pegkerr: (Default)
[personal profile] pegkerr
For the last week I have slept on the futon in my office because my bedroom had been emptied so that it could be replastered and painted. I hired a contractor to do the plastering, and they did a great job (badly needed, as the wall was full of a bunch of long, meandering cracks). I opted to do the painting myself to save money.

The painting got delayed because it was so hot last weekend. I managed most of it over two or three days but then (total klutz that I am) I stumbled over a painting extension pole and managed to break a toe, making it increasingly painful to get up and down off the floor, just when it was time to paint the baseboards. To make things worse, I suddenly started experiencing arthritis, this time in my right hand. Suddenly, the painting job was getting to be a bit too much.

Rather desperately, I sent out a call for help to my family text thread, and one of my nephews gracefully came through. He showed up and put in several hours putting the second coat on the baseboards and window frames and finishing up the closet.

I love my bedroom's new look. I have to get new linens and curtains and put up artwork. But I'm really pleased with how it looks so far.

I found a light switch cover with a tree of life on it, which is a much-appreciated touch.

Image description: Two views of a freshly painted bedroom. Lower half: view of a bedroom with blue/green walls. Upper left corner: a small chair and side table in a corner, where dark green and light blue/green colors meet. Upper right corner: a light switch plate with an ornate botanical tree of life.

Painting

25 Painting

Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 51 F, wind near calm, sunny. Sheen of dew across the park, with dotted spider webs. Rain tonight into tomorrow -- if anyone has outdoor plans for the weekend, be aware Saturday is "Field Day" in the amateur radio ranks, with hams setting up portable stations free of commercial power and operating radios. Usually in the rain.
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Yes! Actual roadkill! In addition to the obligatory flat squirrel, my ride route included one woodchuck fresh-enough that the blood hadn't dried yet, a much older skunk with little odor left, and a messed up corpse that I am going to ID as a red fox from fur color alone.

Floral newbies include chicory/cornflower, new variety of wild roses, water parsnip, yellow hop-clover, and the first open milkweed flowers.

No visiting metal birds over at the airport/base, although I think the runway is open. No idea how many tons of Boom! have passed through there en-route to Ukraine, Gaza, or Iran.

Got out on the bike, 60s F when I headed out and still, did not die.

15.58 miles, 1:33:08

New England weather

26/6/25 06:57
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 61 F, wind northeast gusting to 17 mph, partly cloudy. Cooled off enough that I haven't engaged the heat pump yet. And the dew point is down to 43 F. May get out on the bike.
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 78 F, wind northwest about 7 mph, partly cloudy. No longer being advised or warned on heat, after record highs yesterday. May get out for a walk.
alfreda89: (borrelia burgdorferi)
[personal profile] alfreda89
Anyone who watches certain films knows that much was made in the 1920s in gossip and the print press of the Pharaoh's or Mummy's curse, when many people died after opening King Tut's tomb.

Theories have been discussed for years--not a curse, surely, but what else in those ancient sealed chambers could have slowly killed any who entered? (And what if the ancient Egyptians intentionally left mold as a trap for grave robbers? That wasn't asked in these articles--but what if?)

This happened again in the early 1970s, when ten of twelve conservationists who entered a Polish King's tomb died weeks or months later. The same fungus was found in Casimir IV Jagiellon's tomb.

That pernicious something could have been the fungal mold Aspergillus flavus.

https://bigthink.com/the-past/mummys-curse-fungus-mold-aspergillus/

Now, it turns out this fungus may have attributes that will be an excellent treatment for some cancers.

https://phys.org/news/2025-06-toxic-ancient-tomb-fungus-anti.html
alfreda89: (Books and lovers)
[personal profile] alfreda89
We need #ShortStories & anthologies on our e-readers! Book View Cafe is delighted to offer a new collection by award-winning author Marie Brennan, THE ATLAS OF ANYWHERE.

