Queen of Land, Slave to None

Here for the craic

[blendianqueen]

Have I mentioned I loathe sewing?

Recently, it occurred to me: maybe I don't hate sewing. Maybe what I really hated was my mum's crappy Singer that she refused to get serviced. The needles always split the bobbins in half on the regular; switching to metal bobbins only resulted in bent needles.

So I am now the dubious owner of a bobbinless Singer sewing machine. I have no idea how to use this thing, but if I have to start making my own clothes again, I best learn how! Hubs is being his typically awesome self and has created a sewing space in the front room to use. I've gone through all the old clothes and bedlinens from pre-pandemic because, yes, fabric has become increasingly worse since 2020. Even jeans I've owned for 20 years are in better shape than the jeans I bought in the past four, and the only thing missing is a zipper that works.

I will need to do a lot of refreshing of my memory - SCA and home-ec was decades ago, fam - but I will do my best to learn this new kit. I have trousers that long for pockets.

[blendianqueen]

The weather here in West Scotland is so ridiculous I am forcing some of my peonies to open indoors. The ones outside are still as hard as tennis balls. In June.

Since it seems the weather is gearing up to do some Very Unseasonal Stuff, I am putting more and more of our leafy greens into our growchamber. I can't even get the lettuce growing outside right now, the temperatures are too variable and there's not enough sunlight, even though the daylight hours are very long. So, Fish Pepper, Tatsoi, Mispoona, various lettuces, and some chicory for fun is growing inside for now, and some of it may stay in there.

Toms and cucumbers are hanging in the window this year, working pretty well but also not loving the lack of daylight. I can still grow plenty of cherry toms this year, even so, and it will do.

I ordered some squash plants but, to be real with you I'm not expecting much out of them; the weather right now is the kind of dreich that sticks around until a couple weeks in July, and then autumn hammers us with what I can only describe as "Scottish Monsoon Season."

At the very least I will have apples this year I think, and some plums and raspberries. I'll take it, because I don't think there will be much else.

[blendianqueen]

Emergency de-frosting on our giant freezer meant all hands of deck today, but we didn't lose any food and I am proud of my fam - learning to adjust on the fly.

But now I am utterly rekt.

[beachdeath]

“I shall never forget the occasion where I was visiting a school as a writer and the whole place suddenly fell into an uproar because the school tomboy - a most splendid Britomart of a girl - had beaten up the school bully. Everything stopped in the staffroom while the teachers debated what to do. They wanted to give the tomboy a prize, but decided reluctantly that they had better punish her and the bully too. They knew that if, as a child, you do pluck up courage to hit the bully, it is an act of true heroism - as great as that of Beowulf in his old age. I remember passing the tomboy, sitting in her special place of punishment opposite the bully. She was blazing with her deed, as if she had actually been touched by a god. And I thought that this confirmed all my theories: a child in her position is open to any heroic myth I care to use; she is inward with folktales; she would feel the force of any magical or divine intervention.”

— Diana Wynne Jones (via intomyth)

[blendianqueen]

A beginner spindle: too heavy to spin the way I usually do so I had to be more careful. It has been over a decade since I used one but I still have the ken. I have no use for this wool but for spellcords so I think if @msgraveyarddirt would like any, I shall send some when it’s spun.

[blendianqueen]

Tell me you’re from MN without telling me etc etc.

[blendianqueen]

It seems Bagagwa has an owner - but the owner refuses to acknowledge his flea allergy and he is still covered in sores. But at least now he has a collar. I stopped feeding him as she said he had disappeared for a while (!!!) but even now with a collar, he shows up every morning and every night, purring and very affectionate and wanting to hang out for a bit. He adores me - and tolerates the hubs. I will continue to enjoy our visits.

You don’t own cats, really - you just get to borrow them for a bit. I am honoured he stops by to see how I am doing and tell me about everything he has seen.

[blendianqueen]

Once again I am tempted to build a sweat lodge on my property.

And again I have to remind myself I live in Scotland.

[blendianqueen]

Lady's Mantle

When I found this relative growing in my meadow of its own accord, I gave praise and thanks. Paired with @msgraveyarddirt 's yarrow shipments, I've been keeping ahead of my catastrophic perimenopausal bleeds while we figure out what the hell to do hormone-wise.

Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris): Benefits, Safety, Uses | Herbal Reality

Lady's mantle is a potent astringent tissue tonic and wound healer that can be used for a wide range of conditions classified by poor tone.

There are a lot of things to recommend it, but it should be noted long-term use in anaemic folk as myself is not recommended. There are some contraindications and this is by no means medical advice, but if you're struggling with fibroids, perimenopausal irregular bleeding in either direction, or both at once, it would be worth discussing Lady's Mantle as a tincture, tea, or topical treatment.

Since I also have what looks to be vascular lymphaedema, this might prove to be a good ally to help me combat this as well, if I combine her abilities with rosemary. On the whole, anti-inflammatories and vascular weakness seem to be contributing factors to my case.

[blendianqueen]

Got myself a little “greyskin” book to practice writing in. I have been out of the loop of Woo for a while, but I remember when dragon's blood ink actually looked red...lemme guess, it's now a critically endangered substance like myrrh, right?

Well, I can improve on it with some of my Native watercolour. Right now I'm training my motor skills, which were always abysmal, using a basic ballpoint. Muscle spasms still send it skittering across my desk if I work for too long, so I've been avoiding doing charcoal or working with the glass quill until I have more motor control. To be fair I am also not making it terribly easy on myself as I'm working with ring splints or gloves, but if I am not seeing any more improvement in a week, I'll try giving my hands more support to work.

[animentality]

[blendianqueen]

Guess who went to see the gynae and once again got everything I fought for taken away? No more menopause injections, he wanted to do another biopsy (why? You told me the last one was clear, are you doing these for fun? When I asked why he felt it was necessary, and he shrugged and said "Well, if you don't want to..." ???!!!).

Essentially, he wants me on the same thing they put all Black women in the UK on, with no HRT, and "see what happens" for six months. I refused the Mirena coil - you've tried that three times, and the last one tried to embed itself into my uterine wall. So he reluctantly allowed me to keep the HRT but thinks he's gonna give me a minimum dose.

Yeah, look I know all the UK's HRT is on a boat somewhere in the Strait, and I know it isn't Black women the NHS is saving the stuff we have for. I was hoping to deal with this before the real rationing started, but...ugh.

So, once again, I'm bleeding and will be so anaemic in three weeks my GP will start worrying about whether I need to do iron infusions (but they won't be able to, because they won't be able to stop the bleeding). Going to get in touch with her and try and keep my patches, see if she can do the basic injection herself, and get another opinion that doesn't suck.

We have to change Women's health in the UK, y'all. This is some straight up bullshit.

[kurj]

don't ask

[wordsmithic]

Exhibit no.472952 of Crete always being Hellas' Texas

[blendianqueen]

Gave myself permission to play with learning some runestave work - and rather surprised at the sourcing material. I know that the whole world of runes is full of a lot of Discourse (TM) but I gotta give props to the author of one of the most contested books finally coming out behind his pseudonym and publish under his official (full doctorate!) name and title. Apparently, he's far enough along in his career he doesn't care about being labelled the nutter who believes in magic or Made Up Stuff About the Runes. Everyone makes up details for their practice; do the results work? Yes? Great.

So I guess I don't really care if I'm using a system most people would scoff at. The guy who made it has alphabet soup letters after his name and decades of experience in the field, I'm just gonna trust his expertise on this one and add my own flair - in the end, there are always results.

It's the first time I've tried writing by hand in a sketchbook, and my fingers and hands hate me. But this all good training; I have a feeling we'll all be back to writing letters and postcards to one another, if Tumblr continues to get more ridiculous/Discord gets more invasive and less stable. We're running out of internet.

[thulium]

[blendianqueen]

This kale tree was showing heavy scale and wilt. It had rotted in a couple places in the huge stem over winter and finally gave up after five years. I planted a clone plant or two last year as I knew these last about 3-5 years and the kale was pushing five last year as it was.

I needed the bigger pair of loppers I had, as it was 3inches in diameter in some places.

There is still enough for a winter but the reality is we just don’t eat that much kale! This was our hungry gap plant but we didn’t need anywhere near as much as this so I won’t be planting more. As it is, the raspberries are taking over the bed and that’s good enough for us.

[blendianqueen]

Sometimes, the skies here burn gold, the clouds come down like a ceiling, and the loch goes molten. It's almost impossible to catch it properly with a phone, but I try my best. This was a few years ago, and it was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. It's hard to describe, but the sky burned.

We get some legit weird atmospheric effects here. Once the sky was brilliant pinkish-purple. It felt like we were on an alien planet. My husband was so freaked out he went inside. "Doesn't look like Earth out there."

Love this place.