stonepicnicking_okapi

Into the void & Paris collage

Fri, 08 May 2026 17:24:39 GMT

1. After eating in the dark for 4 months, maintenance finally came and fixed the lights in the dining area and the boys' bathroom. Huzzah.

2. I survived my 12 hour shift yesterday and have another 12-hour shift tomorrow with the same client. Sadly, my hospice client died so I only had one today so I am doing more collaging, working on the cards for the folks who requested them from my 3Weeks4Dreamwidth offer.

3. I bought myself flowers for Mother's Day. They had so many, many varieties at the grocery store that I knew the boys' father would be overwhelmed and so I picked my own. I wasn't going to do any shopping this week but the boys won't have bread for sandwiches on Monday if I didn't get some.

4. BTS is amazing. They are in Mexico City and they met with the President of Mexico and 50,000 ARMY filled the zocalo to greet them when they stepped out on the balcony of the presidential palace.

Here's one of the collages I did on Tuesday. While collaging today, I am listening to Death at the Sanitorium by Ragnar Jonasson. Icelandic cold case mystery. I tried a few minutes of Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman but noped out of it. A fat widow talking about how difficult much she misses her husband and how difficult it is to get her large posterior in an airplane wasn't the vibe I wanted. Scandi noir for the win!

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3Weeks4Dreamwidth: E is for elegy

Thu, 07 May 2026 11:16:55 GMT

Until 14 May pitchblackrenegade is offering a line of poetry as prompt/inspiration from one of their favorite poems. Ask for it here: https://pitchblackrenegade.dreamwidth.org/12309.html

Mine was:

It is enraptured by approaching sleep

—from "Before sunset" by Mirra Lokhvitskaya, translated by Temira Pachmuss

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Happy Birthday to me!

Thu, 07 May 2026 01:54:45 GMT

It's been a fine day. I got nice gifts and well wishes and a purple cake!

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Views & News: Still 50 edition

Tue, 05 May 2026 21:36:45 GMT

1. Because of work and another scheduled commitment tomorrow, and two 12-hour shifts later in the week, I decided that today would be my lazy, do-what-I-want day, so I had my session with jazz man, came home and collaged, on an off, from about 10 am to 4 pm. I made one regular card, a double-sided postcard card, one 2-page spread and two 1-page spreads. And I listened to Curtain (Poirot's final case) on audiobook on YT. And had scrambled eggs and then later, a BLT, and two cups of coffee. And the fried plantains I found at Wegman's (because today is also Cinco de Mayo).

It was good.

2. What is the word for being annoyed at how much romance, romantic relationships, marriage, fidelity and infidelity, etc. consume popular media/art/conversation? Whatever it is, I have come down with a bit of that. Like, can we talk about something else? Anything else.

3. I got an oversized book at the library about the Hirshhorn Museum and I am looking forward to leafing through that. I love those kind of books even though I will never own a coffee table to put them on!

4. Now I am going to read and scan some of these spreads and enjoy my last day of being 50.

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Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: D is for Detective

Tue, 05 May 2026 01:33:10 GMT

So this week is the week that I take off of domestic duties. Over the weekend, I cleaned the apartment, stocked the fridge (and made a list of options), and did all the laundry, and now through Sunday I am not cooking or cleaning or doing any housework unless it's an emergency.

So I also decided to post about things I like and, of course, one of the things I like best is detectives. Here are some cards I embellished. I am offering happy mail as part of 3 Weeks 4 Dreamwidth.

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Music Monday: Darth Vader's Theme

Mon, 04 May 2026 10:51:24 GMT

Could it be anything else today? MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU! And with your spirit

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Collage Journaling: four embellished cards

Sat, 02 May 2026 01:47:15 GMT

Happy May!

I remember as a young child participating in a maypole ceremony at school, where you wind the ribbons round the pole. It was pretty.

The best thing that happened today was I jogged for the first time on the ankle since I sprained and it did okay. Also the partner of a client mentioned wanting to add me as a regular another day so that was a nice vote of confidence.

The wife of another client gave me some blank greeting cards and I embellished them.

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Poet's Corner: A Jellyfish by Marianne Moore

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 21:53:16 GMT

Thank you to all my friends who posted poems during this month. I think we did a good job of celebrating the power of poetry.

A Jelly-Fish by Marianne Moore

Visible, invisible,
A fluctuating charm,
An amber-colored amethyst
Inhabits it; your arm
Approaches, and
It opens and
It closes;
You have meant
To catch it,
And it shrivels;
You abandon
Your intent—
It opens, and it
Closes and you
Reach for it—
The blue
Surrounding it
Grows cloudy, and
It floats away
From you.

