Offa's Dyke Day 3: Knighton to Mellington Hall
Jul. 17th, 2026 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](/%20https://www.npmjs.com/package/ocr-https-www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecat
This was pretty confusing since we were heading West at the time but, whatever, borders wiggle.
"This is the toughest part of the whole route" warned the guidebook ominously, speaking of the path going "against the grain" of the countryside. It was honestly not too bad until just past the halfway point, but then there were a series of steep ups followed by steep downs. We looked enviously at various side paths that zig-zagged in a sensible way up and down the hills but the Dyke went straight across in the manner of a Roman road and so, so did we. Strava has congratulated me on my longest day walking, despite having definitely walked further in terms of mileage in the past.
Anyway, we are now ensconced in a fancy room* in a fancy hotel with rubbish internet. We have a rest day tomorrow where our plans amount to walking to the nearby village/town to buy B. a new hat (having left his in a Thai restaurant in Kington) and see if we can find good enough internet for "Family Zoom".
( Not much picspam below the cut because I stopped taking photos when we hit the relentless up and down. )
* B thinks I booked the Bridal Suite - we certainly have a four-poster prominently in the centre of the room and a jacuzzi bath.
Squidge Image Hosting
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2649 / Fic - The Pitt
Jul. 16th, 2026 11:18 pmsiriaFirst Impressions
The Pitt | Jack/Robby | ~1200 words | Forsheafrotherdon
(Also on AO3)
( Robby would be the first to admit his scepticism at Jack's therapist's suggestion that he replace his work with the TEMS team with joining a book club. )
The Pitt | Jack/Robby | ~1200 words | For
sheafrotherdon (Also on AO3)
( Robby would be the first to admit his scepticism at Jack's therapist's suggestion that he replace his work with the TEMS team with joining a book club. )
Offa's Dyke Day 2: Kington to Knighton
Jul. 16th, 2026 08:02 pmpurplecat
Today was more challenging. It was hotter, or at least felt hotter, and I was concerned enough to be rationing my water supply. Theoretically it was a shorter distance, but we got lost a couple of times in a golf course and one stretch of path was so covered in bracken and low trees that we ended up taking a detour so Strava, at least, things we walked a mile further than the official distance. We saw a lot of the actual dyke though.
( Picspam of Offa's Dyke )
Kington to Knighton: 13.5 miles/21.7 km according to the guidebook 23.16km according to Strava.
2648 / Familiar Strangers; Southland, S3-5; Trouble in Paradise; The Winning Season
Jul. 16th, 2026 09:39 amsiriaThe air quality here is so bad right now thanks to the Canadian wildfires. Obviously being near to the fires themselves would be a lot worse, but my poor lungs aren't happy being outside without a mask on, and the orange quality to the light is so unnerving.
( Familiar Strangers )
( Southland, S3-5 )
( Trouble in Paradise )
( Familiar Strangers )
( Southland, S3-5 )
( Trouble in Paradise )
What I'm Doing Wednesday
Jul. 15th, 2026 08:17 pmsagebooks
still reading Babylonia by Constanza Casati...which means I'm actually glued to the news instead of reading fiction. Oops? I mean, I grew up in Houston & I live in a city that's fully two thirds Latino. There's a lot to have concerns about atm.
rl & floods
I was supposed to be traveling for family having surgery this Friday, but Texas is experiencing torrential rains and floods. We had 2 very minor, weak tornadoes in the city in two days, the second one this morning, and people are FREAKING out. Anyway, the surgery has been postponed, so I don't have to figure out how to drive over washed out bridges in middle-of-nowhere, Texas Hill Country. Yay? Yay.
Lestat
Due to scheduling conflicts, I still haven't seen Sunday's ep yet. I have been avoiding Tumblr & am so far unspoiled. :crosses fingers:
yarning
Slept too late for yarn group AGAIN, sooo I didn't go. Again. We'll see how this weekend pans out. Meanwhile, the commissioned cat stitch scarf should have been delivered today; I hope the customer's daughter likes it.
healthcrap
Didn't wake up today until 1:22pm. Got an allergy shot & hit 2 pharmacies yesterday. Fun times...
oppossum
due to the EPIC rains, I haven't actually gone out to check if it's still living in my laundry room. I mean, it's pouring. I'm hoping the possum's gone & the group of black panther stray cats that live in my backyard are hanging out in there instead.
