The Byrchen Twigges

Please excuse me, I have just spent the last two days up to my eyeballs in succulents and payment processing. It was not bad, but it is always A Lot™, and now I am very tired.

I obtained a relatively sensible number of new plants, provided you ignore the part where I really didn’t need *any* new plants. And I was gifted one huge, competition-worthy specimen as a thank-you from the club for the multi-month effort of setting them up to use barcode scanners. I even have a lovely proper pot for it to live in. If I can keep it happy for a year, I think I might try entering it in the competition. I’ve never had anything suitable before.

For now, though, I have two boxes of plants on the dining room table and a bed that is calling my name.

Lewisia: no new pieces written, but still on track

Day job: 42.5 hours

Gardening: the final scramble on the club’s barcode database, club meeting, day one of the sale

Listening: Dance and Cry by Mother Mother (I’ve had a few tracks from them in mixtapes over the years and finally bought an album, this one has “It’s Alright” on it ;_;), Muminröster (the Swedish version of Moomin Voices, after my “Oops! All Finnish!” purchase)

Clock Mouse: 1271 words

However much the cars to the back of the line honked out their frustration, there was nothing to be done for the delay--not when trees were blocking the road. That message was passed from window to window, shouted back over idling engines, until someone with a truck full of landscaping tools got the idea to bring out the chainsaw. Instead of a felled tree, he found the road ahead blocked by a steady stream of saplings, ambling along on many squiggling roots, companion birds and squirrels clinging to their swaying branches, as they set out from the forests of their parents in search of sunlight and water of their own.

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LL#1278

I SAW A BLUE JAY AT HOME!

Sorry, needed to get the most important news out first. I have been deeply jealous of work, where there are a bunch of blue jays* swinging by on a regular basis to harass people on the patio. In eleven years at my home, I have never seen a blue jay here. But yesterday, while out cleaning the corrals, I saw one flitting about. Looked fluffy and vaguely juvenile. I hope it sticks around. I may be one of the few people who is actually happy at the prospect of jays coming around to pester.

*For those not in California, I am referring to the California scrub jay, Aphelocoma californica, not the variety seen in the eastern portions of the continent, though both are colloquially referred to as blue jays. Still a corvid, still a beautiful blue bastard.

Anyway! Work was boring; I have resorted to reading library books on my phone at my desk. Complained to my boss that all the things I’m allegedly meant to be doing are either swept up by other people or locked behind the endless bureaucracy of waiting on approvals or support from people who don’t appear to ever do anything at all. I don’t actually like being this bored, with or without library books on my phone. I did get to do some wall patching and painting, though, so that was a relief.

Lewisia: 2 new pieces written, so now I’m a full week ahead ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ

Day job: 42.5 hours--a normal week???

Cooking: pineapple swirl milk bread (no recipe beyond the base milk bread from KAF, completely winging the alterations and additions, turned out tasty, would make as swirl rolls a la cinnamon rolls next time)

Gardening: more work on the club’s barcode database, garden club post, had a tree branch fall nearly on my car so had to drag that off for eventual dismantling

Watching: Murderbot season finale--premium quality entertainment 🔪🤖🖤

Listening: The Crux by Djo (very good, whatever this is called--shoegaze?--it is exceedingly pleasing for me, still hasn’t topped DECIDE but give it time to grow on me)

Clock Mouse: 1160 words

When a mishap revealed that the little heart locket around her neck contained a mirror, she faced endless mockery by her coworkers that barely bothered to toe the line between friendly ribbing and naked contempt. She hadn’t been lying when she said she liked to look at her beloved’s face. Some day, they would get the body-swap curse reversed, and she wouldn’t need a mirror to look at her favorite face in the world.

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LL#1276