πŸ“Έ garden haul: cherry tomatoes + bell pepper

Basket of garden vegetables: two large handfuls of orange-colored cherry tomatoes and a hand-sized green bell pepper

The cherry tomatoes are absolutely popping right now and I have to pick them a bit early or else the birds and whatever else (chipmunks probably) get them. Luckily they ripen pretty fast even in the kitchen.

The bell pepper was the biggest of the bunch, so I picked it despite it looking a bit weird. You can see a slight spot of red coming at the top!

UPDATE from Garden Window Viewpoint: Caught one of the chipmunks EATING A CHERRY TOMATO!!!! (One that I left out there because it’s slightly underripe.) Vegetable thief!!!!!!!!

🌿 morning in the garden

Managed to get up slightly earlier than usual today and got out to the garden just before 7:30am. Absolutely perfect temperature, somewhere in the mid 60s and only needed a light jacket (which I happened to buy in Chicago recently! Score!).

Major difference in sounds from previous mornings! Lots more chipmunk sounds– and in fact I saw lots more chipmunks, too. Fairly blasting my eardrums with noises (birds, chipmunks, cicadas, etc.) and only very minimal human-neighbor noises this time.

Did a lot of chipmunk-watching. The easiest way to spot chipmunks was to look where the sounds were coming from, and then watch for moving branches. Eventually I was able to make out little chipmunk shadows racing around, and it was fun to watch them scream at each other.

Even more exciting was the chipmunk(s) who came close to my chair. One even went to far as to run UNDER my chair, after we accidentally made eye contact.

Spotted several birds of unknown type, but probably finches, of various colors (yellow, brown, black/white). Also saw a bright red one, larger than a finch but doesn’t seem large enough to be a cardinal. Some small white butterflies visiting flowers, and ants investigating my coffee mug per usual. (No worries: I have a silicone mug cover to keep curious insects out from my coffee.)

Later, after heading back inside to my temporary writing desk, the groundhog ventured out and snuffled around some bushes looking for food.

πŸ“ weeknotes (july 27-august 2)

Life Updates

Finally starting to feel settled into this housesit in Ann Arbor. Though the bed is comfortable, I haven’t been sleeping well. I wake up exhausted, which isn’t good. Feeling tired when I wake up makes me not want to go out and do things, so I’ve mostly been in the house slumping on the (admittedly very comfortable) couch with my books and my Roku.

But this week things changed! I dragged myself outside and did a walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday, one of the less-hot days, and I’ve switched to spending my mornings outside in the garden with my book and coffee mug. It’s an urban area, but this particular plot/neighborhood is ripe with tall trees and plants, so there’s lots of creatures to watch. Yesterday I spotted a goldfinch, and today I saw a chipmunk and a groundhog.

This morning I woke up feeling normal, so I think it’s working. I may start going on sunset walks when the temps cool down in the evening.

πŸˆβ€β¬› The cats continue to mostly ignore me, but in a benevolent way. Miss F and Mr N have started letting me pet them more, but Mr B still runs if I get closer than 10 feet away. I suppose the upside is they’re very independent and I can get a lot of work done without having to shoo them off my keyboard.

Media Consumption

🎧 Lots of podcasts this week. Caught up on My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes from the last two or three months. I used to listen to eps regularly but this past year in particular it’s gotten increasingly obvious that they are aware that they’re, like, being watched? Like, it’s a little too much “looking for the bit” so they can clip it and put it on TikTok.

Also caught up with Too Many Tabs, which has topics I enjoy but which has gotten maybe a bit more shout-y since they started recording videos for Youtube. I’m sensing a trend.

Also listened to a great episode of Gender Spiral Podcast, which I wrote about here (DW).

πŸ“Ί Continuing on my Midsomer Murder binge-watching. I’ve made it through DS Troy and have gotten into DS Scott’s episodes.

One thing I’ve been thinking about more during this rewatch is what happens to all these victims and secondary characters after the episode ends. So many people who find a dead body, lost a loved one, had a family secret exposed, etc. and they just disappear from the world entirely.

Hardly anyone shows back up again– there were a few times in the early seasons when a character from a previous episode would be referenced, and there’s one memorable time in season 10 (I think) where the same two character actors show up as the sister/nephew of characters from season 1. But other than that it’s just a swath of murder and misery in this one small UK county and nobody talks about it!

