infatuation du jour
I‘ll admit it. I can be flighty. So here will be a repository of things that fascinate me today, but who knows about tomorrow? (Scroll down for previous flights of infatuation.)
~oO0O0Oo~
March 28, 2012 My new infatuation is–the garden. Totally organic, a Square Foot Garden
Then the Resident Storm Chaser took over and added two more. This required the judicious carnage that resulted in removing about 1/3 of Audrey II, the rose bush that grew to encompass the entire sunny area of our back yard in ten short years. You can see where the foliage is missing and her bare limbs are exposed. Naughty girl.
I misjudged what could be planted effectively in a square foot and what could not, so I am also using big plastic pots to grow the things that otherwise would sprawl too wide and take up too much room–squash and tomatoes and one pot of potatoes. (One entire raised bed has been devoted to potatoes, as well. It’s a couple of inches deeper–12 instead of 10–and is behind the planted bed in hte picture. Note roses sprawling over it.
Yesterday I decided to take a picture with my MacBook. It’s not sharp, but it gives you the general idea of the state of the garden on March 27.
Note Audry II. There will be more about her in a later entry.
For the record, we’ve eaten numerous salads out of the garden–the joy of planting bedding plants instead of seeds is “instant salad.” I minced up various herbs to sprinkle over the top and we didn’t even add dressing.
I will not post images of me modeling the requisite fashion sensibilities of organic gardening. But you can imagine it. Sunscreen, chicken manure, cotton burr compost and sweat. Jeans, t-shirt, wide-brimmed hat.
Okay, okay, you win. Here I am!
Click image for more fabu garden fashions!
How does YOUR garden grow?
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November 7, 2011 Beginning with… steampunk. I discovered steampunk about a split-second before it exploded into its full velocity of cool. Since I deal with books in the library, let’s look at the visual appeal of this approach to science fiction-meets-art.
Imagine an alternate Victorian universe of Jules Verne or HG Wells or… okay, even The Wild Wild West. Mechanical birds… what could they do? Carry messages or explosives. Spy and report back what they see and hear. Steampunk is looking back and forward at the same time. Science fiction futures from the view of the Victorian past.
It has its own fashion sensibilities.
And its own interior decor.
You must, must, must follow this link and take the entire tour.
And I can’t leave out the steampunk music.
My next entry in the Library will be steampunk books, I promise!
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You’ve missed the prime, dnrivig force (no pun intended) of Steampunk repressed Victorian sexuality! Pulsing bellows, hammering pistons, the sweat-like sheen of copper and brass, the warm sensuality of polished wood, ejaculations of steam, chugging, shrieking, pounding, pressure building that must be released before it explodes Then throw in some other themes to discover particular fetishes imperialism and colonialism are thinly veiled metaphors for rape and bondage & domination (and given some colonial entities histories, sadism & masochism as well) the female adventurer reflecting the Victorian woman’s desire to break free of her societal strictures and live life as a man (which leads into role reversals and a tacit acknowledgment of gay and bisexual behavior in women) giant infernal devices that not only share the mechanical attributes listed above, but further identify themselves as sexual metaphors by repeated phallic imagery (the Nautilus ripping the soft underbelly of ships with its pointed prow, the giant cannon firing a metal sperm to violate the lovely and pure Moon, tripod Martian war machines spraying heat over everything [and three legs? come on!] great grey penis-like zeppelins in the air long, hard trains tearing down the track yeah repressed Victorian sexuality. in fact, there are days when I believe that any and every Steampunk trope can find valid and serious interpretation in sexual terms.
Wow this is great! I’m going to DragonCon, and was looking for irnipsation for steampunk-esque weaponry and style, and this video gave me a great conception for these kinds of things. Thanks!?