julia_here

Better late than never?

2018-08-13T04:33:28Z

Hey! I'm alive. Things are weird.

But, you know, I'm going to Worldcon. Am I the only one? Are any of you going to be there? Is life that full of possibility?

Julia, life, man, it just keeps on living.

Life, man... it's complicated, what can I say

2017-12-25T06:42:47Z

I haven't been ignoring LJ so much as finding it hard to come here and think about how to consolidate and communicate the small ways I've been overwhelmed by my immediate reality for this past six months.

Also, I'm at a loss as to how to upload photos here, and when words come hard photos always work.

Nothing else utterly tragic has happened, except for the apparent crumbling of my son's marriage and his return to the SE bedroom in my cluttered residence, with the bonus of having my toddler grandson Walt here for dinner three or four nights a week, two of which follow whole days of him being here. He is as dear, sweet, charming and handsome as a blue-eyed ginger 19 month old can be, and he deserves less damaged adults than the hand he's been dealt.

I wish I could show you a picture.

This evening he and I got way too much time to work on communicating our mutual needs and expectations when his dad's car slid off my fucking impossible driveway a little in the utterly unnecessary snow which fell today. I think we did OK- we ended up looking through photos on Facebook of my first-cousin-once-removed's visit to Japan so his little girls' grandparents could spend time with them, and talking about how the littlest one, who is from February to May older than Walter, was someone he would see for a long time, and also how, when he has a bad cold in November, so did she, and she got so sick she had to get a nebulizer with a dragon face on it so it didn't hurt to breathe, but that now she was well and could get in a big airplane and fly across the ocean to Japan.

I have a Christmas tree up, and lights outside, and lots of presents for Walt although I've sort of failed here and there on other people.

Merry Christmas to you all, Happy New Years, let us all persist in making our lives and our arts and our being as perfect as we can stand.

Julia, with love and nostalgia for when this came easily.

Reality strikes again

2017-06-10T03:47:47Z

Hey!

I spent three days in the hospital this week due to severe (as in: was transfused with four bags of blood) anemia.

I've had more fun.

Atypical colon ulcerations, bleeding so slowly standard fecal tests don't show blood. Gross. But HEY! again: at least I now have an answer to the old, old question "have you ever been told you have a heart murmur?" One of the large number of doctors I saw ordered up an echocardiogram, and I have a heart murmur.

At least my bone-crushing fatigue of late is not merely getting old.

Julia, oh, well

Oh, bother

2016-12-23T19:02:05Z

I was going to post last night, I had the time, and someone else had done the hardest work so I could brain.

LJ had other things scheduled.

2016, man, 2016. It's got Walt, of course, and a whole slew of friends' grandsons to boot, and the public radio station I depend on for my Jazz and local news maintenance doses managed to buy its own license and run a successful capital campaign and for that I am most grateful. There's something else I remembered yesterday, but that was yesterday.

The tarp is still keeping rain on the outside of the house, that's good?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, I'll post the calendar sometime before 2017.

Julia, and now there's an alarm going off, time to take my insulin.

Last weekend, at my house

2016-05-27T18:00:07Z

So, cute, aren't we?

Julia, and now for another day of doing as much as I can, which is not as much as needs done.

Hello, Or what I did between 4am and 4:15am this morning

2016-05-09T02:01:16Z

I finished Ancillary Sword, and became a grandmother!

Samuel, His wife Annie (after a 32 hour induced labor and six hours of pushing), Annie's mom Susan (a nurse)and a slice of her dad Chuck.

Anna, ex Miss Perfect, now Mrs. H, holds her nephew Walter Charles, all 20inches and 9lbs 2 oz of him, and sorry for not doing the conversion to international units but I got essentially zero sleep in the past thirty-odd hours and I cannot math.

Julia, I wonder if comments will work, or anything at all.

Well, I'm still a big enough sucker to have a LJ Paid account

2016-02-14T23:45:32Z

But I still don't have sufficient time to update, sorry.

