knittingpix | Member Posts

NY strip steak, sweet Italian sausage, soft goat cheese, goat's milk caramel (cajeta), bell peppers, anaheim peppers, 4lb of yellow peaches, apricots, sesame apricot cupcake, fingerling potatoes, yellow plums, dragon's breath cheese, tavern blue cheese, black beans, whipple beans, jacob's cattle beans, and black rice.

I'm going to sear the strip steak and top it with slices of the blue cheese for dinner.

The peaches need a few days to finish ripening and then I will make them into salsa.

pensnest

Yesterday's all-day singing was woefully underattended—literally half the people who could have shown up were not available, for perfectly respectable reasons—but we did some really good work on our new song and sounded surprisingly good for such a small group. Usually, the fewer singers, the more bitty the sound. Perhaps the more 'individual' voices were those who couldn't make it. But we had our usual good time and a nice chat with a new nearly-member, who seems likely to fit in very well.

*

Poor Beast was among those who could not be there. He's still getting positive Covid tests, and has been busying himself looking up advice on how long one must isolate. Which, naturally, varies from five days to ten. How helpful.

*

We ate half (!) the summer pudding today, with some Oatly cream, and it was very good indeed! Just raspberries and blackberries—well, I say 'just', it's hard to see how adding anything else could make it *better*—and nice white sourdough bread, and a little sugar. And there is more for tomorrow! And the brambles are groaning with blackberries, just as the apple trees are heavy with fruit. And the 'cerryplum'

turlough identified is producing much fruit which is ripening nicely, though may require ladder access. I may not be able to keep up.... sadly, I don't think the sweetcorn is going to come to anything. There are three and a bit stalks remaining, one having been snapped off by a squirrorist (I suspect). Better luck next year.

issenllo

It's been so long since I posted that I will not look for my last post. Suffice it to say that I had plans for Yuletide, then Hikago Day, then nothing. Yikes. I had not quite anticipated how much a big fandom does swallow you up. My heart Hanyu Yuzuru <3

On the other hand, I've also stumbled upon the world of tolerable to terrible Chinese language webfiction, on podcasts via (probably) an AI-generated narrator, on Youtube. Some of them are long-ish, about 1 hr, the ones I'm going for are about 30mins. I set them on the kitchen counter while I cook... this is the level of intellectual engagement they require. On the other hand it's doing a lot for my listening comprehension of Mandarin, especially the ones that (inexplicably) run at about 1.5 speed.

Most of these webfiction (flashfiction?) that come via my algorithms are of broadly three types:

1. set in unnamed/imaginary ancient Chinese dynasty, a young lady's (yes it's nearly always a noble lady) journey to marrying the right guy, finding love and happiness. Plots include some version of evil stepmother or stepsister drama, mother-in-law drama, harem plots, invasion by barbarians and a/an (in)conveniently conferred decree of marriage by the emperor. Eventually she gets rid of her rivals and villains and live happily ever after.

2. Teenager on the verge of gaokao/national examinations, becoming the top scorer in the province, finding love and happiness. Plots include some version of school bullying, evil best friend/sister/stepsister, nearly missing the exam due to plots, switched at birth drama and meeting a tall, handsome boy who is smart, rich and madly in love with her. Eventually they move to Beijing or Shanghai, build a global business empire, and live happily ever after.

3. Either of the above except with rebirth/redo/reincarnation premise, or that they have been pulled into an imaginary bookworld where 1 or 2 are happening. These variants come with the ability to predict what bad guys are doing and getting on top of that, exposing the two-timing boyfriend, backstabber best friend, etc. and getting some vindictive revenge (in the best way!) along the way

They are incredibly addictive given how generic and predictable they are. It's a bit like Mills and Boon. You know how it will end but you can't stop. A few came close to being genre-savvy but most of them have been very earnest so far. Some are pretty funny and a few genuinely made me cry.

