Today is mostly sunny and cool.

I fed the birds.  I've seen some sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds. 






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This poem is spillover from the June 4, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Public Places" square in my 6-1-24 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred and mama_kestrel. It is an alternate universe crossover of Polychrome Heroics and Schrodinger's Heroes.

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Tonight I made the blueberry muffins again.  This time I added a teaspoon of freeze-dried lemon powder.  The lemon flavor is there, if subtle.  I may try this again with honey instead of maple syrup.

Straight out of the bag the lemon powder is intense, sour, and surprisingly floral.  It lacks the bitter notes I was expecting, as it comes from complete lemons peel and all, so if you want that you'll need to use fresh zest.  Advantages of the powder are that it's not overwhelming, it's dry rather than wet, it's not so acidic that it's liable to curdle things as fresh lemon juice can do, it can't spill, it should have good shelf life, and unlike lemon extract it contains no alcohol.  I'd like to explore more uses for this.  One suggestion was making lemonade or stirring it into tea, and yeah, it does smell like lemonade powder.  If you like sour flavors, you could certainly use this as a dusting ingredient for candies or cookies.

Here are the notes for "The Strange Transformations of the Moth."

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These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "The First Swath Cut by the Scythe"
Linguistics
Poem: "Finding the Gold of the Spirit"
Poem: "Thresh Through the Complexity of Life"
Today's Cooking
Birdfeeding
Romance
Poem: "Knitting Is a Therapeutic Activity"
Today's Adventures
Vocabulary: Vellichor
Birdfeeding
Science
Creative Jam
Philosophical Questions: Tribalism
Today's Adventures
Today's Cooking
Follow Friday 10-17-25: Joss Whedon
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Books
Birdfeeding
Food
Gaming
Birdfeeding
Activism
Hard Things

Poem: "New and Innovative Approaches" is featured in today's Magpie Monday by dialecticdreamer. If you like Frank the Crank, drop her some prompts or join the discussion under the poem, which already has 19 comments.

Trauma has 30 comments. Food has 52 comments. Affordable Housing has 55 comments. Robotics has 89 comments.


"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $191 to be complete. Maiara and Arthur discuss taking notes.


The weather is much cooler and fall-like now. It rained most of Saturday and was around 75°F that day, then dropped 20 degrees overnight so Sunday was around 55°F. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel. While we were out Saturday, I saw a bald eagle! :D 3q3q3q!!! Currently blooming: dandelions, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, moss rose, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, morning glory, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, cypress vine, sunchokes, sedum, violas. Tomatoes, ball carrots, and groundcherries are ripe. Fields are about 2/3 harvested.

This year's Asexual Pride Week runs October 19-25.

My QUILTBAG characters include many aroace ones.

Asexual Book Lists

This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It fills the "scythe" square in my 8-1-25 card for the Discworld Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred and mama_kestrel. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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This poem is spillover from the July 15, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from fuzzyred. It also fills the "Gambling" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred and mama_kestrel. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. This is a sequel to "Renewing a Sense of Community," so read that first or this won't make much sense.

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Today I am making butternut squash soup inspired by the recipe from Stock the Crock.  I'm modifying it because we have a tiny butternut and there are only 2 of us.  I'm using the corncob broth for the first time, so that's exciting.  I also used pumpkin pie spice instead of the rather stingy amounts of cinnamon and nutmeg; we use this regularly in baked acorn squash.

My partner Doug pointed out that there is no protein-heavy ingredient.  It's a pureed vegetable soup once finished.  So if we like this, one future option would be to add a flavorless white bean, such as navy beans, that will blend in smoothly and add protein without really affecting the flavor or texture much.  Alternatively, we could dice up some bacon to stir in or sprinkle on after seasoning.  A later thought would be adding chicken puree, as squash soups often use chicken broth to good effect, but I haven't ever tried to puree chicken.

EDIT 10/19/25 -- The soup turned out quite well.  It didn't make a lot, just enough for the two of us and one leftover, so I'm saving that in the freezer.