#resist
July 17-19: Teach, Reach, Preach: Good Trouble Lives On Weekend of Action.
I hope you're all doing beautifully and staying safe! <333
still reading Babylonia by Constanza Casati...which means I'm actually glued to the news instead of reading fiction. Oops? I mean, I grew up in Houston & I live in a city that's fully two thirds Latino. There's a lot to have concerns about atm.
rl & floods
I was supposed to be traveling for family having surgery this Friday, but Texas is experiencing torrential rains and floods. We had 2 very minor, weak tornadoes in the city in two days, the second one this morning, and people are FREAKING out. Anyway, the surgery has been postponed, so I don't have to figure out how to drive over washed out bridges in middle-of-nowhere, Texas Hill Country. Yay? Yay.
Lestat
Due to scheduling conflicts, I still haven't seen Sunday's ep yet. I have been avoiding Tumblr & am so far unspoiled. :crosses fingers:
yarning
Slept too late for yarn group AGAIN, sooo I didn't go. Again. We'll see how this weekend pans out. Meanwhile, the commissioned cat stitch scarf should have been delivered today; I hope the customer's daughter likes it.
healthcrap
Didn't wake up today until 1:22pm. Got an allergy shot & hit 2 pharmacies yesterday. Fun times...
oppossum
due to the EPIC rains, I haven't actually gone out to check if it's still living in my laundry room. I mean, it's pouring. I'm hoping the possum's gone & the group of black panther stray cats that live in my backyard are hanging out in there instead.
#resist
July 17-19: Teach, Reach, Preach: Good Trouble Lives On Weekend of Action.
I hope you're all doing beautifully and staying safe! <333
Offa's Dyke Day 1: Hay-on-Wye to Kingon
Jul. 15th, 2026 07:58 pmpurplecat
Having, for reasons documented elsewhere, had to cancel the first three days of our planned walk of Offa's Dyke, we set of this morning from Hay-on-Wye (where we did not buy books because our luggage was quite close to the limit allowed by the baggage transfer company).
( Picspam under the cut )
Hay-on-Wye to Kington: 14.75 miles/23.6km
Me-and-media update
Jul. 15th, 2026 10:01 amchina_shopPrevious poll review
In the Music listening habits poll, "all the time" and "sometimes/occasionally" tied for first place with 27.7%, followed by "most days" with 25.5% (within the margin of error, so it's really a three-way tie). "Only in specific settings" garnered 19.1%.
For background noise, 57.4% said they like quiet, and 44.7% prefer music. (I think this says something about the kind of people who like Dreamwidth.) And in ticky-boxes, more hugs won with 89.1%, followed by hugs (82.6%) and lemons on the lemon tree (54.3%). Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
A bit more of Borders of Infinity by Bujold, read by Grover Gardner, and some graded reading in Chinese (the one about the stray cat finding a home, and her adopted mother, the penniless student; now I'm onto one about a doctor impersonating a student so she can go back to campus and feed the cats there, only now she's going on a date with a student? I'm hoping he'll turn out to actually be older too). I am slow and occasionally tripped up by new grammar configurations, but enjoying it immensely.
Cdramas/Kdramas
We finished Miraculous Brothers. Kind of a slow ending, but it was great. Now Andrew and I have started a) The Apartment Job, about a retired gangster (possibly autistic-coded?) trying to rip off the maintenance fund of a huge apartment complex; and b) Agent Kim Reactivated, about a retired North Korean super-spy living a quiet, humdrum life in South Korea, who loses his shit when his daughter is kidnapped. The latter is full of groups of people being terrible so we can enjoy seeing them get beaten up, ie, lots of bullying, terrorising the helpless, etc. It's also cartoonishly violent, quirkily enjoyable, and has So Ji-sub.
