lookfar2

I spent all of yesterday tending to my flock. Trying this and then trying that and then, finally, I think I have a pattern I'm happy with.

One issue was the eyes. They end up needing to go into where there is a hole in the crochet. Summersgate said she's been sewing over that hole and I tried that and it kind of works. Another issue is that there was still too many holes and the stuffing shows through. So I dropped a size in my crochet hook but then the chicken was too small. Then I added a row and then the chicken was too big.

So I had a think. And changed my granny square to a granny round square with a special corner for the eye. I like the results a lot. There will be a lot more chickens, I believe.

Here's what I'm doing.

1. 12 double crochet (12)
2. 2 DC in each stitch (24)
3. 2 DC, then 1 DC, then 2 DC, etc (36)
Then I make a square
4. 2 DC, ch 1, 2 DC in 3 corners, [2 hdc, 4 sc, 2 hdc] on 4 sides. In the 4th corner, 5 DC's.
5. 1 DC in every stitch and 2 DC, ch 1, 2 DC in 3 corners and fill in (1 or 2 DC's) in that one corner.

That one corner becomes a nice, stable area for the eye.

I put an eye on each square and then put them wrong sides together and do a single crochet around the three edges leaving the one opposite the eye open.

Then I add the top comb. With the eye on the top left hand corner, I count 8 stitches over from that corner and start - 1 sc, 3 DC, 1 sc, [1 DC, 1 TR], [1 TR, 1 DC], 1 sc, 3 DC, slp the last stitch.

Then round the eye corner I skip one stitch from the comb and start the beak. 1 DC, ch 2, 1 DC in the first of those 2 chains, 1 DC and then a slip stitch to end.

Then I stuff her and close up the bottom and add the chicken feet: [ch 3, TR] 3 times in the middle of the bottom.

DONE!

nverland posting in

recipecommunity

Jammy Pepper Pasta Salad

Ingredients

1 cup nuts (such as hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, or pistachios)
3 lb. mixed bell peppers (baby, regular-size, or a mix of both)
2 red Fresno chiles
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 head of garlic, cloves separated
3 large sprigs thyme
2½ tsp. kosher salt, divided, plus more
3 tsp. sugar, divided
½ cup plus 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
½ red onion
1 lb. rigatoni
6 oz. ricotta salata (salted dry ricotta), cut into very thin planks, or crumbled feta
1 cup basil leaves

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°. Toast nuts on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing halfway through, until golden brown, 5–10 minutes depending on type of nuts. Let cool, then coarsely crush; set aside.
Meanwhile, cut bell peppers in half lengthwise through their stems. Remove and discard any seeds and white ribs. Cut large bell peppers into 1"-thick strips and baby bell peppers in half lengthwise. Thinly slice chiles crosswise into rounds; discard stems.
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high until shimmering, about 3 minutes. Add peppers, chiles, garlic, thyme, 2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until peppers begin to soften and are golden brown in some spots, 10–15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and add ½ cup vinegar. Partially cover pot and cook, stirring every 5–10 minutes, until peppers are very soft, jammy, and browning in some spots, 35–45 minutes longer. Remove from heat. Pluck out and discard any shriveled thyme stems.
While peppers cook, thinly slice onion and transfer to a small bowl. Add ½ tsp. salt and remaining 3 Tbsp. vinegar and 2 tsp. sugar, then toss to combine. Let sit to lightly pickle until ready to use.
Cook rigatoni in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain and add pasta to pot with peppers. Add pickled onions and their pickling liquid, then toss well to evenly coat pasta. Let cool to room temperature.
Crumble ricotta salata into pot, then stir in reserved nuts. Tear basil into coarse pieces, add to pot, and stir until combined.
Transfer to a large bowl and serve at room temperature, or cover and chill if you prefer to serve salad cold.

Do Ahead: Pasta salad can be made 3 days ahead. Let cool to room temperature, cover, and chill.

zhelana

Finished This month

Finish 2026 photoshopping
Buy painting supplies
Work through a book of writing exercises

Progress This Month
( progress this month )

oursin

Happy birthday,

ephemera and

sidherian!

vamp_ress posting in

booknook

Again, managed four books this months. Throughout the month I've been working my way through "Lonesome Dove" (and I'm still not finished) and since this is such a chunk of a book it took up a lot of my time.

