Dai Stihó

From this week's thefridayfive:

1. What was the last book you read (or are currently reading)?
Still working my way through The Urban Bestiary (Lyanda Lynn Haupt), Hidden Potential (Adam Grant), and Silent Spring (Rachel Carson).

2. What was the last movie you watched?
Project Hail Mary, which we enjoyed immensely.

3. What television series are you currently watching?
The Pitt (HBO Max), Paradise (Hulu), Hacks (HBO Max), Reservation Dogs (Hulu)

4. What are some of your favorite blogs or communities online?
Argh, I don't have a good answer for this one, my blog reading is limited to blogs of personal friends, and I do not have a lot of specific communities that I follow, but I do love my Reading Page/DW Network! I have also crafted a nifty BlueSky feed of climate scientists, renewable energy/energy efficiency experts, biologists/ecologist, historians, and astronomy/astrophysics accounts that is pretty affirming. Which reminds me, someone created a feed of cats watching the Artemis II splashdown last night that was pretty fun to scroll.

5. What social media do you belong to and check often?
Dreamwidth and BlueSky are the only places I check regularly. I have a FB account to maintain contact with some folks that I can't otherwise see elsewhere, but I largely keep it deactivated and check in only here and there. The platform is largely unusable to me these days and mostly foists AI slop, communities/personalities I don't follow or care for, or ads...not to mention the issues of maintaining an account tied to your government name while trying to exist as a person part of communities that are being actively attacked by the U.S. government. For the people in those communities that do feel comfortable enough to still post there, you are very brave, I am not. Other than that, I do occasionally read through some communities/book clubs on Fable.

Yesterday was very full of chores - the house was cleaned, the yard cleared of the last storm remnants and pollen pods (spoiler alert: new storms today), and then I worked on some sketching and reading before making a curried tofu dish for supper. I caught up on 4 more back episodes of WTNV,

Today we sorted out the menu planning and grocery shopping. I have managed to get chapters covered in each of the three books I am reading (Hidden Potential, The Urban Bestiary, and Silent Spring). I worked more on filling out the sketching (not really pleased with the outcome, but it's okay - you never get good at anything by avoiding it, so I am learning to settle for "good enough for what I was going for").

I also managed to secure my mom's banana bread recipe from my sister, and then reproduced it with some minor tweaks to get it vegan (all hail the flaxseed egg!). This was a little bit of fun because my sister only had a photo of the top side of the recipe card, and not the back - so I had the ingredients, but not all the instructions. But I made some deductions and it came out good! It is not very healthy, unfortunately. And alas, I swear my mother put raisins in everything. It has pecans, too. Anyway, childhood flavors unlocked. ♥

I finally took the time to unbundle the trees/plants I'd acquired (white dogwood, eastern redbuds, washington hawthorns, crabapples, and crape myrtles) and begin soaking them, and have acquired some temp soil to give them places to rest while I figure out their permanent placement according to light/shade needs.

I have managed to flesh out my weekly planner, and took time to feel out my March reflections and adjust my April goals. I am feeling moderately hopeful that this will be a good month.

I don't know that I have it in me to do NaPoeWriMo this year, but lhe local writer's group is hosting an April poetry contest. I placed 2nd the last time I entered, but I'll need to think on the topic and guidelines provided to see if I can get anything of merit together for this year's submissions.

May your week be pleasant (don't look at the news, don't look at the news, don't look at the news). ♥