Welcome to my journal. I'm putting this at the top so folks can find things easily. First all the trip journals. They're all family friendly, especially the pictures.

Biloxi Rebuilding Trips

• 2012 -- Trip Journal -- Photographs
• 2011 -- Trip Journal -- Pictures
• 2010 -- Journal Entries -- Pictures
• 2009 -- Journal Entries -- Pictures
• 2008 -- Journal Entries -- Pictures

Next, is all of my fiction, links to what's published, fanfiction, and experimental stories (on a limited list of friends), and I've put everything that's PG or higher under an Adult Concept lock and everything that's R or more explicit under an Explicit Adult lock, as the Adult Concept is supposed to work for 13 and up and Explicit keeps out folks under 18. Ratings are by the listing.

Uhm... and, yeah, I don't friend very often because I really am *bad* at keeping up with my flist.

( The complete list of my published and posted fiction, fanfiction, and fanart for my fiction (wow).Collapse )

Yesterday, while I was stringing up the sugar snap peas (which had tripled their length in just three days of sunshine and plenty of water), I suddenly saw a cloud of bees in front of the entrance.

I asked my boss at the 911 dispatch center (I just volunteer as a transcript person there once a week), Ken Nichols, keeps bees and is very experienced his opinion on when to inspect bees, and he dragged out the lovely old adage of "if you want a dozen opinions, ask ten beekeepers." But he gave a very reasoned argument against going in every week, and for doing a bit more management at the end of the winter, and into the fall.

I told him about seeing larvae forming the last time I went in, and he smiled and said that I'd probably be seeing orienting flights soon, huge clouds of bees right in front of the entrance. They are newborns that are figuring out how to fly and how to find the hive and how and where it is, and every once in a while, after they start to get born, they'll just come out and hover. Knowing what it was made me run inside to tell the boys and grab the camera.

( Cut for pictures and more text...Collapse )

Finally got caught up all the way through the Fullbring arc AND what's now out of the Quincy Arc. Wow...

( Cut for spoilers and babble...Collapse )

Title: Chapter 37: Not Alone
Arc: Twin Souls
Characters: Kyouraku/Ukitake
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Summary: In which the boys figure out what it is that they could and really should be doing, and Daisuke figures out the boys might well be the death of him.
Author's Notes: Whew! Thank you all for sticking with me on this very very long ride. Many thanks to incandescens's unceasing support, betaing skills, and knowledge of the Bleach Universe.
Standard Disclaimers: I do not own Bleach or its characters, nor do I make any money from these writings.

The first chapter.
<< The Previous Chapter: Ch. 36 -- Reflections

( Now, how the hell do we hit him? Collapse )

It turns out that a group of people, intrigued by what Sir Conan Doyle wrote in his Sherlock Holmes stories, decided to do the historical research into the Victorian martial art of Bartitsu. A few of those historians were also practicing martial artists, and they gathered up all the materials and have started a school of neo-Bartitsu, what the art would have become if it were being practiced today...

Last Saturday I attended a local "seminar" by Australian Tony Wolf, on the art and found that it was more of an all-day workout in the art itself. Tony is based in Chicago and is flying around the country promoting the art and his two volume compodium of all the historical kata of the art. He also has done a documentary titled Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes.

( I don't think I've ever hit the mat quite so many times as I did in that one day...Collapse )

In which I learned a great deal about the fact that planning really does help the inspection of a hive, and I actually FIND evidence that the queen is amazing and doing really really well. My husband was wonderful and helped keep me on track and focused for the whole thing, and did an amazing job as cameraman.

( Cut for pictures and lots of thought/textCollapse )

Three days after I installed the bees, I had to release the queen. She was still in her cage, being seen to by her attendents, and with her caught in the hive, the other bees wouldn't leave her and would do their best to stick with her. But after two or three days, she had to be let out so that she could lay eggs for new workers so that they could get on with the business of being a hive.

( Lots more pictures and explanations of what has to happen...Collapse )

I've been waiting quite a while to get some bees. For the last several years I've been following the Boulder County Beekeepers' Association mailing list and getting all the news about swarms, equipment sales, and all kinds of things and last year I lucked into a very inexpensive setup. I thought I'd also lucked into an established colony, but they died off over the summer.

So this winter I resolved to just order myself a package. I am also now on the hot line to assist with swarms, but I wanted a guarantee. So I bought a package. It arrived on Tuesday, and our weather has been crazy lately, so we arrived to get them at a house where snow blanketed everything all around, and I was warned that I wasn't supposed to install the ladies until it was at least 50 degrees outside.

( And so I did!Collapse )

I've earned a new habit this winter. Walking in the cold.

It started during the time before Christmas, when the days were short, the nights long, and the neighborhood had all the pretty lights out. The temperatures would get down into the single digits, and I'd be out there anyway, usually when there was no wind to add to the chill factor, and loved seeing the lights and walking out where no one was.

I had my thick wool cowl, my down jacket, my handspun mittens, and a wool hat that I'd bought on one of our innertube sledding trips out into the mountains. Thick wool with a brim to keep the sun out. Though I didn't have to worry about the sun today. It was overcast and cold.

( And it was beautiful...Collapse )

For most of the last week we've had snow. Thick snow, heavy, wet spring snow, and for a full day and a half it lay nearly a foot thick everywhere. Jet and I had a blast going out and sledding and building snow men, because the usual Colorado snow falls when it's so cold the stuff is powder dry and can't pack worth a darn.

Yesterday, the temperatures got into the 60's, and everything was melting.

We went out walking in the afternoon and the sound of dripping, running water was everywhere. It was absolutely wonderful! All the grass has gone green, and the local weather report says that Longmont is even with its annual average of precipitation for the first time in a few years, and the state as a whole now has 75% of its usual snow pack, so we'll actually have some water this summer, unlike the last few years, which have had unusually warm springs.

( TV and movie watching, writing, knitting, and painting things I've been doing...Collapse )