Spotted via Facebook, the suggestion to gaze out of the window - or, I dunno, actually go out onto the balcony/into the garden/whatevs - and see how many birds you are able to spot.
(I think this is meant to be an 'over a period of time' project, rather than 'in the next 5 minutes'.)
Okay, we do have a garden, and a vista from the back windows over ( Read more... )

As my flight is this evening, checked out of my room and checked my luggage and set off to walk to Downtown.
I contrived part of this through a nice park with a lakeside meandering Japanese garden, but then struck streets again and came to the realisation that the trouble with the map is that it leaves out numerous streets and avenues so gives a ( Read more... )

Even after what I consider probably counts as A Good Night's Sleep, I feel pretty exhausted today.
Still, after I had packed and checked out of my room and stashed my luggage, i went for a walk around in order to access a light lunch and some coffee,and then went to visit the McCrory Gardens, which are lovely, and should you ever find yourselves in ( Read more... )

And
( Read more... )

Letter in today's Guardian that made me chortle and go WTF more or less simultaneously (second one down): Another Trojan horse is revealed by Amanda Blanc’s belief that “children born today will not need to learn to drive”.... yet another human skill is set to vanish. Driving a car is one of those complex learned activities we need for our mental ( Read more... )

London garden bridge project collapses in acrimony after £37m spent.
And I can't help wanting to say to Boris J that in Ye Bygone Days when people built follies they did so on their own estates and with their own money (though on reflection this was probably ill-gottens from the Triangle Trade and dodgy dealings in India) and didn't ask the nation ( Read more... )

Which, admittedly, I was scheduling myself to do even if the houndz of spring had not been snapping at my heels for walkiez.
Since I had finally had the go-ahead to go and affirm at the Probate Office so that, in due course (10 working days, I was told) I can get the Grant of Probate and start getting things moving.
(In other executing news, that ( Read more... )

O dear yes, this rang a bell: the personality trait they call “the need for drama”, or NFD. I'm not sure those agree/disagree sentences cited are necessarily diagnostic, but I have definitely known people (e.g. former friend 'Q') who had to have a lot of ongoing soap-opera in their lives.
I do think it's not necessarily a binary thing, though what ( Read more... )

Today
( Read more... )

Was exhausted yestereen and skipped out and went beddybyes after the GoH speeches and the Tiptree Award Ceremony.
Got up somewhat early this morning in order to get to the panel 'What happened to the Women SF Writers', which, in spite of the somewhat depressing topic and the fact that it was Monday morning and the last panel session of the con, was ( Read more... )