#and that rural life isn’t a Pinterest board

[smol-blue-bird]

“I tried to make an entire homestead with zero effort, research, or experience and my crops failed :( why didn’t it work? I thought we could live off the land!” Well, Janet, maybe you should have looked into which crops this climate can actually support, when and how you should plant and harvest them, and whether the land you own is large enough to support your entire family

“I got chickens on a whim at Tractor Supply and half of them got eaten and the rest aren’t laying!” Did you research anything at all about having chickens, or did you scoop up half a dozen chicks because they were cute and you thought it sounded fun to have a backyard flock?

“I got a pet [insert massive farm animal here] and it’s gotten too big/I don’t have space for it/it isn’t producing the [animal product] I was expecting.” That sucks. Maybe do some basic reading before you get a teacup pig/“cute” baby cow/etc next time.

“Living here is difficult and inconvenient! Why is everything so far away?” Because it’s a town of 2000 people, Susan. Of course we don’t have a college or a shopping mall right there in the village. Why did you move here???

my new favorite type of person is the City Person who moved to my rural hometown after 0.5 minutes of research because they were chasing a #cottagecore fantasy and thought they could work from home forever during the pandemic, and are just now realizing that actually living in a small town is not like the pastoralist, Arcadian Pinterest fantasy they imagined in their heads

[myelocin]

love, sicily | kozume kenma

Synopsis: Perhaps it’s through serendipity that you’ll begin to look at the world past the rose colored lenses and finally see the kaleidoscope of gold that it brings.

Characters: Kozume Kenma, Sugawara Koushi

Genre: Fluff, Travel, Eventual Romance, (Mutual) Pining | WC: 4000+

Playlist | Pinterest Board

A/N: This is a commission from @haiikyuuns​ ! I had a lot of fun with this one so thank you for trusting me miss maam ;A; 

commissions

Track 1: Paris in The Rain | “I look at you now and I want this forever; I might not deserve it but there’s nothing better.”

Sugawara Koushi is what comes with Paris.

He’s the first, the only, and the current. It’s through summer nights under city lights, where you first are introduced to what love could be.

Where it could be this. Only this.

The summer of ’13 looking like living in an okay city that doesn’t really have much to offer in the rural side of southern Japan. One convenience store by the train station, and a teashop that most teenagers wouldn’t exactly prefer to frequent. Sunsets by the shore are nice, because your world had always just been nice.

It was okay.

Watermelon and ice drops in June, falling leaves in September, snowy paths you had to shovel every weekend in December, and the Sakura blossoms in March. Routine was okay, so you settled that you were too.

Koushi was who looked like what love could be to you. The word “eventually,” fitting. To be in a constant state of pondering if the word love could ever be redefined.

And in a way, it does. He doesn’t exactly become love, the more you think about it, but rather he just remains as is. Your constant; a day one of some sorts. Serendipity as a thing reserved for what could only be thought of as fiction, because reality had never been an ugly place for you.

So looking through rose colored lenses it was.

From your place you settled the most comfortable in—in the sidelines—you sat and watched Koushi bloom. Where for years it stayed okay. As is. Still a routine that frankly neither of you wanted to break.

Where eventually, the first crack of that well maintained schedule looked like a roundtrip ticket from Tokyo to the city of Paris, a suitcase, backpack, and a map of a city unknown to you.

The sight of Paris and Sugawara Koushi. Silver hair and hazel eyes. Every color that’s linked to what you’ve always known as home found in him. The pastel pink of his lips like the rose petals from outside his home, the silver of his hair as the clouds in the sky because for some reason rain always triumphed over sunshine.

And Paris, in the rain, with what you think as love, in front of you. Seen through your eyes as what you tell yourself is it—the greatest that love could ever become, because all you’ve known are shades of pastels with just a hint of silver.

Just one, perfect, palette that seemed to be enough for you.

(Until it wasn’t for him.) (It never occurred to you that just a few shades and a set of familiar streets would never be enough for him.)

“Paris is great, isn’t it?” Koushi turns to you and says, where he holds his hands out and past the balcony to catch a few drops of rain.

He looks beautiful. (Always has, you think.)

You nod your head.

“I’m coming back here next month because I got the job, actually,” he smiles, looking wistful.

You pause.

Rain still pours, and there’s a little bit of thunder. You think to yourself that if he chose to say any other set of words other than a watered down version of “I’m-leaving-you-and-that-good-for-nothing-town-forever,” you’d already be pulling him down into the streets and kiss him under the rain.

“Like,” you say, trying to sound out your thoughts; your throat feels dry. “—like forever?”

Koushi looks far away, and when he leans further to catch more raindrops, he feels far away. Further away, you think. Has he always been this far away?

“I hope forever,” he laughs, then turns to you. He’s smiling like you share his happiness with him. Are you happy along with him?

Silver hair kind of white against the backdrop of Paris in the rain, and hazel eyes that still look like all the shades of home stare at you. Your palms feel clammy, but you smile.

He turns away, and the rose colored lenses you’ve always seen the world with suddenly crack.

(When you sleep that night, Paris in the rain just becomes a city caught in a thunderstorm.)

Track 2: Paris | “if we go down, then we go down together.”

Kozume Kenma’s always hated looking at a city caught in a downpour.

He was never much for traveling, but he knew a city like this was meant to be explored.

He sighs, suitcase in tow as he opens the door to his hotel room and face plant into the bed. The skies above a city meant to live in sunshine continue to weep, so he turns on his side, facing the window to ponder. Not necessarily about much, because his thoughts have always been quite linear.

Kenma liked schedule. Predictability.

Booking a ticket to Paris three days after Tetsurou’s drunk speech was not predictable.

And because he spoke of the devil, his phone rings, flashing Tetsurou’s name in big, bold letters.

“You know,” Tetsurou’s voice drawls. “I don’t know what on God’s green earth even possessed you to jump on the first flight out of here to fucking—“ he pauses to inhale, before continuing, “—Paris out of every other city, but you did, and everyone’s confused as fuck.”

Kenma shifts in place, frankly wondering the same thing, but of course he’d never tell him that. There’s an ache that comes when he cracks his neck, but it’s a familiar one. He supposes that he’s used to a lot of things. The ache in his neck; the black roots that always grows faster than he can retouch them; Tetsurou’s voice that still sounds worse than his mother’s nagging.

“Why are you even there?” his voice comes again over the phone.

“You told me that I needed to do more,” Kenma replies.

The city still weeps. He wonders if someone’s out there trying to catch raindrops, or perhaps dance and kiss in the rain.

After all, it’s Paris, he thinks. A lot happens in a city people shroud with love.

“Do more,” Tetsurou parrots, confused.

Kenma nods, blinking with the tap, tap, tap that comes from the rain against his window.

The gears don’t turn in Tetsurou’s head until after a few more moments pass, his eyes eventually widening at the memory from three nights ago. It’s always been known that Kenma’s been more of a reserved person when it came to most things in life. Ever the calculated, side character type of person. For the most part it was okay, but he supposes that even the most silent could still have moments where they want to peek a little outside the view from inside the box.

Over the phone, Tetsurou smiles, nodding his head.

“You gotta live a little more, Ken, “ he remembers himself telling the younger man. Given that he was a little past tipsy when he made that impromptu speech, there was never an intention to say it as something to be understood as more than just a passing comment.

“See the world,” he said.

Kenma booked a ticket that night, and three days later he finds himself looking at Paris in the rain, with not much of a plan in mind.

“Do more,” he remembers.

And Tetsurou thinks that this counts.

“You trying to prove something to someone?” he asks Kenma, voice suddenly honest.

Kenma sighs, closing his eyes and thinking of the little world he lives within the big wide universe. He’s never really felt small, but sometimes even Tokyo gets lonely.

“Something like that,” he answers.

“—let’s show them we are better.”

The funny thing about serendipity is that it looks nothing like how it’s supposed to look like.

All your life, when you thought of happy moments in regards to love it was always an image that you thought was set in stone from day one.

Instead, it looks like this:

Wet concrete, a cup of coffee, and the rooftop with the view of the city that’s done nothing but weep since the day you arrived. The rain smelled nice, at least. There was always something about the way it lingered that reminded you of home.

—Of silver, and hazel, and pastel colors, and a goodbye that was said like a hello.

You sigh because you just know Sugawara Koushi’s the kind of person that means to linger after the exit.

But like the nature of serendipity, it’s three minutes later where things take a turn.

It turns into looking like a stranger with golden stars for eyes, a question always looking like it’s wanting to break past the barrier.

He shuffles awkwardly in place, looking like a deer caught in the headlights when you turn your face to look at him. You squint, having half the mind to greet him with a broken bonjour before he’s eventually bowing his head profusely and explaining that he’s sorry with an accent familiar to you.

Classic Tokyo boy, you snort.

“Rain kinda ruined the skyline, huh?” you prompt, breaking the silence.

He shrugs. “Not really here to see the city.”

You blink, not exactly phased. You came here following Koushi, so you were practically in the same boat.

“To do more,” he answers. Vague, you think.

Maybe not the same boat. The same ocean, riding the same current maybe, but not the same boat.

“Do more,” you repeat. “So like, are you soul searching?”

“This is beginning to sound like a bad fanfiction,” he mutters, shaking his head, then sighing. “I guess I’m trying to look outside my comfort zone.”

“Ah,” you nod your head. “So kinda like soul searching, but not really; I get it.”

Beside you, he straightens his back. “You do?”

You shrug. “Everybody’s always seeking for something aren’t they?”

He exhales a sigh that sounds more like a laugh so you laugh along with him.

“Mandy,” you say, giving him your name.

“Kenma,” he says, giving you his in return. “So what’s your story?”

You sigh, thinking about it and realizing that you’ve been feeling a little more lost than found lately.

“You really wanna dive straight into that?”

Kenma thinks of what do more exactly means, and settles that maybe this could be count as something to find the meaning to that.

He shrugs. “I’ll dive in if you do,” he answers, and just like that, the man besides you turns from just a rooftop stranger into a stranger with a name who knew just a little bit more about you than the usual you would think is okay.

(Maybe it’s Paris, or maybe it’s just the way your world has kind of tilted, but as you sound out your tale it feels kind of okay.)

Track 3: Roses | “Get drunk on the good life, I'll take you to paradise.”

“You’re going where?” Koushi asks you, eyes wide.

“Italy.”

Serendipity looks like this too. Wide eyes, and an unconvinced tilt to the head. It sounds like Koushi pacing back and forth in a room, his suitcase packed and ready to go, as is yours, but the destination on your respective tickets going somewhere different.

“Shit,” he says. You pause; he never was the type to curse much. “Do you need me to go with you?”

“I’m going with someone actually,” you decline, voice quiet. Mentally, you curse yourself. Why is your voice even quiet? Looking at it from an objective point of view, you’re an adult. You’re in control of your own salary, and sometimes impulsive decisions are granted because in the long run they’re good for the soul.

“You’re going with a stranger,” he deadpans.

You open your mouth, but no words come out. He had a point.

“Are you okay?”

The words he says sound familiar, and a part of you sighs to itself because in a way you’ve missed the familiar. Paris wasn’t familiar, and neither was the idea of Koushi telling you the forever kind of goodbye. Truth is, he could romanticize the see you later parting all he wanted, but that was kind of it. See you later becomes a couple photos you’ll stare at on social media then scroll past, then eventually into just greeting during the holidays before it dwindles into silence.