Which obviously has to happen, or else the story would never continue. But I think it’d make for an interesting story (perhaps a satire), to focus on what happens after a TV murder mystery. Anyone know if something like that exists? I’d be very surprised if a satirical author hadn’t put something out already.

πŸ“– Still reading Moby-Duck, and am about halfway through it now. Very much enjoying it (especially when I’m reading it under a tree in a garden).

Food & Dining

I ate a salad and am very proud of myself.

Basically I ate all the good stuff from my major order (DW) and am down to eggs and beans, so I need to head out this week to get rice and potatoes and other starchy things I can put eggs and beans on.

Besides that, though, I actually have quite a bit left from my last order and I think I can put off ordering again for at least another week. Or at least until DoorDash gives me another coupon.

Web Updates

Joined heaps of fanlistings and a few cliques, as well as two site directories (Smooth Sailing and LinkLane.net) and a webring (No AI Webring). I joined the MelonLand Forum and am dipping my toes in.

New page added to the main site:

And blog posts:

Looking Forward

Keep working on my website, write more blog posts, finish Moby-Duck and maybe one more book, perhaps start an animal-spotting log for this garden because WOW and catch up on my Dreamwidth correspondence.

🎧 listened to: gender spiral podcast “money sucks -and- you can do it (w/river nice)”

Listen to the episode here / Transcript / Youtube / Podcast RSS

Really excellent money-focused episode which talks about some of the differences between how queer people handle money vs. non-queer people (example: needing money for HRT, money to move out of the country for safety, etc.), some of the ways you can get started thinking about money in a healthy way, how to talk about money with your friends, mutual aid and how to plan for it, and lots more!

I especially liked a part about how older gen can’t handle how things have changed for us, not because they’re being willfully obtuse, but because it makes them scared for us! And they don’t have the emotional regulation skills needed to handle it properly.

Also this quote from River Nice, from 00:52:20:

I’m like, “I empathize a lot for my parents. I empathize for anyone in debt.” It’s like, we’re in truly unimaginable times that we all have to somehow navigate, but we have each other. Actually, all we have is each other. We literally don’t have anything else. We don’t have the money in the bank, it’s not real. You say the stock market might not exist in 30 years, that’s so true.

That’s where it all has to come back in all of the work that I do is like, “Yes, I want you to understand how the rules currently exist, how they’re currently played. I want you to creatively play them as best you can, but also, what can we be setting up that we have options in the future? We can talk about diversification. We can, some of us put some money in the stock market to have some options there.

We can buy some property to have some options there. We can invest in skills, like trade school, like cooking, gardening. We can invest in relationships, in healthy conflict.”

River Nice’s website, Be Intentional Financial. Free stuff offered (on resources page) include: How to Live Your Life While In Debt, Budgeting workshop, How to Talk to Loved Ones about Money, How to Buy a House Outside the Nuclear Family.

πŸ”— ai spams fediverse, zine library, permacomputing

Happy Saturday! It’s absolutely beautiful outside and I sat for several hours this morning under a tree, reading Moby-Duck…

Some links for you:

Aphyr wrote about an ongoing issue on Mastodon where AI spam accounts are signing up and getting through the initial checks; these are small, super-specific servers for tiny groups of people (queer/kinky/cozy fans even) and the bots use language with specific keywords and phrases to seem human enough to get through. The comments have some discussion about what this could mean for moderation/community engagement and how small communities survive on personal recommendations.

The Locavore Guide to Shopping New York City is a (physical!) directory of small indie shops with amazing local good! The writer does fun TikTok videos of her tracking down specific foods (and other stuff) and recently came out with this guide. There’s a website version too but honestly the book is so cute and would be great to carry around while sightseeing.

This is an AMAZING project: a directory of Georgia pagan groups from 1996-2025, WITH contact info and links to websites and so on. The author (MunuΕ‘ninanna) built it using data from WitchVox (RIP) and other internet sources; they include a great sources page, and even a 90s pagan webring page! Really a fab effort and I’m seriously considering doing one for California. (I do have an in-progress Pagan Links page with some stuff listed, in the meanwhile.)

Somebody’s uploaded a bunch of 90s dELiA*s catalogs images to Tumblr! Nobody at my middle school dressed like this, but we all wanted to.

If you’re a dumpster diver, or a wanna be diver, then Dumpstermap.org may be helpful to you.

Some zine links: Sherwood Forest Zine Library has a digital branch with tons of interesting zines; Echo Zines wrote a great review of Wort, a journal dedicated to herbalism through the lens of intersectional activism; The Zinester’s Guide to Staples and Stock (PDF version) is available from Cracked Egg Press for $3, or $1.50 with coupon ILOVESTAPLES until August 3rd.

Couple new releases from Project Gutenberg that caught my eye: On Old Cape Cod by Ferdinand C. Lane; The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Issue 2, April 7, 1832; and A Tour in Mongolia by Beatrix Manico Gull.

@tamaranth wrote a great review of The Scandalous Letters of V and J by Felicia Davin, a queer fantasy romance which I’m adding to my TBR ASAP.

A few computer-y links:

Permacomputing is “both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in computer and network technology inspired by permaculture.” Be sure to check out their library and projects pages, too!

DistroWatch.com tracks Linux releases and projects.

PrePostPrint “highlights experimental publications made with free software” which in practice seems to be a mix of text production and ways to make the web into a text production, more or less. Some very interesting things in the resources list!

Need more stuff to read? I’ve compiled all previous linkspam posts here on my website, or you can explore the linkspam tag to find more.

πŸ“– reading log: moby-duck by donovan hohn

Book Info

Genre: Nonfiction, Popular Science, Travel

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/book/291465892

Acquired from: Little Free Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA [see visit log]

Started reading: July 29, 2025

Finished reading: August 6, 2025

Review

(Written August 6, 2025; cross-posted to LibraryThing)

Overall I enjoyed this book, though I think the title/cover does it a bit of a disservice. It makes it seem like a very scientific book with a lot of history about plastic ducks floating in the ocean, but really it’s more of a travel memoir with some popular science bits mixed in. The last two sections in particular were heavy on the personal anecdotes and less about plastic ducks– possibly because the author hadn’t seen any for years by that point.

That said, it DID make me more interested about oceanography and oceanographers. I enjoyed the mix of travel, science, and history. The author describes people vividly, without being rude about their quirks, and you can tell he likes people. I’m uncertain if it was worth it for him to quit his job and pursue the plastic ducks (especially since he had a young child at the time!) but I suppose that’s just me being judgemental. (Although considering how many times he quotes Arctic explorers, I can’t help but wonder if wanting to explore himself mixed with fear of fatherhood led to suddenly wanting to go on a multi-year quest. Anyway.)

Reading Updates

Page 1: Found a promo postcard for 4Ocean.com inside the book and am using it as a bookmark

Continue reading “πŸ“– reading log: moby-duck by donovan hohn”

πŸ“š lfl visit log (1)

Went for what turned out to be an hour-long walk around the neighborhood and visited five Little Free Libraries– and found some great books!

The majority were full of kids books, which makes sense I suppose as people tend to load up on those at thrift stores and whatnot, so they’re easy to pass along.

My favorite LFL was #119554, not least because I found two books which look really good! It also had the best design, with one box for adult books and one for children’s books, a separate dog treat library and even a water bowl. Super cute!

As far as I can tell, all these libraries are the pre-built ones from the LFL website.

LFL Visited

  1. LFL #89560 “Elm Tree Little Library” – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Square Foot Gardening.
  2. LFL #119554 – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Climate Resilience and Seasons of the Wild.
  3. LFL #135682 “Barking Dog Library” – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Moby-Duck.
  4. LFL #177207 – Ann Arbor, MI.
  5. LFL #178758 – Ann Arbor, MI – Took Paradise Rot.
Continue reading “πŸ“š lfl visit log (1)”

πŸ“ weeknotes (july 20-26)

Gotta get back to doing these! So:

Life Updates

Mostly I’ve been busy settling into my newest housesit and sorting through my new-to-me thrift store clothes (DW). I’ve got everything washed, but unfortunately the homeowners didn’t leave me a lot of hangers so half the clothes are in a pile in the closet (and I don’t have a dresser, lol). One of the downsides of nomadic living, I suppose…

πŸˆβ€β¬› Me and the cats are slowly getting used to each other. (See previous post [access-locked] for more info!) They’re all picky about wet food flavors and they have different flavors they’re picky about, which is irritating. One cat loves salmon, the other wants tuna and the third prefers chicken bits. Luckily they all eat the dry food, so if one doesn’t finish the wet food they can supplement with other stuff. Silly kitties!