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Book Bingo: April 2026

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 19:39:52 GMT

Making progress!

G-1: Author's Debut/First Book: A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin. The April bookclub_dw book. It is an easy read. A fantasy novel about a poor village girl with a tragic past who travels to a tea-making competition in the princess court to win a remedy for her dying sister. Warning: ends on a cliffhanger.

N-2: Historical (fiction or nonfiction): Keats: a brief life in 9 poems and one epitaph by Lucasta Miller. A nice overview of Keats' life and death and impact. Audiobook.

O-2: eBook/audiobook: The Killing Stones by Ann Cleeves. This is the latest Shetland/Jimmy Perez novel and of course Jimmy can't catch a break. His best friend is murdered. But his best friend is kind of a loser and the killer comes out of left field at the end with a motive that isn't hinted at until the last quarter of the book. Do not recommend, my eye-rolling muscles got a good workout, but the narrator is good. Audiobook.

I-3: Crime/Mystery: Tokyo Express by Seicho Mastumoro. A solid Japanese police procedural. Very much about train time tables a la Freeman Wills Croft. Audiobook. I have a soft spot for the narrator.

O-3: Book Older than You are: The Dispossessed [1974] by Ursula K. Le Guin. A science fiction classic about a planet and a moon and a physicist who travels from the latter to the former and back. A philosophical treatise on government or lack of it, human nature, time, and space. To give a quote:

To break a promise is to deny the reality of the past; therefore it is to deny the hope of a real future. If time and reason are functions of each other, if wer are creatures of time, then we had better know it, and try to make the best of it.

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Word: Ansible

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 19:03:26 GMT

Copy-and-pasting from my 1word1day Monday post because I finished Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed this week.

ansible [an-suh-buhl]

noun
(in science fiction) a device for instantaneous communication, or other purposes, across cosmic distances

examples
1. I could show them the ansible, but it didn’t make a very convincing Alien Artifact, being so incomprehensible to fit in with hoax as well as with reality. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
2. "What is an anisble, Shevek?"
"An idea." He smiled without much humor. "It will be a device that will permit communication without any time interval between two points in space." The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

origin
Shortening of answerable; coined by Ursula K. Le Guin in her novel Rocannon's World (1966)

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Poet's Corner: Who Has Seen the Wind by Christina Rossetti

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:59:32 GMT

Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

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Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: C is for Cyanide

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:10:19 GMT

C is for Cyanide

C is also for card readings. If you are interested in tarot readings (receiving or offering) check out this post https://tarot.dreamwidth.org/16287.html

I got a lovely one from goodbyebird.

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Music Monday: Moanin by Charles Mingus

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 20:38:18 GMT

I always look at 'today in jazz history' before I go in to do jazz man and last week it was Mingus' birthday, and jazz man asked Alexa to play this for me and explained to me a lot about what is going on.

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Poet's Corner: There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:31:39 GMT

There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

(War Time)

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

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3Weeks4Dreamwidth: B is for Belladonna

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 19:34:44 GMT

A is for Agatha Chrstie.
B is for Belladonna.

Here's a fun anecdote from A is for Arsenic: The poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Markup.

In 1977, a Frenchman added eyedrop solution (atropine, the dominant toxic compound in belladonna) to a bottle of wine and gave it to his uncle intending to kill a friend of his uncle's. The intended victim didn't drink the wine, but the uncle and aunt did, much later. Uncle died, aunt in coma. No foul play suspected until a carpenter and the uncle's son-in-law stop by the house to put uncle's body in the coffin and drank some wine (like you do) and ended up going to hospital.

Here's where it gets eye-rolling...police found a copy of Agatha Christie's Thirteen Problems where Miss Marple solves a case of eyedrop solution as poison...and the relevant sections were underlined.

Hey, kids, make sure you tidy up your research when you're trying to top somebody...hmmm?

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All of Agatha: Book Review: Elephants Can Remember (1972)

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 23:47:34 GMT

This series of entries is commentary on my lifelong quest to read all of Agatha Christie's works in UK publication order. It was begun in January 2021.

So for 3 Weeks for Dreamwidth, my working theme is Arsenic, Belladona, Cyanide, the ABCs of Murder.

Day 1: A is for Agatha, specially my All of Agatha series. Can you believe that after 5+ years, I am finally nearing the end. I have 3 more works to go.

