Last week we went up to another of the county parks. This time we went to Reynolds Park, which is one we haven't been to before, though I know my mom has mentioned enjoying it before.

We of course arrived just in time for a few little rumbles of thunder to start up, ha. Every time!


From near the start of the trail, dark clouds moving in.


There were some really neat mushrooms under a tree along the trail.

Sixteen more pictures:

The trail we started out on is called the "Songbird Trail", which certainly lived up to its name! There was a massive flock of probably 20 or so mountain chickadees. I love them: they have an eye-stripe, unlike the more typical black-capped chickadees, and their call sounds a bit like they have a sore throat. I of course failed utterly to get any decent pictures of them. :/


A couple soldier beetles, makin' more soldier beetles.


There were tons of soldier beetles on the asters. I liked this one, because the one over on the left was grooming, haha.


A dramatic dead tree.

This bit of trail is fairly short, and we turned around when we approached where it meets up with another trail. We wanted a fairly short trail, as Alex was having a bit of a rough day, and we didn't want to be out too terribly long.


I love how strangely tall this tree is compared to the rest.


Some lovely flowers!


As soon as we were back in the trees... a deer! (I got this picture from Alex; I didn't get a good shot of her.)


Some neat mushrooms on a downed tree.

Alex started having some issues with his knee and his neck, so we took a break.

There's a huge blue spruce off to the side of the trail, with nice big branches that create a perfect little "fort" underneath the tree. (It's a lot like one that we had in our yard when I was a kid.) There are some logs set up underneath as seating, and it's a very nice spot to rest.


Bella was happy to take a snack break. (She was also happy to get pine sap on her, and she *still* has a small patch of it on her side...)


No thoughts, head empty.


There are some really cool mushrooms below the tree! This one, right above a large burrow of some kind, does give some big "mess with this and end up in fairyland" vibes.


There's a fallen tree right next to the big one we were sitting under, and I was quite taken with the variety of mosses and lichens growing on it.


Also under the tree, a neat cocoon. Looks like probably a moth of some kind, but no idea what kind!


More lichens on the tree. I just like them!


Yet more of the soldier beetles.


A tailed copper. Super cute! Very little, and I love the tiny tails.


And back toward the trailhead, we went up along the creek a little ways, in case Bella wanted to wade. There was a patch with SO MANY pond skaters, lol.

I'd definitely like to come back and do more of the trails at this park. There was another loop that we'd thought about adding on to the fairly short trail, but since Alex was having a rough day, we decided not to. It was a lovely trail, if short, though.

Things that are making me happy:

• Change Gamer, the surprise secret finale of Game Changer! It was so fun and so full of heart, I loved it (and loved this whole season!).


• Wading in the ocean along a beautifully shallow, sandy beach, so cool and refreshing on a blisteringly hot day.


• This gorgeous animated pixel art, made entirely in MS Excel 2007 (how even!!): Aspen Red Forest by anasabdin [moving gif]


• The upcoming long weekend, omg, it can't come soon enough!

I'm planning to sign up for much-beloved exchange ficinabox (sign-ups open until Aug 31; late nominations accepted until Aug 30!) Very excited for swaps and fun mediums!

And also fandomgiftbasket is back, yay! I'm planning to sign up for this one, too. (Sign-ups open until Sept 5.)

Assorted due South haiku that I wrote in April for International Haiku Day (April 17) and National Poetry Month. Some -- as noted in my AO3 AN -- are derived from prompts of the dSC6D snipppets comm on DW.

Title: Two due South Double-Stanza Haiku in Honor of April's International Haiku Day and April's
National Poetry Month
Author: ride_4ever
Fandom: due South
Category: Gen, F/M
Relationship: Benton Fraser/Victoria Metcalf
Characters: Benton Fraser, Victoria Metcalf, Ray Vecchio
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 63 words
Fic on AO3.

Title: Five due South Haiku in Honor of April's International Haiku Day and April's National Poetry
Month
Author: ride_4ever
Fandom: due South
Category: Gen
Characters: Implied characters: Benton Fraser, Diefenbaker, both Rays, Robert "Bob" Fraser, Jack
Huey, Tom Dewey
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 78 words
Fic on AO3.

