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Jul. 10th, 2025 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormI just finished my first fiction audiobook that was not a re-read. I'd gone through things I'd read before, and I'd gone through various dinosaur and nature things (the latter needed lots of rewinding to capture, so they're more work to read). I wasn't sure if I'd be able to follow a plot the way I am now.
So this was a popcorn book, Mrs Pollifax, chosen from a list of things I wanted to read because of an older protagonist and bececause they were sorta like Agatha Christie, and because the library had the ebooks. And... I really enjoyed it? The narrator was fantastic, I caught enough of the plot not to sit around being confused, and it was just a nice ride. I had not been able to go on a nice ride outside myself since... well certainly since the accident in 2016. I'm so grateful I get this back, and so grateful for the community of people that helped me figure out how to access ebooks through the library. I would not have been able to do that on my own.
I do need to be a little careful with it -- this is one of two escapisms I know I use that really work for me, and I can't use it to escape from awareness of my health situation or else I'll be stuck in bed again. Like I said the other day to a friend, I always need to keep myself well enough to tend the animals. But that's just something to manage, as anything that brings joy needs to be managed.
There's more to be said there, but it can wait.
It is funny that I spent so much of my time when I was younger connecting with people through writing and screens, and now that's lost to me. Reading is completely utilitarian, whatever happens with my eyes and that brain system of comprehension takes much too much for me to think or categorize or feel at the same time. But I finally am able to get a ghost of elsewho back.
I will add that I scored a truly enormous bundle of 2x4s for $50 from a mill the other day. They're trim ends, and some will be good for building bird shelters and furniture, while others can be burned this winter. It's not a bad price for that much wood even for firewood, though kilned wood burns too fast to use alone if I have a bunch it'll make winter much easier. I also got a case of use-today apricots very cheap and will embark on some water bath canning, and I finally started scouring fabric to test scentless chamomile for dyeing and picked a bunch of flowers. My hope is to test the flowers, then the leaves, and see if there are different colours between the two; then maybe try iron mordanting or indigo overdye. It's just neat to see what colours things make. Sadly this is with cheap t-shirts from the department store sale but I'm hoping to sort myself out more linen to play with.
So that's a lot to do. Luckily the garden is in and growing well and it's been raining enough I haven't even needed to water it. There are lots of weeds -- some are very very tall, but those are in the perennial areas between the plants, so they're not shading things out too badly. Sign of good soil and water, high weeds.
So this was a popcorn book, Mrs Pollifax, chosen from a list of things I wanted to read because of an older protagonist and bececause they were sorta like Agatha Christie, and because the library had the ebooks. And... I really enjoyed it? The narrator was fantastic, I caught enough of the plot not to sit around being confused, and it was just a nice ride. I had not been able to go on a nice ride outside myself since... well certainly since the accident in 2016. I'm so grateful I get this back, and so grateful for the community of people that helped me figure out how to access ebooks through the library. I would not have been able to do that on my own.
I do need to be a little careful with it -- this is one of two escapisms I know I use that really work for me, and I can't use it to escape from awareness of my health situation or else I'll be stuck in bed again. Like I said the other day to a friend, I always need to keep myself well enough to tend the animals. But that's just something to manage, as anything that brings joy needs to be managed.
There's more to be said there, but it can wait.
It is funny that I spent so much of my time when I was younger connecting with people through writing and screens, and now that's lost to me. Reading is completely utilitarian, whatever happens with my eyes and that brain system of comprehension takes much too much for me to think or categorize or feel at the same time. But I finally am able to get a ghost of elsewho back.
I will add that I scored a truly enormous bundle of 2x4s for $50 from a mill the other day. They're trim ends, and some will be good for building bird shelters and furniture, while others can be burned this winter. It's not a bad price for that much wood even for firewood, though kilned wood burns too fast to use alone if I have a bunch it'll make winter much easier. I also got a case of use-today apricots very cheap and will embark on some water bath canning, and I finally started scouring fabric to test scentless chamomile for dyeing and picked a bunch of flowers. My hope is to test the flowers, then the leaves, and see if there are different colours between the two; then maybe try iron mordanting or indigo overdye. It's just neat to see what colours things make. Sadly this is with cheap t-shirts from the department store sale but I'm hoping to sort myself out more linen to play with.
So that's a lot to do. Luckily the garden is in and growing well and it's been raining enough I haven't even needed to water it. There are lots of weeds -- some are very very tall, but those are in the perennial areas between the plants, so they're not shading things out too badly. Sign of good soil and water, high weeds.
