Dendrophilous
Readings 
26th-May-2012 07:18 pm - experimenting in the kitchen
may or may not survive the night.

This is the freebie for the May 2012 Crowdfunding Creative Jam, which you can visit on LiveJournal or on Dreamwidth.  It was inspired by a prompt from [info]stryck.


Synaesthesia Feast


It is not the flavor of the food that he tastes,
but the color -- the pink lemonade
tastes the way roses should smell,
the summer squash is like butter,
green beans have a piney tang,
and the cherry pie burns like chili peppers.

The flavors themselves provide the background music --
a symphony of trumpeting spices
over a steady beat of savory,
mellow vegetable woodwinds
and piercingly sweet strings.

It is not the same feast that everyone else is enjoying,
but it is just as good.

26th-May-2012 09:30 am - Two things [films, links]
First, you people who recommended The Exotic Marigold Hotel film, two thumbs up! I went last night with some of my Jane Austen discussion group. We all loved it.

Tonight: Avengers with the family.

A juicy discussion of fanfiction and literature by [info]alecaustin here.
The search for the winner of this year's Meager Puddle of Limelight Award for Best Short Story Title continues with heat eight (the last of the preliminary heats).

There are nine heats in all. The winners (or joint winners) from heats one - eight go straight through. The second place finishers battle it out in heat nine to see which title joins the others in the final round.

What's at stake?
Bragging rights for the winner? An interview and/or guest post here on An Englishman in New Jersey, as well as
signed copy of my book, Fur-Face, and a couple of I are a writer! pens, as shown in the pic below.

You'll need an LJ account to vote, but they're free).

Poll #1842793 2012 MEAGER PUDDLE OF LIMELIGHT AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY TITLE: HEAT 8 OF 9
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 9

From the following list, please select any short story titles which you think should progress to the final round

View Answers
THEY CAME BEARING DANGEROUS GIFTS
4 (14.8%)
TRANSLYMANIC
2 (7.4%)
UNDER THE PAPER
4 (14.8%)
UNITED WE SOAR
1 (3.7%)
VICTIM OF LOVE
1 (3.7%)
WARBLING THEIR WAY TO WAR
3 (11.1%)
WATER TO SHARE
4 (14.8%)
WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU RETAIL
3 (11.1%)
WHAT THE CARP SAW (AND COULDN'T TELL WHILE STILL ALIVE)
3 (11.1%)
WHEN THE LIGHT WAS ON
2 (7.4%)



Links to the other Heats and the final:
Heat one
Heat two
Heat three
Heat four
Heat five

Heat six
Heat seven
Heat eight
Heat nine
Final Round


Voting in Heats 1 through 8 will close on Sunday, June 3rd 2012 at 6:00pm (US/Eastern). Heat nine will take place soon after.

Good luck to all who take part! Vene, vidi, puddli!


26th-May-2012 02:05 pm - To Mum with love [52 weeks, photo-a-week, photography]
To Mum with love by Helen in Wales
To Mum with love, a photo by Helen in Wales on Flickr.

21/52 for the group 52 in 2012

This week's theme: Love

My first thought was romantic love, but because I had to write the final assignment for the OU children's literature course, I had very little time so couldn't go looking for shots of loving couples walking hand in hand or sitting together on benches.

But it was my birthday last Thursday and my children (now grown up and with children of their own) sent me cards and flowers. Hence I had my shot for the week. I'm afraid the quality isn't very good. My desktop computer is very poorly. In fact I think it's dying. :( But only the desktop computer has the software for converting RAW files, so I took this with the point and shoot which shows quite a lot of noise at higher ISO. At least it fulfils the theme and I can forsee a new computer entering my life in the near future. It could be my birthday present. :)

I know what you all are thinking; what is this nutcase going on about now? Well just this; when people don't say goodbye to you before they hang up the phone. Drives. Me. Nuts! Seriously. It stems from my a**hole, ex-stepfather. He NEVER said goodbye, but had the nerve one day to chastise me for the way I started conversations

STEP-FATHER: "Its 'May I speak with so-in-so', not 'Is so-in-so there?'.

ME: *PUNCH* (note-I didn't, but it was a fantasy of mine for years.)

I caught my mother doing it one time and immediately called her back and told her what she'd done wrong. I've even called Sithboy back when he was at a friend's house and blasted him for doing it. 

THEN, I got blasted on Twitter once because I said goodbye before I headed off. He sent a message saying he was un-following me because I cluttered up his stream with nonsense (or something stupid like that).

Really? Since when are manners nonsense? AND HE WAS BRITTISH!  


Okay, I'm better now…

26th-May-2012 02:07 am - May 6, 2012 [flowers, pixie, yard]
6-5-12a: Pixie, in her usual position on M

Happy almost-birthday, [info]codobo!

As he would put it, he and Pixie have an "arrangement," which is to say that as soon as he lies down in bed, she comes leaping up and settles herself promptly on top of him. It really is awfully cute.

