The Wordsmith's Forge

dialecticdreamer is hosting Magpie Monday today. Leave prompts, get ficlets!

If there are $150 in sponsored stories for this prompt call, I’ll write and post a story in Heron Finn’s story arc of at least 7500 words, effectively doubling the published word count for everyone to enjoy.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "Those Who've Been in the Well"
Poem: "As Gatekeeper to Your Life"
Birdfeeding
Birdfeeding
Community Building Tip: Empty Storefront
Egg Curry Variation
Birdfeeding
Oklahoma Is Creek (41 comments)
Self-Awareness Question: Currently
Sunshine Challenge: Prompt 3 Yellow
Birdfeeding
Sex Robots
It's Okay to Refuse Therapy
Cuddle Party


Last week's fishbowl went well. I am still writing. I have more stuff to post too.

The sunshine_challenge is running this month.
Sunshine Challenge: Prompt 1 Red
Sunshine Challenge: Prompt 2 Orange
Sunshine Challenge: Prompt 3 Yellow


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics at present.

"Protect the Forests" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. The Iron Horses talk about hunting and gathering.

"Pride Against Prejudice" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. The autograph tables are impressive.


The weather has been a little cooler, and we got some rain.  I saw a rainbow!  :D  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a flock of mourning doves, a flock of sparrows, a flock of house finches, several cardinals, several blackbirds, a phoebe, a male goldfinch, and two squirrels.  The barn swallow chicks have successfully fledged.  \o/  The eggs disappeared from the dove nest under the kitchen window.  :(  Currently blooming: comfrey, pinks, violas, alyssum, petunia, Asiatic lilies, daylilies, Queen Anne's lace, Shasta daisies, red bergamot, snapddragons, purple allium, white allium, yellow coneflowers, purple coneflowers, cup plant, blackberry lily, wild senna. Some blackberries have pink fruit.  The Criterion apple tree and the pear tree have green fruit, now that we've gotten far enough into the orchard for a good look.

I've reached the end of scheduled themes for the Poetry Fishbowl project. It's time to brainstorm some new themes! These are a few that I've jotted down earlier, ones that I've thought up or people have suggested, to give you an idea what kind of stuff might be suitable:

* Exoplanets & Other Science Articles
* Everything Is Awful and I'm Not Okay
* Disabilities and Abilities
* Hope Is the Thing with Wings

What other themes would you like to see me write about? What would you like to buy? Suggest them in a comment below this post.

Later on I'll collect the suggestions and do some polling. The most popular topics will be added to the schedule for future fishbowls. I'm going to run the first large poll with checkboxes so you can express interest in as many themes as you like. I will then either pick from the most popular ones, or use that information to pull out the favorite themes for a smaller poll to select the ones which will appear in upcoming fishbowls.

You can also help by linking to this post so that more people will see it. Everyone is welcome to suggest themes. Everyone will also be able to vote for them later; prompters and donors will get extra votes. If you link to the call for themes, you can reveal a verse in any open perk poem:
"Mysterious and Impermanent"
"Greater Than the Sum"
"A Lively Feast"
"Always Carry Your Goodness"
"Crossroads on the Hero's Journey"
"Gökotta"
"The Arc of the Mental Universe"
"So Often Alone"
"Mr. Ian Woon and the Excellent Adventure"
"The Bushfire Shawl"
"Putting Everything in Its Place"
"Everything That Blooms"

These fancy pigeons have curly feathers only  on the brown wings, not the white body.  I am fascinated.  I've seen chickens with curly feathers before, but always over the whole body.  It makes sense that the wing feathers could be coded differently because they aren't the same as the body feathers, but I'd never seen the curly gene split like this before.  I fucking love science.  :D

It's a beautiful day out today, sunny and mild.  :D

I fed the birds.  By the time I got back in the house the first time, they were already at the feeders.

I picked up sticks on the patio so the leaves can be raked up. 

EDIT 7/13/20 -- We burned off the brush in the firepit.

I went back out later and picked up more brush in the orchard.