Impulsively Reading Since...

Sorry, my life is very scattered these days.

First off - two Sherlock fics which are also love letters to London: Sorrowful Angels by Aderyn http://archiveofourown.org/works/441719 and A Miracle on Baker Street by kizzia http://kizzia.livejournal.com/49393.html. Tributes to this beautiful city are so wonderful to find - and to find them in Sherlock fic is doubly wonderful.

Still no mattress. Grrr. The reason this is most upsetting is that I seem to have begun to equate 'getting back to normal' with having the darn mattress. My brain is refusing to focus on the fact that life is otherwise pretty steady and normal, and it should now be getting round to the business of writing and doing other normal things (plus slowly finding wonderful and lovely things to decorate) until the darn mattress shows up.

I do now have a teeny tiny crockpot. I'm not really sure why other than it was on clearance and it is yellow. It is adorable (though not possibly the yellow I imagined), I just don't really understand what I'm meant to cook in it. We shall see, I suppose.

And because I now know how thanks to the always wonderful quarryquest who is diligently working on mapping out the locations for John and Sherlock's dash through London on the heels (wheels?) of the taxi in Pink - even through bronchitis (and for whom I'm meant to be writing fluffy pieces about Mycroft and his teddy bear hot water bottle whilst I instead angst over my mattress) - here are some pictures from my visit to the botanic garden this weekend. :-)

See? I told you it was 'stuff'.

Sydney Golden Wattle - isn't he just straight-up a member of the Drones?



Oh, yeah, that's me in there too. I did a couple where I was all 'live long and prosper', but this was a better picture of the sign. :-)











And now please get in line for your strudel - because the strudel, Madam, is lovely today.

Disclaimer: Please note that the Lemon and I are the most respectful of museum-goers. At no point did either the Lemon or I touch any item on display. Anything the lemon is touching is either glass or plastic which is between it and the artifacts, or an object which the museum encourages visitors to touch.

*****

This week - the ROM!

*****

“Douglas, we can’t. We’ll get in trouble.”

“Oh come on, Martin, live a little!”

“It is a museum, Douglas. We can’t go around chucking a lemon into the displays just because you’re bored and there happened to be a fruit stand on the corner.”

“Who said anything about either chucking or the displays? It’s really very simple, Martin, just like on Gertie. Simply leave the lemon somewhere in plain sight.”
( Hunt the lemon! )

I can't quite seem to catch up. I'm writing the first Interlude and trying to plan a trip for my birthday in a month and I have to clean the house, and things are just a mess right now.

But...I was out on Sunday, walking and plotting the Much Ado year. I ended up in a park, going off-road as it were, looking for a sculpture, and I saw something flapping around in the branches of an evergreen. My first thought was, 'Wow. Whatever's flapping around over there is larger than your average bear...' And it was...



( More pictures of this obliging red-tailed hawk under the cut )

I urge everyone to hop over to my spy request post, even if you have no spies to offer up, and get a preview of what is in store. http://impulsereader.livejournal.com/40144.html?view=329936#t329936 And now, a picture post. Chicago over Labor Day weekend.

I have on offer wrought iron, a funny sign, farmers' market, more wrought iron, Egypt in Chicago, and a new book on Shakespeare. But first, above the cut because it is just that awesome - I give you, years before he had an inferno: Dante's Caterpillar.



I ran across this in the window of what must be a day care or school of some sort and it set me to giggling madly. Potential parents, please learn to anticipate what your child's name will put others in mind of when made possessive and put in front of silly words.
( More pics )

northernwalker and I were jointly swooning over our unreasonable love of wrought iron recently, and I happened to mention that a house on my street has a pretty, pretty red wrought iron fence, and she requested pictures. I just managed to remember on my way home from a walk on Sunday and so left my shopping unattended for a few moments to take some. I then realized that the house right next to it has a pretty, pretty black wrought iron fence as well.

Also - woo to the hoo! - I finally got the second mood theme to upload properly! I've no idea what I was doing wrong, though I think I had a double // when I wanted a single, but that really doesn't explain why some were working but not others, as all the line items were identical. But anyway... as a result, I am now Ecstatic - see above.

( pics under the cut )

So, before we get to the woods, I have to tell you guys that last Sunday you were all perilously close to being denied the end of this story we're all working on, unless, of course, one of you guys decided to take over in my absence. I think I need to make out a will which states everything in my google docs should be posted in case I die.( Read more )

There are lemons in play in London! Squee to the extreme! London!

It's been a while since I did a picture post, so for those of you who enjoy those, here's a bit of a teaser. Yesterday we went out hiking, and while I cannot give Starved Rock State Park a glowing review, I did get some good pics. This morning, however - butterflies!

ETA - whoops.  I guess you're getting butterlies instead.  Enjoy them anyway!

( Click to see the butterlies... )

All right, 221b_hound, this one is all you.  I had just finished Not Crying: Calling, and then went out for a walk.  It's odd for me to walk late rather than early, so the light was different and these flowers, which I've pictured before, were unusually Illuminated and decorated with the cobwebs of John's grief.

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I have drunk the kool-aid which is Cabin Pressure. Then I ran across the Lemons and Landmarks project via this post http://cabin-pressure.livejournal.com/183916.html Well, I'm a little late to the party and still waiting to hear back if additional Chicago offerings are needed/wanted but my initial thought was, 'Well, this is what I've been doing recently anyway; walking and taking pics in Chicago; might just as well do it with a lemon as not, right?' So after a little more thought I realized that this is in fact not what I've been doing - I've been taking pics of rather small things, generally. It just seems to be what I do. Well, Landmarks, especially the ones that leapt to mind as the big ones in Chicago, are rather large. Huh, I thought, that's interesting. Then, I thought, 'And - my angles are going to have to be pretty playful since while Landmarks are rather large, Lemons are rather small. Wow! What a great new prompt!'

So today, instead of penetrating further into Sherlock's psyche I went 'round the Loop with a lemon and had a grand time. Results below.
( Go 'round )