There's a feeling, I hope, a unidentifiable but deeply uncomfortable burn, felt by white women, who don't know, but should know, how many private brown group chats are typing.
And as I don't want to take on a cringe middle-class racist white woman (at this point there's about five of them that I have at various times decided not to take on, all terribly right-on, right-thinking, probably-vegan feminist pro-Palestine queer white women), that is all I have to say about that.
...Cake! This one combines two hot and happening trends: gray and ombre. Plus polka-dots, which will never go out of style.
Let's hope gray doesn't, either, because pretty much my entire house is painted gray. Some people might think that sounds depressing, but just look at this cake:
Then I learned that it was modeled after a Vera Wang gown, and I felt totally smart and stylish for a second. Then I looked down at my ensemble of mismatched sweats and slowly lowered my hands from their 'raise the roof' position.
Isn't it great how all the ribbon and fabric look like actual ribbon and fabric? Just amazing.
I sure hope you enjoyed today's gorgeous gray gateaux and that your Sunday is especially sweet!
******
P.S. I was browsing "gray whale" things to link today - because whales are awesome -but then this blue whale butter dish popped up and it's so stinkin' cute you get it instead:
Spent the afternoon at Hugh and Meredith's, where Hugh showed Sophia
how his 3d printer works (and how he makes 3d dungeons out of foam).
Very cool stuff, and they both enjoyed their souvenirs. Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Also, gotta love the one dude, BostonSportsBro69, who posts in both /r/relationship_advice and /r/hockey going around in /r/hockey saying "Uh, no, it's just normal sportsbro rival stuff, you're all reading way too much into this" whenbecause he absolutely knows better. (I don't think he's supposed to be one of Ilya's teammates, just a fan.)
A light touch at his elbow had him turning immediately, but he was not greatly surprised to find the Princess Svetlana Vetrova standing behind him and smiling at him impishly. She wore a long, blue pelisse over her gown - to guard against the chill sea winds, Ilya supposed, such as they were in June - and an extravagant poke bonnet, curled plumes cascading along its crown, sat atop her glossy ringlets. She was accompanied by her maid - a dour creature - as propriety demanded whenever the Princess took the air on the deck. Now, the woman waited a few steps away and stared down at the hem of her dress, providing them with the semblance of private speech. Ilya had no doubt that she would, nevertheless, memorise every word that passed between them and report back to Svetlana's mother - at least, she would do so if they conducted their conversation in Russian.
"So, you have not succumbed to the seasickness like your Mama," he said by way of greeting, in French.
Last weekend, we stayed in a Landmark Trust property a mere half-hour journey to Bletchley Park. We were surprised by nice weather on the Saturday, so we made the trip. Below is an assortment of photos from the selection of buildings we managed to visit over the course of five hours. I don’t think we saw more than a third of it, so we’ll definitely take advantage of the year-long entry that the steep admission price gets you to see the rest.
The dingy basement has had a lick of paint and yet somehow doggedly retains its character.
Listening stations.
Keiki does some Morse code-breaking.
Humuhumu does some Enigma encoding.
A surprisingly dry and sunny day after all the rain we’ve been having.
Daffodils were not quite ready.
The Mansion seemed like it was a bit of all right.
Not so sure the Intelligence Factory needs this.
Humuhumu and I spent quite a while on this interactive exhibit, plotting the locations of various maritime assets and enemies.
Many of the personal testimonials in the exhibition mention how boring and repetitive some of the intelligence work was.
You can see why they resorted to putting frogs in the pneumatic tube system to liven up the day.
The Park is beautifully maintained and the interactive exhibits are well designed and engaging - I’d say from the age of about 10 on up - so well worth a visit. I restrained myself to one book in the gift shop (The Walls Have Ears by Helen Fry) but could easily have brought home a stack.
I did two collages but I am only happy enough about the card for my sister to share. Made with Michael's craft store packet of Chinese New Year stickers. The black is actually gold, I just closed the lid of the scanner so it's black. And the print under the lower left side is Japanese, but I am 100% certain my sister won't know the difference.
( 1-19 ) 20. infatuation 21. maternal love 22. obsession 23. agape 24. love of animals 25. unconditional love 26. forbidden love 27. ecstasy 28. the beloved
---
Here is a snippet from At Bertram's Hotel which inspired the double drabble below with the theme of infatuation and the second part ties into Nemesis and the theme of maternal love.
...Jane Marple, that pink and white eager young girl...Such a silly girl in many ways...now who was that very unsuitable young man whose name—oh dear, she couldn’t even remember it now! How wise her mother had been to nip that friendship so firmly in the bud. She had come across him years later—and really he was quite dreadful! At the time she had cried herself to sleep for at least a week!
Nowadays, of course—she considered nowadays...These poor young things. Some of them had mothers, but never mothers who seemed to be any good— mothers who were quite incapable of protecting their daughters from silly affairs, illegitimate babies, and early and unfortunate marriages. It was all very sad.
---
Day 20: Infatuation
Title: Mother's Wisdom Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie Rating: Gen Length: 200 Summary: Jane Marple bumps into a crush years after.
