TLtT

[hrtsmom]

[hrtsmom]

Assorted Animals pendants

Watercolor images of various animals are featured on these pendants. They all measure approximately 1" in diameter and have attached bails. Buy one or more here.

[hrtsmom]

Painting and sculpture, labour and good faith, have been my ruin and I continually go from bad to worse. Better would it have been for me if I had set myself to making matches in my youth. I should not be in such distress of mind. – Michelangelo

[hrtsmom]

NEW: Yellow Seashell hoop earrings

These cute little hoop earrings feature resin seashells with tiny pastel stars and glitter inclusions, plus pastel glass pearls. Great for spring and summer! Buy them here.

[hrtsmom]

[hrtsmom]

“I went to the public school for a while,” Mother said. “It didn’t seem so bad. Only you always had to be there at exactly the same time every day, spring or winter, rain or shine; and they didn’t let you out til exactly the same hour every day, as well.” She marveled, looking back on it. – John Crowley, Little, Big

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One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike – and yet it is the most precious thing we have. – Albert Einstein

[hrtsmom]

If you know how to read, the World of Books is open to you, after all; and if you like to read, you’ll read. If you don’t, you’ll forget whatever anybody makes you read, anyway. – John Crowley, Little, Big

[macrolit]

Giveaw@y: We’re giving away 12 vintage paperback classics! (Included are four editions from the collection of Alan Churchill Jones.) Won’t these look lovely on your shelf? Enter to win by: 1) following macrolit on Tumblr (yes, we will check. :P), and 2) reblogging this post. We will choose a random winner on 16 August 2026. Good luck!

Follow our IG account to be eligible for our IG giveaw@ys. For full rules to all of our giveaw@ys, click here.

[macrolit]

TODAY IS THE DAY! FINAL REMINDER that we're choosing a random winner at 5pm Eastern, so reblog now!

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Rabbit Greens kilt pin

The centerpiece of this pin is a teardrop-shaped jade pendant with a relief-carved rabbit. It's surrounded by strands of round and tube-shaped green agate. Perfect for spring and summer accessorizing, and for those interested in Chinese astrology (were you born in the Year of the Rabbit?). Buy it here.

[hrtsmom]

Jacqueline and Jillian, who were crying for some of the many reasons that babies cry – they were cold, they were distressed, they were offended by the existence of gravity – continued to wail. Serena stared at them in dismay. No one had told her that babies would cry all the time. Oh, there had been comments about it in the books she’d read, but she had assumed that they were simply referring to bad parents who failed to take a properly firm hand with their offspring. – Seanan McGuire

[hrtsmom]

8/12 Wednesday

Finished: Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells, by various authors. 5 stars; book #44 for the year. I don’t think I’m going to meet my Goodreads challenge goal this year, but there are greater tragedies. This collection was a bit uneven, but that happens. I liked most of the stories but somehow didn’t find most of them all that memorable. My favorites were “The Governess’ by Elizabeth Bear, “The Unwanted Women of Surrey” by Kaaron Warren, “We Without Us Were Shadows” by Catherynne M. Valente, and “The Vital Importance of the Superficial” by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevenson. But I don’t think I’m going to keep this book. It was good, but not . . . memorable.

And then there was the to-remain-nameless romance I started right afterward. I got through the first 12 pages and decided no. Our Heroine spends all that time alternately raving about Our Hero’s gorgeousness and ranting about how thoughtless and annoying he is, while simultaneously and inorganically dumping in the entire back-story. Nothing new or interesting there, despite the raves on the back cover. It was a giveaway so I have no problem putting it right into the library and picking out my next read.

Listening to: Evil Genius, “Labyrinth Blues” by The Longest Johns

[hrtsmom]

8/9 Sunday

RIP Cyril Wright, another Newsimton founder. Husband of Claudette Drinkwater Wright. Father of David Armando, Timmie Willie Drinkwater Christian, Jean Wright Drinkwater, Tosha Wright Vadim, Bob Wright, Dean Wright, Orlando Wright, Rachel Wright, and Wisdom Wright. Grandfather of Paragon Christian, Violet Christian, Willowherb Christian, and Cyril Vadim.