Admittedly my algorithms have skewed me towards a certain type of fiction, so I'm drowning in Mary Sues on a wish-fulfilment journey. They have similar names. The male lead and the 2nd male lead also have similar names, and the ability to differentiate them is how you know the skill of the author. For the stories that are reincarnation premises, I'm grappling with the morality of pre-emptive revenge, i.e. you are reborn and you meet the villain who murdered you horribly in your last life, but now that it's a redo and you've just met him and yes, he's still a baddie but right now, he hasn't yet done a thing to you, should you - just go ahead and skin him alive, so as to speak?

Something to consider lol

sporky_rat

Stupid little walk for stupid little brain chemicals in stupid heat.

It was either heat or humidity, so heat.

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Location: Rat te Kāinga

pensnest

Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?

My grandma grew raspberries. She had a lovely square patch of canes, and I often helped pick them, which was a great way to sneak extra raspberries into my mouth instead of into the bowl. Delicious berries. And they remind me of my grandma, which is never bad.

FIL also grew raspberries. Back when he had two allotments (!!) and a respectable back garden, he used to make raspberry jam, which was *excellent*. However, he also used to freeze raspberries with so much added sugar that they tasted more like sugar than raspberries, which was a practically criminal waste.

I have my first serious raspberry harvest this year! Picked a good bowlful on Sunday morning, and my Boy came round for lunch and interview prep. We had a generous portion each (fresh raspberries! from my garden!) and there was still enough for me to enhance my breakfast for a couple of days afterwards.

There are more on the canes. \o/

Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes.

Hmm. I spent two hours yesterday drawing people, in the final class. Copying a photo is so much easier than drawing from life! We spent half an hour on the photo (an elegant Black woman in profile), then drew one another for five-ten minutes using pencils, graphite sticks, charcoal and oil pastels, then one final 'portrait' in whatever medium we chose. It was actually easier to do the 5-minute ones, because there was no expectation that we'd do it well....

All this to say, I'm out of drawing today.

As far as summery food goes, I guess I eat more salad in the summer and more soup in the winter, but salad merely involves cutting/tearing and throwing into a bowl a selection from: lettuce and similar, from a head or a mixed bag or both, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, spring onions, feta cheese, salted cashews, sprouting beans, mushrooms, anything else I have that seems reasonable.

I am, however, inspired to create a Summer Pudding. Nigella has a recipe here https://www.nigella.com/recipes/summer-pudding but all you really need to know is: pudding basin, slightly stale white bread, mixture of berries, sugar. Line the basin with the bread, fill the centre with lightly heated berries and sugar, saving some of the delicious juice to coat all the bread. Cover the top with more bread, and juice that, then put a weight on top and leave it in the fridge overnight. Serve slices with double cream.

Eton Mess is good, too, with the additional benefit of not mattering what it looks like.

Icon is Pedro Pascal because he is also delicious.

grey853

Series: Due South Alphabet Series
Title: Y Is For Yuki
Author: Grey/Grey853
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski

Tags: male slash, explicit sexual content, explicit language, alternate universe-canon divergent

Summary: Ray and Ben get a new wolf-dog. Ray's life is in danger from a previous case. Vecchio makes a huge life decision.

Word Count: 28,153

Link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67319440

Snippet:

″What about Yuki?″

The tiny white fluffball suckled Ray’s little finger. The pup was still only a few weeks old, but growing fast. ″Yuki? Yuki for what?″

″For his name. It’s Japanese for snow.″

Leave it to Ben to know another name for the white stuff. The little guy snuffled and whined so Ray leaned over the wire barrier and returned him to his husky mama Hazel and two hungry siblings. ″Yuki, huh?″

″I know we’ve bandied several names around, but since he’s all white, I thought it might be appropriate.″

″Guess it’s classier than Snowball or Bubba.″

Ben chuckled. ″You really want to name our new dog Bubba?″

″Not really. Snowball would be even worse. Imagine calling out either of those names when we’re trying to get his fuzzy butt back into the cabin after a call of nature.″

″I am, which is why I’m suggesting Yuki.″

Ray thought about it and stared at the wriggling pup snuggled up close to his mother. Ben had been reluctant to get another dog, but had come around after the pups were born. Ray knew he said yes just to please him. If letting Ben choose the name helped him feel better about being a new pup dad, so be it. ″Yuki it is.″

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Current Music: "You Are the Reason" by Calum Scott

ysobel

So my G&S earworm morphed into a weird amalgam that started with HMS Pinafore --

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We are sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.

