My Poem: The Moorland Pony

Title: The Moorland Pony
Poetic Form: villanelle
Length: 143
Rating: Gen

[Edited for typos]



a moorland pony plods where bitterns boom
in every season, thick of coat and skin,
a stalwart pony clods through moorland gloom

a hoary fog, exhaled by autumn’s womb,
lays heavy claim on mire and tor and kin,
a moorland pony plods where bitterns boom

a beast of east lays siege, a snowy tomb
on crest and trough, though fodder lies too thin
a stalwart pony clods through moorland gloom

grey frost recedes, and spring, like stiff-straw broom,
sweeps in; by dew, by green, by snow-melt din,
a moorland pony treads where bitterns boom

rare butterflies festoon bright summer’s loom
they shuttle-dance ‘til mist, ‘til once again
a stalwart pony clods through moorland gloom

a horse-stock culled of fancy, mischief’s bloom,
where misstep is last step, lapse, the all-in,
the moorland pony treads where bitterns boom
the stalwart pony clods through moorland gloom

Happy Birthday, Sherlock Holmes!

Every year for Sherlock Holmes's birthday (recognised rightly or wrongly by most as 06 Jan) I make an Epiphany tart (jam tart). I used my own favourite flavours of jams (store-bought jams, I don't make my own jam) this year: raspberry, blackberry, and apricot.

Signal Boost: Psychic Wolves for Lupercalia

Long-time friends know I don't do fic exchanges but I do do challenges. And at the moment, I am reading one of the source books for this challenge, [A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear] so that I can participate next month in a petra challenge: Psychic Wolves for Lupercalia.

People (warriors) bonded to wolves and (sometimes) their wolves make them do it and they all battle trolls. I'm only on chapter two, so I'm not yet certain of much more than that. Maybe it'll be Victorian Holmes/Watson. Maybe BTS' Namjin (there are Korean wolves, I checked), maybe something else, I'm open to ideas.

Click on the banner to learn more. Lupercalia is a new one to me as well. But I thought it might be an interesting alternative to the usual Valentine's Day fare.

Into the Void

1. My sons got their second dose of COVID vaccine this afternoon, so (at the moment) the rule is that in 14 days, I can send proof of vaccination to their school nurse and they won't have to quarantine if they are a classroom contact of a positive case. That's a good thing. It's good for them (especially Minor) to be in school. Of course, rules may change. As of now, all extracurricular activities are suspended until 15 Jan. Nevertheless, I feel like a Good Mom today, which is rare.

2. My Crazy Commentor is back! I knew she would be. Longtime friends know the person of which I speak. She makes certain kinds of comments on my BBC Sherlock Omegaverse fic that make me feel very uncomfortable. She's been doing it for a long time (not just to me, but to most, if not all, BBC Sherlock Omegaverse ficcers), she changes AO3 usernames often and we have a history, as they say. I purposefully (because of HER!) blocked all comments on Wonder Bred until I was finished with it, because I knew if she commented I would lose my momentum, but I opened comments up when I was done and, sure enough, she was there on Monday--like a dirty man in a trench coat on the bus! I deleted the comments and am moving on. I wish she would. But she never does.

( One of the comments, in case you want to know what I'm talking about, all of her comments are in the same vein )

3. Our snow from Monday isn't gone altogether but we've got a forecast of 2-4 more inches tonight! Snow! Snow! Snow!

4. I got Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton-Hill, which is one-page vignettes about a piece of classical music, one for every day of the year. I am keen to get back to listening to some classical music. Today's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor op. 26 by Max Bruch was nice, if unmemorable.

5. Next holiday up: National Puzzle Day (US)--which is 29 Jan.