ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] librarygeek  has sponsored "The Bond With a Dog" and "All It Takes to Be Invulnerable." I'll get those up as soon as I can.

EDIT 6/5/25 -- Done!

Birdfeeding

Jun. 5th, 2025 02:17 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Today is cloudy, warm, and damp.  It rained off and on yesterday and last night.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/5/25 -- I put out more food for the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 6/5/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.  This included putting a piece of mosquito dunk into the red birdbath.

EDIT 6/5/25 -- I walked around the yard a bit.  Everything is still pretty wet.

The 'Lemon Boy' tomato has green fruit.  :D

EDIT 6/5/25 -- I pulled weeds along the strip garden.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
"Do you ever dream of land?" The whale asks the tuna.

"No." Says the tuna, "Do you?"

"I have never seen it." Says the whale, "but deep in my body, I remember it."


Read More

Books

Jun. 4th, 2025 08:35 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
For my librarian friends:

I found this post about how to deal with people who purposely misfile library books to hide topics they dislike: find the books, scan them, and then put them on the display shelf. If every effort to discourage a topic results in encouraging it instead, this will quickly undermine that behavior. Or hey, promote the hell out of suppressed topics, which is also a good thing.


PSA: Stop Hiding The Gay Books

Dudes. Jerks. Wine Moms.

Stop hiding the gay books.

This has been happening all year, btw. I haven't noticed a marked increase of this kind of behavior since Pride started. It's been going on for months.

But y'all. You're wasting your time. You might think you're wasting mine, but I reshelve books all day long, whether they got moved accidentally or on purpose. Who do you think will get bored faster?


Read more... )

Wildlife

Jun. 4th, 2025 08:21 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
A new study finds that baboons walk together in a line out of friendship, not survival

But the prevailing theory — and ultimate conclusion of the study — found that baboons simply preferred to walk beside their closest friends.

“We find no evidence that progression orders are adaptive responses to minimize an individuals’ risk, maximize their resource acquisition, or are the result of decision-makers leading the group,” Marco Fele, the study's lead author, wrote in Behavioral Ecology.

“Instead, we find that individuals’ positions are predicted by pairwise affiliations, resulting in consistency in order, with more dominant individuals occupying central positions in progressions.”


Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Jun. 4th, 2025 02:22 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Today is cloudy, mild, and wet.

I fed the birds. I didn't get through the whole morning routine before it started to rain. We need the rain, but the timing was annoying.

EDIT 6/4/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

There were mosquito larvae in the red birdbath, so I dumped it and refilled it. I'll need to add a piece of mosquito dunk later.

EDIT 6/4/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a mourning dove.

EDIT 6/4/25 -- I went back out for a walk. We've gotten a significant amount of rain. :D

I saw an indigo bunting.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Good News

Jun. 4th, 2025 04:14 am[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.

What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?
ysabetwordsmith: A paint roller creates an American flag, with the text Arts and Crafts America. (Arts and Crafts America)
This is the freebie for the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] mama_kestrel, in honor and memory of Lord Matthew the Confused. It also fills the "validation" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest bingo. This poem belongs to the Draft Dawgs thread of the Arts and Crafts America series.

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Hippie Chicks: A Different Feminism

Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo’s Daughters of Aquarius: Women of the Sixties Counterculture (2009) is the only monograph to date that has given these women a place in the history of feminism. Instead of portraying them as stereotypical earth mothers, nymphs in peasant dresses, or strung-out domestic drudges—the antithesis of feminism—the author demonstrates how these women broke with both the middle-class housewife and the rising career woman to recover the value of women’s productive labor in rural America. They rejected both liberal feminism’s insistence on state-guaranteed rights and radical feminism’s rejection of gender binaries to forge their own version of female empowerment.


This is the feminism that I grew up with. I found it more impressive than the feminism I studied in college.  it was a lot more diverse, too.  There were the earth mothers, the free lovers, the farmers, the crafters, the musicians, the ball-busting bitches, the blythe spirits, the radical activists, the wanderers -- so many girls and women who didn't fit the mainstream mold and weren't interested in academic feminism.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
A Rainbow of Queer Books for Pride 2025: Pink

HAPPY PRIDE 2025! For Pride this year, we’re changing up our usual rec lists. Instead of doing books with specific identities or themes, we’re focused this time on cover color! Throughout the month of June, we’ll be doing 8 rec lists, each with covers inspired by one of the colors of the original Gilbert Baker Pride Flag. We drew a little additional inspiration from the meaning behind the color and why it was included in the original LGBTQIA+ flag (in this case, hot pink = sex), but we prioritized color over meaning. That said, there are definitely a few steamy stories in this load of pink tales! In a few days, we’ll be back with our second post – red – but until then, check out this whole bunch of awesome pink-covered queer books.

Poke a bigot in the eye! Read and recommend queer books this month.

Birdfeeding

Jun. 3rd, 2025 04:18 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Today is mostly sunny, windy, and hot.  :P  A beautiful day to stay indoors and write!  :D  Today is the Poetry Fishbowl on "Gentleness Is Strength" if you want to drop by and join the fun.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and houses finches plus a grackle. 

I put out water for the birds.  Honeybees are mobbing the small metal birdbath again.

EDIT 6/3/25 --  I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/3/25 --  I watered the old picnic table, patio plants, new picnic table, and septic garden.

The temperature has cooled off considerably.

EDIT 6/3/25 --  I watered the septic garden and the notch in the prairie garden.

