heliopausa: (Default)
New planets!  I'm excited and agog, and also (is there anything I can't find a downside to?) thinking somewhere alongside the excitement that this discovery could foster up a feeling that now we don't have to worry about wrecking this planet because we've got somewhere else we can go.  (Of course there's no such real suggestion; I just mean how it might change people's mood about things.)  So... mixed feelings.  But still... seven planets, under a huge, cool sun.  Wow!  Oh, we live in amazing times!

So does everybody, of course - I mean, so everybody always has, whether they knew it or not.  Today's also, more or less, a hundred years since the stunning, out-of-nowhere (ha!) end of the Romanov rule over Russia, on the back of the chaotic butchery of WW1 and of riots over incipient (or actual?) famine. 
Coincidentally, on Nirvana in Fire, talk has turned to how a failure to provide relief in such crises leads to rioting and thus to regional (at least) instability - true enough, and I'm sorry Nicholas II hadn't better advisors, or (if he had them) that he'd listened more.  A sad ending for an amiable family.

Great sonnet, isn't it, by the way?  :) 

heliopausa: (Default)
I hope I manage to see it rising tonight - of course (of course!) I'm double-booked with a lecture, but still, one can hope.  It's Mid-autumn Festival, which has (I'm told) different meanings in different places, but here is for children, with lanterns, masks, presents and parties.  For the last few days there's been a buzz of the excitement approaching, and little children seen unexpectedly in party dresses, or carrying boxes of mooncakes home, or selecting with great care their masks at shops or stalls, and this morning there were signs in the community space - one long paper chain strung all across the yard, and slightly squashy rained-on balloons hanging from it at intervals - that there'd been a party there last night (tonight is more for families). 

This is
also Narnia Fic Exchange time - twenty-three brand-new stories, all beautifully crafted to fit recipients' prompts, and being eagerly devoured as I write. as always, there's a terrific range of stories-wildly cracky, intricate histories, domestic vignettes,full-blown erotica... is there a detective story in there?  I bet there is,somewhere!  They range right through the Narnia canon, too, from pre-TMN to well post TLB. I've started reading, and will be having lots of fun catching up with all the stories in scattered bursts over the next few days. Recommended!

Otherwise, life for me is plunging into seasonal busy-ness.The rest of this month, and the two following will probably be pretty flat-out. (Shakespeare still to be shoe-horned in there somehow.)   But pretty flat-out doesn't mean only work!  Expect reports on concerts, - oh, and travel planned for next full moon!   Which I've already arranged to be free for, to see rising! How's that for forethoughtfulness! :D

Late addition:  I did see the moon, though not rising, and it was looking like the squashy balloons left after the party.  The full moon we were celebrating was a calendar full moon, not an astronomical full moon!  Real full moon, any day now!

heliopausa: (Default)
Some links...

For those who recall the galah tea-cosy - proof that there's acres of textile creativity in australia!

more about birds -in this case, the suggestion of a bird language. 

In minor news- they did find matching tiles.  :)  So the kitchen floor is restored, with only those subterranean changes already spoken of.  :)

and the political snarling...  oh dear.   ranting behind the cut )

Oh, I don't want to leave it there.  Surely I can find something positive to end on...  give me five minutes...

***
oh, of course!  this!  I've been watching Venus and Jupiter for a few days, and tonight sounds like it's when Saturn joins the party - and a fullmoon too!  Oh, yes, despite morally bankrupt pollies, beauty remains!

Profile

heliopausa: (Default)
heliopausa

June 2019

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
1617181920 2122
23242526272829
30      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 10:57 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios