I'm really not a follower of sports, but I'm hoping Belgium wins tonight's football match for multiple reasons. Hm. Okay, maybe only one reason. *and you can tell I don't follow sports because the first version of this post mixed up Belgium & Egypt as the US opponents. But hey, go Belgium!

Canada Day. The country is more aspirational than accomplished in terms of human rights, environmental safeguards, reconciliation/reparation for historical wrongs, health care and education systems. Aspirations are worth celebrating, though: equity, freedom, compassion, wisdom, safety for all.

Few things feel as good as a cleansing shower after a full day of working in a hot sunny garden. #TinyJoys Except maybe, after the shower, sitting outside in a gorgeous backyard, with clean clothes & a cool drink. #SmallOrdinaryMagic #Summertime Photo of my *filthy* feet for my own amusement.

I have dirt under my fingernails (and all over the rest of me) from a whole day of working happily in the garden. The perfect way to spend the day of Midsummer’s Eve. #SmallOrdinaryMagic #witchy #midsummer #solstice (Also, every muscle aches. Totally worth it.)

Amusing myself yesterday & today by working my way through my iPod’s library in alphabetical order by artist, playing all the songs (that I have) by each before moving on to the next. A lot of music I’ve not listened to in years. It’s been two days, and I just hit Alphaville. #TinyJoys

Carlo Ginzburg has died: as a historian, he influenced so many (folks who know Tigana, by @guygavrielkay.bsky.social, might recognize that a certain “heresy” in that book is named for this scholar). I loved his work. swedenherald.com/article/ital...

Pretty much everything about this made me smile.

Jane Yolen’s stories, especially Briar Rose, contributed to the course of my life as an academic, folklorist, and fairy tale scholar.

It’s the Glorious 25th of May: for Terry Pratchett nerds, you can wear the lilac if you were there (and weren’t we there?), and for Douglas Adams nerds, it’s Towel Day.

A young coyote generously let me practice with my telephoto lens by being terribly photogenic for about fifteen minutes last evening. It even had a sit-down & scritch while it watched me (standing very far away).

Last night, I cut lilac & crabapple blossoms for the front hall table. This morning, I could smell them from the bedroom upstairs. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

I love composting - taking food scraps & turning them into dirt in which to grow more food. It’s old-fashioned in one of the very best ways. #SmallOrdinaryMagic #TinyJoys

Baltimore oriole in the cherry blossoms this morning. I love my new camera. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic #HighPark

Watching live puffins & guillemots this morning on this YouTube feed. (Thanks @lizgloyn.bsky.social for posting it.) www.youtube.com/live/zt3MCin...

Platform Decay, the newest of Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, just dropped at my local library & is mine for seven whole days. #TinyJoys (I’ll be buying it soon. But today I can get it from the #library!)

Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you.

Splendid finds at today’s farmers’ market: *young arugula *candy colours of radishes (fresh greens too - gotta do something with them) *lovely kimchi *fish & scallops (First Fisheries) *cinnamon caps & maitake mushrooms *fresh baby romaine *local asparagus! *first spring ramps(wild leeks)!

*cardinal & housefinch singing outside my bedroom *both my cherry trees blossoming *backyard pine tree showing bright pink baby-cone tips *tarragon coming up in the back garden! *splendid tulips in the front garden *Beltane approaching #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic #witchy

May Eve! Time to get the house in order. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic #Witchy

I found this joyful & hopeful. Sharing it here for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/w...

Canada abstains on UN vote condemning the African slave trade: yvesengler.com/2026/03/26/c...

It's just a bit too early for the sakura blossoms in High Park to be out, but in my local park there are already ornamental cherry trees in clouds of pink beauty. Not really a small joy at all, but #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

Sharing this - I’ve got a ticket. Pay-what-you-can options, and if you can’t make the live event today you can watch the recording for 7 days. Should be a great conversation.

