Please take a moment to comment. This impacts ALL women, and is another way to make women less autonomous and less fully people.

I’m trying really hard to find small moments of #happiness in the middle of reality. Today I’m having early summer rain, my garden water tanks are making a cheerful wind chime noise as they refill, and everything smells gorgeous. I’m completely #offgrid & very cozy. It’s good.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed in 1973 & Rowe v Wade in 1974. Fox News kicked off in 1996. So, basically, US women had 20 years as autonomous individuals. There’s every indication that’s about done, & women are chattels. Again. I think about this photo a lot.

I saw a recipe for tomatoes with orzo, came home, was cooking, & realised no orzo. Instead: 1 small onion, 4 tomatoes, glug tomato paste, 1 litre beef stock, 1 can white beans, spinach (lots), 3x ramen noodles (no spice pkt). Sautee onions+tom/add liquid/add noodles/spinach/beans. Seriously good!

Now the Equal Credit Act is under threat. So if I-a US citizen-wanted to return to the US, I’d have to live without healthcare or vaccines, under constant threat of random gun violence, without bodily autonomy, & without being in charge of my own finances? WHY does nobody STOP the insanity????

It’s hard to talk about ordinary life while others are experiencing horrors, & I’m very sorry if you are one of those others. Today I spotted multiple new #pheasant chicks-I think Pheasant Friend may be retrieving them from all around & bringing them back to the bottom of my garden. So that’s me.

This week's #FreeFiction episode is live. The Aliens are still on Earth, but they say they’re going. Now some guy named Andrew thinks he’s in charge. #fiction #Aliens #stories #humor #romance #UFOs #dystopia #easyreading #ELL open.substack.com/pub/thenexte...

Happy early #caturday from the leading edge of the international date line.

Including DNA.

Just saying: If your entire public/political persona consists of you saying it’s too expensive for everyone to have access to basic human rights, you’re probably not being taxed enough. #TaxTheRich #TaxCorporations #UBI #UniversalHealthcare #EndHomelessness

I’m watching rich people arguing that in a system with universal #healthcare only rich people will be able to access premium healthcare. In the U.S. currently, MOST people are unable to predictably access MOST healthcare. This is a bigger problem than what happens around top end care.

Aside from #Pantone’s blatant racism in choosing white as color of the year, it’s also just really not helpful. Watercolor paper is dirty white. If Pantone wants to keep influencing all those creators, we’re gonna need more. I was expecting something warmer like pink or brown.

#PheasantFriend disappeared late yesterday after a dinner delivery driver lost his mind on our unpaved road & put himself in a ditch. Amongst huge dust clouds & noise. This morning he (the pheasant) came downhill from the neighbors’ and calmly accepted breakfast. I was pleased to see him.

This is Bandit. He fell asleep while getting out of bed. We've all been there. 12/10 sweet dreams buddy (u/yarntist)

Today has been a lovely balmy early-summer sort of day. #PheasantFriend is spending the afternoon just … hanging out. I’m only allowed to get closer if there’s food involved. Still. There’s a gorgeous big bird in my yard. That’s nice.

This is #Pheasant Friend on his way out. First he trumpets under the window, to let me know he’s going. Then … he goes. A couple hours later, he trumpets again, to let me know he’s home. It’s like living with a teenager.

There was an earthquake at 5:26 this morning while I was sleeping. I know this because the bed shook, the house creaked, the cats moved onto my feet, and Pheasant Friend trumpeted a distress circle around the house. Also, I looked online.

#CorvidNews: It’s been 3 weeks since the big male magpie was run over. His partner spent 2 weeks on my fence, calling. Loudly. Week 3 a new male came around for 2 days, then she was gone for 2 days. Today she overflew the property, called a few times, then left. I’m overly invested now. #BirdLife

I’m establishing what seems to be a reciprocal relationship with #Pheasant Friend. He trumpets when he wants me to come out & feed him, & when he’s coming & going. Like… he just wants me to know he’s going out? And when he’s home? Anyway. He looks a little better. Food helps.

This week's #FreeFiction update on life on Earth after Alien colonization. Things have blown up. Seiko and Wren try to find water. #fiction #Aliens #stories #humor #romance #UFOs #dystopia #easyreading #ELL open.substack.com/pub/thenexte...

If the Trump team manage to force people with dual citizenship to relinquish US citizenship, they’ll also be releasing all the US citizens living abroad from the obligation to file and pay US taxes. I bet when they notice, this falls away. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/mag...

For this year’s holiday shopping, I bought a pile of vintage ornaments from a neighbor. (Her new home & tree are smaller.) We were both delighted. I’ve also purchased books for the family kids, through their school. I’m not buying anything else this year. So that’s me, done. #shopvintage

Random #NoFailcooking / #baking post: If you have a banana bread recipe you like, you can substitute canned #pumpkin or #cranberries for the bananas. That’s pretty much all you have to do. Maybe add a little cinnamon. Boom. #CranberryBread or #PumpkinLoaf. Amazingness ensues. And Happy Holidays.