Title: Three due South Haiku in Honor of April's International Haiku Day and April's National Poetry
Month
Author: ride_4ever
Fandom: due South
Category: Gen
Characters: Benton Fraser, both Rays mentioned or implied
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 42 words
Fic on AO3.

Just evening up a bit of subscription/access issues. Drop a (screened) comment if I removed you by accident.

1. I was gone for three weeks. Turns out internet near national parks is spotty as fuck. I got home and immediately caught covid. That was another week and half out of commission. Then there was a rush to finish prep for my mom's surprise party which was another like week with limited internet.

I am declaring amnesty on catching up on my f-list. There is just no way I'm going back two months to catch up.

2. Pleas enjoy this song where Hozier sings in Cajun French.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NNHXHvMh9I

3. I was following a lot of MCR content on instagram after the seattle show and the algorithum showed me a bunch of Yungblud clips and then he sang Changes at the Ozzy goodbye show and the algorithum really liked that. I finally got around to listening to his music. If you liked the British rock sound in the early 2000s, you will probably enjoy it.

Made for a Lands of Magic challenge, where you pair a screencap from one fandom with a quote from another.
I've always loved seeing and making the incorrect quote/texts from last night graphics on LJ/DW and Tumblr so this was a fun one! Each fandom for both the picture and the quoted text is listed beneath each one.
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This week, a frog. Much bigger than Guava Splash, ha.

I feel like I spent this whole week very tired (though to as bad a degree as Alex was.) I did manage not to nap after work at all though. It was a mostly good week. Work was a lot mellower, having reached the end of our busiest season, and I was also reasonably productive at home. We had one nice, if short, hike. I read a decent amount, if still not quite as much as I would like. Even a small bit of writing, if only at the very end of the week.

Goals for the week:

• I did read more (and finished!) Little Eve
• I mostly finished the writing intro
• I did not start on the blurbs for the writing
• We did go meet up with a friend (for shady plastic horse dealings in a parking lot, ha)
• We spent some time outside
• I did not get caught up on DW
• I did not update my reading page
• I did not work on reviews of the books read in August
• I did make one of my needed phone calls
• I voted in the Organization for Transformative Works board election
• We did go get crickets
• I did water the plants
• I did not go to the bank
• I did clean out the katydid habitats (and set up the one for Three)
• I paid the car insurance

Tracked habits:

• Work - 5/7
• Household Maintenance - 6/7
• Physical Activity - 2/7
• Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 1/7 - over 500 words
• Wrote on 2nd+ Draft - 0/7
• Meta Work - 4/7
• Personal Writing - 6/7
• Other Creative Things - 4/7
• Reading - 7/7 - mostly I was reading Little Eve, but also read some Duma Key with Alex, and I did read along with some Dracula Daily
• Attention to Media - 7/7 - Sunday we rewatched Prey, which I still liked, I listened to a Re: Dracula ep, and we had exploration videos in the background; Monday we watched the first three eps of the most recent season of Black Mirror; Tuesday I listened to a Re: Dracula ep, and we went to see Weapons, which I had mixed feelings about; Wednesday we watched a paranormal video, then exploration videos in the background; Thursday we watched the last three eps of Black Mirror; Friday we watched the season finale of Alone, then the first three eps of season 03 of Squid Game; Saturday had paranormal and exploration videos in the background.
• Video Games - 0/7
• Social Interaction - 6/7

Total words written: 551 on writing intro

This year we've got the "Bulls in the City" in Birmingham. It's raising awareness and selling themed souvenirs (everything from pencils and pin badges to tote bags and t-shirts) to support Birmingham Hospice. After the events the sculptures will be auctioned off too.


About the Event

( photos and more after the cut )

[in progress]

Much more prominent than the sling is a statue of the Living Dead that stands near the altar. Carved and painted in the northern style, the slave stands naked except for an iron mask in his hand, representing the moment upon which he receives his freedom. His face is scarred from wearing the mask for so long, but in his eyes lie hope.