Pru and I finished Love Scout (♥ ♥ ♥) and are about to start May I Help You (2022), about a woman who works in a funeral parlour and sees ghosts, and an odd-jobs guy who helps her carry out the ghosts' last requests.
And I'm still obsessed with The First Frost, about two wounded, gunshy people who've loved each other since they were at high school but have a hard time getting past their own defences. (CW: sexual assault, workplace sexual harassment.) It's one of those "every tiny bit of progress feels like a triumph" kind of shows. I'm not sure what I'm going to follow it up with once I'm done.
Other TV
Not a lot of other TV. Legends (UK) once a week with a friend; White Collar and Bluey with my sister; finished Fisk. Watched a few movies: Nonnas (very gentle light drama with Vince Vaughan), Smallfoot (animated yeti (雪人) movie with confusing cultural aspects and unnecessary musical numbers), and Toy Story 5 in the cinema (fun enough, but I always forget I'm not really into the franchise). A bit of The Rest is Politics on Youtube (interviews with Jacinda Ardern, Helen Clark, Volodymyr Zelenskyy).
Audio entertainment
Cross Party Lines, a bit of Dreaming Against the Machine, some Coherent Podcast episodes to help me with political submissions, and a metric ton of ChinesePod beginner and elementary lessons. I'm about three weeks behind on Writing Excuses.
Writing/making things
My writing time has mostly been taken up with the Slo-mo Guardian Rewatch on![[community profile]](/%20https://www.npmjs.com/package/ocr-https-www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sid_guardian and political submissions, but I did just edit a flashfic; I might even manage to finish it for this fan_flashworks round. (I wrote it in Chinese first, translated it, and then had to fix the things that I either didn't think of or didn't know how to express in Chinese. ;-p)
Life/health/mental state things
One more political submission over the weekend. That should be it for a while, since the government has (hopefully) run out of time to start more terrible things before the election.
My email inbox is neglected and overflowing. We're in the cold, dark part of the year, and it's inevitably taking its toll. But I'm okay. I'm hunkering and studying and otherwise puddling along.
House
I have quotes from the builder and electrician, and I've paid for the oven. Wheels are in motion (hopefully next month! *knock on wood*). I still need to a) paint the baseboards in the kitchen, and b) choose a new toilet.
Language Learning
My Chinese study continues apace. I got three days of free Premium on Duolingo over the weekend and went hard, but mostly my focus has shifted to HelloChinese (grammar, cultural notes, characters, "immersive lessons") and DuChinese (reading, flashcards). And the podcast (sample dialogues, pronunciation).
Good things
Lunches with friends. The Slo-mo Rewatch. A wealth of language learning resources. Writing. Looking forward to trying out new dishes (and also baking) in the new oven.
In the Music listening habits poll, "all the time" and "sometimes/occasionally" tied for first place with 27.7%, followed by "most days" with 25.5% (within the margin of error, so it's really a three-way tie). "Only in specific settings" garnered 19.1%.
For background noise, 57.4% said they like quiet, and 44.7% prefer music. (I think this says something about the kind of people who like Dreamwidth.) And in ticky-boxes, more hugs won with 89.1%, followed by hugs (82.6%) and lemons on the lemon tree (54.3%). Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
A bit more of Borders of Infinity by Bujold, read by Grover Gardner, and some graded reading in Chinese (the one about the stray cat finding a home, and her adopted mother, the penniless student; now I'm onto one about a doctor impersonating a student so she can go back to campus and feed the cats there, only now she's going on a date with a student? I'm hoping he'll turn out to actually be older too). I am slow and occasionally tripped up by new grammar configurations, but enjoying it immensely.
Cdramas/Kdramas
We finished Miraculous Brothers. Kind of a slow ending, but it was great. Now Andrew and I have started a) The Apartment Job, about a retired gangster (possibly autistic-coded?) trying to rip off the maintenance fund of a huge apartment complex; and b) Agent Kim Reactivated, about a retired North Korean super-spy living a quiet, humdrum life in South Korea, who loses his shit when his daughter is kidnapped. The latter is full of groups of people being terrible so we can enjoy seeing them get beaten up, ie, lots of bullying, terrorising the helpless, etc. It's also cartoonishly violent, quirkily enjoyable, and has So Ji-sub.
