pronker

Points Donation Challenge Wrap-Up by yourlibrarian 

In the end we had 16 donors and 20 giftees. Donors have been notified and will be making their point gifts directly to assigned giftees. If you offered to donate and have not received a direct message from me, please let me know.

Giftees should be seeing messages from Dreamwidth when the gifts go through. If you have not received anything by May 31, please let me know as something may have gone awry.

Once all gifts have been sent we will have added $402 to Dreamwidth's intake this year.

Today is cloudy, breezy, and damp. It rained earlier, but I can't tell how much.

I fed the birds. I've seen several sparrows and house finches plus a mourning dove.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I sowed The Sunflower Mini Meadow seeds from John Scheeper's Kitchen Garden Seeds along the west edge of the westmost north-south strips in the prairie garden. This is a big bag of annual and perennial sunflower seeds. Method: I dug a small hole with a trowel, dropped in a pinch of seeds, covered that up, then moved down a foot and repeated the process. This should have a better success rate than broadcast sowing like usual, because doing that with sunflower seeds means that most or all would get eaten. At least it's easier to dig with the soil moistened by rain.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I sowed the east edge of the westmost strip with the same sunflower mix. This time I remembered to take my seed-sowing trowel with its long thin blade. Method: I poked a hole with the tip, stuck the trowel in the hole, and dropped a pinch of seeds to slide down the blade into the hole. Then I covered the hole. It's more accurate with a little less bending down. This trowel is no good for prying and needs softer soil because it's so thin, but in this context it's very helpful.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I sowed 'Evening Sun' sunflowers from Buffalo Seed Co. along the west edge of the middle north-south strip. That used the whole packet; it wasn't very big. These should be large mahogany to burgundy sunflowers.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I sowed The Sunflower Mini Meadow seeds from John Scheeper's Kitchen Garden Seeds along the east edge of the middle north-south strip.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/15/26 -- I sowed sunflower seeds gathered 9-23-25 from last year's sunflowers in the north notch of the prairie garden.




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These are active communities in Dreamwidth from Spring 2026. They include things I've posted, but only the active ones; the thematic posts also list dormant communities of interest. This list includes some communities that I've found and saved but haven't made it into thematic posts yet. This post covers A-I.

See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.

Highly active with multiple posts per day, daily posts, or too many to count easily
Active with (one, multiple, many) posts in (current or recent month)
Somewhat active (latest post within current year, not in last month or few)
Low traffic (latest post in previous year)
Dormant (latest post before previous year, but could be revived because membership is open and posting is open to all members or anyone)
Dead (not listed because there are no recent posts, plus membership and/or posting are moderated)
Note that some communities are only active during a limited time, or only have gather posts on a certain schedule.

( Read more... )

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. In the forest garden, I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a gray catbird, and a brown thrasher. I also saw a ruby-throated hummingbird, poking into the irises under the maple tree of all places. :D 3q3q3q!!! Fortunately the barrel garden with its fire-colored flowers is already established, so there are plenty of suitable flowers available.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I planted the coleus in the grape pot. This one is dark purple, almost black, with hot pink streaks down the middle of the leaves. I'm hoping to get more coleus in mixed colors to stuff in around it. Home Depot should have those.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I trimmed grass and dug a hole at the north edge of the savanna.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I planted the American plum at the north edge of the savanna.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I cut brush around the pawpaw seedlings.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I sowed Scarlet Runner Bean in a trough pot at the west end of the new picnic table garden.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I got a pretty good look at a bird that doesn't match any description. It had the small red head patch and thick black collar of a northern flicker, but not the distinctive spotted breast. The red-bellied woodpecker has a plain breast, but doesn't match the other markings. And nothing else in Illinois comes close. The bird was drinking from the little trough pond beside the log garden.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I sowed switch grass seed along the westmost of the north-south strips through the prairie garden. This is my first time working with switch grass; the seed is fine and light and slippery, very pleasant to work with. I have a lot of it left, too. :D I also sowed OPN Seed 20th Anniversary Prairie Native Seed Mix there.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I sowed big bluestem seed along the middle of the north-south strips through the prairie garden. I also sowed OPN Seed Fall Pollinator Fuel Native Seed Mix there.

I heard the great horned owl hooting in the trees above the ritual meadow. :D

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I sowed American Meadows Monarch Butterfly Wildflower Seed Patch along the east-west strip and the north notch in the prairie garden. This mix is rated for butterflies, bees, and birds. I also sowed a large mount of foraged zinnia seed from the Coles County Community Garden 10-9-25 in both places.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I sowed sun-shade grass mix and white clover seed along the eastmost of the north-south strips through the prairie garden. That will be this year's walking path to cut through the middle, kept mowed short.

EDIT 5/14/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I sowed common milkweed and black-eyed Susan seeds along the westmost north-south strip of the prairie garden. I sowed purple aster and Mexican hat along the middle north-south strip. I also sowed Mexican hat along the east-west strip and in the north notch, because I had a lot of that one. These are all seeds foraged from the Charleston Food Forest or Coles County Community Garden.

A white Dutch Iris is blooming in the tulip bed. :D

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...


* Posted Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Physics in scienceworld.

* Posted Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Physics in science.

* Commented on Just One Thing in awesomeers.

* Commented on Check-in Post in get_knitted.

* Commented on Signup Post: Fannish 50 in 2026 in goals_on_dw.

* Posted Birdfeeding on birdfeeding.

Pacific Northwest's ‘forest gardens' were deliberately planted by Indigenous people

Finding suggests humans have added value to forests in lasting ways.

For decades, First Nations people in British Columbia knew their ancestral homes—villages forcibly emptied in the late 1800s—were great places to forage for traditional foods like hazelnuts, crabapples, cranberries, and hawthorn. A new study reveals that isolated patches of fruit trees and berry bushes in the region's hemlock and cedar forests were deliberately planted by Indigenous peoples in and around their settlements more than 150 years ago. It's one of the first times such "forest gardens" have been identified outside the tropics, and it shows that people were capable of changing forests in long-lasting, productive ways.


That is what agriculture looked like before some Middle Eastern and European folks got the idea of monocropping fields. Most of the planet was food forest for a very long time. People planted things alongside the trails they used, around where they lived, anywhere they went. They planted not just food crops but also craft materials, medicinal plants, and whatever would attract their preferred prey species.

( Read more... )

Today is partly cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds.  I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/13/26 -- We went out plant shopping.  First stop was Graber's in Tuscola.  They had 'Gypsy' peppers! :D 3q3q3q!!!  I bought six, plus a few other things.  I got a firecracker plant for the barrel garden, and a 'Truffula' pink globe amaranth.  Those are the last of the main flowers for the barrel garden, although I'll wedge in some marigolds if possible.

We also went to Backyard Gardens in Chesterville.  There I picked up a purple petunia with white spots and a white superbell for the big blue pot, plus a fancy coleus for the grape pot and a few other things.  I still need to visit Home Depot for things like 8-packs of marigolds, lobelia, and so on.  But today I found all the planned things and some others that I needed, so that's a big improvement. \o/

EDIT 5/13/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/13/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/13/26 -- I planted the whole Graber's flat of 10 plants. \o/ *accomplished*

EDIT 5/13/26 -- I planted the white-spotted purple petunia, white superbell, and purple torenia in the big blue pot.  I planted the 'Vintage Violet' yarrow in the septic garden.  I planted the Indian mint in the trough pot on the old picnic table, which finished that. \o/

EDIT 5/13/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/13/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/13/26 -- I planted the 3-pack of gazania in a trough pot by the new picnic table garden.

I watered plants in the new picnic table garden.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Some seas may soon be trapped in near-permanent heatwaves, scientists warn

Seas recover. That’s the working assumption behind most marine conservation planning – heatwaves arrive, fish flee or die, then the water cools and the count resets.

A new study of 19 enclosed seas found that resets after heatwaves may stop happening. Some are on track to spend more than 330 days a year locked in heatwave conditions. Not a temporary extreme. A new permanent state.


This isn't "maybe," this is "definitely." The world's oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide and heat. Those sinks will eventually fill up. The oceans will become much more acidic, large parts will become anoxic, and most of the water will get hotter and stay that way until the climate shifts again. We know this because it has happened before.

Does "The Great Dying" ring a bell? The oceans then became hot and anoxic, wiping about almost everything in them. And it's happening a lot faster now than then. The current mass extinction looks to be faster than anything except the massive meteor strike of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. This might be considered a problem.