This Saturday will be the October Giraffe Call for prompts, the theme sponsored by this icon from ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dhampir – “Spooks and Creeps, Ghosts and Ghouls.”
After a discussion in Clare_Dragonfly’s journal after her Garden of Prose, I’ve been contemplating donor/comment perks. What sort of thing motivates you to comment/linkback/donate?
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/142190.html. You can comment here or there.
Last night, as we were sitting in our living room with the windows open (yay nice weather), we heard a sound like sticks hitting against each other and a thrashing in the cornfield across the road.
Sooo either there were men mock-swordfighting with sticks in the field, or there were deer fighting. This neighborhood, I’m betting on the deer.
This weekend involved a lot of replanting/repotting of freecycled plants – have you heard of Freecycle?. It’s an awesome way to get rid of stuff you don’t want and get stuff you do want (or just think at the moment “hey, that would be neat!”)
So, T. surfs the lists and sends me stuff that looks interesting, and then I send them e-mails: “I’d love that, I can pick up XXX after 5.” And then they ignore me, or say “sorry, already taken,” or “sure, I live in Ecovillage.”
Ecovillage? The website’s down right now – http://ecovillageithaca.org – but here’s the wiki for the concept.
Guys, this bears an uncomfortably strong resemblance to the community living thing I started in my head 18 (shh, I’m not that old) years ago that has slowly become both Stranded ‘verse and Planners ‘verse. Cross this with some Amish, some Mormons, and some polyamorous hippies, and you have the society that evolved into the Planners in my mind. (This is like when I found out about the prefab bunkers – it’s always neat to see how stuff you’ve imagined has been developed IRL).
So, that a strange moment! But I got aloes out of it – pics to follow – and chives from another trip, and they are now happily in pots and/or the ground.
***
Thesilentpoet is having a poetry/writing sale. Clever idea + stuff in the mail! Check it out!
Ysabetwordsmith has posted all of “Restoration,” to my prompt from her August fishbowl
***
Another use for player piano scrolls… I worked with a bookbinder who wanted to use those in a book at one point.
and
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/142027.html. You can comment here or there.
New flash series! I’m going to write one flash for every Icon I have, over 4 LJ accounts, 1 DW, and a whole bunch of not-currently-in-use, until I get bored or run out of icons.
Today’s icon:
Girey
Icon & Art by Djinni
Reiassan has a Landing Page (LJ Link).
Rin was whistling as they left Ossulund, clean, well-fed, and clothed in things that fit, or at least mostly fit. She’d forgotten how fun it was to spend time with her friends, how relaxing it was to be on common ground with the people she was talking to.
Girey was, she noticed, in a better mood, too, although in his case, she had a feeling it had more to do with leaving Ossulund than being there. The crowds of Callanthe had made him tense enough that he’d barely enjoyed the luxuries of civilization he’d been missing so much, although he’d probably be back to missing them soon enough.
She turned to look at him in his custom-tailored Callanthe qitari, sitting comfortably, finally, in the wider saddle. The left-buttoning on the tunic had been her own petty joke, since all he seemed to do was whine, and whining counted as unskilled labor. But talking with Noni during their stay in Ossulund had gotten her thinking.
“He’s pretty enough,” her old friend had agreed, “especially when you clean him up. Dress him up in silks and he’d make you a fine bed-warmer, Rinny. No shame and no harm in that – until you want to get married. Then what are you going to do with your grumpy Bitrani pet prisoner?”
“Plenty of people have both a bed-warmer and a spouse,” she’d argued. She’d already seen the point, but she let Noni say it; she needed to hear it.
“Their bed-warmers aren’t foreign nobility. Yours is.”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/141598.html. You can comment here or there.
Three Way came out of Giraffe Call and was sponsored for continuation by Rix_Scadeau. Originally posted here and on LJ, continued here (LJ) and then here (LJ
Ahouva clung to Basalt’s arm, not sure what he was doing or why he was doing it. Give Lolly back to Jeremiah? Was he going to give her back, too? She looked over at Kendon, still sprawled on the floor. He’d been really good to her, gentle and patient. It hadn’t been his fault that she was clumsy and stupid, that she made him…
No, that wasn’t right. That’s what he had said, over and over again. “I’m good to you, and you keep fucking up. I’m so patient with you, sweetie, but even I have my limits. I don’t like punishing you, but you leave me no choice.”
But she was bad. She’d been so slow to learn anything, even magic, which she loved, said all the wrong things around his friends, embarrassed him so much he’d started leaving her at home when he hung out with them…
She swallowed a sob. Why would Basalt want her? “Why?” she whispered softly.
He paused in his slow navigation of the bloody lounge and looked down at her. His smile looked gentler than anything she’d expected to see from him. “Why? It had to be done.”
It was almost what he’d said before, and it didn’t explain anything. “But…”
“I’m sorry,” he interrupted, “but shush for just a couple minutes, okay? Then we can talk about it as much as you want.”