Just a box of photos of you and him from the coastal side rural city of your hometown, kept in a box, stored in an attic.

“I’m okay.”

You’re not. Sugawara Koushi and the little world back home is all you’ve known, and even if Paris in the rain became just a city caught in a thunderstorm to you, this wasn’t height of what the rest of the world had to offer.

So you smile. “I just wanna do something a little different for a change. I’m okay, I promise. A change is good right?”

The smile he gives you has you feeling terrified.

“—we could be beautiful.” | Italy

And the truth is, a lot of things really could be just that.

Kenma reminds himself that there’s a lot more to Italy than just the deeper saturated colors in the sky, and wider bloom of the roses, but sometimes his eyes wander. Doing more, rings in his head—again and again kind of like as if it’s a broken record.

So “doing more,” begins with thoughts.

He looks at you. A stranger he met by coincidence at a rooftop of a weeping Paris two weeks ago and now he’s suddenly walking along the coast of Italy with you beside him. He knows your name, a little bit of your story, and the fact that you have EDM music plus a couple of sad boy hour songs in your playlist.

He watches you smile when you lean down to smell the flowers, then wonders why you seem to look happier against the pink roses instead of the classic red.

All it takes is for you to smile at him, once, starry eyed and looking like all you know is the sun, and his thoughts stop for just a second before it spirals.

It fucking spirals. How does it fucking spiral?

The first thought that rings true and crystal fucking clear to him is that he’s certain that he wants to know than more than what he already does.

Why do you look happier next to pink instead of red? Why did it look like you wept with Paris? Why are you in Italy with a stranger you barely even know?

“—hideaway.”

Truth is, you think that Italy’s just a hideaway. One extra week away from home, so that goodbye isn’t goodbye yet.

When you look at Kenma whose eyes look distant when he stares at the distance, you wonder if he’s keeping his eyes on the horizon or trying to look past it.

Maybe Italy’s a hideaway for him too.

“Say you’ll never let me go.”

You fall asleep each night trying to tell yourself that he belongs with the city that cries, while the pastel colors of home would always be there for yours to cherish.

You don’t know what exactly you want to let go of just yet.

Serendipity has you looking at the world like it exists for you to conquer it, and perhaps for some it does. For you, you think you just want something to call yours, and for someone to call you theirs.

Track 4: All We Know | “Maybe we should let this go.”

Kenma’s the first to tell you about letting go.

You have half the mind to ask him of what exactly there even is to let go of, but it’s this one night in Italy where Sicily pours all over again.

“I didn’t know Europe liked to cry,” you laugh, staring at the streets outside.

“Maybe it’s just crying for us,” he offers as a response. To be fair, his words did work as if it’s consolation, so you give him credit for at least that and laugh with him.

Kenma’s nice.

He’s a stranger, but he’s nice.

It’s in Italy where you learned that he liked computer screens over window panes, and the buzz of Tokyo over the silence in Miyagi. He’s young, but he’s settled. There’s a house he’s trying to call home, and a kotatsu that serves him well during the winters.

He was a setter for a team, and has a friend that nags even more than his own mother.

Kenma likes apple pie, and despite the initial impression, he’s pretty good when it comes to conversation. He blushes when you look at him in the eye and smile, but eventually he stopped trying to avoid your gaze whenever you did do that.

You can feel him looking at you again, so you tug on your coat and walk towards where the awning of your impromptu shelter ends, palms stretched out to catch the rain.

(You think of Paris.)

“Wanna make a run for it?” Kenma suggests, hands shrugged in his pocket, and eyes looking like two pools of the most beautiful gold in front of you.

(—then you don’t.)

“Kozume Kenma’s getting kinda bold now,” you snicker, walking closer towards him then to the edge as the rain falls harder.

He puffs his cheeks, turning away from you to face the side, and shrugs off his coat to hold it above his head and your own.

And it’s true, you think; there’s something about gold eyes against dark streets and the bokeh of city lights that just fit. You think to yourself that you know his name, and a little slice of his life, but you want to ask him more.

You’re in Sicily with a familiar stranger, and it’s in this fleeting, little, perfect moment where you think that Paris has always just been a city. Never a chapter in a romance book or the postcard that you dreamed of standing in.

Italy looks like rain and now, and gold, and familiar strangers.

You’re not in love, but maybe you should let some things go.

A car drives past, and the streets clear. There’s more than just a few puddles on the ground, but Kenma’s eyes look like a prettier shade of the moon when it turns gold. He’s chuckling, in the way you think only you’ve heard among all the people in the world, and he feels close.

“—we’ve passed the end so we chase forever.”

So close that he could kiss you.

Is this what doing more means?

Maybe, he thinks; there’s a lot of maybes that comes with serendipity. With a sharp breath, you look at each other, then break out into a run.

“—this is all we know.”

You’re drenched in the rain and you’re laughing. Kenma’s long past given up trying to squeeze out rainwater from his jacket and instead just leans against the wall to look at you.

He likes to think that he’s part of the reason as to why you’ve smiled so much today.

“You good?” he hears you ask, and he nods.

“All good.”

He means it.

-

Track 5: Right Here | “Can we just talk it out like friends?”

-

“Are you running away because of someone?” Kenma asks.

You let his question sit for a few moments to think it through. Are you?

You don’t know, so you sigh, then look at him. “What does love look like to you?”

Kenma shrugs, but doesn’t ask about your question. Instead, he looks forward, twiddles with the frayed string of his sweater and gives you his truth. “It looks like a lot of things.”

He takes your silence as a response, so he continues.

“I love grocery stores at midnight,” he shrugs. “No lines.”

You nod your head, accepting his answer; you suppose that love could be that too. “I love League of Legends,” you try. “Even if some players can get toxic.”

“We should game then,” he mutters.

“Bet.”

You snicker, looking to the side and pretending like you didn’t see the faint dust of red on his cheeks. If he asks, you’ll just say that it’s because of the red in the sky and leave it at that.

He doesn’t, but he does ask for more slices of you. “What else?”

“I love how sunsets look in my city,” you say. “Cosplaying. The stars. My immaculate playlist. Pink roses over red. Purple hair.”

He nods, happy with the fact that he’s piecing together little bits and pieces of you.

“You love someone too,” he says, but the lilt in his voice gives away that he’s asking rather than just stating it.

You think about what he says. When you thought of love it’s always looked like all the shades of silver and maybe a couple palettes with just pastel. It looked like the beige of Paris and the cotton candy skies from home.

Then in comes the rain, the world drenched, and past the rose colored lenses you finally begin to see the first hues of every other color.

Italy, with this vibrant, beautiful kaleidoscope, and Kenma, who stands in the center of it.

You see gold, gold, gold.

“You love someone,” he says, and when the world love registers in your ear you think about how much you loved getting caught in the downpour from last night.

“I do love someone,” you tell him, because a part of you would always call that love. It’s in Italy, next to a stranger, where you learn that love doesn’t always have to be this or that. In reality, it’s actually as simple as being this and that.

The waves off the coast, and the sunny city from the postcards drenched in front of your eyes. The calm before the storm, then the beauty of how the rain falls and wind howls right after. You come to love running from point A to point B in a downpour, with a stranger who held his jacket over you and him as an attempt to keep you dry.

Love can be Koushi, still, and always.

As you calling him later that night and telling him about the adventure that serendipity took you in. He tells you a little bit about Paris, and how he’s always going to be right there, when you need it.

You nod to yourself as he says those words, because you’re fine with the fact that even if he won’t, you can always tell yourself that you’re right here for you.

Track 6: Nobody Compares To You | “Nobody, nobody, nobody compares to you.”

To Kenma, you are what comes with both Paris and Italy and the serendipity found after trying to find a face to correlate with “doing more.”

You’re sitting beside him, on the window seat of a plane headed home, and he spends the duration of the flight above seas thinking that he doesn’t want to approach a goodbye.

At the end of the day, he realizes that he’s just a stranger. And maybe to you he’s just going to be a photograph in an old SD card you’d look at once every couple of years before forgetting about it in an attic, or losing in some corner of a house that would you see you for the rest of this lifetime.

He’s never looked at unpredictability in the face. His whole life he’s sneered at the sight of a break in routine, and what’s unfamiliar, because not everything is laid out for him to acclimate to.

He thinks to himself that maybe Italy would be enough, and the downpour of Europe are wild enough of a memory to catapult him into seeing a little more.

Because he saw so much.

“Do more,” he hears Tetsurou say.

Was booking the first flight out of the country without a plan enough?

Kenma shakes his head no. It was a step, but it wasn’t enough.

Telling himself that he’s always going to have Sicily isn’t enough. Leaning in close, almost kissing you once, and watching the hues of the world burst like fireworks and settle into paintings against the depths of your eyes just once isn’t enough. Knowing that you love to play league but not know who your favorite champions are don’t even come close to being enough either.

He wants this, and wants to know you.

He’s certain that Mandy is a name he’s always going to remember despite the age, but he wants to ask you so much more.

Kenma acknowledges the thought that he wants more photographs on his phone and nights where he’d have no choice but to run across the street in a downpour. The truth that he finds in Italy is that there’s nobody like you, because you are who comes with the colors that he never thought he’d discover outside of Tokyo.

Suddenly the routine he’s bound to come home to isn’t enough anymore.

You’re both skies above Japan, and he wants to look at you watch the sunset and talk about all the things you love again. Whether it be in Italy or Paris. Japan or the rest of the world. Under the shelter of sunlight or in the eye of the storm.

He wants to ask you why you love pink roses more than red.

This isn’t love—not just yet, but it could be.

Track 7: Something Just Like This | “How much you wanna risk?”

All you’ve known is silver, but perhaps gold works too.

Kenma stands beside you, luggage in hand, and the exit a few steps away. How much does he want to risk exactly?

Not a whole lot.

The routine that used to be enough was never a whole lot.

He shifts his weight back and forth between each foot as he wracks his brain with thoughts of what he could say.

On the other hand, you don’t want to say goodbye.

Something just like what you have now is nice. The company of a stranger you saw the world be doused in colors in with is nice. Parting then potentially forgetting isn’t nice.

You think to yourself that maybe all you’ll be to him is a face to match a name, and a stranger meant to remain in only photographs of this slice of his life.

As you close your eyes, the colors of pastel and silver flashes behind your eyelids, but they aren’t blinding. You know it’s not because of just Italy and that rooftop in Paris that gives an answer as to why you’re suddenly seeking gold.

How much do you wanna risk? What exactly is there to risk?

Kenma’s the first to break the silence. “Do we say goodbye here or are we going to do something dumb like book another ticket to another country?”

You bite back a laugh, peeking at him through the curtain of your bangs. He doesn’t look away this time, so you offer him a smile when he meets you halfway.

Now that you think about it, Kenma’s always sort of met you halfway.

(It’s nice.)

“I don’t think my bank account would appreciate me booking another ticket on impulse right now,” you laugh.

Kenma’s eyes glimmer, and you think, gold.

“So you’re saying you’d still go with me?” he asks.

“Not everybody is a CEO to their own company, so maybe next time,” you chuckle, amused at the way he seems to deflate ever so slightly at your words.

“Next time,” he mutters, nodding to himself. “We’ll see each other next time?”

You shrug. “I mean, I’d run in the rain with you again.”