-- only then towards the end of that song, shifted to a classical music orchestral piece that I had the damnedest time placing but that was something I knew I a) had heard within the past year, at one of the concerts I went to, probably late 2024, b) had not heard within the last month, c) had an annoying tendency as an earworm to loop (not just stick as earworms do, but literally loop back on itself), and d) had been in my head before, months ago.

It felt very much like either Tchaikovsky or Beethoven, and I was confident it was a symphony, so I went to imslp and started browsing the sheet musics. It was none of the Tchaikovsky ones, so I tried Beethoven, though I was fairly sure it wasn't the 9th. I also googled for "classical music that sounds like Indiana Jones" because some of the bit in my head reminds me of IJ music, only that confused things because the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky'a 6th contains a (different) Indiana-Jones section. Obviously the symphonies preceded Indiana Jones, just as the 4th movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony preceded Jaws, but still. It had to have been some sort of inspiration.

Anyway I eventually found it: the beginning of the 4th movement of the 5th symphony (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUNCQ4TbN4&si=qqSWtKaUa7qsXghO) ... not the first measures, but the stretch 0:30 to 1:00 with the cascading runs down and the horns and then the bit I fondly consider the Indiana Jones section. (I think it's the modulations?)

So then I had to listen to the whole symphony, and I had almost forgotten just how fucking amazing it is. The first four notes get overused in popular culture to the point of being almost cheesy, but other than that it's just utter perfection. And listening to it makes me incredibly happy omg.

(It's one of my favorite symphonies -- my all-time favorites are Beethoven's 5th, Sibelius' 2nd, and Tchaikovsky's 4th (clearly I need a first and third to round it out) -- and it's one that, if I'm alone, I'm moving to, not just "conducting" with hands but full body emphasis. Obviously I behave at concerts, so I don't distract others, but. It's just. Good. So good.

(If you don't know it besides the duh-duh-duh-DUHHHH motif that starts the piece, go listen.)

...of course, fair warning, it does sometimes get bits stuck in your head...

[note to self -- this entry took exactly an hour to write]

echan

I switched my morning soda for tea, starting last month. I'd been intending to do this for many years, but I didn't actually like tea much, until recently. I want to say its because I made a concerted effort to acclimate to tea and gain an appreciation for it. And maybe those efforts helped a little bit, but mostly it just... happened.

Lately I've been feeling older, as if I didn't age for many years and now suddenly things are going a lot faster, and part of that is apparently existential crises about what preferences are personal choices vs quirks of biology or something else.

pensnest

Soooooo.... mixed bag today.

Beast got my bug, and took a Covid test today. It was positive.

*

I sneaked, masked, into Sainsburys and bought twenty Covid tests by mistake. I meant to buy four, and was not surprised enough that the boxes were rather large.

*

I found ( dead animals, gross )

*

Our large freezer seems to have the spent the night warming up. Beast spotted this at some point this morning (it was at room temperature) and Took Steps, and it is cooling down again. But my lunchtime chocolate covered mint ice cream onna stick had to be eaten with a spoon. Chocolate casing: still good; contents: very soft indeed.

*

In better news (phew!), our new printer arrived today. It is mighty, and has a scanner on top like a lookout tower. It prints—in colour, which the elderly laser printer has not done for ages, since we didn't want to replace the cartridges.

*

We tried to help our Boy yesterday with prepping for his job interview tomorrow. Good luck, Boy! It mas been a very long time since he interviewed for anything, as he has made minimal but steady progress for over a decade with his current employer, and is more interested in being comfortable than successful.