*Seek out extraordinary lands . . .*

In THE ATLAS OF ANYWHERE, you'll find strange guardians overseeing fate-bound duels. A priceless stone on a journey toward a bloody destiny. A thief determined to steal a worthless treasure. In her second collection of worlds-spanning fantasy, award-winning author Marie Brennan takes you back to the world of her famed heroine Lady Trent, through the land of her Hugo Award-nominated poem “A War of Words,” and onward to seven other fantastical realms, filled with pirates, demigods, and murderous creatures of winter’s cold night.

#fantasy #ShortStories #HighFantasy #dragons #pirates #thieves #Judaism #Mesoamerica #StrongFemaleProtagonist

Take a look here: https://bookviewcafe.com/bvc-announces-the-atlas-of-anywhere-by-marie-brennan

Floral effusion

24/6/25 09:48
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
We have three day-lily blooms this morning, first of our personal horde. Will not be providing a daily census, as we'll have dozens in four different patches and scattered solitary plants. They are practically weeds . . .

Nuclear summer

24/6/25 06:49
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 69 F, wind southwest about 5 mph, sunny. We rejoice in an "Extreme Heat Warning" this morning, with forecast of mid-90s F this afternoon and "feels like" temperatures up well over 100 F from humidity. Should be able to forage on our usual schedule, moving from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned supermarket and back through that progression. Will turn on the heat pumps for the day in an hour or so.

Battening hatches

23/6/25 06:52
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 65 F, wind near calm, partly cloudy. Low wisps of fog and dew across the park early. We have an extreme heat watch in place, with highs in the upper 80s F this afternoon. 90s F tomorrow. Have engaged the heat pump to mitigate harm, and any walk will be early.

Reap the whirlwind

22/6/25 06:51
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 62 F, wind south gusting to 17 mph, cloudy. Showers forecast this morning, ending around noon. May get a walk in the afternoon. If we live so long.
pegkerr: (Default)
[personal profile] pegkerr
A new generation has arrived!

There will be a sparsity of details in accordance with her parents' wishes, but for now, let's call her 'M.'

Image description: Top: Peg holds her granddaughter at their first meeting, with Fiona smiling by her side. Lower right corner: baby! Lower left corner: Delia holds baby!

Granddaughter

24 Granddaughter

Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Bedstraw blooming in the roadside grass, some of the earliest day-lilies, crown vetch, daisy fleabane. Which Wife says has no actual effect on fleas. Lupines going to seed, also black locust.

Roadkill limited to one painted turtle by the roadside, carapace shattered. No sign of geese or ducks at the cemetery pond, either going or coming. Chipmunk on the corner of our front porch when I got home.

Got out on the bike, upriver and over and back through the bog, road paving not in action for the weekend. Did not die.

15.33 miles, 1:24:50
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Air temperature 61 F, wind southwest about 7 mph, sunny. Happy solstice of your choice. We in the north half now begin our slow descent into darkness and despair. May get a bike ride in.

Leapfire

20/6/25 21:39
nineweaving: (Default)
[personal profile] nineweaving
Wishing all of you joy at the summer solstice.

After yesterday's oppressive heat, it was perfectly lovely, with a little wind that stirred a dip and dazzle in the leaves, and carried on it an elusive scent of lime-flowers.

I spent part of it telling stories to Fox (age 8), of kite-battles and the Borrowers and all my summer camps, and part revising Lightwards. When I went out to walk the labyrinth to celebrate the day, I kept running into folks in garlands. Very pleasant.

Nine

Excellent timing

20/6/25 11:46
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
Started to rain about two minutes after I got home from my walk. Had to go back out a few minutes further on, to fetch the trash barrel, but I still count it as a win. Locust trees shedding their blizzards of petals in the wind. No cat friends seen.

Minor amusement

20/6/25 07:22
jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
This month's edition of my amateur radio magazine has a "classic radio" article on a series of "home-brew" receiver designs from the 1960s. I showed the photos to Wife and she laughed. I built one of them for my own station, exhibited it as a high-school physics science fair project, and we schlepped it through five moves before I handed it over to an e-waste collection a few years back . . .

March 2023

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