He laughs, shoulders shaking a little, eyes crinkling along with his smile. “See you in the next time?”

The way you smile at him has Kenma thinking about the boundaries evident between saying that he wants to do more than actually doing more. So it’s when you’ve turned your back, a few meters already away from him where he exhales a sigh and calls out your name.

You turn around before he even finishes.

What you see is gold. Gold, gold, beautiful gold; as the center of the kaleidoscope of colors.

“If I kiss you the next time, would you kiss me back?”

Kenma’s still as he sounds out his words, the taste of it foreign in his tongue. But he welcomes it this time. You’re looking at him like he gave you the sun, and he holds his breath.

“Earlier in the trip, back in Paris you said you were looking for something,” you tell him first. “Did you find it?”

A pause, then a smile. “Answer my question first.”

You think about what you’d have to risk if you answer yes, but the only thing that comes to mind are colors you know you’re starting to grow out of, so you roll your eyes, laughing. “Then I’ll look forward to that next time.”

He exhales, shoulders feeling light. “Good to know because I think I found what I was looking for too.”

You prolong the see you later. “Was it yourself or something else?”

The answer comes to him naturally, and he grins. “A little bit of both, actually.”

[remotepod]

The Cottagecore Conundrum

By Isabelle and Julie

Admittedly, I’ve spent a lot of this pandemic suffering the slings and arrows of social media in an attempt to offer myself some escapism. As it’s my resident time-waster, I’ve spent a lot of the past seven months scrolling endlessly through Tiktok. With the way the black hole of an algorithm is designed to suck you in, it’s not too odd that alongside the usual dance videos and app-wide inside jokes, my For You Page is littered with different aesthetics— dark academia, goth, soft girl, grandmacore, and the least specific, cottagecore.

As an indecisive and generally self-unaware person, the clear divide between all of these aesthetics is startling to me. How are people so easily putting themselves into boxes when I can’t even pick a favorite color? How easy is it to exist so surely within the realm of cottagecore without ever yearning for the beige dullness of academia, or falling victim to the engulfing darkness of a gothic aesthetic?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve long shared the desire to live in a cottage in the woods one day, and it’s hardly a new concept, but I first noticed the influx of posts at the beginning of quarantine. It was during what I like to call the “Sourdough” era of the pandemic, when we were all stuck inside for an estimated couple of months and there was a national yeast shortage because everyone decided they were going to make the sourdough mother that their families would be using for generations. I noticed it even more with the fairly recent rise of the strawberry dress, which seems to feed even further into this idea of “cottagecore.”

The videos on Tiktok range from videos of people baking and showing off their gardens to videos of people restoring literal cottages. I once saw a video of someone heating up a piece of cake in a frying pan because they’d gotten rid of their microwave for not fitting their cottagecore aesthetic.

It isn’t just Tiktok, either. A simple search for “cottagecore” on Tumblr leads to an entire rainbow of cottagecore moods, with blog titles such as @cottagecore, @eyeheartfarms, and @blueberriesandhoney.

The problem is, I can never quite tell what Cottagecore means. While scrolling through aesthetic Minecraft screengrabs and charming photographs of cows in flowers, I can’t help but wonder:  Does it encompass my Pinterest board, which is cluttered with pictures of houses tucked away into the quiet heart of the woods? Does it only mean videos of people baking their own bread and running through meadows? Am I excluded from being cottagecore for being unable to bake bread due to the previously mentioned quarantine yeast shortage? Where did this aesthetic even come from other than, possibly, the collective unconscious? Where is the line between Grandmacore and Cottagecore, and how do you know if you’ve crossed it?

It’s time to get to the bottom of this.

Essentially, when it comes down to it, it is probably easiest to describe Cottagecore as living farm life in a cottage.  Living simply, baking, being one with nature, living relatively sustainably, perhaps even raising some animals.  Flowers, flowy dresses, house plants, and a soft, earthy color palette tend to be associated with this specific aesthetic.  The first time the word Cottagecore was used as a hashtag was on Tumblr in early 2014, however it did not gain traction until almost exactly 6 years after this hashtag began.

A google trends search for “cottagecore” spanning the past 12 months

Despite this, the origins of completely uprooting and living the Frog and Toad lifestyle could be traced back to Marie Antoinette.  The Museum of English Rural Life on their Twitter account describes her as liking to “dress up as a milkmaid and shepherdess” and had her favorite architect build her her very own farm, Hameau de la Reine.

Now, when describing her lifestyle as Cottagecore trendsetter sounds pretty parallel to what modern internet users may want out of that lifestyle. However, in the modern Cottagecore scene, a common viewpoint of those looking to run off to a cottage in the middle of nowhere is a certain dislike of capitalism and the seeming looming threat of an all powerful government—so Marie Antoinette is probably not the best mascot for the Cottagecore aesthetic.  Cottagecore has served as escapism for a lot of people who feel rejected by society—specifically members of the LGBTQ+ community—and also for those needing an escape from the doom and gloom of the news that seems to only get worse by the day.

I mean, what could be better escapism than the wholesome idea of just living among the mushrooms and trees, growing and making your own food, and just feeling pure bliss in the middle of the woods? Frankly, I can’t think of anything better than that right now.

Cottagecore comes with its own subcultures, of course.  One of the most prominent comes with many names. Cottagegore, Goth Cottagecore, or Dark Cottagecore is essentially exactly what it means—Cottagecore, but make it darker.  This specific aesthetic focuses on the darker parts of nature, like storms, fog, or poisonous mushrooms.  It is likely that this specific aesthetic began with the new Cottagecore trend. As the idea of Cottagecore began to attract new people from different alternative subcultures, it seemed like it was time for Cottagecore 2.0 or just Cottagecore on dark mode.

So, in the end, Cottagecore is just escapism with sustainable living and frogs. Honestly, the appeal of such a lifestyle is very obvious right now.  If we all just moved to middle of the woods, lived the farm life, and wore flowy dresses, would there be any problems? No, I doubt it.

[slashersannonymous]

Your Roommates the Slashers

I don’t see many headcanons of platonic relationships between slashers and the reader so I’m gonna take a crack at it

Welcome to your new home roomie!!

You get your own room in a pretty good sized house in a rural, but none the less beautiful area , for a hell of a price. Almost too good.

Sure your roommates are a bit... eccentric but hey they’re fun enough.

Jason

Real stickler for the rules (No drugs, no loud music, No bringing “strange people in”, No sex in the house), Freddy gives him shit for being a fun nazi but everyone else seems pretty content (including yourself ); does it to keep his mama happy

Super sweet and nice, has a commanding presence but only uses it around Freddy when he’s being a shit. If you’re having a rough day Jason will gladly take your chores for the day and let you have some rest

Speaking of chores, HE MADE AN ADORABLE CHORE CHART HE FOUND ON PINTEREST

Keeps the house nice and clean, plus is the grounds keeper; that garden is phenomenal!

Can cook and bake REALLY WELL (who knew the dude who doesn’t need to eat can cook so well 🤷🏾‍♀️) he’s on par with Bubba!

Freddy

If Jason is the ideal (all be it a little strict roommate) Freddy is the absolute opposite

For the most part he follows the rules BUT he will break them to get under people’s skin when he’s bored (aka Jason’s)

Can be a real asshole but a really FUN asshole none the less, you want to do something crazy or fun? Go to Freddy, he’s got the hook up

You never want to see another red and green sweater in your life; how many does this fucker have?! HE LEAVES THEM E V E R Y W H E R E

Plus he does all of his work at night- so expect to hear him coming in AND out of of the house multiple times during the night

Does not follow the Pinterest bored of chores.

Gets the machete to the head when Jason gets mad enough (you want to get payback? Ask if he needs some Advil for that splitting head ache)

Michael

You met Michael one late night after you got off work and nearly had a goddamn heart attack when he just appeared behind you with a nice little “Welcome” gift bag in hand

Really chill and reserved, super introverted, likes to keep to himself.

Dependable if you really need him! You need someone to run to the store really quick while everyone else is busy and so are you? Michael will do it for you, he isn’t busy

Is too damn quiet sometimes, you’ve bumped into him so many times there’s a talley going now to see how many times you’ll bump into him on average

Isn’t too much of a cook, usually prefers to eat simple or easy to make meals.

You want someone neutral to vent to? Michael is the silent and true neutral we all need

He’s the second handyman of the house next to Jason, who knew he was so good with tools

Bubba

Sweet lord he is such a sweety! Bubba actively hangs out with you the most in the house; he loves making friends and loves being around you!

Oh but the baby is messy. Because of his upbringing in rural Texas, Bubba isn’t the best housekeeper (HE’S TRYING DAMMIT); sometimes forgets to clean the blood remains of his meal preps and cooking when he’s done, and every once in a while tracks blood in the house (The reason Jason got the Pinterest board of Chores)

But damn are those messes worth it! The boy can smoke and barbecue his ass off! Whenever you come home to the smell of barbecue (usually a Sunday) you know you’re going into a food coma

His main stay is in the basement. He has his own room upstairs, like everyone else, but his workshop is down there (just like back home!)

If you want someone to cry to; Bubba is there to be the shoulder to cry on, the person to cry with, and the bear hug to help you feel a little better (also really doesn’t mind helping you down some junk food to make you feel better)

Sometimes gets bullied by Freddy (even if it’s him trying to be playful), but everyone (including you!) actively stands up for Bubba (despite being a massive behemoth of a man himself) MUST PROTECC SWEET BUBBA

BONUS - MRS. VOORHEES

You stumbled across her while on a walk when you heard a very sweet and motherly voice beckoning you to come back home and have a little chat

She’s the mama bear (literally) in this house of crazed killers and madden, she wants everyone to be happy and enjoy living together

She’s a polite but FIRM woman (put some respect on her name)

She may only be a head but she has the demanding presence of her son (Jason got it from her 🖤)

You need advice? She’s happy to talk to you and help you our figure out a solution to your problems or to give some words of comfort

DO NOT PISS THIS LADY OFF, SHE WILL CUT A MAN DOWN VERBALLY AND KEEP A SMILE IN HER VOICE (she’s done it plenty of times with Freddy)

So this was my very first head canons/imagines post! Hope y’all like it! Send me an ask or a request if you’d like!!!

[oystersandpearls]

PEARL VICTOR ( CAMILLE WINBUSH ) is a 17 year old JUNIOR student at Broadripple Academy. SHE is originally from COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA but moved to Broadripple ONE YEAR ago. SHE is HARD-WORKING and SPIRITED but can also be BLUNT and INATTENTIVE.  

1. Full Name?

Pearl Eunice Victor.

2. Preferred Names or Nicknames?

None! Pearl is Pearl, end of story.

3. What does their name mean? Does it have any significance in their family? Do they like their name?

Pearl was named in memory of her great-grandmother, and that mantle is something she wears with-well, not a sense of pride, but a sense of duty. Eunice was just a name they thought sounded nice, although it’s original form does mean victory in Greek, which might make it a teensy bit redundant. Oops!

4. Age and Date of Birth?

17! She was born May 20th, 2002.

5. Gender and Pronouns?

Cis female (she/her).

6. Hometown?

Columbia, South Carolina. As such, Broadripple has been a fairly big shift for Pearl, but she’s trying to deal with it as best she can!