Although the statue is intended to represent all of the Living Dead, both men and women, it is based on the likeness of one of the last men to be freed from slavery before the Emorian occupation: Kester son of Hoare, who died in the attack upon Council Hill by the Emorians. Although free at the time of his death, he was present at the palace on the day of the attack because he had voluntarily chosen to return to his place of slavery, in order to help other slaves survive their misery. The statue was commissioned and paid for by Kester's son, the present High Lord of Koretia.

[Translator's note: Kester's story forms part of Death Mask.]

Continuing from my previous post: part two of the trip back to Castlewood!


Spoilers: we made it to the dam, lol.


A very lovely little lizard.

Sixteen more pictures:

The trail that heads up toward the dam was a little steeper and quite hot, but we headed that way. This section of trail is actually the other end of the trail we'd taken in from the west end of the park, the one we'd had to turn around on and then missed our turn back to the parking lot, ha.

And finally:


The dam was in sight!

That trail leads up to this one, a very short little jog that goes up and around the ruins.


It's dam(n) historic.

We headed down first, around the base of the dam along the creek, where the trail then climbs steeply up along the far side of the dam wall, to the top, and then back down the side we'd approached from.

Parts of that steeper trail up are almost hard to follow; there are a lot of rocks arranged to serve as stairs, but if you aren't at the correct angle, they blend in really well. Bella, brave pathfinder, did not struggle with it as much as I did; despite being very hot and tired by that point, she was excitedly charging up with no struggle to find the correct path, haha.


Climbing up a bit higher. Do Not try to get in the culvert thing, haha. And it's hard to see, but up at the corner of the dam wall is the flimsiest looking ladder.


Looking across the canyon, you can see just a bit of the other side of the dam. Just a pile of stone, really,


Finally, panting and wheezing, we made it up to the top. There was a cute little rock wren!


(Ha, erected.)


There's a fence so that you can't go any farther, but looking across the canyon along the top.


Informative Sign about the dam collapse in 1933. Some neat historical photos! Basically it was effed from the start: it leaked from the beginning, and sandstone erodes very readily.

After this we headed down the other side of the dam, which was a much less steep trail than the side we'd gone up!

At one point a very large snake (I think a yellow-bellied racer?) slithered across the path right in front of me. It went *directly under Bella* and she didn't even notice! I didn't get a good look at the snake, it was so fast, but it looked decently big, and mostly looked smooth and grey, so I'm about 85% confident in the yellow-bellied racer ID.

Poor Bella was pretty exhausted as we were heading back. She was dragging! Rather than head back on the second half of the loop, we crossed back over the creek to go back to that spot by the creek we'd taken a break at before. She didn't even resist when she was nudged into the water, so she was definitely pretty hot!

She felt better pretty fast after a cool-down in the water and a snack, though, ha.

(Except that we think she may have been stung by a bee! She was laying in the sand, and reached over and bit at something, then jumped up and started shaking her head. I found the dying honeybee, which had lost its stinger. I'm not sure that the sting actually "took" though; Bella was acting like it a bit with the head shaking and like she was trying to spit something out, but there was never any swelling at all, and about five minutes later she seemed utterly over it. Poor girl had a rough time of it for a bit!)

I've been really good about applying sunscreen this year, and hadn't gotten a single bad sunburn, for possibly the first summer ever! ...Except that apparently I managed to miss just the backs of my upper arms this day, and by this halfway point of the hike Alex had noticed that I was burning. Ouch!

After Bella had recovered from her exhaustion (and possible bee sting!), we headed back across to the second trail that would take us back to the trailhead.


This was a very well-fed looking lizard! So fat! It was hanging out with the other lizard from above the cut, but they ran to opposite sides of the rock when we approached.

After a bit, we saw a little set of stairs heading back down to the creek, so we decided to head down and see if we could get to the water again.

This spot was even prettier than the first place we'd found, I think!


There was a nice flat rock to sit on, and the water was shallow and slow, and so very peaceful.

Alex basically declared his intent to just live there now, haha. I don't disagree!


Bella even *wanted* to go wading.


Alex reached down into the water to rinse his hands off, and this little toad basically just hopped into his hands! So cute and little!