#TinyJoys for today: *walking & lunch & passionfruit gelato w/ fam *blue skies & warm weather *seeing a fox sparrow for the first time *smiling shopclerk handing me my receipt & smiling at my pentacle: "Blessed be." *bok choy & basil sprouts! *my front garden beds today, pictured below

Oh, this is sad news. I loved their music when I was young, and still listen to them - and to her solo work - now. Clannad singer and harpist Moya Brennan dies aged 73 www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

It’s April in Toronto. I ate dinner on a patio tonight. #TinyJoys

The sight of live pussywillows growing nearby. Today’s #TinyJoys

La fheile Padraig, folks - and for the cat lovers & gardeners among us, I wish you a good feast day celebrating St Gertrude of Nivelles.

Ides of March, y’all.

Snowdrops in the garden, showing during the first major melt since mid January. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic #springgarden

Learned how to use a drop spindle yesterday; tiny steps on my way to becoming a full fairy tale witch. #TinyJoys (Yes, I know Carabosse wasn’t actually a witch.) #fairytale #witchy

Also: the Kansas government can go fuck itself.

Going to see Eddie Izzard’s solo Hamlet show tonight!

The NYTimes, in this morning’s update, talks about the British Royal Family, beginning by saying, “It’s kind of unbelievable we were once ruled by these people.” … … … … I honestly can’t even. I mean, they’re not GOOD, but look around. Rickety little glass house you’re sitting in, America.

It’s an odd feeling to wake up in these mornings & wonder if the U.S. has invaded us - or Greenland, or anyone else - overnight. It’s also odd to grocery shop while thinking about the possibility of American invasion, and find myself wondering how much cat food I should stock up.

Just discovered that Em Grossland, who narrated Becky Chambers’ Monk-&-Robot novels (which books & their narration I love deeply), has also done the narration for Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle, and now I love it even more.

The world is very full of awful. And so I am heartened to have just today discovered the charms of the meyer lemon. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

Canadians, and everyone else: Venezuela is the test case.

During 2020 & onwards, I found myself reading for pleasure much less than I used to. This year I tried to get back to it & used StoryGraph to gamify the tracking of my books. I beat my (lately) ambitious goal!

Merry Midwinter!

There’s really only one person in the US suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

I brought a pot of very dried-out lemon verbena & lemongrass inside just a couple of weeks ago, having assumed they wouldn’t survive the winter. But the lemongrass is greening at the base, and the verbena is putting out tiny new green shoots all along its branches! #TinyJoys!

#TinyJoys 1: house sparrows coming regularly to my first-ever birdfeeder 2: (although I *do* know that it should be colder in Toronto now) I just brought fresh thyme & fresh parsley in from the garden to put in my soup stock on the 23rd of November 3: rosemary plants bright & healthy in my sunroom

First snowfall of the season. The maple tree in my front yard hasn't dropped its leaves yet, but has finally changed colour, and is holding the snow in little leafy-bowls. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

Terribly Sweet Snapdragon looking at the window at my cauldron.

Wishing you a marvellous Samhain & a happy Hallowe’en.

These aren't all the garden tomatoes in my kitchen today; it's just most of the mostly unripe tomatoes. Some that are more ripe aren't shown; those @judithlt.bsky.social kept at her place are likewise not shown. It was time to pull up those plants & get the garlic in. Recipes, please! #TinyJoys

A cup of tea on my (nearly complete) rebuilt backyard deck, this mid-October morning. English roses still blooming & geraniums in bright colours. So much birdsong: starlings, red-breasted-nuthatches, cardinals, ravens, house finches, and a golden-crowned kinglet in the pine tree overhead. #TinyJoys

Busy, busy Reading Week: electrical work completed (not by me), doorway to furnace room expanded (by me & @judithlt.bsky.social), new water heater installed (not by me), boards removed from the old backyard deck (by me, @judithlt.bsky.social, & @thompsonk.bsky.social). Today, the new boards go on.