Twardoch, Szczepan: The King of Warsaw. Amazon Crossing. 2020.
On a technical and literary level this was excellent and very interesting. Twardoch does a lot with narration and POV here and I won't say more because it would be spoiler-y. But if you like this kind of stuff, think about picking up this book. Unfortunately, the plot wasn't my cuppa. It's set in Warsaw on the eve of WWII and follows Jakub, an enforcer to the city's mobster boss. And I'm sorry, but I don't like stories about the mafia. It just doesn't interest me thematically. I didn't mind so much that this novel is full of (gratuitious) violence and d***s being cut off. But the mafia angle was a hard no. (Also a lot about the friction between Poles and the Jewish population in Warsaw, as well as working class and socialist fights. This is taking place at a very interesting time in Poland. You can read this without knowing a lot about Poland, but you'll have an easier time if you have a basic idea of the time period. The German translation I read had a bit of historical context in the end - can't say anything about the English edition, though.)

Everett, Percival: Dr. No. Picador. 2023.
This wasn't an overly successful read either. This was my first book by Everett. His name was on my radar and I know everyone was in love with "James" and "The Trees", but "Dr. No" was the book that was available at my library. So that's the one I read. And well, I'm not sure that this is a story that needed to be published. It's a satire on every James Bond movie ever and in truth, "Austin Powers" is the safer bet if you want something like this. Because at least "Austin Powers" is funny. "Dr. No" had about one joke (Everett riffing on the titular "nothing") but he played that note for 300 pages. So while this was kind of funny and kind of interesting in the beginning, I couldn't wait for the last 100 pages to be over. And nothing I read here will stay in my mind (ha ha).

Forster, E. M.: Maurice. Penguin. 2005.
Amazing. This was breathtakingly beautiful from beginning to end. I read "A Room with a View" a few years ago and remember liking it fine. It was a good book but it was missing that one secret ingredient that elevates a novel to all-time favourite status. "Maurice", in contrast, has that ingredient and I already knew in chapter 1. And yes, this is the novel that was only published postumously because of its rather controversial nature. And I can understand this. I don't know how much of this is biographical in the strictest sense, but it's evident from the get-go that this is a very personal, even intimate novel. Forster really goes deep here without ever being navel-gazey - something autofiction nowadays never manages. He doesn't only look at his own (or, as the case may be, Maurice's) homosexuality but at British society as a whole. He makes some very scathing remarks towards society and England's class system. In short, I loved this book and have since then put everything else he's written on my TBR.

von Arnim, Elizabeth: The Enchanted April. Vintage Classics. 2015.
This started out so good. It's about extremely bored English wives who decide to get away from it all by renting an Italian villa. It read a bit like "Fried Green Tomatoes" in the beginning, like a story that wants to show how incredibly boring and useless and repetitive being a wife can feel when you don't have any agency. I expected it to turn into a story about female empowerment in which these women free themselves from their lives and husbands and do something totally different and fun. But then, once they're in the villa, and when the reader expects them to come to some sort epiphany in regards to their lives, von Arnim turns this around and it develops into chick lit. Suddenly, men are everywhere and the women realise that life is really boring without men. And then the book ends. I must say this left me totally non-plussed and I felt kind of cheated out of a good book. The authors language is beautiful - a bit flowery, but I found her prose engaging. But she stabbed her own plot in the back, IMO.

snickfic

Omegas are the glue that holds us all together, providing the essential social lubricant needed for our society to function—and yet they are often maligned and treated as lesser-than. This April, we are changing part of our logo to highlight omegas as part of our commitment to the inclusion and wellbeing of our omega volunteers and users.

Full post on Organization for Transformative Works website, here.

;)

somigi posting in

addme

Name: Maxi! But Max is fine too! (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ

Age: Too old for high school, too young to retire!

I mostly post about: I've only posted personal journals so far, but I'll post about some of my interests soon! I like kpop, animanga, danmei novels, fanfiction, visual novels, chatsims, and lesbian movies! I'll also post progress on my knitting projects (if I remember haha)!

My hobbies are: Running, dance, creating art, going to concerts, and knitting! I'm tying to pick up crochet too!

My fandoms are: A Date With Death, Guardian, Killer Chat!, PMMM, BBC Merlin, and way more that I can't recall on the spot!

I'm looking to meet people who: Post! I'm not picky and I'm not easily upset or disturbed! I love to see what other people have going on! I'll be double happy if you post about your fandoms (even if we don't have any in common), but it's not a requirement! <3

My posting schedule tends to be: Whenever I get to it! Hopefully at least once a week!

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: I'm not cool with any form of bigotry. I won't tolerate that! Zionists are also not cool! I'm with Palestine all the way! <3

Before adding me, you should know: I'm a transmasc lesbian! I know this identity is a bit controversial, so don't add me if it's something you have issues with ^^;

If you see any spelling errors, no you didn't (/▽＼)

settiai

Spectre Requisitions, a Mass Effect rare 'ships exchange, we live last night. I crashed around the same time everything went out, so I didn't get to read my gift until after work today, but it was so good.

No Touching At All. F!Shepard/Morinth. 2181 words.

It's set during ME3 in a worldstate where Shepard chose Morinth over Samara, with the two of them in a nontraditional romance what with the limitations caused by Morinth's condition.

Current Mood: cheerful

maju

Today I received an email from a settlement company which will be handling settlement of my house in Maryland. I had to fill in quite a lot of information, as well as talk to someone briefly to verify that the house had been my principal place of residence for at least the last three years even though I'm now living in a different state. I was also asked to send information about where to send paperwork to be signed since I'm not going to be physically present at settlement; my real estate agent says I should call and ask them about signing electronically, which is what he has done, but before I resort to a phone call I've emailed my contact person to ask the question.

My real estate agent says everything is going as it should and we're on track for settlement to go through on 1st May. I'll be glad when it's done, but it's also sad that this is cutting off access to the place which was my only home with S.

It was warm today (low 70s/low 20s) and should be similar tomorrow but with rain thrown in. But don't be too hasty to pack away those winter clothes - on Thursday the maximum is forecast to be about 47°F/8°C and also raining.

Aria and Eden had haircuts after school today. Both had hair past their shoulders, and now it's shorter and layered. Eden's doesn't look very much different, just curlier because of the layers, but Aria had quite a lot cut off and hers is now all bouncy around her head. When she came home she dashed in to show her father, exclaiming "I look amazing!"

dadi

The usual seconds.

Watch on YouTube

It is snowing again, obviously. Gah.

In other news, I had my visit with the orthopedist and he did a throughout exam of my back and decided, instead of another shot in my spine to give me one into the bad hip. The back pain has improved so much that now it is better to do something for the hip, so I am able to walk better without limping.
I am really glad I changed doctor, this one is so much more attentive and also, knowledgeable about EDS, which the other one wasn't and didn't take stuff seriously.
I also got prescribed more physiotherapy. Yay!
The hip steroid dosage was also lower than the back one, so I should have less side effects. Also yay.

And tomorrow I don't have to go to work, triple yay :)

greghousesgf

Last night my sister called me and invited me to come visit my family the weekend of May 1st. I said sure. I tried texting L. because she's moving to Pennsylvania in May but I don't know exactly what day in May but she didn't answer back.

Current Mood: worried
Current Music: Getz/Gilberto

oursin

I know I was born into a fortunate generation which had things like university grants and better employment opportunities and the ability to buy one's own house in one's twenties and so on -

I have also occasionally been heard to remark that, on account of the codliver oil and school milk dispensed by a caring Welfare State, Ma Generayshun probably has bones like steel girders persisting into the twilight years and that this very likely no longer pertains -

- I did not realise that life expectancy was actually going down (older article, feel I saw something much more recently but didn't keep the link).

Not to mention decline in actual expectation of healthy quality of life.

I was brought up with coal fires - the Clean Air Act was 1956 but I'm not sure how long the effects took to kick in - possibly various dietary things that might not be considered optimum these days? - various things like the foot-x-ray machines in shoe-shops that have vanished -

While maybe not the plethora of junk food there is now it was absolutely not that organic idyll that gets posited!

So there were adverse factors around, but maybe just enough counter-balancing things going on?

susandennis

I got the official word yesterday when the Director of Health Services replied to my email. Jim Across The Hall is no longer Across The Hall. He has been taken to a memory care facility "until we have room for him here". So he's history. Our memory facility really stays booked.They only have room for 20. They can't remember shit but still they live on. I got to thinking about it this morning and think that moving him will be/is so disconcerting for him. He won't know anything. BUT moving him out of Timber Ridge is probably his best bet. Nothing will be familiar. Moving him to our memory care unit might have been way more confusing. He'd be locked in and not able to wander about like he liked to do. But, not understanding why.

So now, his sons will need to clear out his apartment. That should be interesting. Also new blood in the hood!

Yesterday was chicken day and today will be, too. Except for when the house cleaner is here.

I'm not totally happy with my first crop. BUT I have plans for chicken improvement.

Maju, this morning, talked about various Easter traditions and it reminded me of ours growing up. Easter Sunday outfits. New clothes, new shoes, little girl hats and little girl purses and little boy suits for my brother and a fairly bad photo of all of us in front of the house. We did some Easter egg hunting but it was not a huge thing. We were really into the Easter Parade in New York City although I'm not sure how or why. We were a church going family but not that religious actually. But on Easter we were sure fancy.

I also remember we had this very modern strip mall. It was the first of it's kind. It meant that now you didn't have to get dressed up to go downtown if all you needed was a spool of thread. (You ALWAYS got dressed up when you went to town.) Anyway, this strip mall which we called a Shopping Center, had a very large Woolworths Dime Store and a really large grocery store. And both of those stores, every Easter, set out a large sales area outside stocked with chicks and bunnies. And the chicks were died Easter colors. And we always wanted one of each. Not every single year but most years, Mom relented and let us get a chick. Never a bunny. We kept them in cardboard boxes with grass. It was very exciting for about a week. They either died or Mom rehomed them.

ahhhh Easter!

rejectomorph

Monday turned into one of those days that demanded an afternoon nap, and that nap persisted until after midnight. A couple of hours later, following some time on the Idernet, I was feeling tired again, but made the mistake of downing a bit of coffee with some ice cream, and I haven't been back to sleep since. In fact I'm feeling a bit hyper. I've probably screwed up the rest of the day.

But then the day itself has brought a pleasant surprise. The on-again off-again rain is on again. A shower began shortly before dawn, and though it is currently not even sprinkling the odds are excellent we will be getting showers of and on all day, and much of the night, and probably tomorrow as well. And so far the furnace has not come on. Despite a temperature outdoors in the low fifties, it is 73 in here. The insulation apparently did a good job of accumulating yesterday's heat, and is now parceling it out. I doubt it will be able to keep the place warm all day and into the night, let alone tomorrow as well, but every hour it does is money saved from the utility company's grasp.

Anyway, I've got a while day ahead, with nothing planned and nothing spontaneous likely to occur. I suppose I'll dribble it away on the Idernet, as usual. As it's so cool, I'm thinking I might bake something. I'm sure there are boxes of mixes on the shelf, and the remaining eggs might not have gone bad yet. A lemon pound cake would be nice, and I think I have a sweet potato to go with dinner of... whatever. I'll think about it later. Right now I'm just going to go watch the rain I hear smacking to stove's vent pipe again. And make some tea. Tea this morning, hot cocoa this afternoon. Perfect. Thanks, rain.

ganimede

Today is the Trans Day of Visibility.

Each year on March 31, the world observes Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) to raise awareness about transgender people. It is a day to celebrate the lives and contributions of Trans people, while also drawing attention to the disproportionate levels of poverty, discrimination, and violence the community faces compared to non-Trans people.

International TDOV was created in 2010 by Trans advocate Rachel Crandall, in response to the overwhelming majority of media stories about transgender people being focused on violence. She hoped to create a day where people could celebrate the lives of transgender people, while simultaneously acknowledging that due to discrimination, not every Trans person can or wants to be visible.

Hello, I'm a Trans person *waves* 👋 Ask me anything!

Current Mood: out
Current Location: the UK

summersgate

March Goes Out. The forces of spring rainbow style. It'll be nice and warm today (70F) but rainy too.

A busy day today. Lunch with Chloe in Seneca and then Dave's eyeshots in Meadville. I had some dreams that lingered this morning. Something about losing Dave at some kind of festival. We had arrived with the dogs but Andy was sick and Dave took him off somewhere. The rest of the dream I was searching for Dave and asking different people about him and getting more and more annoyed that he wasn't answering his phone. Someone told me that he was in the nurses station so I went there and found him. Andy had turned out to be very ill and needed lots of care. I woke up thinking - how dumb am I? Why didn't I look at the nursing station first? Surely that would have been where Dave would have gone to get medical help. This dream could be partly because I'm worrying now about Rainy. She's so itchy. I started her itch pills again this morning. It usually happens in the summer time. She's been having an infected right ear too. I started using the meds we got for her in the past for that condition the day before yesterday. Now that Skye is gone I need to put more attention on the dogs. Questioning myself when or if I should take Rainy to the vet - how long should I wait to decide while trying these former meds at home. We really can't afford to go to the vets if we don't have to.

skygiants

I have a stack of library books and used bookstore buys looking at me accusingly but instead I have been lured into doing a massive McCaffrey read. I know. I don't respect my choices either.

My other problem is that once I am embarked on a Text I have a hard time stopping it, so when all the library offered me in ebook was an omnibus of Dragonflight - Dragonquest - The White Dragon I was always going to be reading all three. And, you know, it did start out quite well! Rereading Dragonflight a very funny experience because it's like

Dragonflight: and here's where Lessa washes her hair
Me: tiny Becca what do you think about this
the inner tiny Becca: I LOVE LESSA I LOVE IT WHEN SHE GETS TO WASH HER HAIR 🥹
Dragonflight: and here's where F'lar sends F'nor on a haunted mission back in time
Me: tiny Becca what do you think about this
the inner tiny Becca: who's F'lar

But actually with very few actual memories and a lot of informed knowledge from the twenty years since the last time I read these books I truly expected F'lar and the central romance plot in general to be ... worse? Like yes it's 1968 and yes there's the dubcon dragonsex of it all and yes F'lar's whole mission in life is to convince the world that you Cannot stop feeding the military-industrial complex even after four hundred years of peace or you Will be eaten by mindless alien hordes [On Which More Later]. But the thing that the dubcon dragonsex actually does, narratively speaking, is it fully displaces the emphasis of the romance away from 'when are they going to have sex' to 'when are these two assholes who trust themselves very much going to learn to trust each other.' They're having sex all through it; the dragons have taken care of that, so the sex is no longer the point. The partnership and the problem-solving is the point, and it is fun to watch them solve problems and increasingly know which problems they can rely on the other to solve. Which I think is interesting and purposeful and honestly pretty bold, for 1968! I'd like to see more romances do that now! Also the problem-solving is satisfying, and haunted mission back in time plot that I had completely forgotten is quite effectively creepy. I ended Dragonflight like 'you know what, as Of Its Time as it is, in many ways this book actually does really work. Maybe ... Pern is good?

Then on to Dragonquest and The White Dragon and it turns out Pern unfortunately is not good, although both of these books are real would-be-good-if-they-were-good situations.

