Birdfeeding

Mar. 31st, 2026 01:45 pm
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Today is mostly cloudy, mild, and breezy.  It rained earlier.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/31/26 -- I planted a red curly willow where the old contorta willow was.

I saw a male pheasant running along the road.

EDIT 3/31/26 -- I did some work around the yard.

EDIT 3/31/26 -- I mulched around the curly willow.

EDIT 3/31/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Trad Wife, by Saratoga Schaefer

Mar. 31st, 2026 10:59 am
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Camille is a tradwife influencer, living in near-total isolation from all humans but her awful and mostly absent husband Graham and her nosy neighbor Renee. She directs her own life like it's a perfect Instagram post, constantly obsessing over the perfect shade of beige and how her followers will react if she disagrees with a more successful tradwife influencer's insistence on a folic acid-free diet. The best way to get followers is to get pregnant, and she and Graham haven't managed that yet. But there's something lurking in the dark, deep well near the dark, deep woods that might be able to solve that problem for her.

The first quarter or so of this book is so repetitive and anvillicious that I might have DNF'd it if I hadn't been reading it for the horror book club. However, it picks up once Camille has sex with the creature in the well. (Camille tells herself it's an angel but can't stop calling it "the creature;" its actual nature is pleasingly ambiguous.) Her extremely weird pregnancy and increasingly desperate efforts to conceal its weirdnesses from Graham, Renee, and her online followers had me glued to the pages, and once her baby is born, I went from being entertained to actively loving the story. I don't want to give away too much about the baby, but I think it's the first time I have ever gotten deeply attached to a fictional baby. Of course, it helps that the baby isn't quite human...

The story is predictable but in a good way once you're past the interminable first quarter; you can't wait for certain things to happen. It gets increasingly batshit and darkly, gleefully funny as it goes along. It's a good female rage book, and has some quality monsterfucking scenes. Despite the rough start I really enjoyed this.

Read more... )

Content notes: Very gory.

Incidentally, there are at least three novels called Trad Wife or Tradwife released this year. One by Sarah Langan is coming out in September.
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This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "I am SO done with this!" I'll be soliciting ideas for  activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, traitors, exes, people who escape domestic violence, refugees, runaway youth, escaped slaves or other captives, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, stray or feral animals, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates.  This often poses challenges for the refugees.

Coracle Shores is about leaving a distressed world for somewhere better.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons and angels, also characters dumped out of their original worlds.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government.  Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.

Path of the Paladins includes a few characters who have walked away from unbearable situations, like Johan.

Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates, the latter of whom are well versed in weighing anchor.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society.  The supervillains are the most likely to cut and run from a bad situation.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that people want to get away from including Chris avoiding some of his relatives, Morgan moving to a new dimension, and dimensions that just suck for everyone.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Prairie Moon Order

Mar. 30th, 2026 05:02 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
My bareroot plants arrived from Prairie Moon today:

Spicebush (plant)

American Plum (plant)

Birdfeeding

Mar. 30th, 2026 11:57 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and cool with howling wind.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches plus a fox squirrel.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/30/26 -- My bareroot plants arrived from Prairie Moon.  Regrettably it is now 79F outside with howling wind, not suitable for planting, and the rest of the week predicts rain. :/

Schadenfreude Day

Mar. 30th, 2026 11:06 am
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[personal profile] stevenpiziks
Today's Schadenfreude:

www.nbcnews.com/health/mens-health/rfk-jr-rotator-cuff-injury-treatment-shoulder-surgery-pain-what-know-rcna262741 

RFK had to have rotator cuff surgery, the same kind I had a few years ago that turned my life into a misery for months and months. It's not a surprise, really. That video of him making an exercise ass of himself was almost certainly a strain on him. He's 72. Also keep in mind that video took many, many takes, so the exercise we see on screen is only a fraction of what actually happened. I don't know that his cuff was torn during the video, but it seems likely.

Anyway, he's in a sling. He claims he'll be back at work next week. 

Ho ho ho.

It was three weeks before I was able to function well enough to work, and even then I was still on powerful painkillers. Everyone is different, of course, but if he's full-bore at work in only two weeks, I'll have to call it miracle--or everyone in the office is doing the job for him. 

Cuff surgery is fucking painful, and when it isn't painful, it's uncomfortable. And when it isn't uncomfortable, it's inconvenient. He's in for a rough time.

I'm glad.

Monday Update 3-30-26

Mar. 30th, 2026 01:28 am
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Activism
Climate Change
Bingo
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Gaming
Communities
Science
Birdfeeding
Read "This is a prayer to Baba Yaga"
Philosophical Questions: Government
Wildlife
Poetry Fishbowl Report for March 3, 2026
Unsold Poems for the March 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl
Space Exploration
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 3-27-26: Manga
Poem: "A Generous Impulse"
Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Poem: "A Darkness in the Sky"
Community Thursdays
Birdfeeding
Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side
Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side
Today's Adventures
Poem: "Become for Us a Highway"
Birdfeeding
Economics
Renewable Energy
Good News

Linguistics has 46 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 64 comments. Safety has 76 comments.


March Meta Matters Challenge banner

[community profile] marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month. See my tracking post and the first check-in post.


The weather has been erratic here, with more whiplash. We did get a good soaking rain recently. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel. Red-winged blackbirds have been singing overhead. Leafing out: mayapple, Dutchman's breeches. Currently blooming: crocuses, daffodils, squill, violets, apricot, grape hyacinths, tulips, cherry.

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