The NYTimes, in this morning’s update, talks about the British Royal Family, beginning by saying, “It’s kind of unbelievable we were once ruled by these people.”
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I honestly can’t even.
I mean, they’re not GOOD, but look around. Rickety little glass house you’re sitting in, America.

My vote is for #1 (Painted Sky).

At last, he’ll be right about widespread fraud, and all his friends will be carrying it out.

We could believe the victims… (yes, yes, I know.)

Face-eating is filling.

It’s an odd feeling to wake up in these mornings & wonder if the U.S. has invaded us - or Greenland, or anyone else - overnight.

It’s also odd to grocery shop while thinking about the possibility of American invasion, and find myself wondering how much cat food I should stock up.

Reading Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, just ordered @seananmcguire.bsky.social’s Through Gates of Garnet and Gold & preordered @tkingfisher.com’s Nine Goblins from @bakkaphoenix.bsky.social. So, yeah, excited for January reading.

Spelling problem with the link - extra o after phoenix. (Gonna place an order anyway.)

Also, the world is still shitty & people are acting all surprised that the fascist president of the U.S. gave someone the finger on camera. Like, have you seen what *else* he’s done on the record?

Just discovered that Em Grossland, who narrated Becky Chambers’ Monk-&-Robot novels (which books & their narration I love deeply), has also done the narration for Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle, and now I love it even more.

To be fair, some chunks of the American press don’t really seem to care about American lives either…

The world is very full of awful. And so I am heartened to have just today discovered the charms of the meyer lemon. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

Canadians, and everyone else: Venezuela is the test case.

They *MIGHT* still be there somewhere. I used to work for a (property taxes-focused) tech company, & they saved my MA dissertation. I HAD back it up, but the hard disk (yes, that long ago) was also corrupted.
If you have ANY tech geeks among friends, acquaintances, or nearby businesses, call them.

Probably needs more fake gold.

Results page from StoryGraph showing that I read/listened to 79 books this year, having set a 65-book goal.

During 2020 & onwards, I found myself reading for pleasure much less than I used to. This year I tried to get back to it & used StoryGraph to gamify the tracking of my books. I beat my (lately) ambitious goal!

Excerpt from “The Shortest Day” by Susan Cooper

All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Merry Midwinter!

There’s really only one person in the US suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Thank you!

Sounds marvellous. Recipe link, please?

Happy Hogswatch! And thanks for running the contest!

SUCH a wonderful book - and a wonderful author more generally.

I brought a pot of very dried-out lemon verbena & lemongrass inside just a couple of weeks ago, having assumed they wouldn’t survive the winter. But the lemongrass is greening at the base, and the verbena is putting out tiny new green shoots all along its branches! #TinyJoys!

#TinyJoys
1: house sparrows coming regularly to my first-ever birdfeeder
2: (although I *do* know that it should be colder in Toronto now) I just brought fresh thyme & fresh parsley in from the garden to put in my soup stock on the 23rd of November
3: rosemary plants bright & healthy in my sunroom

I want a response emoji that does justice to this post, but how could there be one?

A close-up shot of a couple of branches of a Norway Maple tree, its curled leaves (in deep shades of yellow, red, and orange) are cupping small drifts of white snow, which is still falling & coating the branches.

First snowfall of the season. The maple tree in my front yard hasn't dropped its leaves yet, but has finally changed colour, and is holding the snow in little leafy-bowls. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

Happy birthday!

A small orange tabby cat sits on a damask-swirled pink & white chair, looking out a window onto a porch, where a black cauldron sits, its liquid glowing green through swirling fog.

Terribly Sweet Snapdragon looking at the window at my cauldron.