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Well. This post is inspired by the relevant Snowflake Challenge, but does not conform to it.

You see, the 6th Snowflake Challenge this year asks for my Top Ten somethings. And that's really hard to do. Top ten books? Impossible. If I kept lists and records of everything I've read and ranked each book, maybe, but lists and records? Me? Ditto songs. Can't do top ten musicals either. I would need a smaller pool from which to draw!

This is where inspiration struck. My socks! I have many fun pairs of socks, most of which were knitted for me by the wonderful

turlough. There are of course others: the ordinary socks, like the long plum-coloured ones that go with my dark red dress, and the plain black ones for concerts. And there are the slightly more fun socks with 'art' on them, like the yellow 'Klimt' ones or the grey ones with 'The Scream' depicted around the ankle.

But the socks of which I speak are the superior socks from my selection. And even then, I cannot readily pick a Top Ten.

So I decided not to do a Top Ten after all. Instead, I shall show you my favourite baker's dozen pairs of socks, and invite you to select your Top Three. Here are the socks.

To expand, click. Meanwhile,

Top pic, top row, left to right:

1 green, yellow, purple, teal stripes in a zig zag. Cheerful, interestingly textured, and perfectly comfortable

2 Gryffindor socks! very comfortable

3 red with leaf pattern, lovely lace design, a couple of stitches too long in the foot for perfect fit

4 the zig zag socks are more of a magenta pic than shows up in the photo, fabulously pink!

5 woodland stripes in a funky design, comfortable and fun

Bottom row, left to right

6 lovely orange socks with great cable section in the middle, pity it gets hidden in shoes. I am wearing them right now.

7 Cheerful red, blue, purple and green stripes, an older favourite

8 Fraternal socks, bought, not gifted by

turlough, comfy though a teensy bit long, and I like the one with the black toe more than the one with the red toe!

9 Llama socks, bought at Royal Norfolk Show. Knee length, useful under dresses

10 Sheep socks, ditto, but not quite as adorable as llamas!

Double picture:

11 pink and purple striped socks, lovely design, good fit, alas that I have worn through the toe and darned badly.

12 Sloth socks! The sloths are rather bigger than I had bargained for, but they actually don't get in the way as they clutch the fronts of my ankles, and they occasioned great amusement at my recent rehearsal.

Individual picture:

13 purple socks with cable design on the outside of each foot. Love these, very comfortable

So. Which ones would you pick as your Top Three?

I went to another interesting theatre experience this evening. This time there were four pieces, all small cast or single person, and all partial shows.

The first was about a boy/man who is angry at the prospect of going bald like his father.

The second was about pollution and about the woman who was trying to help being perceived as a witch. Probably the least advanced, and rather loose, but with potential

The third showed a boy/man who learned how to become invisible. The actor created his childhood self, who was given a magic set but wasn't very good at magic, his adult self who could get the magic right, and his teenage self, with a bully. Lots of audience interaction.

The fourth was a woman character doing improv for the first time. Lots of physical comedy and a long stretch with no dialogue at all—very brave!

There was an online survey asking us to fill in three words to describe each piece, two words to describe how I felt after watching it, and giving an opportunity to ask a question.

Afterwards, we were offered a drink and an opportunity to discuss anything of interest with cast members. I did compliment the improv woman, but did not convey my thoughts (although I had them) to anyone else from the cast! However, it was again very interesting.

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Snowflake, er...#7 LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

I like my ability to write. I learned to read when I was three and always had my head in a book if I possibly could, so I absorbed the rules of English without ever thinking about them. I very rarely get tripped by the technicalities of constructing coherent prose, so I can concentrate on writing the story. Or the newsletter, or the email, whatever.

I said to my husband just yesterday that my life would be a lot less organised without him in it. And his would be a lot less varied without me in it. I like my ability to feed us a reasonably interesting, healthy and varied diet by buying ingredients and being able to open the fridge, see what's there, and figure out what to cook. That's not the only kind of variety I bring to his life, but I'm happy that my Beast is not doing what he used to do (ie eating the same things all the time because food is just fuel). I like my butterfly-mindedness, that prods me into doing something different. I can provide variety in entertainment, too, not just food, but food is every day and important.