She sealed her lips and nodded mutely. Give Lolly back… And Basalt was, still holding her, kneeling by Jeremiah, who looked so very close to dead. He muttered something – a Working, something to do with kaana, that was air, right? – and then spoke softly to the gutted scarecrow. Gutted. The guy holding her had done that, hadn’t he? Kendon might have, but Kendon was in no better shape.
“I don’t know what you were up to,” Basalt was murmuring softly, “but we both know I’m not up to handling Lolly.”
Ahouva looked up at the petite blonde in the ridiculous little-girl outfit, sucking on a lollypop and watching a pool of blood move towards her toes. She shivered, faintly, when the girl looked up at her, ice-blue eyes dispassionate. She had caught looks like that before, when Lolly happened to meet her eyes, as if wondering what she’d look like opened up on a table, dissected. She’d heard stories of what the other girl was like in Biology class, too, what she was like doing dissections. What would she have been like, if Jeremiah had won Ahouva? Was that why he’d challenged Kendon for her?
“…so let’s make this quick,” Basalt was saying. “As per the terms of the challenge…”
“Lolly, you Belong to Basalt,” Jeremiah croaked.
Lolly nodded, still smiling. “Okay. I’m all yours, Basalt,” she chirped. Ahouva wondered if either of the guys saw the tears leaking down the girl’s face.
“Yes, you are. And now, as per the terms of our agreement, Liliandra cy’Linden, you Belong to Jeremiah the Prophet.”
For the first time since meeting her, Ahouva saw the other girl look startled. “I what? I… you what?” She looked down at Jeremiah with a faintly accusing glare. “That wasn’t…” She shook her head. “I Belong to you, Jeremiah, the Prophet.”
“Yes, yes you do, doll,” he grunted out. “Now go get me Dr. Caitrin, please.”
While she scampered off, Basalt stood, still cradling Ahouva. “Now that that’s done, we can talk.”
She wasn’t certain if he meant that she could talk, so Ahouva nodded, her lips still pressed together. Of everything Kendon had done when he was mad at her, she’d hated being shushed the most. It meant she couldn’t even argue in her own defense.
“I’m going to take you to my room,” he continued. “We’ll get your stuff from Kendon’s room after the doctor is done with him, and then we can work out everything else.”
Everything else? He sounded surprisingly reasonable for a thug, but he was still in public. The worst wouldn’t happen until the doors were closed and the Administration could pretend nothing was going on. Ahouva nodded again, wishing he’d get on with it.
“It’s going to be okay,” he reassured her, as he carried her down the hall like a doll. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”
She stared at him incredulously. Was that was this was all about? Did he think he was rescuing her? Had she seriously just been white-knight-and-the-dragon by a cy’Fridmar monster?
That expression actually got him to stop, and, worse, it got him frowning. “All right, we’re almost there,” he said, almost to himself, and started walking again. Maybe ten steps later, he shifted her weight in his arms, opened the door, and let them in.
His room, Ahouva decided, was very man-cave. Dimly-lit, dark colors, not all that messy but that seemed, in part, to be because there wasn’t that much stuff. The bed and a desk chair were the only places to sit; he put her down on the bed and pulled up a chair.
“Okay. One, I rescind the order to shush, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to deal with Jeremiah while he was still half-knocked out with pain. He’s too smart to deal with normally.”
“It’s okay,” she demurred. Was the blanket on his bed… fur?
“So,” he continued, not really acknowledging her answer, “I don’t know why he was challenging for you. Do you?”
“No?” She shook her head. “I never even talked to him – or to his Kept. I only have one class with him,” she added hurriedly, “and I always sit next to… sat next to Kendon.” Now what was she going to do?
“I don’t think he was going for ‘romantic’ motives,” Basalt assured her. “But I wonder what he was up to.”
“What about you?” she asked. “Did I really look like I needed rescuing? I tried to smile and put a good face on in public, I really did!”
“Hey,” he interjected, surprise and worry clear on his face. “Hey, Ahouva, nobody’s yelling at you. You didn’t do anything wrong. You managed to keep a stiff upper lip so well, it took a long time to notice anything was wrong.”
“Wrong? I mean, Kendon and I had our rough spots, but I was learning how to do better… I didn’t need rescuing,” she blurted, and then slapped her hands over her mouth. He could just give her back, too, right? Kendon couldn’t be too mad at her.
Basalt shook his head, looking at her. “I could really use an empath about now,” he muttered. “Listen, Ahouva. He was abusing you, and the bond – being Kept – was making you accept it. And it looks like maybe some stubbornness on your part, too,” he added in a mutter. Ahouva cringed and didn’t try to contradict him. “But you’re not with him anymore. You’re with me,” he added firmly.
“So…” She tried not to think about Ceinwen crying in the girls’ room. “What do you want me for?”
“Well…” He scooted his chair closer, until his knees were touching hers. “I was hoping you’d be my girlfriend.”
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/141404.html. You can comment here or there.
 |
| Steamer Trunk, Oct 08 2011 (open from top) So, there was a steamer trunk in our attic… It had been a little chewed on and a little lived in, but it might might be refurbishable… (more pics here) |
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/141265.html. You can comment here or there.
