Pen's Nest

Thanks to the wonders of Metafilter I have just discovered this guy, who looks like pre-serum Steve Rogers time-travelled into nowabouts, and gay. He cooks stuff. Period recipes. Like avocado bread, Anzac cookies. Roughage Loaf. He is quite batty adorable.

These are recipes that go well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_5MtAP1fBg Bean rebellion! Fiyah!

These do not go quite so well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9LRcUtSQ28
His little *face*! "If this is a pie filling, then I'm Captain America."

This is culinary terrorism!

Enjoy.

A Romp of River Otters, and other stuff

Can there be a more perfect collective name?

I discovered it here, a story about orangutans making friends with otters. You're welcome.

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How to complete a scale in the most satisfying way possible. I wonder if either of mine would co-operate?

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The main picture, and 7th pic down, item on this list reminds me so much of a sewing machine, though I can't define how—I want to believe it is some kind of yarn-winding mechanism (even though I can't see how it would work). Anyone have any other suggestions?

The last one is, I feel sure, a Victorian educational tool, basically, a Steampunk a representation of a woman's sex organs. With added scary bits.

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I've watched quite a few episodes of Garden Rescue lately (in which Charlie Dimmock and the Rich Brothers compete to design an instant garden for someone). The Rich bros in particular seem very keen on including strips of 'meadow turf', ie grass adulterated with wildflowers, various.

Which is nice, really. I, however, have an abundance of 'meadow turf'. There are daisies, of course, and buttercups, and small dandelions on slender stalks (but not, oddly, large dandelions on fat, juicy stalks). There is an abundance of clover in drifts of white and purple. There are occasional turrets of tiny white flower-clusters, and little pink ones with five petals, and pretty grasses with pinkish seeds. The bees and butterflies are busy making the most of all this abundance. At some point, Beast will mow it, but there is no reason to hurry.

I did, of course, start out by thinking how delightful it would be to have the Garden Rescue team come in and redesign my garden. But it wouldn't, really. For starters, they'd want to divide my garden into 'rooms' and build me new patios and decks and paths, none of which I want. Well, maybe a better path. For seconds, I've been developing something in my head, and while it would be really helpful to have a plant expert on hand to help me figure out what to plant where, I'm working on it and getting there. And thirdly, I don't think they do much long-term thinking about the gardens they implement. Mine is full of loose, flinty soil and needs a lot of conditioning rather than decking. It still means that FIL's portion of the garden fills me with soul-crushing despair (though my apple trees are flourishing, and I think there are greengages on one of his trees!), but I can probably figure it out, when I have to. Meanwhile, I shall dig myself one flowerbed at a time and see if I can plant pretty things all by myself.

O.M.G. this kitten! I cannot stop watching! SO much drama!

A couple of ridiculous links via Skepchick:

Tortoises wearing cosies

and

a dancing robot spider

and also

Peacock spiders in mating displays from WTF, Evolution?


Also, my Boy is getting a new, improved job in the new year. *pride*

Well. My day started exceptionally happily today, as frausorge sent me a link which filled me with joy.



Lance! Lance, looking so pretty! A single, perfect tear...

I'm still not gonna eat that stuff tho'

Also, Lance was hanging out with Alan Cumming recently. This can never be bad, although I could have wished for a better photo than this.

Heh. Like, this.

Does anyone else think Lance's nose is growing back?

And now, time for a meme:

1. Reply to this post with "LAVA LAMPS ARE COOL" and I will pick six of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

turlough picked these icons:



Alan Cumming is my kinky crush, as per this post. As for this particular picture, I just liked it - the sexual ambiguity in it is so brilliant. Sadly, I don't know what play (or other production) it's from, or why he's dressed as a woman.

The Crown Frog, made by amethystia, just happened to crop up when for some reason it was a brilliant icon to use for a story I was posting, or possibly commenting on, at the time, and I like it enough to have kept it. It's surprisingly useful!

made by celticfire, who did a great job. I only acquired it fairly recently, but how could I resist? One of those icons that's appropriate for almost anything.

This was made by rrr_nightingale, and I'm not surprised if it baffles you a bit. It's my Vorkosigan icon, for commenting on Bujold-centric posts. In one of the stories, we learn that Gregor (the Emperor) once gave away an elephant, something of a bribe to a visiting ambassador. Just goes to show, if you figure out what motivates people, you can get ever so much out of them.

Ah, Lance. There was a photoshoot not all that long ago in which Lance was made up all scruffy and collared and spike-haired and, well, all kinds of things that I don't think of as particularly appealing most of the time, but, well. Lance! I made a whole bunch of them (interspersed with similarly unlikely photos of Lance as a boxer). Woof.

This was something I made for one of the severalplums Hallowe'en challenges. I made the texture, and liked the result. But it doesn't get a lot of use.

A few things I've come across today.

The Best People, something of a rant from Kari Sperring.

What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% of the speed of light

The fifty cutest things that ever happened. Well, there may be worthier candidates than these, but many of them made me smile. The soft toys, the cat family portraits, the pug in a horned helmet and the elephant at the seaside are probably my favourites.

And, for your delectation, ( possibly the most beautiful naked picture ever )

BIL has gone back to his own place, to prepare for his hideous economy-class journey to Australia next month. My Bro and his girlfriend came for lunch yesterday, which was particularly nice—I rarely see him, and we had some amusement sorting through the gigantic box of photos and sundry stuff that came from my Dad's house. None of us seems to have a picture of him as a baby with our mother, which is kinda sad.

We still have Pig to consume, though it has seen us through three meals and several hot pork sandwiches now. Today's was coated with a mixture of maple syrup, honey, sherry and other nice things, and tasted pretty good, although I should have made the coating rather thicker. I was pondering putting the head on a spike in the front garden, but had better not cultivate too much of a reputation for being barking mad eccentric if I want to sell tickets for our shows. I'll post pictures when my pestilent Beast manages to upload them, as they're on his phone.

Have sent feedback on 17 MTYG stories so far, and am thus well on my way to being a Hero of MTYG. If you can also be a Hero, there is a reward available, also on LJ. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to see some rec lists, squee posts and so forth. MTYG readers seem very quiet this year!

A little signal-boost for a new community here on DW, simply_soap, made by raynedanser, who has been having a lot of fun and some frustration with soap-making of late.

And, because *everyone* should see this, Lance and Lisa Lampanelli singing together on YouTube. Oh, Lance.

Okay, I am totally sold. Adam Lambert is *adorable*.

In evidence, I offer this interview with Elvis Duran.

Dammit.

If you have nothing better to do (ahaha!), you could while away a few hours minutes making your own snowflake.

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

It's very satisfying, and charitable too.

My first snowflake is #2,851,318.