three protagonists: Bella, the oldest; Agnes, the middle child; and Juniper, the youngest. Raised without a mother (she passed birthing Juniper) under the thumb of their abusive and alcoholic father in rural poverty, all three girls learned early on what they would do to ensure their own survival. And while there is great love between them, there is also great hurt, and by the start of the book, the three are not on speaking terms. Harrow did a great job with the complexity here, and watching their relationships develop and begin to heal was very enjoyable.

( Read more... )

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Book review: "The Sapling Cage" by Margaret Killjoy

Oof. Today I threw in the towel on Margaret Killjoy's The Sapling Cage because I'd rather be alone with my thoughts than sit through another three hours of this book. This is a fantasy book about a "boy," Lorel, who disguises herself as her female friend to join a witches' coven (She's a transgirl, but her journey on that understanding is part of the book, and she refers to herself as a boy for much of the story.)

First, I will say that I think Lorel is a protagonist written with love; clearly Killjoy wanted her to be relatable and sympathetic, and someone eager for a trans fantasy protag may be willing to forgive the book's many weaknesses for that. That said...

I was shocked to realize this book is not categorized as Young Adult/Youth literature. Lorel is 16 at the start of the book and she's very sixteen. She makes all the sorts of stupid, immature mistakes you would expect from a teenager, which makes her a realistic character, but also deeply frustrating to read as an adult, particularly since the first-person narration puts us right in her head. The book feels young even for a sixteen-year-old; it reads more like a preteen novel about teenagers.

The book itself feels incredibly juvenile, both in prose and in narrative. The writing is simplistic, the narrative barely there, and the worldbuilding painfully thin. The book infodumps on the reader constantly, going into detail about things that are then never relevant again and don't connect into any kind of overarching picture of what this world is like. Reads very much like the author just throwing a bunch of things she thought were cool at the reader without actually thinking about how they would impact her world or the characters in them.

( Read more... )

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theme: hobbies/crafts

July Theme - Hobbies and crafts

Keeping up with our Hobbies and Crafts monthly theme. How are things going? Are you managing to find things to work on that in some way relates to the theme or are you tackling your own thing this month?

What have you found to be doing?

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Just Create - Shishi (guardian lions) Edition

Does Anyone Unclutter Their Email?

I went through a round of email purging. 3k+ emails in one category have gone to within 2k.

Over the next year or so I'd like to clean up old emails until everything that is needed/desired is in its own folder, and everything else has been deleted.

- Olai

Preventative Un-Clutter Measures, Minor Progress, and Next Week's Goals

Weeks are about to get even fuller with a summer class and impending semester. The main point of progress this week was clearing out the fridge, and cleaning the handwash-only dishes in the sink. (Dishwasher FTW, it keeps things so much more manageable.)

These are some things that have helped with preventing clutter in the first place:

1. No-buy rules on craft projects. The current in-progress shirt gets finished, THEN the next project in queue, and new fabric (fabric samples included) only happens if it is being picked out for a specific, immediate project.

2. Only one craft project out at a time, and it lives on the coffee table. Keeps the mess consolidated and easier to clean.

3. Trying to maintain a schedule. Recycling goes out on Monday or Tuesday, which is the same day as big errands (car refilling, groceries). One day between Friday and Monday is for housekeeping tasks - sweeping/vacuuming, cleaning, putting things away.

4. Dedicated days off. No working, paid or otherwise. Housework counts as working. This lets the energy bar go back up so it's not a continuous struggle on low-energy weeks to keep things tidy.

... But things still get overlooked and hectic. Some tasks get postphoned because of weather or fatigue.

So here are the general goals to hit next week.

1. All of the glass recycling (minus lightbulbs) taken out.
2. Thing 1 and Thing 2 mailed off.
3. Big box of donations taken to a donation drop.

These tasks have been pending for several weeks, so it would be nice to see them off.

- Ode (he/him)

July Woods

( A walk in the July woods... )

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Book review: "The Tyrant Baru Cormorant"

Today I finished the latest book in the Baru Cormorant series (fourth book remains to-be-released), The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. Y'all, Baru is so back.

! Spoilers for books 1 & 2 below !

If you've looked at other reviews for the series, you may have seen book 2, The Monster Baru Cormorant, referred to as the series' "sophomore slump." I disagree, but I understand where the feeling comes from. The Monster feels like a prelude, a setting of the board, for The Tyrant. The Monster puts all the pieces in place for the cascade of schemes and plays that come in The Tyrant. They almost feel like one book split into two (which is fair—taken together, they represent about a thousand pages and would make for one mammoth novel).

If you felt like Baru was too passive in The Monster and that there wasn't enough scheming going on, I can happily report those things are wholly rectified in The Tyrant. Having located the infamous and quasi-mythological Cancrioth at the end of The Monster, Baru wastes no time in whipping into full savant plotting mode.

( Read more... )

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Bonneville Dam

After returning to the 84/30 we ended up at the Bonneville Dam in search of a bathroom! It was a good stop though as the view (and sound) of the dam was impressive. ( Read more... )