Yesterday, we had apple pie for dessert (Small Batch Baking) and apple-cinnamon-raisin oatmeal for breakfast.
Thursday we made Spiced Apple Cookies (delicious).
Wednesday we made Baked Apple Rice Pudding, which is absolutely delicious.
Tuesday, we made apple crisp.
Are you sensing a theme?
The property came with an apple tree, which hasn’t been maintained in a while. It’s putting out about a zillion apples (I’ll be canning applesauce & apple butter), smallish tart apples. So far, we’re really just putting a dent in the windfall fruit.
~~~
ysabetwordsmith has posted her Fishbowl Summary. I really love “Full Stop”; I also enjoy “Haunts of History”, which she wrote to my prompt.
lilfluff has posted a sequel to Sweet Iced Tea, set in the Tir na Cali ‘verse.
And clare_dragonfly has added more to “Harvest Day”, which she wrote from my prompt.
~~
Links!
Bamboo curtain door, via Wyst.
Ikea Hack+Wendy House… two things I’ve been googling a lot lately, together.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/140807.html. You can comment here or there.
New flash series! I’m going to write one flash for every Icon I have, over 4 LJ accounts, 1 DW, and a whole bunch of not-currently-in-use, until I get bored or run out of icons.
Today’s icon:
Baby Smith
Icon & Art by Djinni
Dragons Next Door has a Landing Page (LJ)
We were having one of those really nice crisp late-October days, with the sun shining and no real wind to speak of, so Zizny Smith and I were talking over the stone wall between our properties while, nearby, Juniper and Baby played, or, at least, Juniper played and Baby gurgled back at her.
“How do you handle it, when your children leave home?” Zizny asked, inadvertently – or perhaps intentionally; the Smiths were very perceptive neighbors (and I was still inwardly cringing over how non-perceptive I’d managed to be) – hitting a nerve I’d been trying to ignore.
“Jimmy?” I asked, rather than answer right away. The dragon nodded, a gesture I was fairly certain they’d adopted for talking to humans. Since her – its! – head was as big as I was, it made for an impressive agreement.
“Not yet, of course,” it continued, “but when they start getting to that size, you start thinking about the day they’ll fly away, don’t you?”
“Is Jimmy your oldest, then?”
A dragon smile is a terrifying thing. “No, oh, no, but it’s been quite a while since Cauzna left the cave. Is Jin your first? I know humans tend to have their children rather close together.”
“We have a shorter breeding period.” No getting around it, then. “Jin is my oldest. It will probably be a few years until he leaves the nest, but it’s been on my mind.”
“Probably?” Zizny saw too much. I bit the bullet and answered.
“The Black Tower has contacted him.”
Edited for naming error: Sage is the narrator’s spouse, Jin her oldest child.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/140450.html. You can comment here or there.
New flash series! I’m going to write one flash for every Icon I have, over 4 LJ accounts, 1 DW, and a whole bunch of not-currently-in-use, until I get bored or run out of icons.
Today’s icon:
An open doorway onto clouds
Icon from http://www.myknownbuzz.com/doorway/
Directly after Falling Falling Falling Down (LJ)
The fear Josie never spoke of – and she knew they all had one – was that they would step through the Doorway someday and be trapped in a deadly situation with no way back through the door.
It was an entirely rational fear on the surface of things, tainted by the acid-trip echoes that colored it, twisted by her deep conviction, down in her hidden places, that the team would abandon her in such a situation, rather than risking another member to save her.
When they stepped through into sky, she felt – no, knew – her worst fears were coming true. They tumbled down the side of the building, twisting and turning as they fell, plummeting down towards – towards what? Even in her worst nightmares, they never landed.
But she knew this fear, knew this scenario, having played it out a thousand times in her head. The team would not save her, but she could save herself, could save all of them. The building was not too far, all things considered, and there were things that looked like doorways spotting it. If she could manage…
She was not Aerich, with his world-warping magic. She was not Alexa, with the doorways. But she was Josie, and the wind and the rain spoke to her, the earth and the trees and the birds. And if the earth and trees would cooperate…
She pulled the rope from her pack with some difficulty, losing her change of pants in the process. She could save them all.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/140184.html. You can comment here or there.
Things to be Renovated Include:
First
Bedroom
– repair and paint walls
– Install new window
– new trim for window
– have new baseboard radiators installed
– have new carpet installed
– build new built-in closet
(later: new linens, duvet cover, and paint job on dresser)
Next, in some order depending on mood:
ORCHARD!
also, goats.
Mud room
– strip wallpaper, paint, install doors to util room and kitchen, replace trim (and paint trim), repair hook board and seat and paint/decorate
Living/Dining/Card Room
– spackle sand paint non-paneled walls, remove paneling where feasible.
– Install reasonable light fixtures.
– fix short doorway between rooms
-(next year – level and replace floor)
Bathroom
– rip everything out and replace it, incl. kicking bathroom wall back for a 6′ tub
Basement stairwell
– clean, seal off attic, repair/replace shelves
Basement
– have leaks fixed
– Repair stairs
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/139913.html. You can comment here or there.
