Magpie Monday

dialecticdreamer is hosting Magpie Monday today with a theme of "putting the bottom rungs on the ladder." Leave prompts, get ficlets!

Waiting in the wings is the story “Strange Second Meeting.” Asha’s second meeting with the Strange Family goes very differently than the first one. (Lots of comfort and cuddles, of course.) The story is meant to double the value of the tips, and will post in five or six parts (depending on where scene breaks work), all in one go. For anyone who wants to maximize their reading pleasure for a sponsored story, it’s perfectly okay to sponsor a story other than the one prompted.

Monday Update 5-11-20

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "Better to Meet Danger"
Birdfeeding
Today's Smoothie (guava pineapple strawberry)
Poem: "Drake's Evasion"
Poem: "For the Benefit of the People"
Birdfeeding
Today's Smoothie (guava banana classic fruit medley)
Poem: "The Neighborhood Watch"
Birdfeeding
Poem: "The One That People Come to with Questions"
Today's Smoothie (passionfruit orange mango)
Poem: "Either a Storm or a Drought"
Birdfeeding
Self-Awareness Question: Biggest Weakness
Today's Smoothie (passionfruit banana strawberry)
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party


Last week's fishbowl went well. I am still writing. I also have stuff left to post.

Regarding internet, we still don't have full access. We are supposed to have the technician back on Tuesday to check access (so we can trim more if needed) and the hookup is scheduled for Friday. However, it's supposed to start raining tomorrow and continue for at least a week. :/ So it's likely the connection won't happen on schedule. Again.


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics at present.

"Protect the Forests" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses and has 4 new verses. The Iron Horses talk about connecting with the land.

"Pride Against Prejudice" belongs to Polychrome Heroics and has 8 new verses. The autograph tables are impressive.


The weather has been windy and intermittently rainy here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a flock of blackbirds, a flock of mourning doves, a flock of sparrows, several cardinals, several dark-eyed juncos, several house finches, several robins, 2 male and 1 female goldfinches, 1 male and 1 female rose-breasted grosbeak, a male and a female Baltimore oriole, a red-winged blackbird, a brown thrasher, a phoebe, a gray catbird, a yellow-bellied woodpecker, and a squirrel. Currently blooming: violets, tulips, celandine poppy, yellow violet, jack-in-the-pulpit, honeysuckle, wild cherries, nannyberry, creeping bellflower, purple allium, lily of the valley, comfrey.  Poppies, white iris, and white alliums have buds.

It has been a spectacular month for birds.  We have two species that I rarely see in this area -- rose-breasted grosbeaks and orioles -- of which the orioles are entirely new in this yard.  :D 3q3q3q!!!

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cool, feels like it wants to rain.

I fed the birds, including putting out another orange.  Sadly, the squabs under the kitchen window are gone; something must have eaten them.

We walked around the prairie garden, talking about where to mow paths or patches, and picked up a lot of weed stems.  More pickup and brush trimming will be needed to complete the path. 

EDIT 5/11/20 -- Round Two, I planted one Aurora and one Borealis honeyberry in the savanna.

EDIT 5/11/20 -- Round Three, I put covers and mulch around the honeyberries.

Poem: "In Growth, Reform, and Change"

This is the second Mother's Day poem. It's spillover from the July 16, 2019 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from readera. It also fills the "Stormy Weather" square in my 4-1-20 card for the Spring Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the Calliope thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It directly follows "Better to Meet Danger," so read that first or this will make no sense.  The last in the set is "True Security to Be Found."

( Read more... )

Today's Smoothie

Today we made a smoothie with:

1 cup Ceres guava juice blend
1 cup Yoplait vanilla yogurt
1 mandarin orange
1/2 cup frozen mango chunks
a blob of Imperial Dragon coconut milk
1/2 cup ice

This one is really good, thick and creamy with a light orange color. The mango flavor predominates, but the guava and coconut add mellow tropical aspects. :D