7. Does your character fit into any well known archetypes or tropes?

Bits of Pearl’s demeanor do fall into the classic Southern Belle archetype, generally sweet if also fairly hard-headed if there’s something she wants to fight for, but she’s not exactly accustomed to rural life.

8. How long have they been at Broadripple?

Pearl transferred into Broadripple for her sophomore year of high school, and has remained there ever since.

9. What led them to apply to Broadripple? Was it a decision made by them or by their parents/guardians or somewhere in between?

It was a joint decision, although one that was largely made by her father, a pastor at the largest AME church in Columbia. Despite Broadripple being a Catholic institution, he felt that it’s reputation meant that his beloved daughter, his only female child as well as his youngest, deserved to have the opportunities that being a Broadripple student would provide.

10. Whether they’ve been at Broadripple four days or four years, do they enjoy it? Do they like Broadripple?

In all honestly, Pearl doesn’t know if she can say that she enjoys Broadripple or not. Sure, it’s facilities are a heck of a lot better than anything she had back in Columbia, and yes, some of the boys were real cute, but despite everything, she still feels a disconnect between herself and the student populace as a whole. Maybe it’s her color, maybe  it’s the fact that so many of them have no idea what struggle is. Or, maybe it’s the fact they don’t approve of her efforts of trying to start a cheer squad. In any case, Pearl enjoys parts of Broadripple, but can’t quite see she enjoys it is a whole.

11. What house are they in? Do they care very much about their house?

Pearl is part of Seton, and honestly, most events related to the houses are the events in which Pearl displays the most enthusiasm. While she generally believes in school spirit as a whole, her competitive nature means that house events are the best way to sate that thirst, considering she doesn’t take part in any of the sports teams.

12. Who do they share a dorm with, or are they on their own for the moment? What are they like to live with? Are they clean or messy? Early risers or night owls?

At this point in time, Pearl is rooming on her own, and she would very much hope to keep it that way! Not because isn’t a good roommate, because she would definitely tell you she is - and, at the very least, she keeps her side quite organized if a bit garish with it’s constant use of baby pinks and blues, and with her waking up at 6 sharp in order to look over her work for the day.

13. How is your character’s dorm decorated? Is it bare or bursting at the seems with personality? Any particular sentimental items from home?

Pearl keeps scrapbooks with her favorite family memories tucked into a drawer in her dorm, considering she’s boarding at Broadripple and only able to go visit her family during long holidays. Her dorm room, as mentioned earlier, is decorated with family memories, as well as her fond memories of cheer and gymnastics, which she keeps framed all around. 

14. What is their favourite subject at school? Do they even have a favourite? Why?

As an astrophysicist, Pearl would be amiss to put anything other than physics as her favorite class! What initially began as a fascination with astrology ended up becoming a genuine interest in astronomy, and ever since the eighth grade, Pearl has aimed for working at NASA, even though she knows it currently isn’t exactly in the best state.

15. Are they involved in any clubs? Which ones?

Pearl is a member of the Chamber Choir, the Buddy Club, as well as the Student Weekend Activities Team, if only because she enjoys busying herself. She has been preparing herself for a run from Student Council, and as such, been considering joining Women of Broadripple as a way to gain at least some measure of recognition before she does announce her candidacy, but for now, she hasn’t made any concrete moves on that front.

16. How does your character feel about Broadripple’s Unofficial Clubs? Do they know about them? Are they a part of any of them?

Pearl regards the BBC with some disdain, although she supposes their antics do liven up the school environment. (Also, their parties are pretty good.) As someone trying not to get involved with any drama at campus, at least not through delving into things the administration would want exposed, she isn’t exactly fond of the kids going around trying to stir shit up. 

17. Does your character participate in any sports? If so, what made them join the team?

Nope! In her previous school, Pearl was a cheerleader, but seeing as how Broadripple doesn’t have a cheer squad, she doesn’t participate.

18. What afternoon activities does your character do? Do they just do the one mandatory one or are they involved in multiple? Why?

Pearl both volunteers at a nursing home, and does dance. Dance is the closest thing she has to cheer, and she generally specializes in contemporary, while she both genuinely enjoys community service and believes that it will help her college applications. 

19. Do they miss their home when they’re at Broadripple? Do they often go home for the weekends or do they only go home during holiday breaks?

Pearl stays in frequent contact with her family through weekly videochats with her parents, but in order to save on money, she is only able to go back to South Carolina during long breaks, something that still doesn’t exactly sit well with he. 

20. Did your character know Izzy De Santis or Maggie Monroe?

Pearl generally has no idea who Izzy is other than that crazy dude who punched someone, but as Maggie was in her batch, she can’t hep but feel a bit uncomfortable about the entire situation. Not that she liked Maggie - Pearl loved God, too, but Maggie seemed a little off to her, but the fact that she’s just up and gone means something must have gone wrong.

21. Has your character heard of Edith Lynch? Do they know the story?

Pearl has heard murmurs about incidents going on, but she hasn’t bothered to read up on any of the details surrounding it, so she has little to no idea about the specifics of the Edith Lynch incident.

22. How does your character feel about Nighmore? Have they noticed the recently closed shops yet?

Call her judgey, but Pearl doesn’t like Nighmore. The people are too nice, especially in the wake of the things that have been going down. Pearl has felt this way for some time, though, and besides briefly noting that there seem to be less places to hang out in Nighmore, she hasn’t put too much thought into it, mainly filtering it into a list of all the other reasons Nighmore gives her the heebie jeebies. 

23. Have you made any aesthetic Pinterest boards/WeHeartIt collections for this character? Or playlists? Anything you would like to share!

I may add stuff here, but for now, no!

[manufacturedhomesforsale]

Finding Land For a Custom Home

The process of finding land for a custom home may seem overwhelming, but there are several factors to consider that can simplify the process. For example, if you’ve always wanted to

design your dream

home just the way you like it, you have the option of buying land and then purchasing a manufactured or modular home that is customized to your vision. This process can be considerably easier and more affordable than customized stick-built construction. But in either case, you of course must first find the land upon which you want to build your life! The following highlights the steps to find and buy land for your future custom home.

Identifying Your Land Requirements

Consider regional requirements early on in the process. For example, do you want a private lot that is in the city, the suburbs, or a more rural area? This decision alone will determine which things you should be aware of in the later stages.

When thinking about requirements, keep in mind that the price tag of your land isn’t necessarily indicative of total cost. You may be drawn to lower-cost lots in more rural areas, but plan on doing your due diligence to understand how much the land still needs to be developed. Requirements like soil percolation for septic, drilling wells, or the viability of bringing in electricity, cable and phone lines are all things that can considerably add to the cost of building a home rural land. Alternatively, city and suburban lots might have stricter and more expensive permitting requirements, and some counties may even have restrictions on manufactured home builds. Keep all of these things in mind as you decide where you envision your dream home living, and the steps you must take to make that a reality!

Finding the Perfect Land to Call Home

Begin your search online, or in local listings. Some specialty sites to consider include Zillow.com, LoopNet.com, LandWatch.com and Realtor.com. Additionally, as with purchasing an existing home, hiring a real estate agent can be a tremendous help. When choosing your agent, be sure that they have experience in negotiating private land deals for manufactured or modular home builds in the area, so they can help you watch out for any red flags related to permitting or HOA’s early on.

Identifying the Correct Lending Path

Financing will require a lender appraisal which will help determine an appropriate price for your offer. Once the offer is determined and you are ready to secure financing, UMH is ready to assist in helping you with various loan types including conventional, USDA and FHA. We will take into consideration different variables like cash-on-hand for a down payment, as well as credit score, to recommend the best financing options for you.

You can purchase your land first outright or through separate financing, or secure a construction loan that will finance your land and your home construction together. If you use a construction loan, the closing of the home and land purchase will happen at the same time. Both options are good routes to take, so what you choose should be based upon your financial situation, timeline for move-in and how much the lot needs to be prepared for development.

Permit Preparation

After you have purchased your plot, the next step is to start the permitting process to build. Acquiring permits is essential to land development and building your manufactured home. Every city and jurisdiction have different permit requirements, so it is imperative to understand what you need and how to secure them.

One of the first steps in acquiring permits is meeting with a building inspector. Check with your county to determine what standard documents you’ll need; these may include the permit application, an agent authorization form, and others. Following the initial meetings, you will need to submit building plans, proof of land ownership/title, soil reports, survey plans and drainage plans. If you have done your due diligence when choosing your land, you will have had the proper inspections completed and these documents easily accessible upon or shortly after closing.

Permit fees vary considerably depending on the cost and location of the home. Multiple permits will be needed including building, plumbing and electrical work, so your total budget should account for all required permit types.

When considering your permit requirements, it will help the process tremendously to consult with an expert who not only has experience working with the permitting boards in your county, but also has experience doing so for manufactured homes. The experts at our UMH Sales Center locations are well-versed in this process, so you’ll have the peace of mind knowing nothing will slip through the cracks.

Let UMH Sales Center Help You Build Your Custom Home!

Once you’ve chosen your land, locked down your financing agreement (if applicable) and obtained the proper permits, your land is ready to build. If you choose to purchase your manufactured or modular home from a UMH Sales Center, we can help you find land, and continue to be your resource for site-preparation and home placement. Let our experts be your guide, every step of the way. Meet with a team member at one of our Sales Centers today.

Contact Details: UMH Properites, Inc. 4500 State Route 51 Belle Vernon, PA Ph: (724) 243-3251 Email: wecanhelp@umh.com Website: https://www.umhsalescenter.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UMHproperties Twitter: https://twitter.com/umhproperties Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umhpropertiesinc Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ph/umhproperties

[writingquestionsanswered]

I’m having trouble painting scenes and adding necessary description to my writing. I personally feel like it’s not good enough. Any tips?

Adding Description to Your Writing

There’s actually an amazing book I would recommend if you can get a copy. It’s called Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively, by Rebecca McClanahan. (And it looks like there’s a revised edition as well) which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to strengthen their descriptive writing game. 

Outside of that, writing exercises that focus on description are very helpful. An easy one you can do daily: keep a small notebook with you and when you get a spare moment, take a few minutes to write down one or two paragraphs describing where you are, what you see, and what’s happening around you. If you’re really pressed for time or it’s not convenient to write, try just taking in the scene and writing down some descriptive words or phrases. Then use them later to try and recreate the scene as you remember it. Another one to try, either wherever you are or using a photo as a prompt later on: imagine you’re describing what you see to someone who isn’t able to see. Try to render the place to them in as much vivid detail as you can.There are also some great resources out there that can help with descriptive writing. Some of my favorites are The Random House Word Menu, Master Lists for Writers by Bryn Donovan, and the whole slew of writing resources by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, including their Urban Setting Thesaurus and Rural Setting Thesaurus.

 And don’t be afraid to use photos, videos, sound effects, etc. to help bring things to life in your mind’s eye. Tumblr and Pinterest are great for keeping inspiration boards for your stories.And finally, if you’re not doing so already, try keeping a writer’s notebook that you can use to log creative thoughts, interesting words and phrases, ideas, etc. Every time you hear an interesting word, phrase, or quote, write it down in there. Review it often and add to it as much as possible. Keep it near you when you’re reading so you can jot down things that strike you.Writing descriptively is as much about practice as anything else. When you’ve built up a good arsenal of resources, you can focus on adding in those descriptive layers and refer to them as you write. After a while, it will start to come naturally and you’ll rely on those resources less and less.I hope that helps!