(If we hadn't just adopted Guava Splash, we might have come home with a new toad.)


Small toad, back in the creek.


At one point I looked down behind me, and there was a very large crayfish approaching along the bank, haha.


Bella contemplating the creek.

Finally we did have to move on, but it really was a beautiful spot.

One last picture:

More mud-dauber nests! I love them.

The hike back was pleasant, until the very end where there's a pretty steep bit back up toward the trailheads. By that time I was very tired, and going *up* more was a struggle, lol. (Considering how much hiking we've done this year, I had hoped my endurance would have improved a bit, but no such luck!)

This was a lovely hike, and that second half of the loop was possibly my favorite of the trails we've hiked in the park. (I know it was Alex's.) I'm glad we finally made it all the way to the damn dam! I'm sure we'll wind up back there again.

Summary: Ezra Safran, age 12, is supposed to fight the manifestation of evil in the world when he turns 13. Unfortunately, evil is manifesting in the world and it's not even his bar mitzvah yet. And is fighting the manifestation of evil and vanquishing it really the right thing to do? A mid-grade book.

( Read more... )

Queer bookswap at Victoria Bar:




General bookswap at Threshold Brewing:



And what I came back with:


The quality of the books at the Queer bookswap was really high. The one at Threshold was cute, had vendors and flash tattooing, and Threshold is one of my favorite breweries... but some of the books on the table were like outdated guides to GUI. I picked through for a bit before nabbing book 1 of Mazalan. I got the V E Schwab book at the queer one.

Tuesday the 12th we decided to go back to Castlewood Canyon... again. This time we decided to go in at the east entrance to the park, since previously we'd only done trails that start on the west side. There was hope that we could make it to the damn dam this time!


The park looks very different from this side. It's a lot of flat, desert-y grassland, with rocks and scrubby pines. Still very pretty, but very different from the other side of the park, where you get into the forested canyon area fairly immediately.


There's a big stretch of farmland off to the side of the trail, which looks a bit dramatic in comparison to the side of the canyon where the trail is.

Eleven more pictures:

A chickadee in a piñon.


Little Bella Hotdog.


Wasp and some soldier beetles on wildflowers.


Dramatic rocks.


Predatory wasp and her caterpillar victim.


Distant, so not a great picture, but down in one of the fields this deer was boinging along very enthusiastically, haha.

Eventually, the trail takes a turn more toward the canyon itself, and starts to parallel the creek. There was a nice little trail that led down near the water (if you're willing to scramble over some rocks to get across.)

This was good timing, since it let us take a nice break. Bella got to wade a little (if reluctantly) and take a little rest.


I liked this little rock pool, cut off juuuuuust barely from the rest of the creek, unless the levels rise again.


There was a really pretty, peaceful spot to sit on the rocks.


Looking upstream from the spot we were sitting.


In the sand by the creek, another blue butterfly. ("Blue" is the family of butterflies, not just a color descriptor!) I thiiiiiink, looking at pictures of different species, that this one is a "Boisduval's Blue", judging by the spotting pattern, but... they are all very similar to each other.

The butterfly fluttered around for quite a long while... much to Bella's consternation.


She kept spinning around to follow the butterfly. It was very funny to watch. I was delighted to get this picture where you can see her expression and where the butterfly's wings are open, so you can see how blue it is! (Also how small it is.)

The nice spot by the creek was at roughly the halfway point of a loop formed by a pair of trails. However, there's also an additional trail that meets up around the same point and heads toward the dam from that side. It adds about a mile (going there and back) to the total, but we hadn't made it to the dam yet, so that's the way we headed after we had taken our break.

This was a day with lots of pictures, so splitting it into two posts.

Field Day is a reference to the pairing in the book The Pairing by Casey McQuistion, which I haven't read. I was considering trying to read is before Comic Con, but I know that a lot of people into Red, White and Royal Blue were sharply disappointed in her other books. I don't know if the critiques are valid or just people really hoping for another RWRB and reading something very different.