I like my artistic ability. I'm not a great artist, or even particularly skilled—I'd love to be better at drawing or painting what is in my head, but I find it very hard. However, I can produce interesting, tasteful things, whether those be cards, shawls, pictures or something else, that benefit from having 'a good eye' involved in the production. As I say, I'm not a great artist, but I can usually produce something a bit more enjoyable to look at than someone without 'a good eye' would produce. I like that.

And, while I'm at it, Challenge #8: Talk about your creative process.

My creative process is mostly 'let's see what happens'.

I've never been a planner. Stories do not get planned in advance. They just grow. Some discipline is imposed eventually, but not until I know what the story *is*. It starts, usually, from an idea. If I get a scene, or a moment, or a phrase, or a plot, or some kind of notion in my head that wants to be a story, that's a good enough germ for the story to start from. It might be "Lance and Adam are two different kinds of gay", for example (see Bouquet). Or, a scene in which Chris has injured both his hands and is wearing some kind of foam protective mittens and Lance goes to him and how exactly do they figure out how to have sex? (That one was particularly interesting because it spawned an entire story of which I am very proud, but did not actually happen in the story (The White Room). That's my 'this is how to write a story' brain taking over from my 'this is how to write fanfic' brain.)

Mostly I just start writing. I've been working on a romance lately, and I just started writing, and my viewpoint character emerged as I wrote and I liked her very much.

Prompts, therefore, are good. I wrote so many stories to prompts on LiveJournal's fic_requests community, because there they were, and they sparked a ficlet, and that was all I needed.

It's mostly the same with more artistic/crafty creations. I used to make quite a lot of LJ icons, and it was just a matter of doing a crop that I liked and then experimenting in Photoshop to see what happened. Sometimes I'd have an idea, but mostly I'd see what tools and resources came to mind, and proceed from there.

With knitting, it's a bit different, because I'm frequently working from a pattern. Frequently not, though—I make quite a lot of impromptu shawlettes and scarves which just involve me picking a bunch of colours that work together, and getting on with it.

Card-making, too, depends more on what mood I'm in and which of my seventeen thousand crafty bits and pieces is top of mind/closest to hand at the time. There might be layers of different papers, or shiny bits, or a glasspainted 'window' or a glasspainted topper for a stack of papers, or lace, or whatever. I don't generally set out with a plan. Which is sometimes a bit of a shame, as I would do better to get the ingredients together first and make something for a specific card and a matching envelope, but hey. I have fun exploring/experimenting.

In response to Rahaeli's recent suggestions on Bluesky (I think) about the way LiveJournal is going, I thought it might be a good idea to see if I could figure out how to import the fic_requests community. Back in the day it provided very considerable inspiration for me—I should think at least fifty of my ficlets were inspired by something in that community.

And I noticed a community on my DW that I had completely forgotten existed. It is called

popslash_lollipops and it is, in fact, a repository of the fic_requests community from the old popslash-on-LiveJournal days. I don't think there's any point attempting to import the Index, which wouldn't work anyway as all the links will be different, but the stories (or at least the links) are here on DW.

The world is still white, and likely to remain so. It's going to be -5C tonight, which has not happened for a *very* long time, and our heat pump is working hard! And the house is pleasantly warm. Sable has taken to sleeping on the beanbag in Beast's study, with her head next to the radiator. I have thoughtfully provided her with a fleece-lined sleeping sack, but she has spurned it. Sigh.

Snowflake Challenge #3: a Love Letter to Fandom. I refer you to my previous answer here.

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

Well, this is fun!

As it's loosely defined as 'pets of fandom' I won't go into raptures about my first dog, strictly my family's first dog, but she was wonderful. She was half Rhodesian Ridgeback and half Red Setter, which may ring a faint bell for assiduous readers of my stories.

My first pet, strictly speaking, was my daughter's pet, but Bun was only nine when we got kitten Socks, and Socks ended up more my cat because, well, there I was, and unlike my Beast, I was happy to have her on my lap. Incidentally, Socks took the leading role in my podfic of Let The Cat Out Of The Bag, written by lizibabes and produced for the Pod_Together Challenge in 2013.

Socks lived to the grand age of 19, and then for a while we were petless, but after moving to a new city and having copious building work done, we adopted Princess Fluffykins and Sable, sisters, the former of whom was a very beautiful beige tabby, the latter a void. Sadly, we lost the Princess, who was too confident for her own good and used to cross the road to maraud in the park, and, well. Sable remains with us, a plush, soft little cat, barrel-shaped but mostly fur, with her own quirks. She is a knee cat, rather than a lap cat, and will nestle between Beast and me when we watch telly, or between my knees when I am on the sofa alone.