[mozgoderina]

Through a legend, darkly (The Globe and Mail) / Chet Baker

When Bruce Weber's Let's Get Lost had its world premiere in September, 1988, at the Venice International Film Festival, it was hailed by some as both a masterpiece -- and a masterpiece of good timing.

The reason: On May 13 of that same year, the subject of Weber's film, jazz legend Chet Baker, had plunged to his death from a hotel window in Amsterdam -- just a year after Weber had spent six months, off and on, filming Baker in various locales across Europe and the United States.

Not surprisingly, Let's Get Lost came to be seen less as a portrait of a talented, troubled artist than an invitation to read every crease in Baker's once-pretty face, every lovelorn lyric he sang and every moody melody he played as an intimation of doom. Was Baker's end a suicide? Murder? An accident precipitated by the drug abuse that, along with music, had been the major motif in Baker's life?

Visitors to this year's Toronto International Film Festival get to consider all the singer's highs and lows anew when Let's Get Lost is screened tomorrow as part of the festival's Dialogues series. Weber, now 60, will be there, talking with Canadian broadcaster Ross Porter (who prepared a Chet Baker documentary of his own for CBC Radio several years ago) and Douglas Brinkley, head of the Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization at Tulane University in New Orleans. Weber is also bringing Scottish singer Angela McCluskey to perform the Baker classic, My Foolish Heart.

Weber's appearance is a homecoming of sorts: Let's Get Lost had its North American premiere, just a few days after its Venice launch, at what was then called the Toronto Festival of Festivals. The TIFF screening marks the start of a second commercial life for Let's Get Lost, for which Weber spent almost a year preparing a restored print. It's going to be re-released in theatres early next year, in tandem with the release of an expanded version (28 songs in total) of the soundtrack issued in 1989, followed by the DVD of the film.

The man who would go on to become a world-famous photographer first became interested in Baker when Weber was still a dreamy 16-year-old living in rural Pennsylvania, and spotted a photo of him in a Pittsburgh record store on the cover of the 1955 vinyl LP Chet Baker Sings and Plays with Bud Shank, Russ Freeman and Strings. Included among the 10 tracks was Baker's cover of the Jimmy McHugh-Frank Loesser composition Let's Get Lost.

Later, Weber would say that seeing Baker's chiselled features and muscular physique in a knit T-shirt "was sort of the way I always wished I had looked, or wished I had known somebody like that."

But it wasn't just Baker's looks that appealed to Weber: Playing Chet Baker Sings, he told James Gavin, author of a controversial 2002 biography of Baker called Deep in a Dream, "I heard a sound . . . that was beckoning me to go West. It was a sound you felt when you listened to the ocean, when you were at the beach late in the afternoon."

In 1986, Weber directed his first feature film Broken Noses, a documentary about a hunky Olympic hopeful named Andy Minsker and the troubled youngsters he coached in a boxing club in Oregon. When it came time to do the soundtrack, Weber went to the cool California sounds of his youth -- Joni James, Julie London, Gerry Mulligan and, of course, Baker.(It's now Weber's belief that "you can literally film anything and put Chet's music with it and it'll work, you know?" he said in our interview. "Someone will say to me, 'Bruce, I'm doing a film about my grandmother.' And I always say, 'Oh, why don't you put some Chet Baker music with it?' ")

It was while finishing Broken Noses that Weber finally connected with the object of his adolescent desire, at a club in New York. Except Weber was by then a bearish 40 and Baker a hollow man of 57 dreaming of speedballs and looking, in the words of one writer, "more like Jack Palance than Jimmy Dean."

Nevertheless, Weber was enamoured. After persuading the trumpeter to do a photo session, then a three-minute "documentary" in a vermin-infested tenement, he suggested the two of them do a longer film and Baker assented. Shooting began the following January. That May, when Weber premiered Broken Noses (whose sole opening credit reads "To Chet Baker") at Cannes, he brought Baker and Minsker along with him -- and shot footage for Let's Get Lost along the way.

Today Weber describes Let's Get Lost as "a very ad hoc film. When we had some money and some time, we'd just go and do it." By the end, he had poured more than $1-million (U.S.) of his own money into the film, which he now calls "my grad-school project."

Working with an often cranky junkie who had an ill-fitting set of dentures and "no concept of holding onto 10 cents for tomorrow," was occasionally a strain. But 20 years later, Weber confesses that he kind of misses him.

"Chet was really fun when he was in a good frame of mind," he says. "He saw the world like a kid. There was this strange kind of innocence about him. . . . He really took pleasure in simple things. He had this kind of backyard mentality, 'I'm just happy sitting under the apple tree.' When the waves are spraying just so, the wind's nice, I still like to say, 'It's a Chet kind of day.' "

One of the most striking conceits of Let's Get Lost has also proved to be its most controversial: Weber staged numerous events -- such as the visit to Cannes, a reunion with photographer William Claxton (who had immortalized the young Chet), and cruises in a convertible down Santa Monica Boulevard.

Weber also convinced Baker to don some posh threads and have himself worked on by a hairstylist, makeup artist and dresser. Occasionally, he surrounded the trumpeter with attractive young women -- the sort Baker no doubt had partied with 35 years earlier -- and men (Minsker, singer Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Chris Isaak) whose unlined good looks Weber contrasted with Baker's cadaverous visage.

Later, the filmmaker brought that same blend of fantasy and reality to bear on Baker's estranged third wife, Carol, and their three children, Dean, Paul and Melissa (all of whom are now in their 40s), when he filmed them at their home in Stillwater, Okla.

"I don't think Bruce Weber's a true documentary maker," Baker's widow told me in a recent interview. Now in her mid-60s, she met Chet in 1960 when she was a 19-year-old English showgirl in Italy, married him in 1964, and never divorced. Since this past June, she has been living in Toronto, where she is considering settling for good after meeting local promoter-artist Jhames Lee and naming him executive director of something called the Chet Baker Foundation, which recently put on a three-day tribute to the artist in the city.

"Giving you haircuts and telling you what clothes to put on and driving you around in an expensive convertible isn't about making a documentary," said Baker's widow. "A documentary, to me, is about what you are."

She is writing her own story of life with her famous husband and, Lee promises, "It'll be the definitive book . . . since there's nothing definitive about Chet out there at all," including, she says, the Gavin biography, which she characterizes as "a trash job, so disgusting -- negative, negative, negative."

Weber is quietly unapologetic. "I kind of like films where they're kind of like a project on how to live your life. . . . They're not like a tunnel view of the subject where, you know, you're locked in a chronology or you just talk with the people you're supposed to talk to and it's all about the old days."

It's likely Weber's go-with-the-flow approach will be fully in evidence in another upcoming feature: a documentary about Robert Mitchum, which Weber started filming in the mid-1990s, but put on hold when the actor died in 1997, and, he says, "I got hauled off into other stuff."

Now Weber says he's going to have that doc finished for a 2007 release and -- get ready for it -- there are going to be scenes of Mitchum singing with Marianne Faithful, Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones. For Weber, it seems, the stranger the bedfellows, the better the biopic.

  Source: The Globe and Mail / Written by James Adams. Link: Through a legend, darkly Illustration: William Claxton. 'Chet Baker at the piano, Hollywood', 1954. Moderator: ART HuNTER. ✓ FAcEBook pAGE →  ✓ piNTEREsT BoARD → 

[wesfike]

Grey-Bruce will soon begin seeing benefits of SWIFT

A largely rural area of Ontario that includes Grey-Bruce is now a “major step” closer to having more of its homes and businesses connected to high-speed broadband internet as part of the SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology network.

Provincial officials have announced that request-for-proposals for up to $36.8 million in broadband infrastructure have been issued in Bruce, Grey and Huron counties.

“What this means is that we are going to get a SWIFT project in Grey-Bruce. We’re going to have projects on the move,” Grey County Deputy-warden Selwyn Hicks, the county’s representative on the SWIFT board, said Monday in an interview.

“As I’ve been saying all along, though, SWIFT is not going to be the silver bullet. SWIFT is going to address some pockets and they are pockets that are difficult to reach, so it’s going to be part of the solution, but it’s by no means going to be the solution.”

The RFPs are set to close July 10 for Grey County and Aug. 21 for Bruce. Once an RFP closes, contracts for the work will be awarded and service provider agreements will be put in place.

“We’re now going to see actual projects that are going to be proposed and we will see machines digging and placing fibre and that’s a good thing. It’s much needed,” Hicks said.

The non-profit, municipally-led SWIFT project is overseeing a $209-million broadband expansion that will connect about 22 per cent of under-served premises in southwestern Ontario over the next three years.

The federal and provincial governments and private-sector service providers have each committed $63.7 million to the project, while municipalities are planning to invest $17.6 million.

SWIFT subsidizes the construction of open-access high-speed networks to encourage service providers to expand broadband infrastructure in eligible areas, which include those that don’t have the preferred 50/10 (50 megabytes per second download bandwidth, 10 mbps upload bandwidth) internet service and where the market isn’t sufficient for internet service providers to invest.

Prequalified service providers can respond to RFPs with network designs and proposals to address broadband service gaps in eligible funding areas.

SWIFT began issuing RFPs in August 2019.

On Friday, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Progressive Conservative MPP Bill Walker and Huron-Bruce PC MPP Lisa Thompson announced a “major step in the expanding of broadband internet in Bruce, Grey and Huron counties” with the latest RFP from SWIFT.

“This is terrific news for residents in the rural areas of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound. Through this investment, we can continue to take steps to bridge the digital divide and improve quality of life for our local residents,” Walker said in a statement.

The province’s announcement comes about three weeks after Grey County council approved a motion to issue a “call to action” to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government to “champion the implementation of broadband” in the unserviced and under-served parts of Grey County.

The motion notes that Grey County families and businesses need reliable, affordable broadband “now more than ever in our increasingly electronic world” to conduct business and stay connected both locally and beyond.

Grey County Warden Paul McQueen said the province’s announcement is “very welcome news” and is especially timely given the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted just how important it is for families, businesses and others to be connected to reliable and affordable high-speed internet.

“The ability to connect is even more important now than probably ever – not just for your younger cohorts, but for your older generation as well,” he said in an interview.

McQueen said he’s heard about how important internet connectivity has been during the pandemic for many local seniors as it’s allowed them to stay in contact with their children and grandchildren while in isolation.

“It’s very good for our area and very important. We could always get more and we always will ask for more, but everything is a step approach and there is only so much money in the pot,” he said.

SWIFT officials say there are nearly 230,000 under-served premises in southwestern Ontario and the project intends to connect 50,000 of those homes and businesses with current funding.

But it would cost about $2.7 billion to “fiberize every under-served road” in the southwestern Ontario region, a SWIFT spokesperson has told The Sun Times. That amount could be reduced by using wireless broadband in certain areas.

Many parts of Grey-Bruce are not eligible for SWIFT funding, including Owen Sound, Hanover, the town of Meaford and large sections of southeastern Grey and southwestern Bruce.

“Any carrier, regardless of who they are, if they can meet that minimum requirement of 50 down and 10 up, we’re banned from that territory. So, in Grey County, there has been some wireless providers that say, we’re claiming this territory because we have the ability to deliver 50 down and 10 up, regardless of the price,” Hicks said.

“I would love to see fibre everywhere so that it’s robust and reliable, but the province has made it very clear that if they can deliver anything at all, regardless of the price, we have to stay away from that territory.”