[hrtsmom]

. . . [T]here are certain fish that we get used to looking at. There are carp, goldfish, catfish, shad, cod – they’re fish that are more or less surface fish. They go down to a depth of maybe fifty, sixty, or a hundred feet. People catch them, and we get used to seeing them . . . Whereas if you go down in a bathysphere, if you go down real deep, you see all these bright fluorescent, weird, strange things with membranous umbrellas and weird skirts that flare out from their bodies. Those are creatures that we don’t see very often because they explode if we bring them up close to the surface. They are to surface fish what dreams are to our surface thoughts. Deep fish are like dreams of surface fish. They change shape, they change form. There are dreams and there are deep dreams. There are dreams where you’re able to tap sources that are a lot deeper. I’m sure that if you wanted to extend this metaphor you could say that within the human psyche, within human thought, there really are Mindanao trenches, places that are very very deep, where there are probably some extremely strange things floating around. And what the conscious mind brings up may be the equivalent of an exploded fish. It may just be a mess. It may be something that’s gorgeous in its own habitat but when it gets up to the sun it just dries out. And then it’s very gray and dull. – Stephen King

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8/7 Friday 3:24 PM 77°

Listening to: It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton, “Give Me One Reason” by Tracy Chapman

A few updates to start. RE my medication woes, the pharmacy informs me that the generic version of Farxiga appears to be unavailable so far. So much for that good news.

That loaf of bread I fussed about did end up going moldy. However, I still had quite a bit of plain yogurt left over, so I decided to try again. Less salt, added sugar, a bit more flour because the dough was very wet again. The end result had a much better rise and was less salty (obviously), but was still very chewy. I had a hell of a time getting it out of the pan, too, but I don’t know for sure what caused that. Anyway, it’s better, but I don’t know that I’ll make it again.

I found some more interesting book ephemera last week. There was a letter to the former owner of the book collection. The interesting thing isn’t the content of the letter but the fact that the writer stuck a couple of stickers on the paper. They’re stickers I recognize from when I was a kid! The letter’s dated January 1979, so I guess I was somewhere in junior high. What a weird coincidence.

The other bit was a poem written on one of his ubiquitous index cards. I have no idea whether it’s a copy or an original. Dated May 30, ‘94 (or ‘04 or ‘24).

I felt like an ant standing on a boulder

trying to move it.

The sealing [?] vacuum grew in me

My talk became bland.

She wished me well.

Why she had visited me I never knew

& long afterwards I felt

she never had asked.

No, I would not visit again

Because it wouldn’t be again.

I’ll visit again

I’ll surprise you sometime.

Wearing a peculiar grin,

& glorying [?] like a cheap

But she was distant

& owl eyed, a cloud

gazing off north.

It was as if she’d asked

so here are you –

you’re reading?

How can I help you?

Can I give you indications [?]

Can I tell you what

thinkers [?] have been

important for me?

But she hadn’t asked

any question,

as doctored [?] me.

So that’s a thing.

On Saturday I saw both Lily and Micky watching the shoe shelf in the hall again, so I figured there must be a mouse under there. Early Sunday morning I got up to use the bathroom, and as I was going back to my room I noticed that the folding table in the hall had fallen over on the floor. We know where I’m going with this, right? Poor mousie was quite dead and somewhat flattened. No blood and guts, thank goodness, but not at all a well mouse. No telling whether it was dead before the table hit it. I credited it to team effort, since I’ll be darned if I’m giving a piece of furniture credit. Next thing you know there’ll be a competition going.

I did some work on both books earlier this week. I really don’t know if it was good work or not. Guess I’ll have to wait for the typing to find out.

I also made six pendants the other day. (What day? I don’t remember. I should write in here more often.) One of them, I’m seriously tempted to keep. I also had an idea for the shop: basically to offer made-to-order necklaces and bookmarks. The customer picks a pendant and tells me what they want done with it; I make it and ship it out. Might work; probably won’t. But it’s there.

I’ve been too busy daydreaming about the book signing lately. I’m sure it’s not going to go as well as I’m hoping for. But I can’t help hoping, can I.

Watched: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Desperate Housewives

Listening to: “Tootsee Roll” by 69 Boyz

[hrtsmom]