The Wordsmith's Forge

dialecticdreamer is hosting Feathering the Nest with a theme of nonsexual intimacies. Leave prompts, get ficlets!

Bonus story: If I reach $150 in tips, I’ll post a bonus story that doubles the total word count for everyone to enjoy. A prank locks Torrin, two new friends, and Loudmouth into the basement safe room. OOPS!

Today we made a smoothie with:

1 cup almond milk
1 cup Brown Cow vanilla yogurt
1 banana
1/2 cup fresh mulberries
1/2 cup ice

This is bright purple and fairly thin, without much flavor.  Usually smoothies need fruit juice to be good, except for using almond milk with nut butters and honey.

Today is hot and muggy, partly sunny.

I fed the birds.  I've seen house finches, doves, and a squirrel.

I picked mint leaves to go in yogurt sauce for supper, which I put over chicken breasts.

I picked half a bag of mulberries.

The field north of us is flooded at the corner where it adjoins the road.  I saw lots of water beetles in the ditch.

EDIT 6/28/21 -- I broke up more of the brushpile and hauled a trolley to the firepit.

There are a few days left in this fully funded campaign for Filth & Grammar, which I have already backed.

Meet the Freedge, a source of free perishables.  Community refrigerators are the newest form of Little Free Pantry, skyrocketing in popularity over the last year or so.  Don't expect them to last long -- the health boards and other authorities will hate these.  And the idea of uncontrolled security in general.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Moral Enhancement
Unsold Poems for the June 1, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl
Poetry Fishbowl Report for June 1, 2021
Voice Profiling
Conformity
Wet Mars
Autonomous Weapons
Birdfeeding
Life Flashing Before Your Eyes
Community Building Tip: Smile
Chicken Kofta with Yogurt Sauce
Birdfeeding
The Brain at Death
Coping Skills: Talking
Today's Smoothie
The Point of Prison
Birdfeeding
Birdfeeding


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics at present.

"Rainshadow Road" belongs the Daughters of the Apocalypse series. It introduces Maggot to the Clearwater Caravan.

"A Celebration and a Consolation" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. Keira comforts her mother after the breakup.


The weather has been warmer and wetter. It rained several times. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a small flock of mourning doves, a small flock of house finches, a male cardinal, a rabbit, and two squirrels. Currently blooming: orange butterflyweed, Asiatic lilies, orange daylilies, Here-Lies-Butch daylily, violas, hostas, hollyhock, spiderwort, and a couple of white things in the wildflower garden. Blackberries are just starting to turn pink. Black raspberries and mulberries are ripe. Pie cherries are almost done.

Here's an article about the dangers of luxury that connects the past with the present.

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I'm pleased to see someone else admitting that not all cities can stay where they are.  This article gives several examples of how cities could adapt to climate change, including the option of moving inland. 

Some of these are viable solutions for problems like sunny-day floods, saltwater encroachment, or land loss.

However, none of them will defend against the increasingly violent storms that batter the coastlines.  Those range for many miles inland.  Some whole states are at risk, and many more have significant areas at risk.  That's before accounting for the inland  impact of hurricanes.  Since human habitations require water and often hug the coastlines, a complete inland retreat is probably unfeasible.  We'll have to figure out ways of coping with both floods and winds, which is difficult.  But the farther from the coast, the better, for both of those hazards.

In order to choose appropriate response strategies, each city must look at its current and projected problems, along with its general needs and available resources.  The bottom line is that a lot of people will have to move due to environmental foreclosure, and many more will have to change the way they do things.  This can be done in safer, more logical ways through managed retreat or in risky evacuations as people flee just ahead of disasters.

Here's an article about moral enhancement.

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The following poems from the June 1, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Everything That Blooms," "In the Shade of the Mighty Oak," "Let the Children Lead Us," "Autumn's Palette," "Pumpkin Spice Prosperity," "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," and "The Loving Embrace of Night."


"The Aftermath of Disaster"
Story Date: July 2016
Summary: In several different places, people think about what has gotten better after the Big One.
107 lines, Buy It Now = $54

The Big One destroyed
much of the West Coast, but
it has left opportunity in its wake.


"Bane or Meaning"
Summary: A family visit at the Temple of Shaeth stirs up feelings.
54 lines, Buy It Now = $20


"Closer to Where You Belong"
Story Date: Friday, October 9, 2015
Summary: Warshirt and Spotted Deer struggle to deal with their relationship, along with several new victims from the Merry Acres Ranch.
168 lines, Buy It Now = $84

Warshirt and Spotted Deer
were both exhausted.

Following the raid on
Merry Acres Ranch,
the authorities -- tribal,
state, and federal -- had
launched a search for
additional victims.


"The Endless Reweaving of a Social Fabric"
Story Date: Scraping Moon 30, 15 A.E.
Summary: Sir Jacqueline meets a scrounge who has fabric to trade.
283 lines, Buy It Now = $142

Sir Jacqueline was patrolling the land
beyond Lazarus Lake when she spotted
a vehicle on Rainshadow Road.


"Getting to the Next Part of Yourself"
Story Date: [Saturday, January 23, 2016 around 5 PM in China]
[Saturday, January 23, 2016 around 2 PM in Thalassia]
Summary: Kraken roboticists do their best to help the rescued sexbots.
454 lines, Buy It Now = $227

Bayesia was beyond outraged,
but she didn't dare show it.


"Knitting by the Numbers"
Story Date: Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Summary: Shiv visits the Silver Knitters club.
203 lines, Buy It Now = $102

Shiv caught a bus to the Arts Room
over at the Papillion Community Center,
where the Silver Knitters gathered.


"Nourish All Those Things"
Story Date: Monday, March 21, 2016
Summary: Shiv makes lunch for Fred.
182 lines, Buy It Now = $91

Shiv had just finished patrolling
the neighborhood for Boss Finn,
and it was still pretty early.