pegkerr: (Mischief managed!)
[personal profile] pegkerr
This week, as another Year of Adventure event, Pat Wrede and I (at Pat's suggestion) took a road trip to Kellogg, Minnesota to visit Lark Toys. I'd never heard of the place before, but it was an enjoyable jaunt indeed. It was started by a man who was interested in creating a market for his carved wooden toys, and over the years it has grown to be a remarkable place. Besides being a toy store, it is a toy museum. It was great fun to wander down the corridor of "Memory Lane" and identify old toys that I had as a child, that I haven't thought of for years: Spirograph, the game of Life, Chinese Checkers, Operation, spin tops, etc. There was an impressive little bookstore, too, with thoughtfully curated books for adults as well as children.

The centerpiece is a truly extraordinary carved carousel, created by the original owner. There was a cafe, and a fudge emporium, and had we been inclined, a miniature golf course.

It was a lovely drive, and Lark Toys was great fun and well worth the trip. Highly recommended I came home with a wee giftie for M, which I look forward to seeing her enjoy.

Image description: Background: a corridor of Lark Toys, lined with display cases. Top: a sign with the words "Memory Lane." Upper left: the logo for Lark Toys, the silhouette of a bird with a wind-up toy key on its back. Below the silhouette: the words "Long Ago." Below the "Memory Lane" sign, another sign which reads: "As once the wing'd energy of delight carried you over childhood's dark abyss, now beyond your own life buid the great arch of unimagined bridges. -Rainer Marie Rilke." Below this sign: a stylized tree, over a pillowed reading nook. Right: a lamp past with directional signs jutting out of the post. Left: a wooden stand filled with lollipops. Lower half: a rabbit and a swan each wearing a saddle (figures from a carousel). Bottom: a family of toy bunnies and a group of Matryoshka Russian nesting dolls.

Lark Toys

38 Lark Toys

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jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
About 30-40 ducks on the banks of the cemetery pond, a similar number of geese spread out among the tombstones across the road.

No roadkill seen. Did have a number of woolly bear caterpillars galumphing across the road, no common direction seen. Don't know what their GPS was telling them.

Whole hells of asters blooming, with chicory and goldenrod and white sweet clover mixed in. Bracken all gone brown, some milkweed pods splitting open. Red maples in the bog dropping their leaves, while the ones on the high ground have just started to turn. Ash trees into their turn-yellow-and-drop routine.

Got out on the bike, temperature in the 60s F and little wind. Don't know how many more ride-days I will be offered. Did not die.

15.33 miles, 1:30:04

(no subject)

26/9/25 07:28
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Have we reached terminal velocity yet?

The decline and fall

26/9/25 07:01
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
The decline and fall

Air temperature 61 F, wind southwest about 4 mph, partly cloudy. We got enough rain to trigger our basement leaks, nothing major but I swept maybe a gallon of water down to the floor drain. May try for a bike ride this morning, to contemplate the new-washed asters and fall color. We do not at the moment have gulls foraging the park.

(no subject)

25/9/25 22:10
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Still raining. This is a good thing.

(no subject)

25/9/25 15:20
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Actual rain falling. We got a shower earlier, but this has the street shiny and drips from the roof eaves. Hope it soaks in.

Blog about nothing

25/9/25 07:07
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 56 F, wind east about 5 mph, mostly cloudy. Rain supposed to start after noon. Walk early?

(no subject)

24/9/25 10:28
sartorias: (Default)
[personal profile] sartorias
I'm up here at my sister's, not quite a hundred miles north of home, while the new floors are put in. It's all SoCal, and yet a completely different microclimate. I woke to the tut-tut-tut of some bird we don't ever hear at home, and other chirps and twitters equally unfamiliar. Over that, though, the very familiar caw of crows.

As I did the morning walk with the little dog, and listened to the local crows up in the eucalyptus and pines, I wondered if the crows that follow me at home were watching for me to come. Now that the sun is lowering a bit, we're back to increasing numbers, so I might have thirty or so swirling around me when I throw unsalted peanuts out. so exhilarating to watch them!

Here they don't know me, of course, so the calls can't be to let me know they are there. I'm sure the lives of humans are ignorable, except as annoyances that send them into the trees. I wondered about that sky civilization as I trod the path to the dog park. So much going on at the tops of the trees, that we barely notice!

It's such a relief not to be toiling with packing, though of course unpacking lies in wait to pounce when I get back. Then I'll only have three or four days before I take off for my October east trip, so most of my share of the unloading will await me on my return. The big job (and the fun one) is the library.

Speaking of, since it's Wednesday, let's see, what have I been reading? The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell, which is part of a book discussion that I've been following since the start of the year. One book a month in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time series. The discussion happens at the start of each month over Zoom, and what interests me is how folks from either side of the Atlantic read the work. Also, non-genre reading. This time I'll be on the train when the discussion rolls around, so I hope I have connectivity, but if not I'll listen to the recording. At least that way I can skip ahead if the fellow who leads it gets prolix over an obvious point as he has a tendency to do. The academic curse; students above a certain age level are too polite to say 'Zip it! We got the idea already." (High schoolers had no such restraint, and middle schoolers invariably signalled boredom by more physical means.)

