HSU IT Department

Early voting started at ten am. We were there at 10:05 -- and so were about a hundred other people :)

Feel free to share this around. Let's make it a Thing.

A friend pointed me to this stunningly powerful and beautiful photography project, by Mikael Owunna. The name of the project comes from Chinua Achebe, but it also makes me think of Carl Sagan's famous quote, "We are made of star stuff."

'Every Black Person Deserves To See Themselves This Way'

It brought me to tears...

This morning my mom sent me a link to these many many live-stream bird cams!!! Eagles, condors, ospreys, owls, falcons, even a hummingbird on her tiny little nest. Since it's spring, many of them have eggs or live young right now. Man, I could watch this stuff all day long. (There are cams for the non-birders, too -- other categories on the site include bears, oceans, African savannah, animal sanctuaries, etc.)

Ain't nature wonderful?

Prompt claiming is still open over at sshg_promptfest! It took me forever to narrow down my choices but I've finally picked one. I'm delighted to see that one of my own prompts has been claimed -- my favorite one, in fact -- so yay for that. Go browse, see if something sparks your fancy!

In other news...

Last week we went for a walk and three tiny ponies were roaming the neighbor's yard and munching his grass. We haven't seen them again since, so we don't know if they were (a) pets, (b) a new method of lawn-mowing, or (c) a marauding band of miniature wild mustangs, descended from the hills now that there's no traffic. I keep hearing that wildlife is encroaching into deserted cities, so you never know. I suppose it's also possible that they were (d) a hallucination. We haven't been getting out much.

Yesterday I made banana muffins for the first time! I make banana bread often, but this time Mr Psmith requested muffins. I had meant to put chocolate chips in half of them (because CHOCOLATE, amirite?) but I forgot. Fortunately, I remembered that one Seinfeld episode, so when they came out of the oven, all warm and smelling like pure heaven, I carefully took off the tops of two of them, inserted a few chips (ok, more than a few) (ok, a LOT), and put the top back on. They are DELISH.

Our chickens are out of the house and into their coop in the side yard. They seem deeply suspicious of the little ladder leading from the chickenhouse part down into the fenced run, but we are in hopes their natural curiosity will tempt them out eventually. I kind of miss their little "cheep cheep cheep" coming from the other room, but I can't wait to have our very own eggs. Mr Psmith wants to get goats so we can make our own feta, but I have drawn A Very Firm Line at that. At least for now...

Oh, and POTUS is still a brainless moron. By now that's not really news, though, is it?

I love both these guys.

The yews in our backyard are pollinating, most exuberantly and splendiferously. I have never seen this before and did not know this was a thing -- we thought they were on fire at first!

Arthur Greenleaf Holmes, the English Libertine Poet, delivers his scandalous verse and takes your live requests from the rectory at the Church of St. Thomas The Polygamist. Live on YouTube, tonight at 7pm EST.

Watch here.

Warning: With poem titles like "I built my love a menstrual hut" this show is not for the faint of heart or ear. (When he says "wildly inappropriate" he really means it.) But it is also clever, funny, elegant, highly literate, and shows off a delightfully quirky way with language. One of our absolute favorite performers at our local Ren Fest.

Edit: Here's his channel, if you want to see more/subscribe.