It was hard to decide which pet icon to use, as I have several, but the eventual choice is Socks.

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My early days in fandom occasionally also featured a cat, as I was brought into fic fandom by Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which Data has one. There were at least three cats which starred as Spot. I attempted to explain their differing appearances in this story, Qualicative Assessment. And much later, I wrote An Odd State of Flux, set shortly after Data was kidnapped from the Enterprise by Kivas Fajo in The Most Toys. Spot helps him to recover. Rather fond of this one.

When I moved on to my beloved Popslash, however, it was generally about dogs. My sparkly dancing boys (Nsync, and a bit Backstreet Boys), canonically owned dogs. I'm grateful to them!

But there were others, and as I went through my index I found rather more unusual pets than I had initially remembered. Ferrets and dragons, for example. Oh, and this one, somewhere between a pet and a, hmm, baby: Justin Junior. In this story, there is a magical slash fairy godpiglet. (It's popslash, okay? Slash fairy godpiglets are entirely normal. I'm surprised there weren't more of them.) And a dog, too, eventually.

So, anyway, dogs.

In Cat Chris has an Entirely Canonical Dog (although this is an AU), and AJ seems to have acquired a cat.
My first Lance Bass/Adam Lambert story includes Lance's two Entirely Canonical Dogs. Bouquet.
In The Pussycat and Porcupine, JC acquires a cat, and Lance, two dogs. I'm sorry to have to report that nobody acquires an actual porcupine.
In The First Step Lance is walking his ECDs when he meets an unusual stranger, who knows them.
I wrote two versions of Wanna Tell Me About It? , but it is the revised (and much longer) version in which Lance and Adam get non-canonical dogs (eventually).
The dogs in Dragon Country are canon-based, but this is an AU. There is a scene of rape and violence in this story, so if you decide to read it, be warned.
And I think my final effort is Jamie, written for the final Make The Yuletide Gay challenge and featuring the adoption of a very cute little dog who was tenuously based in canon but not entirely. Pet adoption is a heartwarming thing to put in a Christmas gift story, yes? Happily for me, My Adored Lance spent quite a while advertising dogs on behalf of a pet shelter.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

I did just squeak in before the reveal with yesterday's recs, happily. Not that it matters, because there are so many authors around for Yuletide, and I maybe recognise a handful of names—I doubt I'd go looking for Writer X's Stuff. Anyway, I hope you all had a chance to read through whatever may have caught your eye.

My story was With What Intense Desire, a Mansfield Park fic which changes the end of the story so that Fanny goes home earlier from Portsmouth, and gets to listen to Edmund whingeing about Mary in person instead of reading his letters.

My recipient wanted Fanny to be happy, and my conclusion from re-reading was that Fanny's truest source of happiness is being at Mansfield, at Home, in fact, so that is what I gave her. I may not have been quite heavy-handed enough, as nobody in the comments said they were glad to see her becoming the mistress of Mansfield Park, but there it is. It was fun to do, mostly because I was able to adjust Fanny a wee bit so that she gets more impatient with Edmund, which I do myself.

The title is from a quote in Chapter 45, "With what intense desire she wants her home," from Cowper.

So, that's Yuletide done for another year!

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Snowflake Challenge 2026, challenge no. 1: The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

I seem to have introduced myself many, many times, as I've been doing an online journal since I joined LiveJournal in 2005, and have (I think) done at least some of the Snowflake Challenge every year since it began.

So rather than reiterate how I came to be a fanfic-fandom person, I'm going to send anyone who's interested to the Snowflake 2022 post I made, in which I introduce myself via some posts. A selection of my posts, rather than a(nother) post About Me. The first is a love letter to fandom; the second mourns the death of a creative idol of mine (Stephen Sondheim) and also mourns the country I wish I lived in. The third is about death, though possibly a bit less miserable than that sounds. And there's a bonus fourth, to cheer you up a bit—a really unhelpful phonetic alphabet. As a collection, I think they give quite a good idea of Me, though I'm not usually quite so death-focused.

What do I want from Snowflake this year? I'm not sure. Some entertainment, maybe the discovery of a couple of new people to interact with? As much as anything, I have the feeling that this is a little burgeoning of posts, and I would like to be part of that.

