Robin McKinley's Blog, page 204

First Fruit(s)

 

I spent yesterday evening dispatching more autumn plant orders.*  Here I thought that doing them early for once—every [xxxmumblemph:] years I do get my plant orders in early and then for the [xxxmumblemph:] following years as I scramble to get them in somewhat after the last minute** I think, getting them out early is so much better, you're not in a hurry, you can think about things and make good choices, I really must make an effort to be early every year. . . . but here in the middle of an earl

The benefits of bad language

 

There's a snippet in yesterday's GUARDIAN under 'science' titled:  'Swearing lessens the pain other words cannot reach'.  The article is too short to excerpt effectively* so this is most of it and I hope copying it here is not too heinous a crime:  'Swearing can . . . lessen pain . . . scientists at Keele University . . . asked 66 volunteers to submerge a hand into iced water while repeating one swear word out of a list of "five words you might use after hitting yourself on the thumb with a ham

Rumbled

 

It was our monthly practise at Old Eden tonight and I'd phoned round a little too effectively yesterday and it was something of a crush.  This meant a lot of sitting out, which sort of occasion is why I carry a book in my knapsack at all times. **   The current book happens to revel in the inclusion of a Robin McKinley bookmark.  I don't use 'em very often but it does occur occasionally.  The bookmark was lying quietly and, I would have said, mostly self-effacingly, at an angle through a corner

Technology is hell

 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.

 

My guest blog folder has DISAPPEARED. 

           I have no idea, except that I assume it's all a part of the recent ruckus with Outlook.  Outlook has been stealthily eating my address book since our rebarbative association began;  apparently the mere disappearance of a few contacts—which furthermore I probably have hardcopy of*–has become insufficiently infuriating.  My blood pressure doesn't go up more than a point or two when I discover someone else has vanished.    S

Guest post by Maren

I'm a terribly inadequate blogger. I have updated my LiveJournal exactly five times since I signed up in October of 2005. I simply can't quite imagine that anyone cares what movie I watched last night, or what kind of decaying fauna my dog Lola scarfed on our walk, or that yet another college senior admitted to not ever using the library until two days before the due date of his/her final project, but that's pretty much my life in a nutshell. I like it well enough, but I have no illusion that it

Almost a night off. Sort of

 

This morning I received an email from my husband which began:  Just read your blog.  I've put some fizz in the fridge and will get you fillet steak.

            My husband is a Wonderful Human Being.*

            And I'm now full of champagne and fillet steak and I'm taking the rest of the night off.**

            Darkness is better—he's by now had three anti-inflammatories and they're obviously beginning to take effect.  I discovered last night that the reason he was moaning was that he thought h

Pupdate – barely standing still

by B-Twin

There is something about trying to take photos of animals — they don't stand still when you want them too!  LOL

I finally managed to snap some half-decent pics of the pups whilst they stopped for 5 milliseconds.

They are all learning (very quickly – they are Border Collies after all) that if they sit quietly beside me then they get a pat and praise.  They are becoming good at this.  Except Bramble.  Bramble is the prettiest and longest-hair of the group.  She is also the gung-ho, ADD, cli

PS. Pupdate addendum

from B-Twin

Having unsuccessfully tried to add these videos to the pupdate and then having said enough words to Wordpress that would make Robin proud I decided to just cheat and do a P.S.  :p

So here is Brighid when she discovered wool mulch in the garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJT02Naj-sw

And Belle trying to convince one of the pups to play:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_85-J85i6As

This one is from a little bit of distance but it is the pups doing a "Ring A Ring A Rosie" (a pocket full

Dogs

 

Darkness is lying in a corner of the kitchen, moaning.  It's been a really great day.

            Even after I yanked some of the bedding out from under Chaos last night so that his brother had something to lie on, Darkness didn't settle properly.  He'd lie down in the crate for a while and then get up and go find a piece of kitchen floor and sprawl there.  Then he started whining.  At first I thought it was his old pre-diet-change colic coming back—he's the one spent several days of the hot wea

Life, the Universe, and Sweeping the Floor

 

Presumably the rest of you have noticed (possibly repeatedly) how much frelling time staying alive takes?  I mean the grocery-shopping, laundry-doing, even hellhound-hurtling things.*  Sweeping the floor twice a day because it's spring/summer/autumn/winter and the resident creatures are shedding.**   Taking out the garbage.  Sorting the garbage first because Hampshire, bless its pointed little county council, recycles.  I think we're number one in the country but I could be wrong***.  We also h