Randomness

My poem "Find a Way Forward" has been published in first_nations_freaks. 

Today is cloudy, cool, and damp. Yesterday it rained on and off all day, then stormed in the evening. As everything is still soaked, I gather that the intermittent rain has continued, and indeed there are chances of rain for the next several days.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of sparrows and several house finches. I heard a killdeer calling in the fields but didn't see it.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/4/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I put out a fresh cake of peanut suet.

It's raining again. I'm hearing faint rumbles of thunder in the distance. It's supposed to storm again tonight.

EDIT 3/4/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

It's still raining on and off, with more storms predicted for tonight.

I heard a mourning dove calling but didn't see it.

I am done for the night.

EDIT 3/4/36 -- I did some indoor planting with my new seed-starting kit. I potted up sprouting seeds of Ambrosia apple, Ginger Gold apple, Pink apple, and yellow pear. I put 2 sprouts in each cell, 3 cells per variety, so 6 of each variety and 24 total. I don't expect them all to live, but that's okay; I have plenty.

The dibble that came with the seed-sprouting kit works quite well to make holes in the small space available. The tiny shovel on the other end is just the right size for the little cells; tedious to fill, but effective. If I wanted to do them all at once, I'd probably lay out all six trays and just dump seed-starting mix over the top, then brush it into the cells. I am less pleased with the Back to the Roots seed-starting mix. It's way too chunky for tiny seeds. I can still use it to pot up things like wildflowers, and the squash seeds will probably be fine too, but I want to look for a different brand.

This is today's freebie, inspired by a prompt from gs_silva. It also fills the "ribbon" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Alien Romance by gs_silva.

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The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "World Cuisine." 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 cooks, fusion chefs, immigrant cooks, eaters, farmers, foragers, food scientists, inventors, recipe writers, famous figures in food history, cooks of disadvantaged groups who should have become famous, superheroes, supervillains, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people active in the food world, cooking, gardening, harvesting, foraging, preserving, writing recipes, discovering things, decolonizing diets, building or using kitchen equipment, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, kitchens, restaurants, food trucks or carts, campfires, barbecue sites, laboratories, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, picnics, grocery stores, farmer's markets, roadside fruit stands, U-pick farms, gardens, food forests, other places where people make food, world cuisine, ethnic cuisines, cookbooks, online recipe archives, permaculture, heritage diets, climatarian diet, traditional foodways, culinary archaeology, food sovereignty, drought-resistant crops, trial and error, ethnic spice sets, weird food, fusion food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, new ideas in cuisine, alternate agriculture, lab conditions are not field conditions, ethics of food, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, 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:

National Crafting Month Bingo Card 3-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has to figure out how to feed a diverse, far-flung group of people who sometimes have special dietary needs.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, including some aspects of food science.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different diets. This often poses challenges for the refugees.

Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find and prepare enough food to survive, when city libraries are out of reach.

Fiorenza the Wisewoman uses herbs and healing foods to care for her village.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania. Igor enjoys cooking and has gotten at least one of the werewolves curious about cooking the human way.

Hart's Farm is a community with food used as one of the popular bonding methods.

Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates in the Caribbean, among other groups and places, leading to a wide variety of foods.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all of whom need to eat. Primal soups and high-burn soups often have special dietary needs. Comfort food and healing food are also very popular here. The Rutledge thread includes Kardal and his food truck Syrian Foods, along with references to Vermont, French, and hippie cuisines. Pain's Gray, Shiv, and the Finns are all fond of cooking too.

The Wandering features old people who drift back in time, the first of whom lands in Goa, India.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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My order has arrived from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. :D

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Today is cloudy, cold, and damp. Last night it snowed a bit, then sleeted, and seems to have rained later. Now most of the ice has melted off.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/2/26 -- I transplanted snowdrops from the parking lot to the white garden.

EDIT 3/2/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I set up a label with the new Sharpie Oil Paint Pen (Extra Fine) and took pictures.

I saw a squirrel in the trees.

EDIT 3/2/26 -- My red curly willow cuttings arrived, as did my order from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. I have set up two of the willow cuttings in water, one in potting soil. I also took a cutting from the fishpond mulberry tree and one from a red dogwood, which I added to the water cups to see if the willows will help those root too.

EDIT 3/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 3/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a male cardinal chasing a female, and a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

I am done for the night.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Clothes
National Crafting Month Bingo Card 3-1-26
Birdfeeding
Emotional Neglect
Today's Adventures
Bingo
Books
Food
Birdfeeding
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Philosophical Questions: Government
Books
Space Exploration
Moment of Silence: Neil Sedaka
Pinetree Garden Seeds Order
Follow Friday 2-20-26: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Winter 2025-2026 J-Z
Birdfeeding
Recipe: African Spice Cookies
Photos: Water Garden
Photos: Worm Bin
Photos: House Yard
Crafts
Vocabulary: Proforestation
Birdfeeding
Willow Cuttings
Community Thursdays
Vocabulary: Bossage
Linguistics
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party

Safety has 50 comments. Food has 53 comments. Wildlife has 40 comments. Food has 67 comments. Robotics has 147 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, March 3 with a theme of "World Cuisine." I hope to see you then!




marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month. See my tracking post and the first check-in post.


"The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds" belongs to Not Quite Kansas and needs $34.50 to be complete. Raymond and Gideon get attacked on the way home from research.


The weather has been warmish here, though it got colder today. Yesterday it rained a bit. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of sparrows, several starlings, a pair of house finches courting plus an extra male, two male cardinals, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel. I saw a downy woodpecker in the trees. Red-winged blackbirds have been singing overhead. Honeybees are out, and finally found the flowers. Currently blooming: crocuses, snowdrops.