What do I want from DreamWidth this year? Hmm. I'd like to put in a bit of the energy that I've been frivolling away on Reddit lately—although on Reddit I am somewhat more astringent and wit-focused, I think, than I am in this my own space. I hope there will be more discussion of Stuff I'm Interested In, whether that may be barbershop or fandom in general and the changes it has undergone of late, or the pleasure-pain of writing, or what to wear to dance at my daughter's wedding, and more. We shall see.

My last selection of reviews for Yuletide. I think the author reveal happens today, though it isn't likely to make any difference!

Perspectives - Heyer, The Nonesuch
It's been a long while since I read this book, but the story brought it back wonderfully. Tiffany (beautiful, slappable) is perfectly characterised, and there are so many carefully-concealed hints in the dialogue. A delight.

a woman with a ripe and smiling lip Sense &Sensibility
A delightful little postscript to the book, Elinor being happy and enjoying the moments she thought would never come. I found myself smiling as I read.

Nice collection of Wimsey fics, all worth reading, but my preferred three being these:

a certain group of women
This is a thing I did not know I wanted to see—the Dowager Duchess of Denver arguing with a bunch of academic women in the SCR. What a delight! I do so enjoy stories that explore the relationships between Harriet and the various women in her life, and it makes so much sense that the Duchess would enjoy the visit to Shrewsbury.

Happiness In Time of Joy
Peter and Harriet's wedding. Voices are spot-on.

The Day After
A post-Busman's Honeymoon fic dealing with the day after. Which is rather more chaotic than anticipated. Nicely in character and well written.

Rotational Freedom For All Mankind
Ahhh. GOOD story. Molly was so stubborn, this is Molly. This is what she was thinking when she did it.

A couple of Pern stories. I haven't read the most recent of the Pern books, so some of the canon references in other stories escape me. These, I liked particularly.

The day the riders came Pern
A chilling look at things. Really, it's not surprising that the non-dragon people look at dragons with so much fear. Great twist on the canon.

find the true Pern
F'lar is entirely F'lar, and Mirrim is absolutely as she should be. She gets frustrated in her, hmm, day job, dragonriders being what they are, and she is without regular friends since the Weyrs are still very hidebound.. Finding Mirrim a job that needs to be done well sounds like a brilliant solution.

We Were Meant For Us Singing in the Rain
Hollywood gave Don his big break, but Cosmo always pieced him back. How and why the trio became a threesome.

Snake Logistics for Spring Defenses
The canon is FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense—Luke Burns
This is worthy of it. Disconcertingly, some of the emails sound as though they were written by my son.

Never Could Get the Hang of Thursdays Slow Horses
As the title hints, rather a delightful crack!fic. River and Jackson have a problem. Catherine... copes.
Wonderfully written, feels exactly like them all.

Happy New Year, everyone.

The children came round yesterday for Lasagne and a long post-prandial natter, which was very nice. Meanwhile, I have been reading more Yuletide fics, so here are some more recs.

The Truth that Once Was Spoken - Les Miserables/Chalion (Lois Bujold)
I love the Five Gods—it's the most appealing fictional religion I have ever read—but I would never have expected to find that world paired so perfectly with Les Miserables. It works remarkably well, and I was absolutely absorbed as I read. I am familiar with both canons (less so with Les Mis, but I suspect you would understand it if you know only one, or even neither. One of my favourites this year.

Hoar and Hound Brother Cadfael—Ellis Peters
Not a major mystery, rather a minor rescue mission, but Cadfael's voice is caught so perfectly, and the descriptions are wonderful.

The Parthenos in All Her Glory Saga of the Exiles - Julian May
It has been many years since I read the Saga of the Exiles, and I have forgotten a lot of the details, but this was written in a style that felt exactly right. Main character Felice is somewhat more likeable and somewhat less batshit than she becomes in canon, but it all plays out in a very believable way.

It would never have occurred to me that there might be a six-word canon, but there is: For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn. And it is possible to write rather good fic for it, because there are in fact three such fics. This one is my favourite:
Never Worn
But the others are also well worth your time.

By Special Licence Georgette Heyer's Cotillion
This is one of my favourite Heyer stories. I adore Freddy, and I'm charmed to see Lord Legerwood faced with the evidence that his son is now a capable adult. Legerwood is also one of my favourites, and this fic captures him perfectly.