Media Consumption

🎧 I’ve been catching up on Cruising, a queer documentary podcast that this season is focusing on interviews with lesbians and queers doing amazing things in history. Love it! (More recommended podcasts here btw.)

πŸ“Ί I watched all three episodes of Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross, which I wrote about here (DW). Also been re-watching Midsomer Murders (the early seasons) which is nice to have running in the background while doing other stuff.

πŸ“– I finished A Girl’s Guide to India (written about here / DW) on the bus from Chicago to Ann Arbor, and haven’t started a new book yet though I’ve been carrying my Kindle around from room to room in hopes of actually using it.

I HAVE been re-reading some favorite fanfics, including this amazing IT Chapter 2 longfic.

Food & Dining

πŸ›’ Did a big grocery order because I had a $10 coupon AND a 30% off discount, so I got enough stuff to (I think) last me about a month, with some supplemental purchases throughout, for about $70 INCLUDING the tip. Was shopped and delivered by a very nice older lady who knew to look at expiration dates AND check for rotten fruit.

Bonus: Meijer grocery prices here in Michigan are fab, especially compared to Oregon/Illinois. Example: one dozen eggs under $3, even on the delivery app!

πŸ«– This house has an electric kettle, so I can finally make tea again. (I hate microwaving water and I’m too lazy to boil it on the stove for one cup.)

I bought a huge box of PG Tips when I was catsitting in England earlier this year, and I think I have enough to last maybe through the end of August. Imported PG Tips prices are nuts (even excluding potential import fees), so I’ll have to start rifling through my hosts’ cabinets soon for replacement tea. ;D

Website Updates

Did lots of fun things on my website this week! Some highlights:

  • Started building a Wikipedia Pages page, to keep interesting articles
  • Joined a bunch of fanlistings, especially in the movies/tv shows section
  • Re-organized the recipes page, and added a biscuits recipe I found on a Clabber Girl baking powder container. I have a lot of other food package recipes to add this week!
  • Also changed the blog layout and made a header, so it looks a bit nicer/easier to read. And I added a thing at the bottom so people can email replies, if they want, or else do a regular comment or even a Webmention! Also set up ActivityPub so new entries are sent to the Fediverse, where of course people can respond (and responses are imported as comments, very cool!).

Looking Forward

This week I’m going to work on my website more (recipes, more fic recs), as well as join a few more webrings and site directories. And I’d like to email someone in response to THEIR post/website!

I’d also like to go out into town and visit some thrift stores. I don’t need new clothes (lol) but I’m casually looking for other stuff– something I can make into a laundry line, a backpack, perhaps a new travel purse, that sort of thing.

πŸ“Ί watched: solo traveling with tracee ellis ross (2025)

🎬 Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross. Tracee Ellis Ross is packing her bags and inviting audiences to join her solo trips to experience the joy of solo travel. πŸ”—

I kept seeing clips from TER’s TikTok and thought it looked cute, so I’m watching it! Three episodes, set in Morocco, Mexico and Spain. She’s very bougie and stylish, and self-aware about it, which is fun. Very obvious product placement, which I suppose is how it’s making money (besides the ads).

Watching on Roku Channel, currently halfway through the first episode.

Edit: OH! It’s her own beauty line. So she’s promo-ing (and probably paying for?) herself.

Edit 2: Episode 1 was fun, she went out to the market and the desert and did shopping, etc.

Episode 2, Mexico, was slightly forgettable because she spent it at a resort. It did look very relaxing.

Episode 3, Spain, was exciting because she got food poisoning (from airport food?) and was stuck indoors. The last scene was her having a great meal, where she then had a conversation with other female travelers at a restaurant who said basically “we saw you sitting on your own and thought that it wasn’t good for you.”

I suppose they’re the type of people who’ve never gone someone alone and would never even think of doing it– not even in their own home town. Tracee gently corrected them and explained that not only was she used to it, but she enjoys it. You could see they were full of disbelief, but also they acknowledged their daughters would travel solo happily.

It just makes me feel so sad for them. It’s not that I think everyone should be able to travel the world alone for months on end (like I do), necessarily, but to not even think that someone (a woman) could do have dinner alone and NOT be depressed or sad or lonely…? It’s just so out of their worldview, they were gobsmacked.

Overall more of a show if you’re interested in TER herself (she talks about her POV a lot, of course), or like watching people wearing great outfits in foreign locations. Not so much a “travel show” where you learn specific destination stuff.

πŸ“Ί 2025 Watched List