Pheasant Friend is back after visiting the neighbors. He’s been rained on, but I also think one of Next Door’s children may have tried to catch him by the tail feathers. He seems pleased to be back.

Live again: Free stories about life on Earth after Aliens. Sign up to a free subscription so you never miss out! In the first story, Seiko just needs new shoes. Instead, things blow up. #fiction #Aliens #stories #humor #romance #UFOs #dystopia #easyreading #ELL open.substack.com/pub/thenexte...

Last catchup and recap post before we launch into the next year of episodes about life on Earth after Alien colonization. #FreeFiction #WriterNews #nonfiction #ELL open.substack.com/pub/thenexte...

Happy #Caturday. FYI, normal publishing operations will resume next week.

In today’s non-political news, one of the local magpies met a vehicle (not mine) & lost. I moved him, so if the others came to hang out with him, they’d be safer. They do that sometimes. Then I came home & put a lot of food out. The others are here now, sort of wandering in circles, looking sad.

Still waiting for our real life Jurassic Park moment.

A quiet spot in a busy day.

More #gardening & #pheasant news because the real world continues to be real. This is the area I worked on until Pheasant Friend freaked out. He’s back now, & keeps sitting on the nice smooth dirt where I put the seeds. Also, the magpies who travel with him are picking out the seeds.

I’m dealing with the ongoing realness of the world by focusing on the small things. In personal good news, #Pheasant Friend is back from a 24-visit to hang out in the neighbor’s field. I’d been gardening, & probably scared him, & I got a little worried he’d decided to move on. Nope. He’s back.

We need this everywhere.

I did too much gardening and now we’re just having #Caturday. May you all manage to find some joy.

I’m a year out from breaking my leg, and am now normal-ish. Soft tissue damage is definitely a thing. However. #Gardening is happening, and that’s always good. Especially since I’m still trying to get it back to where it was. NZ has had a fierce Spring, but I’m starting to make a dent.

TRUMP: Water is dry. Fire is cold. Up is down. Person, woman, man, camera, TV, I’m an idiot. Covfefe.

After being surprise-removed from Threads and told no appeal was possible (& deleting the app from my phone), I’ve now had an email saying they changed their minds and I can have my account back. So, sure, I can come back. I guess. It’s like having a psycho boyfriend.

Immediately post Blue Sweep, I’m seeing beautifully crafted posts saying, ‘I just don’t know if I can support this, it doesn’t fix what’s really bothering me…’ w/o naming what’s bothering them. I think it’s a bot campaign, meant to establish division. We seriously need to #SmashTheBots. That is all.

One summer a friend hung 5 hummingbird feeders off her porch. Every afternoon she’d sit on the porch with her tea & camera. By the end of the summer she had soooo many great photos. I’m clearly going to need to park the good camera in the right spot. Charged. Today we have gorgeous #magpies. #birds

In Rabid Liberal News, over on Instagram Aaron Parnas is saying a bunch of his supporters have been auto-unsubscribed. I was. And btw, I had a 24 hour Instagram glitch before I got permanently locked out of Threads for no apparent reason. Possible antifa social media purge? Who knows?

In today’s Bird News, 4 of the 5 or 6 magpies in the neighborhood flock spent about 2 hours hanging out, talking loudly in Magpie. That brown blob behind the fence (on the left) is Pheasant Friend, eating bugs and ignoring them.

This possibility literally keeps me awake at night.

Here’s this afternoon’s pheasant photo. Which is probably how Threads decided I was a bot. Normal people don’t have #pheasant flocks move into the bottom of their gardens. Silly me.

I’ve decided I’m in acceptance about my lost Threads account. I’ve had deeply mixed feelings about a couple of oligarchs owning all of our social media, and … time to move on. There are a couple of European-based alternatives that I haven’t taken seriously. I’m going to check that out this week.

About 10 years ago I predicted for my then-employer that 2027 would be the definitive changeover moment worldwide: the Boomers have been post-retirement age forever, but are finally too old to pretend to be in charge. So less ‘Gen Z’ & more ‘still cognitively functional.’

As long as I’m being cranky enough about oligarch-run society to get banned from Threads, let me go ahead & say this: when this is all over we need to raze the White House. It was built by slaves, is being gold-grossified by the moment, & will now be riddled with Russian spying tech. Plus it’s…

I’ve now been permanently disabled on Threads, appeal is not possible. I somehow doubt my (very clean) fiction aimed at young people is the problem. I think it will have been my reposting of anti-oligarch content. So. How’s everyone else’s weekend going?

I put this exact post - exact, including the alt text - here, and on Threads. And … this post has gotten me suspended from Threads. I’ve appealed, but wow. Also, it’s a little hard to care when you know your routine posting is enriching an oligarch. So I guess we’ll see.

I’m feeling out of sorts about all the transition in my life. This morning I put on walking-around-the-house pajamas, made an enormous cup of tea, and climbed on the bed to work. Because I could. Here we see how Izzie feels about me being in her space after the start of morning #CatNap time.