And this is the story that was written for me!
Defending Honour
Arthur Dent... is not very good at Girls. Ford, on the other hand, has a gift. But there's something a bit...off about Ford, when Arthur really pays attention. Deftly done, and it made me grin.

Magnificent Christmas Dinner prepared by my Bun and her man, possibly with additional assistance from her out-laws. We had roast pork, full sized pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, individual Yorkshire puds, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots, cauliflower and broccoli cheese, cabbage cooked with pancetta, apple sauce, and gravy. Deeeelicious. And followed by a pannettoni bread and butter pudding with cream.

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I have been perusing Yuletide stories today, and rejoicing once again in the quality of the writing! I tend to old-fashioned fandoms, so perhaps that helps—do the Young People These Days even read, say, Swallows and Amazons?—but it is certainly satisfying.

Some recs, in no particular order.

The Princess Murdered Princess Bride/Colombo

Even though I haven't seen Colombo in *years* and have held no particular affection for the show, I started smiling in the paragraph that introduces Colombo, which is completely perfect. Absolutely delightful. And Humperdinck is also spot-on in his entirely selfish machinations and general contempt for the rest of the world. Only problem with this one is, I want more!

A Gentlewoman's Debt A Civil Contract, Heyer
A charming story! Jenny Lynton is one of my favourite heroines, and this one gives a glimpse of her married life and a new friend she makes by chance.

The Cruelty of Man"- Sweeney Todd
Ooh. Poor Lucy. This is an entirely believable characterisation. She's a gentle soul. I can almost imagine the song she might have sung, quietly, on her own with the baby. And the Judge is sooooooo sinister. Very well done. Mrs Lovett also perfectly pragmatic.

I Will Be True Austen
Whenever I read Sense and Sensibility I find myself hoping that this time, Elinor will get to marry Colonel Brandon. Somehow, it never happens. And in this story, she comes to her senses, deliberately does not encourage Edward, and learns to love Brandon instead, while he at the same time recognises that his feelings for Marianne were based on a false starting point. It's a delightful read.

Dick and Dorothea's Week in London World of Swallows and Amazons
This is lovely! I am so charmed! The D's, sharing the bad raincoat. Susan, turning into a woman and learning more about cooking. And the image of the D's yelling "Titty!" in a crowded railway station is somewhat hilarious. This is very much like a little slice of the life the children led in between adventures.

A Succession of Remarkable Changes The Princess Bride
Inigo needs training if he is to become a proper Dread Pirate Roberts. This left me chuckling with glee. Dread, but with panache! It is entirely correct and wonderful, and I hope Inigo enjoys himself enormously as Dread Pirate Roberts. Just delightful!

Once, Long Ago - a Persuasion fic,
A very good alternate timeline, although it left me quite teary. So much regret for years of happiness missed! It's very well characterised, from the main couple down to the little appearances of Sir Walter, Mary, and Lady Russell. If you need a bit of melancholy after the joys of Christmas, read this one.

My labours of yesterday—cooked a spiced apple cake, and a lemon possett flan, made several sandwiches and decorated—and today—made GF plain scones, Cherry scones, and Cheese and Chorizo scones, put cream cheese+horseradish and smoked salmon onto GF crackers—were well rewarded by a mostly-empty table and smiling (and slightly groany) people. We had Afternoon Tea for lunch, and it was very nice.

And now, my crocheted llama has mysteriously acquired a Santa hat.

Well. Almost there. I'm not cooking Christmas dinner this year—Bun and MRBun2B have invited us there—but tomorrow I am producing Afternoon Tea for them, plus BIL, Boy, and MrBun2B's parents. The most concise way I have found of referring to this couple is "Bun's in-laws", though they are not that at present. Beast feels there should be a word for this relationship, but I don't think there is. Am I wrong?

*

Have spent an hour or so arranging holly (we have a tree with berries!), ivy, acuba japonica and white lilies (still in bud) to decorate the dining room. Very casual arrangements, but I like the effect. Also very economical, as all the greenery was culled from the garden and we only needed to buy two bunches of lilies. If any of you is worried about the cat, I can promise there will be *no* difficulty keeping her out of the dining room, when it is filled with People. She can have a nice, peaceful Christmas Day to recover.

