Dryland Plant Groups

Plant groupings in drylands support ecosystem resilience

Many complex systems, from microbial communities to mussel beds to drylands, display striking self-organized clusters. According to theoretical models, these groupings play an important role in how an ecosystem works and its ability to respond to environmental changes. A new article focused on the spatial patterns found in drylands offers important empirical evidence validating the models.

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Magical Discussion

 acelightning73 has some good news and magical musings, would like input from other magical folks.

Seed Shopping

My order from American Meadows arrived. :D This company offers lots of specialty blends, wildflowers, domestic flowers, and so on. Filters let you search for what you want, such as "Attracts Birds."

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Poetry Fishbowl Open!

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 "Twisted Genres." 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 genre-specific characters (e.g. final girl in horror), tricksters, contraries, rebels, researchers, journalists, historians, explorers, partners, housemates, children, parents, teachers, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, queerfolk, other people who defy expectations, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, researching, revising theories, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, experiments changing paradigms, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, worldgates, haunted houses, archeological digs, the forest primeval, liminal zones, Underhill, schools, sharehouses, kitchens, campfires, libraries, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, bizarre exoplanets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the unusual happens, hybrid genres, fusions, crossovers, mashups, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, inventions that change everything, time travel, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Fun ways to make a prompt that are particular to this fishbowl theme:
* two genres that are oil and water (see a list of genres and a discussion of black speculative fiction subgenres)
* one genre and a contrasting aesthetic (see a list of aesthetics)
* one genre and a contrasting trope from some other genre (see a list of tropes)

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

Valentines Bingo Card 2-1-24

Also Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week runs February 18-24, so aro/ace prompts are welcome.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:


An Army of One is a whole society of neurovariant people.

The Blueshift Troupers is diversity science fiction, designed for easy crossing with other genres or tropes as they visit different planets.

Daughters of the Apocalypse is postapocalyptic hopepunk.

Frankenstein's Family is gothic fluff.

Hart's Farm is a free love community in historic fantasy.

The Moon Door is women's literature and horror.

The Ocracies is political fantasy based on every governmental system except monarchy.

P.I.E. is a three-way fusion of paranormal investigation, romance, and disability literature.

Schrodinger's Heroes is dimensional science fiction, designed for easy crossing with any other characters / setting / genre.

The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks will reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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Birdfeeding

Today is sunny and mild, a beautiful day.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a flock of sparrows, at least two pairs of cardinals chasing around, and a mourning dove.

As today is the Poetry Fishbowl -- this month's theme is "Twisted Genres" -- I have no plans for yardwork.

Poem: "The Relativity of Tragedy"

This is today's first freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from new prompter anxious_songbird. It also fills the "Denial" square in my 2-1-24 card for the Valentines Bingo fest, and the "11. Rotten" square in the Pitch Prompts table on 100quadrantedships. This poem belongs to the series Eloquent Souls.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes toxic relationships, hearts being stupid, heartbreak, soulmates, soulmarks, rivalry, kismesissitude, imbalance, liminality, the Sacred Void, the Rite of Denial, soulmark removal, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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Poem: "The Beauty of Birds"

This is today's second freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from scrubjayspeaks. It also fills the "Eggs" square in my 2-1-24 card for the Valentines Bingo fest.


"The Beauty of Birds"
-- a limeriku


The beauty of birds is in eggs,
Those speckled or plain little kegs,
So go to the shore
And find a few more
Tucked under their parents' long legs.

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