I'm back!

2016-01-26T22:30:47Z

Of course it's hard to tell when I am away, really.

Franklin got me a new iMac for Christmas/anniversary/Valentines/Easter/birthday and then spent last weekend struggling to get it to hook up to the internet, oops. He finally succeeded Monday morning after he gave up and went to sleep and it came to him in a dream that he had ignored the Xfinity security settings.

Well, almost: he remembered that when he fell asleep at the computer and then couldn't do anything about it because Sunday he'd been so sleep-deprived that he didn't understand where I put his laptop (where the security information lives) when I found his cat sleeping on top of it.

It was a weird weekend all around, what with the sudden trip to Portland to pick up the computer we didn't think would be in until four days later. I did see a Great Egret in a pond next to the Amtrak/BNSF mainline south of Kelso, and swans of undetermined species on a big pond east of the freeway north of Woodland when we passed just at sunset. And then there was the four person out-of-it comedy extravaganza on the sidewalk in downtown Portland where a diabetic who needed to eat, a pregnant woman ditto, a guy who went to bed at 4am and one who started work at that time tried to figure out where to eat.

And a Great Horned Owl dropped down over the car and swung around the corner to go up an alley in the Pearl District.

Julia, I can now edit photos up to the limit of the camera's lenses and sensors and the computer's editing program and my own hands, eyes, and brain instead of being limited by a crappy monitor and my ability to guess.

PS: OK, WHERE DID THEY HIDE SPELL-CHECK THIS TIME?

December, finally

2015-12-30T20:31:55Z

This is actually the photograph I would have used for December if Costco didn't munge up vertical formats, so hey, bonus. Only not bonus since the contrast and saturation are stepped on since small automatic cameras have a tendancy to play Star Trek Pilot photofinishing tricks with extreme color and lighting.

Julia, OK, that's it, next year I hope to use the Nikon more and spend more chunks of dedicated time taking pictures!

Zoom!

2015-12-30T20:24:46Z

Running late, not cut out for the night-life anymore even when the night life is grocery shopping at 8pm.

Fall- blooming witchhazel, Hamamellis vernalis

The beginning of the first big rain, when the fear of fire finally ended

Julia, today is hard and cold and blue and the air is full of ice and I am so very glad!

The Heat Death of 2015, remembered for 2016

2015-12-29T18:19:11Z

Sorry I blew off writing back yesterday; I did wash my hair, though, so there's that.

Last summer was a nightmare here; it stopped raining two months early, and the air was always full of smoke. I'm surrounded by shoulder-high dried brambles which I have no means of ridding myself, so for all of the summer I kept running water over them, hoping that I could at least interrupt the path of ignition long enough to let the fire department come.

The July photograph is a lie: this lily meant to bloom in late July and early August was in bloom for less than a week at the end of June

The smoke in this picture spilled over the passes on a changing wind; the day before it had been poisoning Spokane

Flower in the dusk, in a shady corner

The window in this room has lost its seal; I sit with the blinds and curtain closed in preference to a roaring draft. At least the tarp on the roof is secure; from Hallowe'en until a week ago today I fought to send water through the bathroom drains in preference to all over the floor.

Julia, 2015 has been spent pushing water around, basically.

June, she'll change her tune

2015-12-28T18:20:14Z

By the time I took this picture last summer, we had had more than five 90F+ (32C+) days and I'd had to release the reserve roosters to the fates so they could find shade.

Vasser Clemens, DWI, dammit

Again, only medium resolution, sorry.

One of the tragedies of raising chickens is just how many surplus roosters you end up with, and also how relentlessly cruel they are to each other and endlessly creative they are in their self destruction, but how beautiful they can be, and how varied in their beauties.

J

Also, too

2015-12-28T18:11:23Z

I'm going to answer comments when I get to the end of daylight, which is still ridiculously early here. I'm writing it in my agenda: 4:40PST (00:40UTC) take shower, wash hair, then reply to comments.