Anyway I had the leisure, for the first time in a couple of months, to make chocolate chip cookies. So I can have those and tea and do some reading. Heigh ho, I will go do that now.

Hand-basket central

24/9/25 07:01
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 59 F, wind northeast about 7 mph, cloudy. Had some ground fog overnight but gone now. Supposed to have scattered showers, more serious rain tomorrow. We need it. Foraging morning, walk afternoon?

Still no sanity

23/9/25 07:07
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 58, wind southwest about 4 mph, cloudy. Supposed to get showers this afternoon, but the nearest green on the weather radar is upstate New York. Foraging still may defer into tomorrow. Gull foraging, on the other hand, proceeds in the park.

Balance

22/9/25 23:59
nineweaving: (Default)
[personal profile] nineweaving
I like that the New Year and the equinox are in balance. May this year bring peace.







Nine
davidlevine: (Default)
[personal profile] davidlevine
I'm just back from Poland, where I participated in a science fiction LARP called Eclipse. This was an "international blockbuster LARP," meaning that it had a fairly large cast (150 players), a highly detailed and immersive set (a futuristic dome complex near Krakow called Alvernia Planet), costumes (most of us wore standard jumpsuits, which we had the option to rent or buy, but many people accessorized or modified the standard jumpsuits to suit their characters and some brought their own costumes, which was okay as long as your outfit clearly indicated which division you were in by its color: brown for Soft Science, gray for Hard Science, and green for Explorers), and prewritten characters. It was an incredible experience which I have described as "like living in a science fiction movie" -- specifically a cross between Arrival and Interstellar.

Read more... )

Obscure equinox

22/9/25 07:06
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 46 F, wind near calm, fog at the airport and visibility under a quarter mile. It's patchy -- I can just about see across the park now and couldn't earlier. Gulls hunting whatever gulls hunt in the grass.

Godot still missing

21/9/25 06:53
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 37 F, wind near calm, fog at the airport. Again, not here. Overnight low 35 F, grass in the park showing frosty. Also showing gulls. Fiber optic internet and phone out, waiting on repair guy and using cell phone hotspot for internet. Happy equinox of your choice to those who believe in such things.

Signs and portents

20/9/25 10:42
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Wore a (light) jacket for the morning walk. Breezy and about 50 F when I headed out. Some trees starting to turn, mainly ash and red maple. Beechnut husks on the sidewalk. No cat friends.

He loved Big Brother

20/9/25 07:12
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 41 F, northwest wind about 4 mph, sunny. Overnight low 36 F, skirting frost. Fewer gulls in the park. Maybe the chill has slowed emergence of their prey.
pegkerr: (Do what you will but I will hinder it if)
[personal profile] pegkerr
I have been steeped in everything science fiction and fantasy for decades, but there is one thing I've had no experience with whatsoever:

I have never tried Dungeons and Dragons gaming.

I'm not quite sure why. Heaven knows I have dozens of long-time friends who have been gaming for years, and I've heard peripheral conversations on the topic at many a science fiction convention. Even around my own dinner table, as Fiona has long enjoyed gaming.

So when I sent out my call for ideas for Year of Adventure things to do, one friend, [personal profile] lydamorehouse, hit upon the obvious: why not join her group for a gaming session?

I went over to Lyda's house to consult, and she walked me through the process of pulling together a character to play. I was pretty lucky with my rolls, and Lydra graciously set me up at Level Four. After an hour and a half of questions and answers, I had a new character, a ranger, with a respectable level of skills to test out.

And that's what I did last Saturday over Zoom: I was invited to join the troupe of motley characters by a rather glittery dragon and came upon the assembled company at a windmill, where they were regrouping after their last adventure. I had to follow Lyda's prompts and ask a lot of questions, but I had a general idea of what to do. I spent a fun three hours playing with the others. We stashed some magical pastries, examined a magical rune book in a Bag of Holding, and tangled with a vampire. I took out my bow and quiver, stuck a garlic roll onto the end of the arrow, and shot it into his chest. This gave me the satisfaction of staggering him a bit--although I didn't have much of a chance to savor my victory since he promptly turned me into a frog.

I got better eventually and exited, following a wolf. But the experience was deemed a success for all concerned (and apparently I didn't grossly offend anyone), so I was invited to return for the next session.

I think I'm going to enjoy this.

Image description: Background, bottom layer: a Dungeons and Dragons character page. Overlaid over it: Center: an old-fashioned windmill building. Left: a darkly sinister male figure dressed in black, a wolf at his side. Right: a woman pulls back the string of bow loaded with an arrow aiming at the man, a bread roll (a garlic roll) affixed to the tip. At her feet: a frog. Upper half, semi-transparent: a screenshot of several people in Zoom conference. Hovering over the vanes of the windmill: a miniature dragon.

Gaming

37 Gaming

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(no subject)

19/9/25 17:45
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

Russian fighter jets in NATO airspace.

(no subject)

19/9/25 13:38
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
So, Fearless Leader is going to designate "antifa" as a terrorist organization. My parents were "antifa" -- anti-fascist. So was most of that generation. That's how we won WWII . . .

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