So for this I am doing my All of Agatha review of Nemesis. So this is the last Miss Marple novel written (though Sleeping Murder would be published later, it was written in the 1940's and put in a vault), published in 1971.
Nemesis is a brilliant story with so much lovely foreshadowing and character exposition and misdirection. And it also evokes a nauseating amount of cringe and revulsion for the modern reader.
So the plot is that Miss Marple gets a vague assignment from Mister Rafiel (the rich man of A Caribbean Mystery) after that man's death and she goes on a tour of homes and gardens and eventually works out that Mister Rafiel's no-good son who is in prison for killing his girlfriend didn't actually kill her. The plot is very well done, and it has many great elements, foreshadowing with the use of plants, harkening back to Miss Marples earlier cases, interesting characters including the lawyers who think this is all crackers and the best lesbian duo in canon after Hinch and Murgatroyd of A Murder is Announced (Cook and Barrow, the women hired to protect Miss Marple). So many wonderful things and I love the story.
But...
Agatha Christie is the very LAST person in the world you want to get love advice from, ANY kind of advice for ANY kind of love. And she has definite opinions about what a 'real mother' is. Adopted mothers are not real. And adopted mother love can never match biological mother love and is, in fact, twisted and warped and deserves punishment (and is punishing). But then (as in the quote above) she says that the problem of 'modern' girls is that their mothers are no good. She has a lot of very old lady 'get off my lawn' ideas about young people and their sexual behavior.
And she has extremely warped ideas about marriage, why people should get married, the expectation of infidelity, roles of husband and wives. There are two sections that proffer undiluted rape apology. Really, I was beginning to think she was getting worse as she got older but then I remember The Man in the Brown Suit and decided she had always been like that.
But...
it's a great plot and Miss Marple saves the day and wins 20,000 pounds and probably enjoys the partridge she buys with her winnings very much.
Full Recipe 👇 🥛 Main Ingredients 1 stick unsalted butter (115g), softened 4 oz cream cheese (120g), room temperature 1¾ cups all-purpose flour (200g) 1 cup granulated sugar (200g) 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ tsp baking powder 👩🍳 Directions ➡️ Cream together the softened butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. ➡️ Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract, then beat until smooth and creamy. ➡️ Mix in the baking powder and flour just until combined — avoid overmixing for soft cookies. ➡️ Cover the dough and refrigerate for about 1 hour to firm up. ➡️ Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). ➡️ Roll the chilled dough into 1–2 inch balls and place on a baking sheet. ➡️ Gently flatten each ball with your hand. ➡️ Bake for 9–11 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly golden. ➡️ Let cool completely, then dust generously with powdered sugar. Enjoy these ultra-soft, buttery cream cheese cookies
Ingredients: • 2 tablespoons olive oil • 2 pounds ground beef • 2 pkgs. taco seasoning • salt and pepper • 2 cups shredded Cheddar from the block • 2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese from the block • 6- 8-inch flour tortillas • Corn, drained • Red onion, chopped • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed. • Red pepper, sliced and cooked. • Shredded lettuce, for serving • Fresh cilantro, for serving • Sour cream, for serving • Pico de gallo, for serving • Guacamole, for serving� Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch springform pan with olive oil. Set aside. 2. In a large skillet, add the ground beef and cook until browned. Drain grease. Add taco seasoning packet and cook to package directions. Set aside and allow to cool. 3. Place a tortilla in the bottom of the greased springform pan. Top with a thin layer of the beef and some corn as well as some cheese. Repeat this adding red onion. For the next layer repeat this again using some black beans. For the next layer repeat and add the cooked peppers. After adding your last tortilla top with about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. 4. Bake for 15- 20 minutes. Until the cheese is melted and it’s is cooked. 5. Remove from the oven and allow to set for 10 to 15 minutes before removing the side of the pan, slicing and serving. 6. Garnish with shredded lettuce, cilantro, sour cream, pico de gallo and guacamole. 7. Enjoy!
22. What is your favourite writing implement – a fountain pen, ballpoint pen, pencil or something else?
A friend of mine gave me a thick retractable pencil that is thick lead. It's a mechanical pencils. I've never seen one before but I love it. I mean a thick one. I can erase mistakes. Yay! But other then that I use a fine point gel pen. I have four different kinds. And I use legal pads like crazy. And there are post-it notes all over everything. It may be a weird system but it works. Oh the thick pencil is called Paper Mate Handwriting. For 5 of them and extra lead they cost 3.49. Can't beat that.p
How do you want to contribute your talents and passions to the world? Who could be touched by you, and how would it affect them?
I'm not sure about this one. My passions are very simple. I love doing fandom things all week. I also love working on my children's books. I have so much to do with them. There are six of them. I do have the art ready, but a lot of work still needs to be done on the stories. I need to make some time.
Who could be touched by you? Well, I believe the children will have the books read to them and that it will make a difference in their lives. My daughter told me that her 2-year-old carries one of my books around and recites it aloud. Her 8-year-old brother reads my first book to her every night. They both love it. You haven't a clue as to how happy that makes me. I hope that the children know how much love went into these books.
I love making moodboards for all different fandoms. I have more fun.
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