Elephants Can Remember [1972] is not new or particularly interesting. We see themes that have appeared again and again (but she has been doing this now for 50 years and they are tropes because she did them and did them well for many of those fifty years). There is a cold case which has a bearing on a young couple who want to marry. There is Ariadne Oliver as Aggie's stand-in and Poirot. There are really unhealthy views of adoption vs. biological motherhood as well as marriage. There is a repetition of a phrase (in earlier works it was nursery rhymes but now it is the title). The key clue is that a woman had four wigs. It is available in two parts on Youtube narrated by Hugh Fraser. That is the version I listened to and it was okay. I did a collage. For newcomers, this is a scan of a physical collage with paper, washi tape, stickers, etc.

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Poet's Corner: Tree by Jane Hirshfield

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 23:02:27 GMT

Tree by Jane Hirshfield

It is foolish
to let a young redwood
grow next to a house.

Even in this
one lifetime,
you will have to choose.

That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books—

Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

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Signal Boost

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:58:43 GMT

FYI: Three Weeks for Dreamwidth starts tomorrow! (I know! It snuck up on me, too) Ideas for things folks are doing/might be doing: https://3weeks4dreamwidth.dreamwidth.org/17014.html

3weeks4dreamwidth is celebrating Dreamwidth's anniversary!
Come join in for fun, memes, activities, and more ♥

I was thinking of doing the theme: Arsenic, Belladona, Cyanide, the ABCs of Murder--because why not?

Here's a collage I did with some of my new stuff. The theme is PINK! Which is also an indirect poison reference--they poison themselves, John!

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Poet's Corner: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 01:52:59 GMT

I did this for Earth Day (yesterday). I went back to the library and took another 2 little scrolls of poems and this is the one that Minisculus got. I don't know who Alec is.

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Words

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:14:14 GMT

For Wordy Wednesday, I present this poem which is choc-a-bloc with 'em.

“For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers” bY Reginald Dwayne Betts

For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers,
green roses, chrysanthemums, lilies: retrophilia,
philocaly, philomath, sarcophilous—all this love,
of the past, of beauty, of knowledge, of flesh; this is
catalogue & counter: philalethist, negrophile, neophile.
A negro man walks down the street, taps Newport
out against a brick wall & stares at you. Love
that: lygophilia, lithophilous. Be amongst stones,
amongst darkness. We are glass house. Philopornist,
philotechnical. Why not worship the demimonde?
Love that—a corner room, whatever is not there,
all the clutter you keep secret. Palaeophile,
ornithophilous: you, antiquarian, pollinated by birds.
All this a way to dream green rose petals on the bed you love;
petrophilous, stigmatophilia: live near rocks, tattoo hurt;
for you topophilia: what place do you love? All these words
for love (for you), all these ways to say believe
in symphily, to say let us live near each other.

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Views & News: Minor is 15 edition

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 23:57:40 GMT

1. Last Thursday I fell at a new client's house. I missed a step from the house to garage. Went down like a sack of potatoes. I sprained my ankle. I have not sought medical care of any kind. It is less painful every day but it looks horrible. I feel like a 19th century surgeon is going to come of the wings with a saw and cut it off. The swelling is going down but the bruise seems to be moving across the foot, like jumping to the base of my toes after a couple of days. It's really disturbing. The colors. I've got range of motion but damn, it's definitely an ugly thing.

But I was asked to be a regular, so though I thought I made a horrible impression, how can I keep your spouse from falling if I can't keep myself upright, I must not have. The Tuesday client did not ask me back, though. I have my Friday guy again. So, it comes and goes as usual.

2. Minor is 15 today. He had a good time on the trip, but he continues to try my patience. For example, I bought two T-shirts from the school store ($$$, one for him, one for me) and he was given them yesterday, put them on his bag and someone stole them by the end of practice. I've got to let it go or it'll drive me crazy.

3. Last Wednesday, the man who had me paint his floor had me weed his stone walkway. I have him tomorrow. We shall see what it brings.

4. I know I am in the pre-menopausal epoch of life and so my cycle is even more erratic than it was. But it will never cease to smack me upside the head with the mood swings. Like every single cycle of my entire god forsaken life, even now, I am wondering...am I depressed? am I crazy? So tearful, so nuttily tearful. And then a couple of days later...I will get an answer. And that answer is YES.

5. Minisculus went to a friend's house on Friday so I was alone with the boys' father and he chose to work all night. We really have nothing to say to each other. Not one thing. And reinforced by the stupid ankle and hormones, I just tipped into despair. I know my fantasies of a RL friend set (friend! not lover!) are just limerence. Just limerence. But I might take an art class at the local community college in the evenings this summer. Just to do something different and maybe make a friend. (but I have made a new ARMY e-friend and that's very exciting. I watched the first episode of The Untamed because of her. It's okay. I don't need to see more).