Roseanne and her new calf, with eldest-calf-of-the-year Luna supervising

This is almost as much Not Fun as loading images for the whole calendar into the Costco application.

Julia, and that's a medium-resolution image because that's all LJ would accept.

Second Quarter

2015-12-28T17:57:57Z

Very Monday here; Mr. Space has been taking vacation time to have four day weekends since Thanksgiving, and every time he goes back to work I have a harder time getting back into my own routine. Since I've accidentally expanded to 18 pens of chickens that is not a survivable habit.

Looks as if I will only be able to add one picture in this post, OH WELL.

White tree peony, lying about the weather, since by the time I took this the drought had already started.

Oh Live Journal, have you been taking lessons from facebook on bad code, or something?

Julia, will just stick the other two pictures in any old how, I guess?

A more meaningful attempt at communication, I do hope

2015-12-27T19:11:51Z

1. 2015 has pretty much eaten me alive, and in a kind world I could sleep from now until 2016.

2. I will be a Grandmother sometime in the sweet spring of 2016. We know the sex and name already, but I am too superstitious to use them. Sam was showing ultrasounds around Christmas Eve and the last one shows the kid doing a thumbs up, though, so maybe there's room for optimism.

3. Following are the first three 2015 calendar pictures. As per usual, I will send HD files of any of these photos, or anything else in my album, on request. I'll post April, May and June on Monday.

January: Mt. Rainier, sunset in the time of atmospheric inversion

February: In that moment, the Bewick's Wren was the biggest of all birds

March: The Star Magnolia passeth and the Wada's Memory is yet to enter the stage

I should be rushing about and getting dressed to go feed the chickens, but it's 36F and sleeting and I am insufficiently motivated, to put it kindly. Anything I do right now will make me, the chickens, and the feed even wetter, so sitting here and staring at my last piece of toast and the two pills I forgot to take is the better part of valor.

Julia, in my maturity I've heavily discounted the definition of valor.

HELP!!!

2015-12-25T18:21:02Z

I was going to post my 2016 calendar but apparently LJ is no longer my friend; it's deleted all my formatting and refuses to upload the May, June, and December photos.

Merry Christmas, sorry I haven't been around, I may have time to try again tomorrow, any advice?

Julia, it's pretty much how my life has been going, and I'll go away so I don't cry in public now.

So much too much can't quite keep up

2015-10-02T21:32:34Z

And so of course my photo library was damaged and I had to let it be fixed, and then got tangled up in making these pictures good enough to share.

{sigh}

Family Bed (there are a dozen chickens on that perch)

Delayed Maintenance

Summer's Over (it's safe to come out)

Available Darkness

Julia, must go finish a roof so I can move chickens tonight

Still here, very busy, have some chicks

2015-09-02T00:06:09Z

These guys are 24-48 hours old, and the young ladies with them co-brooded them so they have two mommies.

Julia, also, it rained, YAY or at least yay after I finally got the tarp on the roof.

96F here today, about 23 degrees above historic averages*

2015-07-03T06:37:22Z

Reality melts as well as bites

(7/19/2015 Permanent Links:Picture Gallery, Article)

Beautifully illustrated article about the changing nature of Mt. Rainier.

Julia, the past month was the hottest June on record

*35.5C, historic average is 27.5C

So, just to indicate my continuation on this plane of existence

2015-06-26T23:04:48Z

I'm very, very over this whole "summer" thing, especially since the daily highs are running about 15F over the long term average and it hasn't rained a measurable amount for weeks. Also my sister got some sort of virus from her son and then gave it to me.

And of course I have no less work during an average day than if I were perfectly healthy and assuming regular weather.

(GIANT Picspam follows).

Also my husband let the big roosters out, and while they are perfectly tame to humans, they spent last night trying to kill each other. The one that lost is hiding under the front steps and the other one is digging a hole behind the gate in the east yard. If either of the humans in this equation was up to leaning over and grabbing fifteen pound roosters I'd just stick them in their new pen and have done with it, but we are not so swift, skilled nor strong.