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Final chorus engagement for the year was at the Hamlet Centre last Friday. Now that the chorus is so much younger, a large proportion of members are working during the day )we used to have more pensioners and housewives) so there were only five of us, but we duly turned up. This particular version of the Hamlet Centre is for young adults with various disabilities. In the past we've also sung at the children's version, which is usually delightful because at least one little girl always got up and danced as we sang. I wasn't expecting a dancer this time, but I was wrong! There were a couple of kids there, and the little girl danced!

With only five of us—three Leads and two Baritones—there wasn't a lot we could do in terms of Christmas repertoire, but there was a recording of various Christmas songs which we sang along with, and we did manage to throw in Silent Night, White Christmas and the Carol of the Bells acappella. I harmonised happily as the mood took me.

It's a fairly unique experience. It's always kinda bizarre and quite joyous. I didn't take part last year, for reasons of New Hip, and remembered all over again why it is a good thing to do. I think the three newcomers among us were all hooked!

Watching 'Madam Secretary' yesterday, one of the episodes had a 'think of all the things you hated about your ex' moment, and one of those things was that the ex cut his toenails into the sink.

I'm baffled... why was it heinous to cut one's toenails into the sink? Fastidious Americans, please explain!

I spent much of the morning walking to the Walk In Centre in the city, and then walking back. The Centre itself was emptier than I'd ever seen it before—just four people in front of me, and when I left, there was one person who looked as if she was waiting for a lift home.

Why, you are agog to know, why did I attend the walk-in centre? Because in the middle of the night I woke up literally gasping for breath. It felt as though my entire throat was clogged with something, and trying to haul in breaths resulted in little, noisy gasps and not very much air at all. Horrible sensation. Frightening. Anyway. I emerged with a prescription for penicillin to attack the infection in my upper airway and (possibly) right lung. Ick. Weird thing is how mostly-normal I feel during the day!

One thing it was really nice to feel, again, was how pleasant it is to be able to walk. I walked to the centre, sat for a few minutes, walked back home, nipped into the house to go to the loo, and continued on up the road to the pharmacy for my prescription, bought a bagful of stuff in Aldi, and walked home, and my hips are fine. Back before I got arthritis, I never thought about how good it feels to be able to walk, but it does, it really does.

When I wandered into Jarrolds, Nsync were wishing me a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, which was nice.

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We went to the post office yesterday to send a few small parcels and a bunch of cards abroad.
Yikes.

Might not be doing that next year.

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Argh. Beast is working on his new chorus song, listening to the teach track and singing along. Over and over and over.

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Can anyone think of some cheerful and widely known Christmas songs? I have a few in mind, but they're ones my chorus has already had and has discarded. We need a cheerful number to counteract In the Bleak Midwinter, I'll Be Home for Christmas, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Beast is out this morning for a Leads rehearsal.

So I took myself up the road for breakfast—an excellent bacon sandwich with coffee and orange juice. I am not sure why the bacon sandwich is accompanied by a pot of Doritos, but they are appreciated.

Along the road is a two-storey inflatable Father Christmas. Made me smile.

A double decker came down the road as I walked up it. Instead of the usual bus number and destination, the LED display on the front read Merry Christmas from [Bus company], with a snowman. This made me grin. No idea what manner of bus it was, as the usual ones that come down this road are single deckers.

And after breakfast, when I had wandered into Aldi for some mange touts and some chocolate to augment my nephew's Christmas gift, I found a Biggles omnibus on the charity table. So I now own four Biggles books in one giant volume. I first encountered Biggles when visiting my Nana as a child: for some reason she owned Spitfire Parade, a collection which may for all I know have been short stories*. After that I was hooked and acquired many more, though I gave them away long ago. Still. Biggles! To read! Possibly. When I have finished my Yuletide story.

* Edit: it was!

Beast and I were watching 'Madam President' earlier today, and they mentioned having a warship offload a bunch of refugees to a Camp in New Mexico.

"Does New Mexico have a coastline?" said I, dubiously.

It does not. Beast and I had a brief argument on this point, as he was maintaining that Mexico has two coastlines, which it does, but New Mexico? Not the same thing.

So... warship? I mean, how?