6. The weight loss is just not happening. I feel like I have no control of anything, hobbling around, eating everything in sight. I wonder if I should quit paying for this program I'm not observing. Then I think 'one more month.' Sometimes I think weight loss has to be a part time job to result in any progress (for me).

7. I am reading Ursula Le Guin's The Disposessed and the DW book club book A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin. And am listening to the latest 2 Shetland series audiobooks. I tried to listen to a Vera Stanhope audiobook (I am eagering anticipating the next Matthew Ven story which should be out in the autumn--all by Ann Cleeves) but I had to nope out of it. Too much Woman Pain and I've got enough of that. I had to put Rebus on hold as the Le Guin is overdue at the library. Will I ever get to my own TBR? Sigh.

But get off the bus, Gloomy Gus! There are still good things happening.

8. Am back to doing ficlets.

9. By pure chance, I happened upon a 4-pack of my favorite facial sheet mask brand Avatara on 50% off because they were seasonal Easter flavors and one of them is called Peep the Glow which makes me smile. Another is called Spring Sparkle. Fun find. I didn't even know they existed and I am sucker for seasonal stuff.

10. I splurged on a Michael's run and bought some ephemera packs. I may be sending y'all spring cards because why not? Spread some cheer. Stop gazing at my own sorry navel and think about somone else. And there's this poem. Sometimes, I like a poem just for a line and this title, it's very good. It deserves to be the title of hardboiled/noir short story.

No Moon Floods the Memory of That Night by Etheridge Knight

No moon floods the memory of that night
only the rain I remember the cold rain
against our faces and mixing with your tears
only the rain I remember the cold rain
and your mouth soft and warm
no moon no stars no jagged pain
of lightning only my impotent tongue
and the red rage within my brain
knowing that the chilling rain was our forever
even as I tried to explain:

“A revolutionary is a doomed man
with no certainties but love and history.”
“But our children must grow up with certainties
and they will make the revolution.”
“By example we must show the way so plain
that our children can go neither right
nor left but straight to freedom.”
“No,” you said. And you left.

No moon floods the memory of that night
only the rain I remember the cold rain
and praying that like the rain
returns to the sky you would return to me again.

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Music Monday: Ran Kan Kan by Tito Puente

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:34:55 GMT

My 'this day in jazz' site tells me today is the birthday of Cuban percussionist Tito Puente. Have my favorite of his songs.

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Puzzle: Gin (minus two)

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:00:34 GMT

This is a nice puzzle. Unfortunately, it is missing two pieces. This is one of the puzzles I got at the swap at the library. I am not saying I didn't lose them myself, but it is possible that the puzzle itself wasn't complete. But all life is fodder, so I wrote a Sherlock Holmes ficlet for spring_renewal for it. Ridley's Jigsaw Puzzles. Gin Lover's Jigsaw Puzzle. 500 pieces. It was not a well-constructed puzzle. The pieces didn't lock together as nicely/snugly as I prefer. I shan't be purchasing any from this company.

Title: Missing Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Mrs. Hudson, Mrs. Turner, Watson, Holmes
Content Notes: domestic fluff
Prompt Being Filled: Any, Any, creative uses of [choice]
Length: 400
Rating: Gen
Summary: Mrs. Hudson is missing two jigsaw puzzle pieces.

( Read more... )

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Poet's Corner: Haiku by Yosa Buson

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 01:36:10 GMT

Today is National Haiku Day.

The light of a candle by Yosa Buson [translated by Edith Shiffert]

The light of a candle
is transferred to another candle—
spring twilight.

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Poet's Corner: Wonder Woman by Ada Limón

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:02:11 GMT

I finally finished the poetry anthology This is the Honey edited by Kwame Alexander and now have moved onto Poetry Unbound: 50 poems to open your world edited by Pádraig Ó Tuama. This is the first one.

Wonder Woman by Ada Limón

Standing at the swell of the muddy Mississippi
after the Urgent Care doctor had just said, Well,
sometimes shit happens, I fell good and hard
for New Orleans all over again. Pain pills swirling
in the purse along with a spell for later. It’s taken
a while for me to admit, I am in a raging battle
with my body, a spinal column thirty-five degrees
bent, vertigo that comes and goes like a DC Comics
villain nobody can kill. Invisible pain is both
a blessing and a curse. You always look so happy,
said a stranger once as I shifted to my good side
grinning. But that day, alone on the riverbank,
brass blaring from the Steamboat Natchez,
out of the corner of my eye, a girl, maybe half my age,
is dressed, for no apparent reason, as Wonder Woman.
She struts by in all her strength and glory, invincible,
eternal, and when I stand to clap (because who wouldn’t),
she bows and poses like she knew I needed the myth,
—a woman, by a river, indestructible

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