Pru and I finished Love Scout (♥ ♥ ♥) and are about to start May I Help You (2022), about a woman who works in a funeral parlour and sees ghosts, and an odd-jobs guy who helps her carry out the ghosts' last requests.
And I'm still obsessed with The First Frost, about two wounded, gunshy people who've loved each other since they were at high school but have a hard time getting past their own defences. (CW: sexual assault, workplace sexual harassment.) It's one of those "every tiny bit of progress feels like a triumph" kind of shows. I'm not sure what I'm going to follow it up with once I'm done.
Other TV
Not a lot of other TV. Legends (UK) once a week with a friend; White Collar and Bluey with my sister; finished Fisk. Watched a few movies: Nonnas (very gentle light drama with Vince Vaughan), Smallfoot (animated yeti (雪人) movie with confusing cultural aspects and unnecessary musical numbers), and Toy Story 5 in the cinema (fun enough, but I always forget I'm not really into the franchise). A bit of The Rest is Politics on Youtube (interviews with Jacinda Ardern, Helen Clark, Volodymyr Zelenskyy).
Audio entertainment
Cross Party Lines, a bit of Dreaming Against the Machine, some Coherent Podcast episodes to help me with political submissions, and a metric ton of ChinesePod beginner and elementary lessons. I'm about three weeks behind on Writing Excuses.
Writing/making things
My writing time has mostly been taken up with the Slo-mo Guardian Rewatch on
sid_guardian and political submissions, but I did just edit a flashfic; I might even manage to finish it for this fan_flashworks round. (I wrote it in Chinese first, translated it, and then had to fix the things that I either didn't think of or didn't know how to express in Chinese. ;-p)Life/health/mental state things
One more political submission over the weekend. That should be it for a while, since the government has (hopefully) run out of time to start more terrible things before the election.
My email inbox is neglected and overflowing. We're in the cold, dark part of the year, and it's inevitably taking its toll. But I'm okay. I'm hunkering and studying and otherwise puddling along.
House
I have quotes from the builder and electrician, and I've paid for the oven. Wheels are in motion (hopefully next month! *knock on wood*). I still need to a) paint the baseboards in the kitchen, and b) choose a new toilet.
Language Learning
My Chinese study continues apace. I got three days of free Premium on Duolingo over the weekend and went hard, but mostly my focus has shifted to HelloChinese (grammar, cultural notes, characters, "immersive lessons") and DuChinese (reading, flashcards). And the podcast (sample dialogues, pronunciation).
Good things
Lunches with friends. The Slo-mo Rewatch. A wealth of language learning resources. Writing. Looking forward to trying out new dishes (and also baking) in the new oven.
Poll #34830 Packing for travel
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 45
I pack
View Answers
light
11 (24.4%)
medium
21 (46.7%)
heavy
7 (15.6%)
the kitchen sink
7 (15.6%)
other
3 (6.7%)
I prefer not to go anywhere
14 (31.1%)
other other
2 (4.4%)
ticky-box full of language-learning apps
11 (24.4%)
ticky-box full of giving your pets morning and/or afternoon tea and/or supper
19 (42.2%)
ticky-box full of pandas doing calligraphy and getting ink everywhere
23 (51.1%)
ticky-box of foxes telling knock-knock jokes
17 (37.8%)
ticky-box full of hugs
39 (86.7%)
Tombs of the Kings
Jul. 14th, 2026 10:48 ampurplecat
I mentioned in my Sightseeing in Cyprus post that I thought the Tombs of the Kings were worth a post in their own right. This is a sprawling necropolis that was in use from the 4th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The Brasilian with the car dropped me and the other Brasilian off to view it while he went to forage for fresh olive oil, saying he'd seen it before on a previous visit to Cyprus and no kings were involved. He afterwards did admit that it was pretty impressive, lack of actual kings notwithstanding, but that acquiring fresh olive oil was a priority. Some of the tombs were labelled and numbered, but we never established to our satisfaction if we'd explored them all - there were at least 8 across a large site - and many others that were just holes in the rock.
