Coffee

[flowerbug]

@digitS' that book wasn't what i'd consider an easy read and now long ago in my mists of time.

it for sure isn't what i'd want to read in the depths of winter.

i've had a real hard time finding books to read lately (the library doesn't get much science fiction or fantasy and their on-line e-books aren't getting too many current or new author books either). one night a few weeks ago i spent three hours paging through the entire collection trying to find a book i hadn't read that looked interesting. nope, i don't want to read yet another vampire story (even a good bodice ripper i'd read if the story seemed interesting enough). nope. not one. in the meantime i'm waiting for several of my favorite authors to come out with newer books too. so the depths of winter is upon us and i'm glad i have other projects to keep me busy.

today i'll start on roasting some squash. it's a good task for a raining cool day.

breakfast, hmm, not sure yet about that. likely some bean soup and a chunk of this pumpkin roll. that will give me plenty of energy for cutting up and roasting.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Happy New Year! I agree with you @Gardening with Rabbits, that milk jugs are rather amazing. In the next couple of days I plan to sow milk jugs with seeds of hardy annuals including primulas, pansies, dianthus and possibly some dill too. It is my hope to do an experiment with tomato seeds in milk jugs also. This method is almost carefree: the plants also need no hardening off, since they are grown outdoors for their entire lives-- and as with terrariums, the set-up is self-watering for the most part. Last summer I 'summer sowed' hardy annuals in milk jugs in early August and just left them on the back porch on the north side of the house where they got lots of bright light and just a bit of direct sun late in the day; the results were fantastic. One drawback was that the plastic degraded and became brittle fairly rapidly, so after a year or so they totally shatter. Here is a photo that shows dianthus, rudbeckia, and pansies in early September--about 4 weeks after I sowed the seeds. In the background there are also snapdragons in a mini-seed starting tray. Those domed trays are nice, but you have to keep an eye on them and remove the dome when they pop. Milk jugs do not require this kind of close monitoring because they are self-venting. Seeds started in paper pots in nursery trays were pretty much torched.

They look great! I have used the winter sowing method for perennial flowers and 2 years ago I start perennial flower seeds in Aug. in my greenhouse on the patio and transplanted them after they were up and I had a lot of flowers the next year. I should have a bunch this year. I have some clear milk jugs but I need soil. I hope I can find some this early.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I finished Izzy's apron and had DD show her a picture and she said I want to take that home, so that means she will wear it. lol Snowing a little bit. I just started going out and feeding the rabbits again. I am not going to feed them at night right now because of all the ice. I used to do it, so I am not sure what is different now, but I am just being careful, so I will do the morning and DS can do the nighttime feeding. It is 26 degrees, so no melting today.

 

[flowerbug]

putting up squash didn't happen (most of the squash were not good). the few that were good i've cooked up or are being finished cooking now and that's it for this season.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

@digitS'

i've had a real hard time finding books to read lately (the library doesn't get much science fiction or fantasy and their on-line e-books aren't getting too many current or new author books either). one night a few weeks ago i spent three hours paging through the entire collection trying to find a book i hadn't read that looked interesting. nope, i don't want to read yet another vampire story (even a good bodice ripper i'd read if the story seemed interesting enough). nope. not one. in the meantime i'm waiting for several of my favorite authors to come out with newer books too. so the depths of winter is upon us and i'm glad i have other projects to keep me busy.

I just can't seem to find the TIME to read anymore. I HAVE at least three or four books lying around I COULD read, but the problem is that, when I go to my room and lay down, literally only seconds pass before my body says I need to go to sleep. And, no matter how many time I wake up during the night, I literally only have time to get up, go to the bathroom, come back and sit down again before I'm ready to pass out. And this applies ALL DAY as well, no matter HOW much sleep I get, I am NEVER rested and always in immediate need of a "nap" that will generally last the entire day.
It doesn't help much that, when I DO get through those books, it will be a long time before I find new ones. With nearly all of my authors long since dead or retired, and no new ones showing up I like, it's very much a wasteland. Even thematic and pastiche are a little thin. Writing new short Sherlock Holmes stories is currently passe, and all of the woke vitriol towards H.P. Lovecraft's racism means that publishing any new Mythos stories is almost financial suicide for anyone who tires (I think that even Arkham House, which was specifically FOUNDED to publish Lovecraft, is disavowing them now.

In theory, G.S. Dennings could continue the Warlock Holmes pastiche books, as he still has the entire second half of the Sherlock Holmes canon to work with, and the overarching superstory is nowhere near completed. However it's been three years since the last one, and they used to come out one per year so signs do not look good.

And the chance of Orson Scott Card writing the final Alvin Maker book is basically zero. He hated doing the series, and, now that Ender's game and it's sequels is earning him so much franchise money, he has no financial incentive to do so.

 

[digitS']

Good Morning.

Breakfast of dried apricots, raisins and a fig in my bowl of oatmeal. Reconstituted, they might have nearly filled the bowl by themselves. But, it's that time of year.

We have DW's honeycrisp apples available and others but we are entering applesauce season (no nonsense ) other canned and dried fruit. Of course, there are bananas and whatever is coming from S America. DW resists and the controlled atmosphere storage is amazing but, I almost think that we risk being turned off to some varieties of this and that because they are sooo very far from their harvest windows.

On to the herbal tea and laundry ... suppose that I can forego taking it down to the river and beating it on a rock. The machine might do an okay job.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

i kept it simple so far this morning, finished off the last piece of pumpkin roll. will have a few slices of apple and some peanut butter in a bit.

 

[baymule]

Coffee is ready. Breakfast was cinnamon bread toast.

 

[Dahlia]

Coffee with oat milk this morning and a homemade sausage McMuffin! . Just finished up a website I've been working on.

 

[flowerbug]

...
And the chance of Orson Scott Card writing the final Alvin Maker book is basically zero. He hated doing the series, and, now that Ender's game and it's sequels is earning him so much franchise money, he has no financial incentive to do so.

it started out good, but i don't like the last book much in comparison to the first ones. i haven't re-read them in quite some time but i still have them here in my OSC collection (i don't have all the Ender related spin-off books as while i have read them they're not nearly as good as the others).

there are other series that went off the rails for me in that i really liked how they started and then the author just went into places i don't care too much to read about. Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule series started out interesting but then it went too far in what i consider blood and S&M type stuff and i don't get into that at all. ick. sad to me when that happens.