*

I continue to be entertained by Bridgerton. I don't mind the dazzling colours of the costumes, for I am partial to bright colours and a good bit of glitter, too, but I growl at the sight of a long, white, modern wedding gown with train and veil. Give the poor bride something a bit nicer than last year's net curtains, please! I like the multicoloured cast—although I believe Regency England was somewhat more mixed than our media have generally made it out to be, it's nice to see a world where nobody is remarking upon it (well, not quite nobody, but it's generally just *there*). And everybody is ridiculously good-looking, of course. I don't think the Duke of Hastings has an equal yet, but there are competitors.

*

I planted those four fuchsias at long last, and pulled out the self-seeded currant that was growing in my hostas-and-fuchsias bed. And what appeared to be a baby silver birch, which I have transplanted in the hope that something pretty may result. It'll probably turn out to be something quite different, if indeed it survives at all.

crafty_packrat

Bacon-cheese wheel, almond croissant, apricots (!!), red plums, strawberries, yellow raspberries, black raspberries, sour cherries (pie!), donut nectarines, strawberry lemonade, a gallon of herbal lemonade, brown sugar kettle corn, caramel kettle corn.

Next week I will buy red sweet cherries (for ketchup) and peaches (for salsa), and actually enter my canning in the county's agricultural fair this year.

Fun fact, red currants used to be illegal to plant in the United States -- they are the second host for white pine blister rust disease, and that is a threat to the lumber industry as white pine is very susceptible to it. This is why purple candy in the USA is grape-flavored, while in Europe purple candy is currant-flavored; we didn't *have* currants (or gooseberries) legally for almost 100 years.

pensnest

Tunnel of Love
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.

Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like

I'm going to be a bit wayward over the Journalling part of this challenge, but I think a bit of romantic fiction does squeeze into the category, so here goes.

Beast and I have lately started watching Bridgerton. I don't think it was the reason we decided to spend a little while chez Netflix, but it was one of the first things that sprang to my mind, at least.
( Not spoilers, probably, since this is old news, but anyway.... )

The love poem is going to have to wait.

yourlibrarian

1) As part of

sunshine_revival's first challenge: "Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community."

I just shared some necklaces I made a few months back over at

everykindofcraft. I did a lot of beading in the first 13 years after I took it up, but things have been rather start and stop in the last 10. A craft store closeout + a challenge from a relative got me making some new things in the last few months. That probably also contributed to my starting

everykindofcraft here, because I saw various people posting wonderful stuff that not many people were seeing, whereas on Pillowfort some general craft communities there are always getting posts.

Hopefully we can get more crafters sharing here!

2) Have been watching a slew of Apple+ shows as our subscription cutoff nears. The miniseries Disclaimer was framed in an interesting way, one which I suspect had a lot more clarity in multimedia than in the book, but perhaps not. It uses multiple narrative voices and POV for the narration, including second person, first person, and some omniscient narrative. This was pretty relevant because of who was being framed (literally) and who actually got to have their voice(s) heard. ( Read more... )

3) Surface is a story told in a much more straightforward manner even though it also involves an unreliable narrator of sorts in that our central character had memory loss and is trying to piece together her past which also involves a parental mystery. ( Read more... )

4) Also saw the movie Wolfs, which is fine but largely a vehicle for us to watch Pitt and Clooney do fun stuff. ( Read more... )

5) Finished The Big Conn and Cowboy Cartel, two documentaries about big crime. I found the former much more interesting, even though I'd heard about the case before. What was probably the most striking about both was the role of the media in precipitating change. ( Read more... )

6) Careme was marketed as the story of the first celebrity chef, who served Napoleon, Tallyrand and others. It was certainly about far more than cooking. ( Read more... )

Poll #33317 Kudos Footer-529

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
5 (100.0%)

aunty_marion

Hmmm. And it's been a year since I posted, it seems. There *was* six months of chaos following the flood last year, of course. Mostly sorted (two new shelving units, lots of unpacking, packing, re-unpacking, lather-rinse-repeat) & I still have 3 tubs of what S & N packed for me stacked in the bedroom, & still haven't got rid of my archery equipment.

