Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Feb. 3rd, 2026 01:01 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Books and Literacy." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for readers, writers, storytellers, scribes, editors, publishers, students, teachers, caregivers, children, parents, bookworms, nerds, bookstore owners, librarians, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, superheroes, supervillains, other bookish people, reading, writing, delighting the reader, editing, publishing, bookbinding, shopping for books, telling stories, teaching, inviting students to a lesson, demonstrating tools, educating the whole child, learning, studying, parenting, lending a hand, cooperating, concentrating on a current task, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, respecting people, modeling manners and skills, learning to trust others, observing the environment, engaging all the senses, cultivating a full life, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, choosing your own goals, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, making mistakes, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, other educational activities, books, scrolls, magical tomes, printing presses, pens and pencils, bookstores, libraries, Little Free Libraries, book nooks, windowseats, Montessori schools, other alternative schools, preschools or daycares, Montessori homeschool, prepared environment, colleges and universities, beautiful places, craft centers, community centers, coffeehouses, outdoor classrooms, parks, nature centers, other spaces designed for learning, Triton Teen Centers, mentor circles, intentional communities, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Lacuna, the Aqademy of the Qrossroads, Waldorf toys, Montessori materials, intrinsic motivation, child independence, respect for the child, freedom to choose, freedom of time and uninterrupted work periods, absorbent mind, post-traumatic growth, individualized education, three-part cards, language lessons, mathematics, diverse ages and abilities, self-correcting toys and lessons, natural consequences, freedom of movement, intentional neighboring, diversity, inclusivity, emotional closeness, nonsexual intimacies, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, trust issues, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Valentines Bingo Card 2-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One involves education and reading in the Lacuna.

Arts and Crafts America focuses on fine arts and practical crafts, sometimes education. Bookbinding would be a logical craft.

The Bear Tunnels has future books in a past culture.

Daughters of the Apocalypse have to rediscover many historic skills for survival, including earlier methods of sharing knowledge.

Frankenstein's Family has two scientists teaching villagers to be thoughtful instead of stupid, and after a few years, several more people keenly interested in books and education.

Not Quite Kansas started with mishandling a book of spells, and involves trying to learn about a whole new world.

Path of the Paladins includes the Canticle of Thorns and other books.

Peculiar Obligations has Quakers in organized crime. The Religious Society of Friends has been greatly involved in education, including abolitionist and natural science publications.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people learning things. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Danso and Family, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Quixotic Ideas is set in a world with plenty of magic and a positive tone, where people often help each other and solve challenges peacefully. It includes a healthy magical school.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they learn a lot along the way.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Recipe: Heaven in a bowl.

Feb. 3rd, 2026 03:56 am
pattrose: (Cactus3)
[personal profile] pattrose
Heaven in a bowl.

Ingredients:
18.3 ounces box fudge brownie mix, baked and cooled according to package directions in a 9×13 pan and cut into 1 inch pieces
6.8 ounces instant vanilla pudding (two 3.4-ounce boxes)
3 cups whole milk, cold
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup creamy peanut butter, Peter Pan brand used
16 ounces whipped topping, thawed and divided (1 ½ cups folded into the filling and the remaining used to create the trifle layers) (Cool Whip brand used) (approximately 6 ½ cups)
36 Mini Reese’s cups, unwrapped and cut into halves (divided into 3 – ⅓ amount portions for layering and garnish)

Instructions:
Prepare and bake the fudge brownie mix according to package directions, for your brand of mix, in a 9×13 baking pan. Cool the brownies completely before cutting them into 1 inch pieces. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together the instant vanilla pudding, whole milk and vanilla extract for 2 minutes or until the pudding has thickened.
Whisk in the creamy peanut butter until the mixture is smooth and thick.
Fold 1 ½ cups of the thawed whipped topping into the peanut butter pudding mixture until no white streaks remain.
To the bottom of a 3 quart trifle dish, add half the fudge brownie pieces in a single layer followed by ⅓ of the halved mini Reese’s peanut butter cups sprinkled over the brownie pieces.
Next, spread half of the peanut butter pudding filling over the brownies and Reese’s cups in a smooth, even layer.
Top with half (approximately 2 ½ cups) of the remaining whipped topping spread to an even layer.
Repeat steps 5 – 7 with the fudge brownie pieces, another ⅓ of the halved mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, peanut butter pudding filling and remaining whipped topping.
Garnish the top of the heaven in a bowl trifle with the remaining ⅓ halved mini Reese’s peanut butter cups piled into the center of the whipped topping.
Refrigerate the heaven in a bowl for 3-4 hours or until completely chilled and the peanut butter pudding layer has firmed up enough to easily scoop out individual servings.

2026 60 questions Meme

Feb. 3rd, 2026 12:18 am
pattrose: (White Kitten)
[personal profile] pattrose
What things in your life would you describe as priceless?

1. My family. I realize they aren’t things but they are priceless.
2. My dog Dakota Rose. She’s going on 15 and I hope we’ll have her a couple more years.
3: Our home.
4. Some art done by my two brothers that papercut, draw and paint. I love every peace.
5. My books.
6. My music.
7. I forgot friends. I think of them as family.
8. My DW communities and friends.
9. My Dad’s favorite cook book, which I use to this day. He was a chef.
10. My photographs. There are so many.