( Picspam below the cut )
petraDesde el Convento del Sagrado Corazón de María (309 words) by Arithanas
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Mexican History - Fandom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Pastiche, Traducción, poesia, transformación, Translation, Spanish Translation, Sonet, Hendecasyllabic
Summary:
*
![[archiveofourown.org profile]](/%20https://www.npmjs.com/package/ocr-https-archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
arithanas ha traducido mi drabble sobre Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz -- no en otra lengua, pero transformado en soneto.
Tengo la ambición de traducir la historia traducida y el soneto transformado en inglés.
Mañana, corazón, mañana.
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Mexican History - Fandom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Pastiche, Traducción, poesia, transformación, Translation, Spanish Translation, Sonet, Hendecasyllabic
Summary:
Ejercicio de composición y voz poética engendrado tras haber recibido generoso pienso de manos amigas.
*
Tengo la ambición de traducir la historia traducida y el soneto transformado en inglés.
Mañana, corazón, mañana.
US Politics: Weekend at Mitch's
Jul. 13th, 2026 01:19 pmpetraTwistedChick wrote a great takedown of the Washington Post's reporting on supposed proof of life for Mitch McConnell.
She notes that he may be dead or in a coma.
Because I am me, I think he's probably back in time. He'd get on remarkably well with Gene Hunt.
She notes that he may be dead or in a coma.
Because I am me, I think he's probably back in time. He'd get on remarkably well with Gene Hunt.
Drabble repost: La vida de Psique - en español e inglés (translation in 2nd chapter)
Jul. 13th, 2026 12:50 pmpetraLa vida de Psique (200 words) by Petra
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Mexican History RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Juana Ines de la Cruz/Original Female Character
Characters: Juana Ines de la Cruz
Additional Tags: References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Inspired by Eros and Psyche (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Bilingual, English, Español | Spanish, Double Drabble, poets, Nuns
Summary:
*
1st chapter: the drabble in Spanish. 2nd chapter: the drabble in English.
Discúlpenme, el único icono que tengo de una lesbiana latina es Renée Montoya, quien es dominicana, no mexicana. Y Renée no es una monja tampoco.
I sawsanguinity's post about reading Mexican history, remembered I'd written this in 2003, and discovered it wasn't on the AO3 yet. Now it is!
*
Deep thoughts about tagging: if Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader includes a title, should Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz be Sor Juana at all times? How about if someone writes Santa Teresa de Ávila/Jesús? (Couldn't be me.)
*
If you read my drabble and it makes you want to read more fanfiction about antique Spanish-language sources, I cannot but commend Dellos Otros Enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio (also available in modern Spanish and in English), which is m/m slash of didactic stories from Castilla from the 14th century. I received it for Yuletide in 2013 and I will treasure it always.
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Mexican History RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Juana Ines de la Cruz/Original Female Character
Characters: Juana Ines de la Cruz
Additional Tags: References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Inspired by Eros and Psyche (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Bilingual, English, Español | Spanish, Double Drabble, poets, Nuns
Summary:
F/F slash de personas reales muertas sobre la monja baroca mexicana favorita de todos. // Dead Real People Slash (F/F variety) about everyone's favorite highly literate Baroque Mexican nun.
*
1st chapter: the drabble in Spanish. 2nd chapter: the drabble in English.
Discúlpenme, el único icono que tengo de una lesbiana latina es Renée Montoya, quien es dominicana, no mexicana. Y Renée no es una monja tampoco.
I saw
sanguinity's post about reading Mexican history, remembered I'd written this in 2003, and discovered it wasn't on the AO3 yet. Now it is!*
Deep thoughts about tagging: if Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader includes a title, should Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz be Sor Juana at all times? How about if someone writes Santa Teresa de Ávila/Jesús? (Couldn't be me.)
*
If you read my drabble and it makes you want to read more fanfiction about antique Spanish-language sources, I cannot but commend Dellos Otros Enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio (also available in modern Spanish and in English), which is m/m slash of didactic stories from Castilla from the 14th century. I received it for Yuletide in 2013 and I will treasure it always.