EDIT 6/3/25 --  I watered the savanna seedlings.

EDIT 6/3/25 --  I watered the new picnic table and the patio plants, which seemed most in need of water.

I've seen at least one fairly large bat flying around.  :D

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
 

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Jun. 3rd, 2025 12:29 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Gentleness Is Strength." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, comares, strongmen, tough guys, superheroes, supervillains, other gentle and strong people, caregiving, feeding each other, babysitting, brushing or braiding hair, catching someone who's falling, lifting heavy things, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, charities, homeless shelters, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, gyms, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, other polyhomes, social justice departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, community gardens, other helper hangouts, self-control, intentional neighboring, altruism, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, activist symbols, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Pride Fest Bingo Card 6-2-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Blueshift Troupers travel the galaxy helping colonies solve problems.

Clay of Life depends on the friendship between a blacksmith and a golem.

Daughters of the Apocalypse relies a lot on kindness for survival.

Frankenstein's Family has diverse subgroups interacting, of which the vampires in particular are gentle with others.

The Moon Door features a women's chronic pain support group, which is all about being gentle with each other.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis is about Shaeth learnng how to take care of his new followers.

Path of the Paladins balances gentleness and strength.

Peculiar Obligations is about Quakers and pirates learning to help each other.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people helping people. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Quixotic Ideas is fantasy with a gentle angle.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

Read more... )

Population

Jun. 2nd, 2025 09:56 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
This post is actually a mishmash of different quotes around the core theme.

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Here is my card for the Pride Fest Bingo over in [community profile] allbingo. The fest runs from June 1-30. (See all my 2025 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


PRIDE FEST BINGO CARD

FriendshipQuestioningGrowthSupportInclusion
Butch / FemmeGenderqueerCuriousAroaceTwo-Spirit
ActivismRainbowWILD CARDFound familyQueerplatonic
IdentityBisexual / biromanticPolyamorous"I'd rather eat cake"Hope
UnlabeledCommunityComfortBelongingValidation

Hummingbirds

Jun. 2nd, 2025 08:53 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Backyard feeders changed the shape of hummingbird beaks, scientists say

According to a recent study in Global Change Biology, a journal focused on environmental change, the use and prevalence of hummingbird feeders — like those red and clear plastic ones filled with homemade sugar water — changed the size and shape of the birds' beaks. The range of the hummingbird also spread from the southern part of California all the way up the West coast into Canada.

"Very simplified, the bills get longer and they become more slender, and that helps to have a larger tongue inside that can get more nectar from the feeder at a time," says Alejandro Rico-Guevara, a professor of biology at the University of Washington and senior author on the study.

Monday Update 6-2-25

Jun. 2nd, 2025 02:12 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Photos: South Lot
Photos: House Yard
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
National Pollinator Month
History
Activism
Climate Change
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Birdfeeding
Queernorm
Philosophical Questions: Country
Bingo
Follow Friday 5-30-25: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Spring 2025 A-I
Birdfeeding
Mines
Domestic Labor and Community Building Rec List
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party

"Not a Destination, But a Process" has 136 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 87 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, June 3 with a theme of "Gentleness Is Strength." I hope to see you there!


"In the Heart of the Hidden Garden" belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It needs $86 to be fully funded. Lawrence shows Stan around the campus at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.


The weather was cool recently and is now warmer. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, several mourning doves, several robins, a male and a female cardinal, two brown thrashers, a starling, a catbird, a blackbird, a grackle, an adult male fox squirrel, a young fox squirrel, and a skunk. Bats are flying overhead, and I saw the first fireflies! :D Asiatic lilies, astilbe, and snowball bush have flower buds. Irises, alliums, and Washington hawthorn are done blooming. Peonies are winding down. Currently blooming: dandelions, honeysuckle, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, red coreopsis, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, privet, mock orange, dogwood. Raspberries, blackberries, and tomatoes have green fruit. Cherries and mulberries have pink fruit. Wild strawberries are ripe.

Birdfeeding

Jun. 2nd, 2025 02:10 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Today is partly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a mourning dove.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I finished trimming along the south end of the forest garden.  I still need to do the outside edge along the patio, before working on the interior.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I trimmed along the patio side of the forest garden. 

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I started trimming brush in the forest garden.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I trimmed more brush in the forest garden.

I've seen a fox squirrel.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I watered the new picnic table garden and the septic garden.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I watered the patio plants and the old picnic table garden.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and the savanna seedlings.

EDIT 6/2/25 -- I watered the prairie garden patch.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Photos: South Lot

Jun. 2nd, 2025 01:55 am[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
These photos of the south lot are from Sunday, but posted after midnight so it says Monday.

Walk with me ... )

Photos: House Yard

Jun. 2nd, 2025 12:17 am[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
These pictures are from Sunday, but it's after midnight, so the post says Monday.

Walk with me ... )

Climate Change

Jun. 1st, 2025 02:59 pm[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Science Newsfrom research organizations

Anthropologists have examined the societal consequences of global glacier loss. This article appears alongside new research that estimates that more than three-quarters of the world's glacier mass could disappear by the end of the century under current climate policies.

Their article appears alongside new research that estimates that more than three-quarters of the world's glacier mass could disappear by the end of the century under current climate policies. While the study projects the physical outcomes of glacial melt, Howe and Boyer highlight the social impacts and human stories behind the statistics -- from disrupted ecosystems and endangered cultural heritage to funeral rites held for vanished ice.

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Jessica Steiner

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