2026 February Questions Meme

Feb. 3rd, 2026 12:12 am
pattrose: (Blair Cute)
[personal profile] pattrose
Is there a book you’ve seen made into a film and been disappointed with the result?

I think books are always better than a movie but I can’t think of one that disappointed me. I’ll think of a bunch later. 😁

[community profile] proshipfest

Feb. 2nd, 2026 11:13 pm
pattrose: (Default)
[personal profile] pattrose
Yesterday and today's links to my prompts being filled. [community profile] proshipfest



1. https://archiveofourown.org/works/78744006 Prompt: Favorite Dinner Fic
2. https://archiveofourown.org/works/78824806 Prompt: Exclusive or no Moodboard

Wildlife

Feb. 3rd, 2026 12:06 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Hundreds of new species found in a hidden world beneath the Pacific

As demand for critical metals grows, scientists have taken a rare, close look at life on the deep Pacific seabed where mining may soon begin. Over five years and 160 days at sea, researchers documented nearly 800 species, many previously unknown. Test mining reduced animal abundance and diversity significantly, though the overall impact was smaller than expected. The study offers vital clues for how future mining could reshape one of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems.


Bluntly put, mining would destroy that very delicate ecosystem, and it would not recover. Also the ocean as a whole is struggling to cope with the damage humanity has already caused, and hasn't got the fault tolerance left to cover more.

Holiday Poetry Sale

Feb. 2nd, 2026 11:06 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
With today's posts, all sponsored poems from the 2025 Holiday Poetry Sale have been posted.  You can now check the sale page for title links to see if you missed any earlier.
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] helgatwb. It also fills the "Plunging Hoofs" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred.


"To the Beat of Plunging Hooves"
-- an indriso


History is often late
To record what's done or said
By the needful, not the great.

Soleated, harnessed, led
Horses drive the wheels of fate
From behind or by the head.

History, like mountains, moves

To the beat of plunging hooves.

Poem: "Each Diverse Human Gift"

Feb. 2nd, 2026 05:11 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the December 3, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] fuzzyred. It also fills the "Fresh-baked Bread / Rolls" square in my 11-1-24 card for the Sleepytime Bear Bingo fest, and the "Adaptive Equipment" square in my 9-1-24 card for the People with Disabilities Drabble Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the College Arc of the Shiv thread in the Polychrome Heroics series.

Read more... )

Watch

Feb. 2nd, 2026 05:35 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
There's a new Greenland Defense Front video, "Not For Sale." :D

Wildlife

Feb. 2nd, 2026 05:06 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Some polar bears are getting fatter despite a warming Arctic

Polar bears tell you a lot about what’s going on in the Arctic. When food is hard to find, their bodies show it fast. When hunting gets easier, they put weight back on. Less sea ice has meant thinner polar bears and fewer of them.

That’s what makes the situation near Svalbard – midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole – so unexpected. Despite ongoing sea ice loss, adult polar bears there are not in worse shape.

Many are actually heavier than they were years ago. Extra fat is not a small detail for a polar bear. It often decides whether the animal gets through the year
.


This is super exciting because for years I've been reading about Alaskan polar bears starving. If this other population is getting fatter, then maybe there is hope for the species. :D

Read more... )

Buffalo Seed Company Order

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:24 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we ordered some landrace seeds from the Buffalo Seed Company. They have a lot of great options. This is also a step toward my goal of planting more landraces.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:20 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and cold.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a large flock of sparrows and a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I put out more birdseed and a new peanut suet cake.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.
 

Website Updates

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:14 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Thanks to [personal profile] nsfwords, the series Quixotic Ideas is now up to date. \o/  This is upbeat fantasy with magic integrated into everyday life.

2026 60 questions meme.

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:41 am
pattrose: (Default)
[personal profile] pattrose
What is one totally free thing that changed your life?

Well, it wasn’t totally free but I would say my computer. And years later my iPad. Having a computer changed everything. I was able to learn all about fandoms and communities. I went wild. I’ve only been on DW. For about six years. I learned I could write Fan fiction and talk to. Other people about. I’ve been thrilled ever since.

And something that was totally free would be discovering. DW and AO3. I’ve never been happier.

How about you? What was your turning point?

2026 February questions meme day 2

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:32 am
pattrose: (Default)
[personal profile] pattrose
2. When was the last time you saw an original hand-painted painting?

We have a studio in Tucson, Az called Degrazzi Art Studio. Some of his art is gorgeous. Most of them are prints, but they have originals too. And then I have a brother who is an artist and I have many of his originals. He is a paper cutter religious artist. All of his work is beautiful. Now he paints for as long as he can. He has macular degeneration. He’s losing his sight. I will add some links for these later.

A link to see Dan Paulos’ artwork.
https://www.instagram.com/danpaulosart/

A second place with some of his artwork.
https://fineartamerica.com/art/dan+paulos

Degrazia studios in Tucson, AZ

https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Ted-DeGrazia/F3CE3AA4837D8EB9/Artworks
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