Less cute but very pretty are the irises that someone planted around our mailbox. I, of course, cannot capture the pretty in its full glory. Here are a few of them though:

6-5-12b: Irises around the mailbox

If anyone would like to grade reports, executive summaries, homeworks, or presentations, do let me know, won't you.
26th-May-2012 02:02 am - May 1, 2012 [gifts, jewelry]
1-5-12: New earrings

While I was busy with the grading insanity that has taken over my life, [info]codobo went to San Diego for the weekend to visit K&P. Sunday, they went to the art walk, and he got me earrings! So. Cool. They're light and swingy and gold and even jingle a little - and really, what more can you ask for in an earring??
26th-May-2012 01:51 am - April 30, 2012 [trapeze]


The latest crazy! My first swinging trapeze lesson, courtesy of my friend K. So. Much. Fun!
26th-May-2012 02:14 am - Types of Edits [editing, how to, networking, reading]
[personal profile] jessicasteiner talks about types of edits in her series on hiring a freelance editor. Very useful if you need to know what an editor can do for you.</user>
The seventh Crowdfunding Creative Jam is running this weekend on Dreamwidth and on LiveJournal.  The theme is "food." Please drop by to leave or claim prompts and enjoy the delicacies!  You can also help by boosting the signal.


What I Have Written

"Synaesthesia Feast" -- today's free poem, in which colors are flavors and flavors are sounds.
25th-May-2012 06:39 pm - OH YES! new Simon's Cat!


Seriously, that move - holding down the frog with the one paw and watching it trying to struggle away - that could have been my lost beloved Murphy with his grasshoppers...
Yup. More from Henry and Lily's photo shoot. Now that it's the weekend I hope to have some photos from Tokyo. But in the meantime, these photos are much cuter :)

Henry with mom and dad :)





Henry looking content :)



Lily in her Disney Princess house :)





Just having fun being cute!



25th-May-2012 07:28 pm - Dog Crate Not So Much [uncategorized]

DSC_0006
While photographing the crowdedness of the master bedroom, I also happened upon this photo op showing the abject failure of the dog crate. The dog crate is, in fact, very popular with every mammal in the house except the one it was purchased for. Courage still refuses to sleep all night in it. Soon, I will take it down and put it away. For now, you can see that Simba J. Cat and Athena Kitten are enjoying it while Miss Diamond Starina Kittais (she’s French) lounges in the foreground.

(Diamond is also not that smart. She doesn’t like to be around the other cats, but she doesn’t know they are right behind her so she’s fine.)

Originally published at So Shiny. You can comment here or there.

25th-May-2012 06:25 pm - A Pre-Renovation Gallery [uncategorized]

Here are some pics of the house before renovation.

 
DSC_0020
Here’s the house from the front. You can see the tiny driveway with our Toyota in it, and the tiny garage. The new garage/addition will be about four feet wider than the existing structure. As you can see, grading and retaining walls are going to be a big part of the project, and a big expense. There are also some trees – overgrown shrubberies actually – that will have to go. I’ll be a little sad about that since we enjoy the privacy, shade, and visiting birds. But c’est la vie. We really should be discouraging birds from visiting our place, anyway.

We also need to replace the old roof, and the addition will continue the existing roofline, so we will need a full tear-off of the old roof, and original cedar shakes underneath, and then a new roof all the way across. I don’t know yet if we’ll go with another Sheriff Goslin or something else. A metal roof mimicking the original cedar shake would be sweet, but is probably not in the budget. (Actual cedar shake can be had, but is hideously flammable and therefore not really a good idea.)

By the way, you can see one of our major frustrations with the arrangement. With a car in the driveway, we can’t wheel our bins to the street. Garbage day at our house always involves auto-musical chairs at 7 AM.

DSC_0013

Here’s the inside of the enclosed porch, progressing towards emptiness. The window you can see is the front window. There’s a lot of pristine original redwood siding inside that has never been touched by weather that we’ll be salvaging for the new exterior. Our options for matching siding to the existing exterior siding are limited. We’ll probably have no choice but to pay the high price of new cedar siding, since there doesn’t seem to be a non-wood product that matches what we already have.

DSC_0009

Here’s the porch from the back. The addition will extend about six feet further back, and will wrap around somewhat to the left to accommodate a new bathroom. Since the new ridgeline will be continuous to the old one, the extension in back will have its own little dormer at the second story level. There will be a double sliding door on the ground level, where the large window is currently. We’re also hoping to be able to splurge on some floor-to-ceiling glass windows on the second floor in back for plants and a little bit of solar gain in the summer.

DSC_0005

This just shows how crowded our existing master bedroom is, particularly with the huge dog crate. The window thing behind the dog crate is actually a door leading to the balcony. We’ll be blocking off that door, and putting a new interior door in the adjoining guest bedroom/office. That room will be an annex off the master bedroom that I’ll be using as an office, but could also be a cute nursery or sitting room.

The old master bedroom will either be a guest room or new teen cave, depending on the preferences of the teen.

DSC_0010

And here is a random photo op of the treehouse with Chewie in it. Due to budget restrictions, we won’t be able to add the jacuzzi tub, motorcycle lift, and electric water canons to it this year.

Originally published at So Shiny. You can comment here or there.

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