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[jenniferfaye34]

#Giveaway + Excerpt ~ Promise For Tomorrow by Michelle DeBruin... #books #Christian #Historical #romance #readers

On Tour with Prism Book Tours

Promise for Tomorrow By Michelle De Bruin Christian Historical Romance Paperback & ebook, 290 Pages November 19th 2019 by Mantle Rock Publishing Living a life of faith isn’t going the way Logan and Karen hoped until some special visitors arrive and offer them their future back. Karen Millerson dreamed of teaching high school but now finds herself boarding with a farm family and teaching country school. She is engaged to marry Logan De Witt and is getting prepared to share in ministry with him. But when she gets blamed for the tragic fire at the school, Karen’s future grows uncertain. Logan De Witt is working to clear his family’s name with the bank. But when he breaks his leg, hindering his ability to work the farm, Logan is faced with life-changing decisions. When his best friend can’t offer the help he requested, can Logan find a way to care for his family and court Karen at the same time before his love for her destroys all of them?

(Affiliate links included.)

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

EXCERPT: A fragment of memory returned. “Karen.” She glanced up with a question in her eyes. “When I woke up a few minutes ago, what did I say to you?” She blushed. “You called me an angel.” “Then I wasn’t seeing things.” His hazy mind was finally catching up to his vision. “I said that because of how you look right now.” Karen gave a self-conscious flutter of her lashes and slipped her fingers through a wave of hair. Logan wrestled with his longing to imitate Karen’s movements. Then he could discover for himself if the strands really were as silky as they looked. “Do you know how beautiful you are?” Karen shook her head. “Then let me tell you.” Karen leaned in as if she hoped he’d whisper the words. The shift in her posture brushed his bare shoulder with a curl of her hair. Logan caught it between his fingers. Smooth. Silky. Satisfying. How he’d managed to share his home with her since last summer and not catch a glimpse of her hair loose and flowing before now stumped him. He should have paid more attention. “You are the most gorgeous young woman I’ve ever met. I’m honored that you have agreed to become my wife. Even without the courtship.” He winked. How nice to have his wits returning. Without them Karen had no reason to release that joyful laugh of hers. Something else he’d miss if she moved to the Bettens’. They shared one more kiss, and then Karen settled in, reading the Bible once again. As Logan listened, he did a little praying. Karen truly was the most beautiful, talented, godly young woman he’d ever known. More than Lorraine or any of those other girls Pete thought might be good for him. The Lord truly knew what he was doing to call Logan to singleness all those years. And now God gave him Karen. All he wanted to do was sweep her onto his lap and make a full-time career out of landing kisses over her face and neck. If Eldon recognized that sort of occupation as generating the profit he needed at the bank, he’d have that debt paid off by tomorrow. But Karen lived in his home. She fussed over his comfort and spent long hours in the middle of the night at his bedside. It made a man want to forget the existence of words like decorum or propriety. In that moment, Logan saw his injuries in a whole new light. The cast, the muddled mind, the ribs in need of recovery were God’s way of helping him preserve honorable living arrangements with his fiancée. As long as his cumbersome leg and dizzy brain kept him confined to the sofa, he was unable to give in to the temptations luring him away from all he held as right and true. Logan ended his prayer thanking the Lord in Heaven above from the bottom of his heart for broken bones. Other Books in the Series Hope for Tomorrow By Michelle De Bruin Christian Historical Romance Paperback & ebook, 294 Pages October 23rd 2018 by Mantle Rock Publishing LLC When Logan De Witt learns of his father’s sudden death, he returns home to the family’s dairy farm. During his stay, he discovers his mother’s struggle with finances and his younger sister’s struggle with grief. Concern for his family presses Logan to make the difficult decision to leave his career as a pastor and stay on the farm. As a way to make some extra money, he agrees to board the teacher for their local school. Karen Millerson arrives from Chicago ready to teach high school but her position is eliminated so she accepts the role of country school teacher. Eager to put her family’s ugly past behind her, Karen begins a new career to replace the trust she lost in her own father who had been in ministry when she was a child. Logan and Karen both sense a call from the Lord to serve him, but neither of them expected that one day they would do it together. Can Karen learn to trust again? Will Logan lay aside his grief in exchange for God’s purpose for his life?

(Affiliate links included.)

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

About the Author

Michelle De Bruin lives in Iowa with her husband and two teenage sons. She has a bachelor’s degree in Religion with a Christian Ministry emphasis, and in Music. Michelle is the spiritual services provider for an organization that offers services for people with mental and physical disabilities. She has been a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) since 2015. Michelle writes inspirational historical romance about people who live in rural communities. Characters that bring to life the delights of farm and small-town living, whispers of Dutch heritage, and Christian faith make Michelle’s stories distinct. A romantic at heart, Michelle is always on the lookout for glimpses of God’s love through the window of a good story. Her first book, Hope for Tomorrow, released in 2018. The sequel, Promise for Tomorrow, released November 2019.

Website | Goodreads | BookBub | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Tour Schedule

Tour Giveaway

One winner will receive a signed print copy of Promise for Tomorrow, chocolates, and a winter-themed quilted table runner (US only)

Ends February 26, 2020

ENTER HERE

[lovelyfantasticfart]

Toronto Then And Now

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers') at this time announced it was 105% funded as of January 1, 2017, its fourth consecutive 12 months of being absolutely funded. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, one of many country's largest pension fund managers, opened an workplace in Mumbai on Tuesday as it scouts for investment alternatives on the Indian subcontinent. I recall considered one of my classmates tempting me to skip class and drink beer and play pool. The MLS庐 HPI Composite Index, which tracks benchmark properties with the identical attributes from one period to the next, was up by 7.9 per cent. This one was most likely the most ridiculous of all the stadium suggestions. Once that鈥檚 achieved, consider how home possession matches into your plan. 450,694 in August. That was a 7.14% decline over that time period. In the 905 Area gross sales activity was up 81 per cent over the first half of November 2008, totaling 2,106 transactions. Fail it and you need to start over.

If the federal government is serious about making that growth inclusive, then removing regressive incentives is a good start at breaking a 58-yr pattern. Meeting individuals means making contacts and it might also lead to job propects. With Magna international announcing job cuts there could also be a large number of local folks beginning to really feel the pinch. The resignation fee is high as a result of folks feel confident in quitting their jobs. As an extended-timer in this industry, Kara Kay is a classy real estate agent who sets the bar excessive up. Get the higher hand in all of your actual property endeavours! If you happen to come throughout an advert for the homes for sale in Mississauga,take authorized recommendation from Real Property Lawyer in Scarborough and make sure that the property if free from any litigation. You should also make sure that the serial numbers match the these which can be noted in your settlement of purchase and sale.

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路 The CPI is a benchmark to see whether you are preserving tempo with inflation, that number is 115.39; will increase have been modest and inflation appears to be under management; this is critical. I respect Doug Porter but all of the financial institution economists have been saying the very same thing, curiosity rates are likely to rise -- they usually've all been wrong. However I discovered it curious that, in spirit, anyway, a whole lot of our public observances are the identical as they had been 151 years in the past now. If you're tired of shovelling and reducing grass or all your friends or your Mom's pal have moved into the retirement group down the road, then it could also be time. I'm a giant believer in the Paranormal and I've a lot of my own stories. My new (new 2 years ago) digital camera has a terrific feature for city and rural explorers, zoom. No. Bidding wars will stick round for nice properties in good areas, even though there might be fewer of them. This isn't very difficult, your tax advisor and lawyer will be capable to sort this out for you.

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[delicatelysublimeforester]

Today is the first day of Arbor Week!

Hon. Dustin Duncan, Minister of the Environment has proclaimed Friday May 22, 2020 the very first Arbor Day in the Province of Saskatchewan.  Yay!

The Trembling Aspen is also referred to as the Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) May 25, 2019

Richard St. Barbe Baker OBE, Hon. LL.D. F.I.A.L., For.Dip.Cantab., ACF (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982)

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus)

During the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic we cannot safely host a group tree planting ceremony.  So, we did the next best thing, we are hosting a virtual forest protection event!

Isn’t it great to have safe forests to enjoy the natural, recreational, and health benefits of forests?  Come on board!  We have successfully with the help of our sponsors raised money to mitigate illegal vehicle trespass from the west side of the afforestation area!

Thank you to the City of Saskatoon Environmental Grant, Expocrete, EcoFriendly Saskatchewan, Fatlanders Fatbike Brigade, Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas, Sask Energy, SaskOutdoors, and the amazing citizens of Saskatoon for rallying around with donations and grants in support of park protection!

Guess what?  There is now an Arbor Day Safe Forests Go Fund Me Page to support our trees in the afforestation areas!  We are so close to having a means to barricade entrance by motorized vehicles at the west side area to prevent illegal trespass and illegal dumping!  It would be fantastic to be able to level the ground and gravel the surface of this low-lying area for the vehicle barriers.  We just need that little bit more!  With your help during Arbor Week, it will surely make a grand difference.

Wouldn’t it be ever so nice not to have another huge community volunteer clean up?  Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to turn around the eco-system, and see the forest and the environment restored to a healthy eco-system without trash.  But it will be ever so nice to not have those drive in hauling their  trash by those too lazy or cheap to go to the landfill.

“Our future is in our children; the future of the world is in their

hands and in the hands of their children. Let us train them wisely,

and see that the understanding and appreciation of trees is part

of their heritage. ” Richard St. Barbe Baker

Help to create safe green-space for outdoor place-based learning activities for student guardian programming.

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′ Addresses: Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

You Tube Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

You Tube George Genereux Urban Regional Park

  Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers )Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year).  Please donate by paypal using the e-mail friendsafforestation AT gmail.com, or by using e-transfers  Please and thank you!  Your donation and membership is greatly appreciated.  Members e-mail your contact information to be kept up to date!

Canada Helps

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ***

  “St. Barbe’s unique capacity to pass on his enthusiasm to others. . . Many foresters all over the world found their vocations as a result of hearing ‘The Man of the Trees’ speak. I certainly did, but his impact has been much wider than that. Through his global lecture tours, St. Barbe has made millions of people aware of the importance of trees and forests to our planet.” Allan Grainger

“The science of forestry arose from the recognition of a universal need. It embodies the spirit of service to mankind in attempting to provide a means of supplying forever a necessity of life and, in addition, ministering to man’s aesthetic tastes and recreational interests. Besides, the spiritual side of human nature needs the refreshing inspiration which comes from trees and woodlands. If a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation. And nations as well as tribes may be brought together in this great movement, based on the ideal of beautifying the world by the cultivation of one of God’s loveliest creatures – the tree.” ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker.

“Our future is in our children; the future of the world is in their

hands and in the hands of their children. Let us train them wisely,

and see that the understanding and appreciation of trees is part

of their heritage. ” Richard St. Barbe Baker

“I believed that God has lent us the Earth. It belongs as much to those who come after us as to us, and it ill behooves us by anything we do or neglect, to deprive them of benefits which are in our power to bequeath.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

    Arbor Week is here Today is the first day of Arbor Week! Hon. Dustin Duncan, Minister of the Environment has proclaimed Friday May 22, 2020 the very first Arbor Day in the Province of Saskatchewan. 

[dazzledbybooks]

Kit Sweetly slays sexism, bad bosses, and bad luck to become a knight at a medieval-themed restaurant. Working as a wench―i.e. waitress―at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college. Company policy allows only guys to be knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets into internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. But the Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight. As other wenches join her quest, a protest forms. In a joust before Castle executives, they’ll prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval―if they don’t get fired first. The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton Publisher: Page Street Kids Release Date: May 5th 2020 Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance Links: Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44779658-the-life-and-medieval-times-of-kit-sweetly Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WwyYVN B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-life-and-medieval-times-of-kit-sweetly-jamie-pacton/1132911545?ean=9781624149528 iTunes: https://books.apple.com/br/book/the-life-and-medieval-times-of-kit-sweetly/id1477062480 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-life-and-medieval-times-of-kit-sweetly Google Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Life_and_Medieval_Times_of_Kit_Sweet.html?id=NICoDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y Review: The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton is a fun filled ride. This story is a gender bent take on A Knight's Tale. This story is very pro feminist so because of this, I feel like a lot of things got put on the wayside if it wasn't directly related to the feminist plot line. I found the book to be quite entertaining, I just felt like it was missing a lot of things. The characters felt really undeveloped. I just wish they were more fleshed out. They were just missing that spark for me. One of the things that really bothered me is it felt like the reader didn't really have a reason to care about Kit's situation. Kit talked about wanting to leave and get out of the job. The patrons and co-workers are mean so why would the reader want her to continue to work at the restaurant. This book is overly preachy. I don't think it is Kit's privilege that makes her stand up for herself but her bravery. There are plenty of people out there that have privilege and don't stand up. There are people that don't have privilege and they stand up for themselves. That is bravery. I think this book discounts that. I think people are trying to label something it isn't and that really bothers me. I think Kit deserves more credit than "white privilege". Coming from experience it takes a lot of guts to stand up for something no matter the color of your skin. I think people forget that not all white people have had life easy. I think the world has tried so hard to discount things that people go through based on the color of their skin and that is wrong. I would have really liked this book if the author would have focused more on writing a good book with great characters vs writing their political agendas and pushing feminism and white privilege on the readers. I really liked the idea of this book but it just wasn't executed very well. It was a bit of a disappointment to me. The story could have been handled better.  Don't stop reading now, I do have some positive things to point out. The book had a bit of a fun tone to it. Sometimes we need that especially during this time. It was definitely entertaining. I loved that the restaurant had a medieval theme. I enjoy Renaissance fairs so I thought this was fun theme for a book. The history facts throughout the book was quite fun as well. There was quite a diverse cast in the book. There were some great things. This just was not the book for me. About the Author: Jamie Pacton writes all sorts of books: dark, feminist YA fantasy; contemporary YA stories with a funny + geeky bent; funny MG adventure-fantasy; and, even the occasional adult rom-com. She was a Pitch Wars mentee in 2015 and she mentored YA in 2016, 2017, and 2018. She grew up minutes away from the National Storytelling Center in the mountains of East Tennessee; she’s the oldest of ten kids; and, she currently lives in rural Wisconsin with her husband, their two kids, and a dog named Lego. The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly (forthcoming May 5, 2020) is her Young Adult debut. Links: Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19025294.Jamie_Pacton Website: https://www.jamiepacton.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamiepacton Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiepacton/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/jamie_pacton/ Giveaway: Prize: Win a copy of THE LIFE AND (MEDIEVAL) TIMES OF KIT SWEETLY by Jamie Pacton (US/CAN Only) Starts: May 5th 2020 Ends: May 19th 2020 a Rafflecopter giveaway Tour Schedule: http://fantasticflyingbookclub.blogspot.com/2020/03/tour-schedule-life-and-medieval-times.html May 5th The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Welcome Post May 6th The Reading Life - Meet The Characters The Shelf Life Chronicles - Review Write, Read, Repeat - Review Ya It’s Lit - Review + Favourite Quotes Fangirl Pixie Blog  Review + Favourite Quotes + Playlist May 7th NovelKnight - Top 5 or 10 List PopTheButterfly Reads - Review Lauren's Boookshelf - Review + Favourite Quotes + Playlist Books Over Everything - Review We Live and Breathe Books - Review May 8th Emelies Books - Mood Board Booked J - Review + Playlist Dazzled by Books - Review Moonlight Rendezvous - Review Book-Keeping - Review May 9th Bookish Looks - Official Dream Cast Colbywilkens - Review My Fangirl Chronicles - Review + Playlist + Favourite Quotes book briefs - Review Odd and Bookish - Review My Bookish Escapades - Review + Favourite Quotes May 10th Annej Reads - Story Behind The Cover Bookmark Lit - Review Magical Reads - Review + Playlist @onemused - Review Confessions of a YA Reader - Review + Favourite Quotes May 11th Utopia State of Mind - Tell your story in GIFs A Book Addict's Bookshelves - Interview The Little Mouse That Reads - Review Shelf-Rated - Review + Favourite Quotes The Reading Corner for All - Review Instagram Schedule: May 5th TUABFC May 6th The Shelf Life Chronicles Write, Read, Repeat Ya It’s Lit Fangirl Pixie Blog May 7th NovelKnight PopTheButterfly Reads Lauren's Boookshelf Books Over Everything May 8th Emelies Books Booked J Dazzled by Books Moonlight Rendezvous Book-Keeping May 9th Bookish Looks Colbywilkens My Fangirl Chronicles book briefs Odd and Bookish My Bookish Escapades May 10th Annej Reads Magical Reads @onemused Confessions of a YA Reader May 11th The Little Mouse That Reads Shelf-Rated The Reading Corner for All

http://www.dazzledbybooks.com/2020/05/the-life-and-medieval-times-of-kit.html

[drink-n-watch]

Pinterest is an odd duck. It’s a very particular internet microcosm and from the outside, it can seem like nothing at all. I always thought it was sort of substantless. I don’t even own a photo album (virtual or otherwise), what would I ever want with a Pinterest account? I only got interested in the platform when my deep love of anime fan art got to the point where keeping them all in a folder on my desktop seemed unpractical since I never took the time to admire them. The Pinterest layout was better for that and for a while that’s all it was. Just my personal fanart folder.

nothing wrong with an extra fan art folder!

Eventually, I decided to keep my screencaps there. I figured if anything ever happened to my blog, at least I would have my pretty pictures. Then my screencap issues spiralled mildly out of control (my autocorrect wanted to change “mildly” for “wildly”. Judgy!!) and I started using it as a complement to the blog. I can’t just cram 100 pictures in every review after all. 200+ for the purdy shows. Then I discovered Imgur and found it it would be easier for you guys to download high res caps from there so I started using that as my extended gallery

I kept my Pinterest though. And kept adding the caps there as well. There’s just something about the way images are presented on a board that speaks to me. You can really get an overall view. It’s not just individual scrolling pictures like Imgur, it’s, well, boards.

My Pinterest is pretty basic. I have boards for individual anime I am likely to be collecting a lot of fanart from, or that I am reviewing episodically and therefore have a particularly large amount of caps for. I also have an anime review board with sections for individual series. I started out with a board called “anime I like” which is essentially a miscellaneous as well.

Lately, though, I’ve developed something of a hobby. For someone like me that gets weird satisfaction out of sorting out and organizing things, Pinterest offers a lot of opportunities. I once did a collab with the wonderful Jordanne from Bloodthirsty Little Beasts and she thought me that you can create thematic boards. Boards that essentially tell a story through unrelated images. I’m not quite there yet. I like to think of that as Pinterest advanced! I am striving for it.

In the meantime, I’ve started a few more general boards. Anime boys and girls were the two first not so strictly categorized boards. They were just created so I would have a spot for the cute character portraits came across, that weren’t necessarily from a show I had seen (or any show for that matter).

There’s nothing special about these boards. I think  90% of Pinterest users have something similar. Just cause it isn’t original doesn’t mean it’s not fun. There’s something almost therapeutic about coming home after a long day and getting lost in a sea of beautiful anime charas. It’s cheaper than booze too.

Slowly though I branched out into just slightly more unusual but nearly, territory. Anime food. I have had a long-standing interest in anime food and often go out of my way to get screencaps of yummy looking dishes whenever they feature in something I’m watching. Kakuriyo Bed and Breakfast for Spirits was a goldmine in that regard. It’s really fun to see different artistic interpretations of the same dish. I know I m not the only one with this inclination. Since creating the board I’ve discovered a lot of similar ones on Pinterest.

That’s the thing, once you get just a bit more unusual, you can easily find people with similar image interests as you. The platform is not very interactive in any way but it is well geared towards finding the images you’re looking for. As a way to form an extremely vague connection with someone you never have to interact with, it’s pretty good.

The next board I made because it seemed silly that I hadn’t already made it was Anime drunks. I was surprised just how few pins I had for this board. Clearly, I should get on it and make more of an effort to find my fellow animated boozehounds. You know, with summer coming back, I’ve been drinking less. Pretty soon people will be calling me a fake drunk and they’ll be right! This is embarrassing.

So far these were fun Little collections without much more to them. But it’s a bit different with the two last boards I created. At first glance, they’re really not that different, in fact, I didn’t realize they would be special in any way when I created them but now, they’ve opened my eyes to the potential of Pinterest.

The first of these boards is Animescapes. This is where I keep screen caps of landscapes, backgrounds and buildings. Because these backgrounds are primarily screencaps I’ve taken myself across many different shows, rather than fanart, and thanks to Pinterest’s big picture layout, it becomes very easy to compare the images. I’ve started to pick up on trends in the background colouring of shows and the framing if buildings for example.

It’s brought to my attention certain details and visual elements I would never have noticed while watching the show. And even going back over screencaps I’ve taken, there are things that only become obvious when you can see them all together. It gives you a visual sense of the space in which anime exist.

This has become a bit of a low key obsession. I go back over episodes and try to capture as many backgrounds as possible. Preferably shown at different times of the day or in different seasons. I compare Sakuras and full moons. I try to see the imagery that comes up most often but we may have missed cause our brains are trained to follow the action. I’ve gotten a few post ideas from there and they are some of my favourites.

I don’t have enough backgrounds to do any in-depth analysis yet. Eventually, I think I might subdivide this board. Cityscapes, rural landscapes, interiors, that sort of thing.  I’ve noticed anime has a lot of wooden interiors even though these have become much less popular in real life. I wonder if they are easier to illustrate…

The last board I created is anime eyes. I really don’t know why it took me so long. I have always loved the expressive nature of Anime eyes and some of you may have noticed that close-ups of characters’ eyes are frequent in my screen caps. Unlike the landscapes, I pay close attention to eyes while I’m watching a show. Too close maybe. I entangled the expression with everything else that’s happening. And that’s fine, it’s how you’re supposed to watch a show I figure.

However, being able to go back to those images stripped of context gives me a whole new appreciation of just how much can be conveyed in a single frame. And you can see from one show to the next, one face to the next, how simple changes in line shape or thickness can really affect the impression an image leaves. I love that about animation. This is part of what I enjoy of the medium over live action.

And Pinterest of all things has brought that out in a way that I can really appreciate it. I hope that in the future I will learn to use the platform better and create some truly interesting boards.

Do you have a Pinterest? If so, how do you use it?

Irina’s Pinterest Journeys Pinterest is an odd duck. It's a very particular internet microcosm and from the outside, it can seem like nothing at all.