So, random photos; I'm just doing a dump of the past few weeks of the pics I've been throwing out on Facebook to keep the people who otherwise call me up in real life and worry from laying that increased social obligation on me.

Reverse chronological order, no comments. Those lilies in the first photo bloomed on July 25 last year. Everything is 3-6 weeks early, the pasture is like tinder, and it's scaring me to death.

Time to go move sprinklers, again.

Julia, Also, if you haven't read The Goblin Emperor do so; it's been the shining exception to general badness lately.

Marking the passage of time in ocarine hues

2015-03-13T18:07:06Z

Sir Terry, thank you for Tiffany, for Esmeralda Weatherwax, Sweeper, for DEATH and his grandaughter Susan.

Most especially with every new loss thank you for Nation and in that thanks once again a strong recommendation that people should read that fine book.

Julia, I will be thinking of Tiff as I go out to check my pregnant cows and then figure out how to fill a giant hole that Giles has dug in the west yard.

Stolen moments

2015-03-05T17:56:02Z

Running slow- or perhaps crawling fast? I dunno.

Here, have a few pictures:

Giles amidst his path of destruction. The two tiny crocuses are among the very few blooms I've seen this year, although his diggling is secondary to the damned rabbits eating them all. We're coming up on his first year with us, and looking back at his early pictures, plus knowing that he cut his carnassials in June leads me to believe that he was closer to eight than eighteen months when we brought him home.

The youngest calf, born last week. I'm up to seven out of fourteen, and have gotten heifers out of three cows who did not previously have pedigreed daughters, so that's wonderful.

Melodramatic sunset picture with birches in silhouette, because I can.

I really need to get my ass in gear, I've been out of bed for coming up on two hours and all I've done is eat, take pills, and order a prescription. No way to get a day started early.

Julia, in need of a day off, I am. Unable to schedule it for at least a month.

Monday, in a year made of Mondays

2015-02-23T17:56:32Z

Sorry for posting so infrequently, what can I say: chickens, calving season, and more than anything pain levels (mostly hips and knees) that make everything I do three times as hard as it should be.

I'd say I'll try and do better but it's unlikely I'd follow through, and I'm giving up bullshit for Lent this year.

Julia, well, and the fail fananon meme because it's been very bad for my social skills

Goodbye to 2014

2015-01-01T07:29:56Z

The good news is that Franklin is back at work, and we will probably get shared leave applied retroactively and all in a lump, after having a paycheck last week that was a fin over $100. That was unpleasant.

There is no actual bad news, except the slog through the next week spending what was supposed to be the bumper in my bank account to keep me from paying bank fees.

Christmas was weird; the best presents I got in December were a Christmas tree and two packages of bungie cords from my sister. We didn't go to Church, nor to any of the family Christmas Eve gatherings because Franklin was still recovering and I was just too tired and grouchy to be good company. We went to my sister's on Christmas day and had dinner with three cousins up visiting from California with two colds between them; my sister caught the cold but luckily neither Franklin nor I did.

I'm sitting here waiting to put a load of jeans in the dryer and toast the new year with a tot of Dalwinnie and a hanging of calenders, and a prayer that we can avoid hospitals next year!

Julia, and maybe I'll figure out why the dog has been so unhappy for the ast six hours.

Honking big photo dump (selections for 2015 calendar)

2014-12-12T21:14:10Z

Looking for best 12 of 2,434.

I was going to put this up as a private post so I could choose between the finalists in months when there's several choices, but then I thought "Hey, people will want to look at them anyway and it's as close as I'm going to get to actually posting for a while."

So, yeah: I may even get around to labeling these so people (and I, too, am a people) can tell where there's more than one choice.

Julia, really should be trying to find someone to put the tarp back on the roof, I guess? #hellastorm got me, too.