When I was there I was like 'I am not sure I get the store's concept. Was the concept really thought through?' Yeah, I was just not catching the reference. Anyway, it's very cute and earnest and probably not a mafia front, so I hope they do well.

The 10,000-word big bang for small fandoms is coming soon!
Author Sign-Ups Open Sept 1 | Artist Sign-Ups Open Nov 1


Opening soon. Any fandom excluding RPF that has less than 2k fics on AO3 qualifies. Artists always needed!
I'm thinking about signing up again. I completed round 13 but didn't participate in round 14.

Sunshine Revival. So it's almost the end of August, it's been chilly for a couple of days, holiday is over, and I'm behind on many aspects of personal journaling, get your words out, and posting backdated things.
So why not lean in to that and do the Sunshine revival from July!



( Read more... )

So in less shit news, I went out in the heat wave to check out a new book and bottle shop called Field Day. It was cute. It's been open about two weeks and they are still setting things up. You know how cafes and cozy spaces try to have that electric 'random spare chairs' sort of a look? I am pretty sure that the table, chair and couch were literally just what they could get for free. Some of the chairs would have been miserable to sit and work in for a while. I hope that place does well, even if it's a bit rough at the moment.



It's a store based around book and beer pairings:



They are trying for cozy, queer, sporty, flowery etc... But they really, really need a water station in there since it's bread and butter will be serving drinks. I asked for water and the guy wasn't even sure what to do with that request for a second. (Not to sound like my mother but) It was 100 degrees today, it's basically a bar, and the guy what to figure out how to handle 'hey can I get some water?'

The storefront is super cute and due to the location I could maybe make that a regular writing spot but, hopefully next week they will have more stuff figured out. Like their current payment system doesn't allow for tips and there was no tip jar either. I could actually make a list of stuff the place was missing, but hopefully they'll sort that all soon. (I really want to love this place, but right now it's a bit of a mess and also not great at communicating what it is, and I found it using an approximate location because they don't have a google maps listing yet and what google did spit out was wrong. Unless this a a money laundering front, they've got some work to do)

( 2 more pics )

We stopped by a neighborhood park after work one day to let Bella take a short walk.

There were bugs!


Ambush bugs!


A lovely little green praying mantis.

This one was fairly small. Very cute!


And another mantis!

I don't recall ever seeing one quite this color before. I've seen brown ones, and years ago I remember seeing little greyish mantis nymphs down in New Mexico. The ones I've seen in the park here have all been the bright green.

Just three more pictures of the same insects:

More ambush bugs, camping out on a daisy. (And a couple more making more.)


Another picture of the green mantis. I like how you can see how sharp the claws are!


And one more of the neat grey mantis (which my camera did not like focusing on.)

I am always happy to see a fun variety of insects in the neighborhood. :)

In response to Bluesky talking about becoming unavailable in Mississippi due to their new state law to 'protect kids':

"rahaeli
‪rahaeli‬
I expect to see a lot more social media sites blocking MS in the weeks to come -- we're probably going to have to as well :/" link

The 'we' in this case are the owners of this site.

craft post roundup

I made various crafts which I posted about for Lands of Magic challenges but haven't posted to my own journal, so here's a roundup.

1. Sackboy - knitted soft figure from a PS5 game

2. Cat headband - knitted headband

3. Cat - Needle felted cat figure

4. Fox - Needle felted figure

5. Pumpkins - knitted pumpkins for Halloween

6. Penguin - Bauble with needle felt and accessories

7. Ian Malcom - soft toy 'collectible' figure from Jurassic Park

8. Lunar New Year Snakes - papercraft snakes

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Icons made for various challenges at now-closed landcomm Lands of Magic.

Fandoms: Jeff Goldblum, The Tudors (TV), Hamilton (Miranda), The Borgias (Showtime), Revenge (TV), Black Sails (TV), The Witcher (Netflix), Westworld (TV), Ghost Whisperer, Game of Thrones, Lost Girl (TV), Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long-blog, Legend of the Seeker, Lucifer (TV), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (TV), 13 Reasons Why (TV), Harry Potter (movies), Mean Girls (2004), Pet Rescue Saga (casual game), Star Wars Lego Star Wars (video game)

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