[klkettle]

On Gifts for Writers, recommended by Writers

This week I was lucky enough to again be asked by the Golden Egg Academy to host one of their weekly twitter Q&As (#GEAQA) and given the seasonal cheer we themed this week’s chat around suggestions from writers on gifts for writers. 

If you are reading this and you’re aspiring to finish that next book, or you have a relative who you know is a writer and you want that perfect gift, here are some suggestions from the Nest. I’ve also created a supporting Pinterest Board for handy use that will direct you to reputable places to buy. 

(All book recommendation links will direct to alternatives to amazon, such as wordery, foyles, waterstones, hive. I will link to the cheapest I can find, but you can buy most of these books on amazon if you prefer).

1) Craft books

Getting started on that book, even if you’ve written a dozen before it, can be a daunting prospect for even the most established author. Luckily there are hundreds of books out there to help. But what will be the most valuable? Here are the recommendations from the writers in the nest, tried and tested, spine-cracked and notated, what are the go-to books that get your minds whirring and your problems solved? 

‘The Story Grid’ by Shawn Coyne - this is a great book for anyone who wants to do a deep analysis of their story after it is written, or even avoid pitfalls in the plotting stage. It isn’t so much related to the craft of sentence and style, but more plot, pace and theme. The website is great, and the supporting resources and podcasts a great follow up. 

My second favourite new craft books this year have been the extension to the writers’ thesauri produced by Angela Akerman and Becca Puglisi. A long-time fan of the positive and negative emotion thesaurai, this year I delved into the urban and rural setting additions. A great resource for when you’re staring into a rainy garden and you need to write about a desert! Best deal I have found is on wordery click here for a link to all books.

My third but TOP suggestion is 'What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers’ (3rd edition) by Pamela Painter and Ann Bernays. I was lucky enough this year to work with the legendary Pamela Painter, and every time I want to write this is my warm up book. Not only that some of the exercises prompted whole new ways to come at problems I needed to solve in my current MS, but short stories and new books have been inspired by the exercises, examples and topics. An invaluable tool. Recommendation from the author herself is to only buy the 3rd edition (blue cover not brown). 

And now for the suggestions from the Nest…

SF Said recommended his ‘new favourite book on #writing’ - praise indeed. ‘The Writing Life’ by Annie Dillard, as honest, hilarious & heart-breaking all at once. Also adding…

Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott for the ‘Truest account of the emotions of writing I’ve ever read.’

'Reading like a Writer’ by Francine Prose - recommended by K.M. Lockwood (Twitter: @lockwoodwriter, http://kmlockwood.com) who called it ‘brain stretching’. It’s going on my list. According to the Guardian, ‘novelists may or may not choose a creative writing course but reading is the one training tool they can’t do without. It’s a case Prose makes with such vigour as to make this an essential book for any writer, new or experienced, who purports to take his or herself remotely seriously.’

Picturebook writer and puppeteer extraordinaire Sue Eves, recommended the ever solid and reliable ‘Into The Woods: How Stories Work & Why We Tell Them’ by John Yorke @johnyorke123 and recommends reading before finished writing your book (as well as consulting ‘Story’ by Robert McGee).

Leoni Atkins (@creativekitty) recommended ‘The Story Book’ by David Baboulene (@StoryMeBad). An ‘academic AND practical dissection of story. (You can save £1 on amazon, but waterstones and foyles also stock and deliver so I recommend them instead.) She found the books’ info on 'knowledge gaps’ particularly helpful: 'In a good story there is always, always a difference in the knowledge possessed by at least one participant when compared to the audience.’ David also interviews several storytellers from film, TV and theatre such as Willy Russell, Lee Child and John Sullivan.  Lastly, David’s sense of humour easily takes you through an intimidating subject.

‘Elements of Style’ by Williams Strunk and E.B. White is another editing staple, helping with the structure, grammar and line edit. Essential in the late edit. 

‘Novel Metamorphosis’ by Darcy Pattison is recommended as an essential tool to help with the revision and editing process by Annaliese Avery author of Ninja Nan and Sidekick Grandad

2) Books that inspired the writers in the nest…

'Wow, said The Owl’ by Tim Hopgood 

‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ by Roald Dahl inspired Creator of #ukteenchatEmma Finlayson-Palmer

’The Lie Tree’ by Francis Hardinge, as well as her other works inspired K.M.Lockwood

‘How to find Gold’ by Vivane Schwarz inspired Emma Perry

‘Ballet Shoes’ by Noel Streatfield inspired Co-writer of ‘Waiting for Callback’Perdita Cargill

While I recommend ‘At the Edge of the Orchard’ by Tracy Chevalier for any writer experimenting with senses and style/pov.

‘Varjak Paw’ by SF Said was also recommended by EmmaFinlayson-Palmer

3) Non-book gifts

We can’t forget to cover every Writer’s addiction, stationary, as well as other, non-book gifts. 

Starting with Stationary: 

Oxfam do fairtrade & @WoodlandTrust@FSCUK cert stationery (recommended by @sueeves)

I’m a fan of the moleskin, particularly the Livescribe supporting books.

Rowena House, writer of ‘War Girls’ shared SCWBI member Teri Terry recommendation for writers and artists www.the-pink-pig.co.uk . David Almond, author of ‘Skellig’, orders his notebooks from Pink Pig, so they must be good! The do sketchbooks mostly but you can also get lined paper, and for the artistic there is all different kinds of paper you can get in them. You can also get covers with your own images on if you want to! 

Leoni Atkins can’t get enough yellow legal pads

SF Said recommends Tiger pens as his ‘favourite source of pens. Who doesn’t love a tiger - especially when stationery?!’

For non-stationary based gifts, that will tickle the fancy of any book lover or writer I recommended  www.theliterarygiftcompany.com and presentindicative.com, both sites which share a plethora of strange findings!

Let’s face it no wardrobe is complete without shoes inspired by the art of writing. Here’s a great blog with some fun links and gifts. 

http://bookriot.com/2014/07/21/twinkle-toes-bookish-shoes-literary-feet/

Finally, Sue Eves uses and recommends an elegant Egg-timer to help focus the mind when writing, and was kind enough to share a picture of this lovely instrument.

4) Research, Support and Learning Gifts

The One Stop for Writers is a great source of info and support and has vouchers available https://onestopforwriters.com/gift_coupons/new

The British Library has some great books available to support historical research bit.ly/2gph3ci

Last but by no means least! The Golden Egg Academy are once again selling vouchers which anyone can use to redeem against classes or membership. This year there were also workshops open to writers who were not members, so the vouchers may also be interesting to non-members! http://bit.ly/2fJAC0D (redeemable against plans)

Happy shopping everyone! Check out the full twitter storify here, transcribed by the lovely Lauren Hodges. Happy Christmas, and seasonal greetings. May Santa bring you warms hugs, good books and much time to read. 

To read the chat click here. Thanks to the members of the Golden Egg Academy for all your contributions. 

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Friends don't let friends go apple picking

Fall: that time of year when all of your friends drag you our of your warm apartment and into the wild to gather up one of the crappiest fruits in the game.

For fun.

Sometime in the last two decades, apple-picking became a seasonal pilgrimage for urban millennials seeking to get in touch with "rural America" — without, you know, actually having to get in touch with rural Americans. Every year, they travel hundreds of miles to get their hands on whatever produce they could've picked up at the store, then have the audacity to call this nausea-inducing journey "a good weekend." 

Forget what your friends tell you. Burn your New York Times travel section (why do you read that anyways?). Just don't go. Apple picking is nothing more than a desperate attempt by lobbyists in the fall industry to rebrand their season as something more than a chilly prelude to winter.

Don't buy the hype, even if it comes in cider donut form. 

SEE ALSO: I went ghost hunting at Trump’s childhood home and found his secret brother in the fridge

If you're from an area that isn't New York or LA, where apple picking is seen as labor, not recreation:  1. bless your heart and 2. apologies while I explain.

Apple picking journeys typically begin like this: someone in a friend group, usually the person that thinks group texts are fun, initiates a conversation that the group should "Come together and do something fun before it gets cold out!" It's an innocuous enough prompt and people should be able to come up with some inoffensive suggestions: perhaps a hike to a beautiful mountain, or at the very lamest, a wine and board games evening. 

But if it's late October, all conversations will automatically end at the same shitty day trip trap: apple picking. Research that has yet to be conducted has shown that folks will always agree to the activity regardless on their actual interest level, guided by the belief that apples are delicious (?) and "this time will be different."

They're wrong. As someone who's been dragged on these schleps for years, some variables will always remain constant: the garbage rental car everyone is forced to squeeze into and pretend "is a great deal," the "beautiful apple orchard" with "beautiful rows of apples" that takes 10 minutes to pick max, and the mediocre homemade apple pies that follow which have nothing on the ones you could've picked up from Stop and Shop for 1/1 millionth of the goddamn price. 

If you're lucky, you can wait while your friends finish by sitting on a bag of hay and searching for a cell signal. Maybe you'll have just enough bars to scroll through Twitter while everyone else is dragging their slow ass through an overpriced pumpkin patch. Remember to wear closed-toes shoes. I've been unfortunate enough to suffer a strand of hay in my flip-flops, and oh, reader — how it tickled. 

You care *that much* about apple cider that you're willing to drive 300 miles for it? Borrow my Costco card and drive down the block. You won't be disappointed.

There are apple farmers who've taken advantage of the apple picking trend and others who just don't understand why urbanites want to do backbreaking migrant labor for leisure. Apple laborers will often pick up to six tons of apples per day, at great cost to their body. Compare that to a person like me who will pick up say, four apples, throw them in a tote bag and whine the whole walk home. Keri Wilson, whose family has had an apple farm for over 125 years, had this to tell The Atlantic of recreational apple pickers: 

"Now they're coming out because they want to have little Sarah get a photo under the tree holding onto a piece of fruit," Wilson said. "They buy two pieces of fruit or three pieces of fruit, and they walk around the orchard as if it were an animal park."

Apple farmers know that they'll need to sell you more than strictly apples to make a profit, which is why you'll often see apple cider donuts, apple butter, and other apple-centered propaganda. And it's not just apples these orchards are pushing; it's a whole apple lifestyle brand. 

Apples that will make customers feel in touch with their humble agrarian roots, whatever that means. 

Apples that will provide people with the compelling fantasy that they should be a farmer, even though they'd be making oh less than $5 an hour. 

Apples that will give people a taste of "the rustic life," which many New Yorkers believe is composed entirely of Shaker baskets and homemade jam but which is, in reality, mostly snow plowing. 

Apples that will make people feel that apples are the superior fall fruit, even though come on now — we all know it's pears.   

I love nature as much as the next person. I'm happy to see farmers find a way to get my super cheap friends to shell out cash. I'm just not sure why picking apples from a tree necessitates a whole boring carsick trip when we can just head down to our local bodega, pick up the least wormy of the bunch, and call it a day. 

Is there anything more beautiful than eating your groceries from the comfort of your own bed, protected by a cool sheath of paper towel? It has the best views of your iPad in town!

Spare me your Pinterest listicles. It's time to reclaim the suburban consumerist lifestyle. Forego the boring bourgeoisie pseudo-adventures. Embrace our deepest supermarket-driven inner self and pull out our rewards cards.

Our Instagram stories deserve more than this.

WATCH: Scientists have discovered 18 fast-spinning 'pumpkin' stars