Various other things have happened - I went to stay with

lexin in December, & had a reasonable holiday, as usual, though I seemed to have gone almost completely deaf in my right ear just beforehand, which was ... interesting ... and has led to me getting hearing aids this year!

I went to the filk con in February, a friend died in May & I went to her funeral in early June; and I've just (on Monday) got back from another lovely 2-week stay with

lexin in Bangor, where we had numerous outings!

( List of the out and abouts )

Week one, done!

( Week Two )

I came home on Monday with a slight sense of dread, but nothing seems to have disastered this time. Tomorrow morning I have someone coming on behalf of the council to do a 'condition survey', which I do have a slight feeling of dread about, as they may be recommending a new bathroom, which I shall fight because if they do I'll probably lose my washing lines.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: back home

pensnest

There are at least a dozen bee-esque insects bobbing against the perspex roof of the verandah outside my craft room door. I'm not sure if they are confoozled honey bees or... not, but I have never seen such a collection of them in such a place before.

*

Sunshine Challenge Time!

Challenge #1

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

Goals for July

1 Complete UCAS application
2 Communicate with potential new Mosaic members
3 Work on Rainbows song
4 re-think the progress of Dragon in the Woods
5 finish the Gardens of Giverny scarf
6 block the big shawl
7 try to actually post to DW instead of composing things in my head and forgetting them

Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I have been going to a drawing class for the past three weeks—to my chagrin I won't be going today, because last night at about nine pm I was smitten with a vicious sore throat and a miserable nose. Having in consequence had far too little sleep, and being now obnoxious to be around, I won't inflict my woes on anyone else. (It's not Covid, at least not according to the test I took. But yuck.)

Anyway. I'm very pleased with this:

Excuse the dots at the bottom—I 'drew' a polar bear on the other side of the paper!

ysobel

So I was listening to an audiobook of Agatha Christie stories

and one character mentioned the "why and wherefore" of something

which *immediately* got "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore" from HMS Pinafore going through my head [https://youtu.be/fz00Ru9RXA8?si=_iW2jYRH-8RW_w49]

which of course meant I had no choice but to listen to the whole of HMS Pinafore [https://youtu.be/N6iNGprcxFI?si=B-vFtrypguIKurHv for example]

and now various of those songs keep popping up ... for at least week now ... only the lyrics are starting to scramble, which tends to happen when something is stuck in my head long enough.

("I am the captain of the minotaur~~" wait no)

Anyway my plan for dealing with this is to watch the 1983 film version of Pirates of Penzance, which is an extremely solid plan with no possible down sides.

yourlibrarian

All work posted at this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

grey853

I hope all my Canadian friends have a wonderful Canada Day. Let it be known that I respect your sovereign nation. Stand strong against all tyranny.

ckrcanadabanner

Current Mood: worried
Current Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Current Music: "Born in the USA" Bruce Springsteen

echan

It is possible to use your entire forearm against one of those giant sloping holds where there's basically nothing to grab its just an awkward orb bigger than your head and you're praying to the gods of friction to keep you there. You do get a lot of friction, laying an entire forearm on it! So much that, after moving your feet up, you're in a terribly awkward position with no good way to move your forearm without losing a bunch of skin or falling off the wall.

I'm better at sloper holds than I think I am, but, confidence & lack thereof adds its own difficulty.

Post pictures of your projects and patterns

Farmer's Market -- 13 July 2025 (Guineafowl Day, 25th of Harvest, Year 2

some day we'll find it

a sudden update

Embodiment requires sacrifice

Sunshine Challenge #3

DS Story: Y Is For Yuki

(no subject)

(no subject)

next year all our troubles will be miles away

Farmer's Market -- 5 July 2025 (Red Currant Day, 17th of Harvest, Year 233)

Sunshine Challenge #2

Sunshine Revival Post

Been away, came back.

Sunshine Challenge #1

...well, hardly ever...

Content License

Happy Canada Day!

something I learned at climbing today

Profile

June 2025

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags