endless_natterings

90 discussion questions. 1. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and why?

There are so many places! If I'm imagining myself being as physically limited as I am now - whereby I find walking difficult for more than about half an hour at best - then a cruise might be best.

I would like to cruise up the Danube and see the painted churches of Romania. But then again I would also like to cruise down the Nile and see Luxor. I could take a few lessons with Egyptian Raqs Sharqi teachers and get a new outfit while I was there.

If, on this imaginary trip, I'm also imagining myself as physically fit again, I'd like to go to Mexico and see what remains of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. Or perhaps to Peru to visit Machu Picchu

Alternatively, my son would like to go to Japan, so perhaps I would use my imaginary trip to take him there.

galadhir

Oh, and lump-wise, I saw the Doctor on Monday and she referred me to the appropriate clinic, so now I have an appointment to see a specialist on the 27th. (The NHS can move quite fast when it needs to :) )

galadhir

It's approximately two weeks since we had the heat pump put in, and I know I promised an update on how it is going :)

I thought it would be a bit colder, but it's not. We have been so toasty that we had to set the thermostat down a degree.

I was also worried that there might not be enough hot water in the tank that DH could have a shower in the morning and I could have a bath in the evening. Probably - I thought - we'd have to boost the hot water with the supplementary immersion heater if we wanted a bath full of hot water in the evening.

But no, the hot water is actually hotter with the heat pump than it was with the boiler, and the tank is hot enough throughout the day that there is enough left in the evening to run a pre-bedtime bath and more.

The cost of running it seems to be about equal to the cost of both electricity and gas that we used for heating the house, which DH seemed to think was good, although not as spectacular a saving as I expected. Still, it means that we are no longer dependent on oil as a household, and that is a step toward a less fossil-fuel based world, while not being worse for us in any way.

shirebound

Happy Birthday,

lavendertook! I hope you and your kitties are celebrating today. Much love! ♥

nverland posting in

recipecommunity

Carrot Halwa Cake
Prep Time20 minutes mins Cook Time40 minutes mins Cooling Time20 minutes mins Total Time1 hour hr 20 minutes mins Servings: 8

Ingredients

For the Caramelized Carrots
1 tablespoon vegan butter
3 cups (384 g) shredded carrots (About three and a half cups of chopped carrots, if you're going to shred them )
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons almond flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon lime zest

For the Dry Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (59.15 g) almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the Spices
3/4 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg, cloves, and allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon lime zest

For the Wet Ingredients
1 cup (236.59 ml) non-dairy milk such as almond, soy, cashew, oat milk
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal mixed with 2 1/2 tablespoons of water
1/3 cup (73.33 g) brown sugar
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder

To Top the Carrots
2 tablespoons raw cashews or roasted, unsalted cashews
2 tablespoons raisins soaked in warm water for 10 minutes
1/2 teaspoon oil optional

( Read more... )

starspray

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: G
Characters: Frodo Baggins, Maglor, Celebrimbor
Warnings: n/a
Summary: Frodo speaks with Maglor in Minas Tirith. Some years later, in Valinor, he meets Celebrimbor.
Note: This fic is a gapfiller set between Clear Pebbles of the Rain and High in the Clean Blue Air. It was also written for the SWG's Title Track challenge.

AO3 / SWG

“Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it—and the Silmaril went on and came to Eärendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got—you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?” - The Two Towers

- -

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Beautiful Dawn - The Wailin' Jennys

manorofshepard

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Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Somewhere within my mind

manorofshepard

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Current Mood: accomplished

nverland posting in

recipecommunity

Vegan Corned Beef
Yield: 4 prep: 5 MINUTES cook: 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES total: 1 HOUR 35 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS
US

For the basic vegan corned beef:
5 cups Water
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp pickling spice
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 leaf bay leaf
1 small beet, or 1 tsp brown sugar and a few drops of red food coloring
2 14 oz packages tofu, or tempeh, or seitan

For a vegan corned beef and cabbage meal…
1 small Cabbage
4-6 small Potatoes
3-4 medium Carrots

METRIC

For the basic vegan corned beef:
1.18 L Water
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp pickling spice
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 leaf bay leaf
1 small beet, or 1 tsp brown sugar and a few drops of red food coloring
2 396 g packages tofu, or tempeh, or seitan

For a vegan corned beef and cabbage meal…
1 small Cabbage
4-6 small Potatoes
3-4 medium Carrots

( Read more... )

nverland posting in

recipecommunity

Corned Beef Tacos with Beer Battered Fries
Prep time: 20 MINUTES cook time: 8 HOURS total time: 8 HOURS

Ingredients

Corned Beef
2-3 pounds corned beef
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chipotle chili
1 ½ teaspoons onion powder
3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
½ cup orange juice
¼ cup lime juice

Toppings
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lime
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
6-8 corn or flour tortillas, warmed
1 cup shredded sharp Irish cheddar
Shredded cabbage, for serving
Lime wedges, for serving

Beer Battered Fries
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt + pepper
1 cup light beer
3 pounds russet potatoes cut into 1-inch sticks

( Read more... )

starspray

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Sons of Feanor, Elrond, Feanor, Daeron, various others
Warnings: n/a
Summary: After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
Note: This fic is a direct sequel to High in the Clean Blue Air.

Prologue / Previous Chapter

( Read more... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Rain Clouds - The Arcadian Wild

meridian_rose

Round 2 of

seasons_of_fandom is opening soon! Multifandom challenge community with original fic and stock icons welcome. Challenges include graphics, writing, and puzzle games.

Please check it out, and if you join tell them I sent you :)
Some no pressure pre-round challenges are already posted but the community and challenges open fully in April.

sign up post

anghraine

Incidentally, my best friend J happened across a copy of the famous novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and gave it to me for Christmas last year. We have been doing dramatic readings of the chapters to each other, complete with air quotes and loudly emphasizing the many, many, many unnecessarily quoted or italicized words/phrases/paragraphs. Although it was fun in its own unhinged way, it was also kind of shocking to realize just how terrible Roddenberry's... like, everything was without being able to lean on good writing/editorial staff like Sturgeon and Fontana, figures like Gene L. Coon to temper his worst impulses, the visual brilliance of people like Jerry Finnerman and William Ware Theiss, and the warmth and charisma brought to even much of the weaker writing by superb theatrical actors like Nichols, Shatner, and Nimoy. For all the novelization's extreme sleaziness, it is one of the coldest and most inhuman-feeling published novels I've ever encountered.

The attempts to salvage the footnote are largely nonsense, IMO—like, yes, it does accidentally imply that Kirk is just a bisexual who rather prefers women rather than a totally super manly straight guy, and his description of Spock and their super special eternal psychic bond does sound incredibly gay, but this is clearly because Roddenberry was constitutionally incapable of writing about any relationships in a non-horny way and loathed women. He was definitely going for desperately recuperating Kirk as the hypermasculine hyper-heterosexual seasoned middle-aged commanding captain figure with a weakness for women but also distaste for them that he'd always envisioned for his ideal of "the captain" (it's all over his writing of April and then Pike), and his resentment of what TOS Kirk actually became in the show is extremely visible (his Kirk dismisses TOS Kirk as a twee fictionalized version he actually hates and TOS in general as terrible and fake, unlike the real story in the novelization, etc). Like, it's 100% an attempt at no-homo and gender essentialism, he's just very bad at no-homo and also at writing people.

But the thing is, the footnote (and the other material straining to find a heterosexual explanation for TOS) may be - and is - homophobic, but this is actually the least of the novelization's problems. It is even more misogynistic, racist, incredibly petty, and so incredibly awkward that I was starting to think "justice for the OG Mary Sue writers, they were far better than this and honestly seem to have understood Star Trek itself rather better," given the weird 70s dystopia aspects he's got going.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Location: Washington, USA
Current Music: The Longest Time (Billy Joel)

galadhir

Well, found a lump at about 4am this morning and lay awake until 7am when I could get up. Then I phoned 111. They said they could help me get antibiotics if it looked like it was an infection and thus mastitis, but if I was worried about cancer that required a GP referral, so they couldn't do anything except encourage me to talk to the GP on Monday.

With that on my mind DH and I went to help Son plant some trees at his nature reserve. (I say 'his' because he is on the committee that helps run it.) Planted a bunch of hawthorn, dog rose and dogwood plug plants, each with its own supporting stick, and a plastic deer protector around it. The sun was bright and warm, though the wind was cold, and the birds were singing in the hedges. So after that I felt a lot better and decided not to bother worrying about it, because worrying doesn't help.

DH is now serving behind the bar at the church beer festival. I am looking forward to lunch tomorrow, when we are meeting up with Son, Daughter and Son-in-Law for lunch in honour of Mothering Sunday. Lunch out will probably muck up my diet for this week, but whatever. I'll have a salad and a mint tea, and that will have to do.

grundyscribbling posting in

silwritersguild

SWG Famous Last Words challenge banner - a collage of illustrations and photos.

Most people remember best what they heard last, and authors and songwriters have long capitalized on this trick of brain wiring by signing off their stories, plays, poems, and songs with a truly memorable last line. This month, we pay homage to some of history's best and most noteworthy last words by offering a selection of them as prompts for creating a fanwork.

Prompts for this month's challenge are assigned by a moderator. You can request a prompt by emailing us, sending us an ask on Tumblr, commenting on our Dreamwidth, or requesting a prompt on the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord. If you have a preference for a last line from a book, song, play, poem, or person, let us know! If you get stuck and can't do anything with the prompt we lob at you, feel free to ask us to try again.

If you create a challenge fanwork featuring a woman in a leading role, let us know, as we have a special stamp for Women's History Month.

Thank you to ecthelioffd for this month's banner and stamps!

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 April 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

anghraine

To my 30s, that is! Today is my last day in this decade :D

Current Location: Washington, USA
Current Music: Strangeness and Charm (Florence + the Machine)

nverland posting in

recipecommunity

Blackberry-Mint Julep
Servings: 4

Ingredients

½ cup packed fresh mint leaves
1 pint blackberries
6 tablespoons sugar
½ cup bourbon
4 cups small ice cubes
4 sprigs mint, for garnishing

Directions

Roughly chop mint leaves.

Puree the mint, blackberries, and sugar in a blender. Press through a fine sieve into a bowl; discard seeds.

Rinse blender, then return puree to blender, and add bourbon and small ice cubes; blend until smooth. Divide mixture among 4 glasses. Garnish each with a mint sprig.

starspray

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Beautiful Dawn - The Wailin' Jennys

galadhir

Not much going on with me, but it's been a while since I've posted and I know that if I don't make an effort I'll go silent again, maybe for another year :) So:

As promised, an announcement that The Boat of Small Mysteries is out in paperback. Though I only pressed the button yesterday so it may take some time to work it's way through to the shops.
Louise's belly dance class are now in full preparatory panic mode for the Cambridge hafla on the 11th of April. Next week we do the dress rehearsal for the group veil choreography which we are putting on there. I'm not getting on well with the veil - I get it stuck on my hair, or step on it. Even when I don't do that, I can't make the turns fast enough to keep up with the rest of the class, though it's quite a slow and elegant dance. Eh, this is what I get for trying to dance when I am naturally unathletic. Nevertheless we persist.
Louise's veil dance is set to Rumeli Hisarı nın Yapılışı Which bears out my point about her always finding the best music.
I am also doing my Fos solo at the Cambridge hafla, so I have started practicing that again, and have completely revamped the outfit that goes with it. I must practice putting the outfit on also, because it involves body glitter and fake nails, neither of which I have experience with.
I'm at the end of week 10 of the 12 week low calorie diet I am on, and although I will have lost 3 stone (42lb) by the end of it, I still have a good 3 stone left to go, and I am afraid that if I loosen my grip even slightly it will all come back on and more. Still, this diet has been true to its word so far, so I'll trust it as I move to the next stage (intermittent fasting instead of permanent fasting.)
My fear that I would lose so much weight before April that I wouldn't be able to wear the dress I bought at Christmas for the hafla in April has not been borne out. The dress is stretchy, and I had a lot to lose!
Health-wise, I have been feeling less sluggish. The permanent pain in my hands and feet has eased - thank God! I find it easier to stand up and sit down, and much easier to get in and out of the car. I can also fasten my seatbelt without taking off my coat, which is just a factor of cars being too small, rather than my health, but is still an improvement in my day to day life in the winter.

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endless_natterings

March 2026

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Page Summary

galadhir - (no subject)
galadhir - (no subject)
galadhir - (no subject)
shirebound - It's a birthday!
nverland in recipecommunity - Carrot Halwa Cake
starspray - Into Grief and Beyond It - Minas Tirith
manorofshepard - Beauty and The Freaks: A Summary and Prologue
manorofshepard - Welcome to the Manor Of Shepard
nverland in recipecommunity - Vegan Corned Beef
nverland in recipecommunity - Corned Beef Tacos with Beer Battered Fries
starspray - A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Sixty Three
meridian_rose - Seasons of Fandom landcomm promotion
anghraine - I was told the TMP novelization was bad, but not just how bad
galadhir - (no subject)
grundyscribbling in silwritersguild - March Challenge: Famous Last Words
mark in dw_maintenance - Performing some traffic maintenance today
anghraine - THE END IS NIGH
nverland in recipecommunity - Blackberry-Mint Julep
starspray - A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Sixty Two
galadhir - (no subject)

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endless_natterings

Reading

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It's a birthday!

Carrot Halwa Cake

Into Grief and Beyond It - Minas Tirith

Beauty and The Freaks: A Summary and Prologue

Welcome to the Manor Of Shepard

Vegan Corned Beef

Corned Beef Tacos with Beer Battered Fries

A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Sixty Three

Seasons of Fandom landcomm promotion

I was told the TMP novelization was bad, but not just how bad

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March Challenge: Famous Last Words

Performing some traffic maintenance today

THE END IS NIGH

Blackberry-Mint Julep

A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Sixty Two

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March 2026

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