(I realise this is an old reference. We are watching on DVDs loaned by Bun. (Still, I'm kinda wondering why none of the Americans in the room where it was made noticed the problem. Or is there a known pipeline from the Atlantic—or the Gulf of wherever—to New Mexico? (Okay now I am imagining a couple of hundred refugees trekking miserably through an actual pipeline, a less glamorous Anatevka march.)))

It was Long-Tailed Tits day today! There were about eight of them—they are very hard to count—at the feeders today. Very sociable diners, all clustering together. So cute!

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Have been trying to help our Boy prep for a job interview again. He has many good examples of where he has been an Excellent and Useful employee, but he is not at all fluent at expressing them.

*fingers crossed*

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Concert last night at one of the localmost churches, which is a very pleasant place in which to sing. We sounded good. It was nice.

Yesterday I shovelled two tons of sand.

I just thought you should know.

Dear Becky

No, I don't want you to update my website and maximise my sales. Do you in fact know what my website is for? What exactly it is that I am selling? Didn't think so.

Yours, irritably,
Pen

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Last night I thought I was incubating—had incubated, indeed—the most horrendous cold. I was miserable! I cancelled this morning's yoga and prepared to battle with Vicks and tissues.

This evening I'm... more or less fine. I do emit an occasional mighty sneeze, and I don't think I can manage any top notes, but otherwise, I'm good. It's nice, but rather baffling.

Spent Sunday at a mixed chorus rehearsal, which was interesting and useful although possibly less fun than I had anticipated. We had a drama chap come to work with us on our performance. He choreographed a number of carefully-thought-out moves, but I had hoped he would work with us on conveying emotions through body language or learning to make our faces work harder for us, or something. Still. It was a useful start on a more disciplined presentation of our song.

Now we just have to remember it all.

*

I think my procrastination skills are faltering a bit, which is just as well as I have a Yuletide story to write and Christmas stuff to organise. I have made a start on the Yuletide thing, which is flowing reasonably well, so far, but it's fairly canon-y at present and I shall flounder far more once I am further adrift. Meanwhile I have also found myself writing a Romance of a not-fannish kind, unless it be a rather remote tribute to Georgette Heyer. Sentences keep forming themselves in my mind when I am trying to go to sleep. So far I have not resorted to phone or notebook to deal with them, as I more or less trust myself to be able to say what I want to say, but argh! Months and months without the ability to write so much as a sentence of fiction, and now, abundance! And I'm sooooo indolent. Sigh.

*

Christmas will be getting under way for me this coming weekend. Well, no, that is not strictly true, of course, I have parcels arriving daily and even went shopping yesterday in Jarrolds Food Hall, always a pleasure. I approve of Norfolk Stuff. And they have a Chocolate Library. Anyway, do sign up for a card from me, on my previous post! I like sending cards out, despite the eyewatering costs of postage.

But this weekend is the chorus concert at the local church, just up the road. It is the traditional start to my chorus's Christmas season, except last year when somebody at the church managed to double book and we ended up not going there. Grump. As mentioned above, I may not be able to hit the high notes, but there are few of these as I only sing Tenor on one song with the women's chorus. (Oddly, I managed an F# on Sunday in brief rehearsal with my quartet, though my voice was feeling the strain at Eb earlier.) I am arming myself with a handful of very short Christmas poems, as I'll probably be doing some of the MC's duties.

*

I seem to have developed an alternative personality for Reddit. Rather more astringent than I am here, where I am myself, and also, rather wittier. Hmm.

Back to the story with the deadline.

Well, now. Serves me right for not perusing my Dreamwidth reading page more regularly—I feel sure I would have been prompted to ask for Christmas card addresses by now. Still, better late than never: if you would like a card from me at Chrimbletide, please put your name and address in comments, which are screened. If you'd particularly appreciate a religious card, do say so, and if you'd particularly hate one, say also.

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May 2026

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Pen's Nest

penned in another moment of madness

Recent Entries

Snowflake Challenge #6, sort of

Snowflake Challenges #7 and #8

you make my heart go giddy up

as cold as yesterday's mashed potatoes

Snowflake Challenge #2

Snowflake Challenge #1

how lucky we are to be alive right now

a hero and a scholar

a world of pure imagination

he knows if you've been bad or good

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

i should be over it now i know

without you in my chest

(no subject)

so much joy you can give

there are oceans and rivers enough

you don't climb that ladder you're just the rung

another day older

gotta write the verse til you get to the chorus

it's Christmas Time!