The Wordsmith's Forge

Today we made a smoothie with:

1 cup almond milk
1 cup Brown Cow vanilla yogurt
1 banana
2 tablespoons cashew butter
1 tablespoon honey
a pinch of cardamom
1/2 cup ice

It's very similar to the honey-roasted peanut butter smoothie, but a little lighter and more floral.  Pretty good. 

Based on an audience poll, this is the free epic for the May 4, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl reaching its $200 goal. It is spillover from the April 6, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Communication" square in my 4-4-21 "Aspects" card for the Genderplay Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Finn Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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Today is sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen doves, sparrows, house finches, a robin, a male rose-breasted grosbeak, and a male goldfinch.  :D

I cleared four spaces for sunchokes in the prairie garden.

EDIT 5/14/21 -- I planted 4 Red Diversity Sunchokes in the prairie garden.  There is 1 extra.

The crows are harassing the owl again.  I saw the three of them fly out of the trees edging the prairie garden, and when I went back to the house they were in the Two Sisters at the east end of the south lot.

EDIT 5/14/21 -- I spread compost around the newly planted sunchokes.

It's like the crows have nothing better to do all day than harass that poor owl.  This time, as the pair were chasing it around the yard, a third  crow flew in from the north field to join the fray.

EDIT 5/14/21 -- I planted the extra leek in the wildflower garden.

If I have counted correctly, there are 2 white sunchokes and 1 red sunchoke left, plus the potted blackberry.

EDIT 5/14/21 -- I cleared 3 spaces in the prairie garden for the extra sunchokes.

I have seen red, yellow, and blue birds in the forest garden today!  :D  Red: cardinal, house finch, rose-breasted grosbeak.  Yellow: goldfinches.  Blue: bluejay.  Also doves, sparrows, robins, and a squirrel.

EDIT 5/14/21 -- I cleared a space to plant the blackberry at the western edge of the prairie garden.

EDIT 5/14/21 -- I spread compost around the leeks in the wildflower garden.  I also labeled a white sunchoke that didn't get done earlier.

As it is getting dark and I am tired, I am now done for the night.

I saw the male rose-breasted grosbeak on the hopper feeder today, and a male goldfinch on the thistle sock. 

The free epic poll is open on Dreamwidth.

There will be a half-price sale in Daughters of the Apocalypse from Monday, May 17 through Sunday, May 23.  Plan your budgets accordingly.

 dialecticdreamer tipped me to this awesome video of making a giant wooden lock and key, showing how a pin tumbler lock works.  Notice how the woodworker has many tools and thinks about how to solve problems as he translates a tiny metal lock into a giant wooden version.  This kind of skill used to be common but is now extremely rare, making the video valuable for that alone.

I can do the same kind of stunt with language, but that's a very different medium.  ;)

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This is the current list of coping skills.

7. Watch cute kitten videos on YouTube.

I especially love Cats vs. Christmas.

Today is mostly sunny and warm with fluffy white clouds and a light breeze.  :D

I fed the birds.  I've seen doves, sparrows, house finches, a robin, and a male goldfinch.

I planted 5 leeks in the prairie garden. There is 1 extra leek.  I may put that in the wildflower garden.  Very nice oval bulbs, about thumb size.  \o/

EDIT 5/13/21 -- I cleared 4 spaces to plant sunchokes in the prairie garden.  They're supposed to be in packages of 4 roots but last time I got more.

EDIT 5/13/21 -- I put compost around the wild ginger and white violet from yesterday.

5/13/21 -- I planted 4 white Diversity Sunchokes in the prairie garden.  There's at least one left in the bag but I didn't have the energy to count or plant more.

5/13/21 -- I spread compost around the leeks and some of the sunchokes in the prairie garden.  

Celandine poppy has a bud just showing yellow.  :D

I found a wrecked bird nest in a bush.  As there has been no high wind, I suspect that a nest-robber tore it apart to the get the eggs.

It is getting dark and I am worn out, so I am done for the night.

This is a song about go-carts and their highly variable effects on female anatomy.  :D  If women ran the world, we would have a lot more songs about this and a lot less thinly veiled dick jokes set to music.