Dragonflight: and here's where F'lar sends F'nor on a haunted mission back in time
me: Dragonquest what do you think about this
Dragonquest: what haunted mission

No, Dragonflight is kind of a mess of a book but what I do think is interesting about it, thematically speaking -- to come back to the military-industrial complex of it all -- is that the end of Dragonflight is a lot of people going 'to be manly and heroic is to fight forever on a cool dragon, we've reached peacetime and it's dull so we're going forward in time so we can continue fighting forever on a cool dragon' and the beginning of Dragonquest is like 'actually I have reconsidered my thinking about this and it turns out fighting forever is perhaps bad for you, psychologically? maybe instead of heroic forever war we can look at some alternate pursuits that are also heroic and manly but less lethal and traumatizing. Like space exploration! Did anyone watch the Moon Landing? Wasn't that pretty cool?' (

genarti when I was talking with her about this also pointed out that at the time Dragonquest came out we were also several more years into Vietnam.) Obviously McCaffrey is all in on the Pioneer Spirit and the wistful terra nullius of it all but I appreciate that she's actively revising her thoughts on the military and its relationship to the populace it theoretically protects as she's writing it, and it's interesting to see the evolution. Really really funny to see F'lar go from the 'SEND TITHES LIKE YOU DID IN THE DAYS OF YORE' guy to the 'I'm your progressive candidate for Weyrleader and I think this military appropriationism has gotten a bit out of hand' guy. I love the end of the book where it's like 'well we've actually solved the problem of Thread but unfortunately our solution is not cool and sexy, so we need a dragonrider to do something that is cool and sexy but ultimately completely useless to get everyone else to buy into it.'

(E who dragged me into this: plausible reading that the grubs are a feminised solution. we must put our hands into mother earth and urgh it's all moist and gooey
me: i love that you went there because my first thought is that the solution is lower class. the humblest tillers of the land
E, determined: thread is being absorbed by a planetary vagina dentata which also has life-generating properties)

Anyway, F'nor does some spaceflight, in a cool and sexy but ultimately completely useless way, which is making up I suppose for the other cool and sexy thing that F'nor absolutely does not get to do which is challenge dragon biological essentialism. F'nor/Brekke is not a particularly successful or interesting romance plot but nonetheless I truly was on the edge of my seat for this -- I remembered that Brekke's mating flight ends in Tragedy but I thought F'nor might at least like succeed a little bit in proving that it's hypothetically possible for a brown dragon to mate with a queen? But no! he doesn't even get to try! Having raised the question of 'what does dragon gender really mean and how much does it bind us' Anne cannot bring herself to answer it. Have you instead considered that spaceflight is cool and sexy.

And The White Dragon is even more a book of 'having raised the question, Anne cannot bring herself to answer it.' Not much actually happens in The White Dragon, we're making a number of mountains out of molehills, but it's all whirling around the central anxiety point of 'if my soulbonded dragon falls out of standard dragon color/gender categories and moreover is definitely ace then what does that make me?' And the book's answer is '....a guy. A manly guy who successfully achieves all of his society's standards of masculinity. Do not worry about it.' Well, I wouldn't have been worrying about it, Anne, if you hadn't been telling me to worry about it, and then you gave me the most boring answer possible.

There is more to say about The White Dragon -- not least the way that every woman in the book seems to have gotten a hefty splash from the misogyny fountain -- but I am running out of time so we'll call it here. Am I done? No! I am now halfway through Dragonsdawn. More on that anon.

bookscorpion posting in

common_nature

This weekend, we went to the botanical gardens and we saw a big group of Bohemian waxwings! They are very rare guests here on their way to and from Scandinavia and I had never seen one before. I did know instantly what they were seeing them all sitting in the tree though.

( Read more... )

oursin

Happy birthday,

allhailthedramaking and

calimac!

james

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Profile

lookfar2

June 2024

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Apr. 2nd, 2026 10:26 am

Network

Chicken details

Jammy Pepper Pasta Salad

140 in 1400 List

(no subject)

Reading Wrap-up 3/26

Spotlight on Omegas at AO3

(no subject)

Spectre Requisitions

(no subject)

And March is over too! A quarter of 2026....

(no subject)

Falling hour by hour....

Tuesday

52/391-392: Thanks

In which there is visibility

tuesday

(no subject)

Bohemian Waxwings

(no subject)

Chocolate poll

Profile

June 2024

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags