Luzula

Becoming a Supple Leopard: the ultimate guide to resolving pain, preventing injury and optimizing athletic performance by Kelly Starrett (2015)
This book has changed my life. I know I sound like I'm doing a paid promotion or like someone who's joined some weird cult, and I know the book has kind of a silly title, but it's true. My mind is blown.

The thing is, I've had problems with stiffness and muscle ache for years. I've been trying to deal with it by exercise and stretching, but while exercise is obviously good for a whole host of reasons, it doesn't solve the problem of stiffness/muscle ache. And stretching doesn't do much, either. I've also gone to a massage therapist, which does partly help, but it's temporary and also costs a lot of money. And while the guy is much better in the practical application of massage than others I've gone to, and I like him, still I'm reluctant to keep going to him because he does do some things with a large application of force and I doubt his medical judgment (to say the least). In the last few years he has begun to spout conspiracy theories about vaccines and only drinks warm water because, as a man, he needs the yang energy.

Anyway, I figured the stiffness and muscle ache was just middle age and at bottom I just had to suck it up. Turns out THERE ARE EFFECTIVE TOOLS TO ADDRESS THIS THAT I NEVER KNEW ABOUT! Also they're cheap and I can apply them myself! I honestly feel like someone prone to headaches who has just, at the age of 46, discovered the existence of painkillers. But better, because this isn't a drug.

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My reading has taken a nosedive lately, but here are two books, anyway.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver (2010)
I read this in order to write fic for sanguinity for trickortreatex, but never properly wrote it up. I quite enjoyed it, though it has now receded in my mind a bit. Recommended if you enjoy stories of Arctic exploration, ghosts, and queer longing. Verges on horror, though, so if you're sensitive to that, be aware.

Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz (2016)
Borrowed from my crush. This was a really cool book: sometimes when you read non-fiction, you think, "none of this surprised me, really", and sometimes you learn things, but they're complicated things you might not retain. And then rarely you get that reaction of "wow, I didn't know this, but it makes such immediate sense to me that it now feels like I always knew it". I remember having that latter reaction to learning celestial mechanics from the book The Ever-changing Sky by James B. Kaler, and it is now forever obvious to me why the full moon rises when the sun sets, or why sunset is shorter in the tropics. But as to this book: how did I not know that you can easily make your own carbonated soft drinks by adding yeast to basically any sweet liquid and putting it in a plastic bottle for a while?? I mean, I make bread all the time--I know yeast eats sugar and makes CO2, and yet I'd never put those pieces together. Also, previously I had no idea what malt was, but it's quite obvious to me now that cereal seeds need to store their sugars in an inaccessible way to be stable over time, and it's only when they've sprouted that those sugars can become accessible to the yeast to make beer. And that's all malt is: sprouted grain. Also very cool how there's yeast basically everywhere and you don't actually need to buy it.

We have so many delicious home-made drinks now that I basically never drink water any more: apple juice, kombucha (this is what we drink most, we have two alternating batches going), ginger beer (I recently made this but have not tried it yet), sweet potato fly (I made this and it has mace in it! mace is delicious), mead, apple cider (not done yet), perry (not done yet), beer (not done yet). The latter four not made by me though. Oh, and we have found a good source of delicious milk from the local farmers' market and now make our own yoghurt and occasionally cheese.

I've been away from the internet for a while, and done some forest surveys in the north. Lots of camping and good companionship--I like that almost all the participants were middle-aged women like me. There was a fair amount of rain, though, and getting to/from Jokkmokk takes a looong time. I didn't write while camping, and for various reasons I've written almost nothing today and yesterday, despite nominally having time while traveling! But I ought not to feel bad about that--I've written over 100K so far this year.

The British Recluse by Eliza Haywood (1722)
My periodic dose of 18th century writing. This is basically f/f; here are the two main characters meeting: The Meeting of these two Ladies was something particular for Persons of the same Sex; each found, at first Sight, so much to admire in the other, that it kept both from speaking for some Moments. The Recluse consider'd Belinda, as indeed she is, one of the most lovely Persons on Earth; and Belinda found the Recluse so far beyond the Landlady's Description, something so majestick, and withal so sweet and attractive in her Air,----such a Mixture of the most forceful Fire, and most enchanting Softness in her Eyes, that she became wholly lost in speechless Wonder. And at the end, they get to live happily ever after together! But despite this, I don't know if I can really recommend it: most of the book is the separate narratives of the two main characters, who have both had love stories with Terrible Men. I was not that interested in reading at length about how they both passionately loved men who turned out to be pieces of shit and treated them badly! Why not give us instead more than one paragraph about how the main characters decide to shack up together? But I guess it's nice that one of them was a mistress and had a child out of wedlock and yet gets a happily ever after at the end.

Band Sinister by K J Charles (2018)
This was much more to my taste than The Magpie Lord! It plays around with Heyer tropes (the in-universe Gothic novel written by one protagonist about another, also the "stuck together in one household" trope). What I enjoyed most about it is the thoughtfulness and all the explicit conversations about consent, written engagingly and in a way that contributed to the characterization and relationship development.

Since all my books are packed, it has been the Summer of Ebooks, and I have somewhat glutted myself on historical romances. Taking a break from those now, and I have some quite different books reserved at the library.

I did not expect to have Internet today! Nor electricity. I expected to have to light a woodstove for warmth--but no, Norway has luxuries.

( More about Norway, with photos )

I now have a new computer, but none of my files are gone, because I back things up. I have lost all my Firefox tabs and bookmarks though, but perhaps a clean slate is not all bad. Let it gooo, let it gooo...

I'm at the family summer place and graaaaading student essays and generally very busy. But this morning I went birdwatching with my dad and saw, among other species:
- two vigilant whooper swans with seven adorable newly hatched cygnets, who hadn't even left the nest yet,
- a red-backed shrike sitting still on a branch,
- a couple of horned grebes with their strange red eyes.

Also, I have received gifts! : D For unsent_letters_exchange I received A Former Acquaintance, where Jill and Kitty meet again post-canon when Lady Trecastle spreads malicious rumours about them, and Known Jacobite, Cameron of Ardroy, which is loosely inspired by events in GitN and where Keith has to deal with having Ewen as his prisoner, while his superior officers want information about Archie from him. I love epistolary fic, and both of these do a great job of showing what's going on even when important events happen off-page.

I am at the family summer place with my mom and two dogs, and it's great. Actually I have quite a lot of work, but I can do it remotely: giving writing feedback on 60 student essays (which I am done with!!), grading an exam, constructing another exam, advising two students writing bachelor theses, etc. It's so beautiful here! The pear tree is blooming, the rhubarb is shooting out of the ground so fast you can almost see it, and the dogs can run freely in the woods. We had nettle soup yesterday, with waffles for dessert.

Also, I am done with my longest fic ever! \o/ My next longest is 142K, so not much of a difference, but. I don't think it's a coincidence that both of these are poly fics--you just need more words when there are more relationships to develop.

Three Strands, Braided Together (148225 words) by Luzula, Luzula_podfic, Luzula
Chapters: 30/30
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ewen Cameron/Alison Grant/Keith Windham
Characters: Ewen Cameron, Alison Grant (Jacobite Trilogy), Keith Windham, Margaret Cameron, Margaret Ogilvy, Archibald Cameron of Lochiel
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, War, Romance, Polyamory, Podfic, Slow Burn, Children
Summary: 'As the threads begin to twist themselves at your first meeting,' said Old Angus, 'so will they continue to shape themselves at the rest—three strands, braided together at the end.'

At some point, hyarrowen asked for a photo of my parents' new puppy, which I have been occasionally helping out with. Here he is, sitting in the snow and being very cute, looking like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
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He's a Welsh springer spaniel named Ruben, and while he has already grown less piranha-like, he is still a total pest some of the time. I do like that he understands that if you let him close to your face, he can lick and nibble at you, but he never actually bites (though he will still bite feet, hands, etc when he's in piranha-mode). And he's adorable when he's tired and cuddly. I think he's smarter than my parents’ old dog? He just systematically tries things until he gets some desired effect, and he's very alert when you try to teach him something.

FYI, I'll be away for a week soon with no internet, doing surveys of old-growth forests above the polar circle.

Here are some photos from the three days I just spent sailing on the west coast with my parents, proving that Sweden can compete with the Scottish Highlands when it comes to picturesque blooming heather.
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In other news, I have just reached 65K on my current Flight of the Heron longfic, the Keith/Ewen/Alison one! \o/ Posting as I go has worked well so far, although I've just discovered a book I ought to read that I hope will not reveal how wrong I got the chapters where Alison is with the army...

I am on my way home from several days of family get-together, which has been good but also exhausting and with some occasional friction with mom. No quarrels between mom and my brother-in-law yet though, which I'm very grateful for, and no allusions to the quarrel they had last summer! \o/

Here is a scene that happened:
My sister: Mom, do you want help cooking dinner?
Mom: No, that's okay.
Mom, a moment later: Luz, come and help me cook dinner!

Mind you, I was already responsible for cooking two dinners out of four during the visit. Yes, my sister does have two kids (7 and 3 years old) and I have none, but it would have made far more sense for me to be with the kids and my sister to help mom, since I don't get to see my nieces that often! Which is in fact how my sister and I resolved that situation. I introduced older niece to sawing and chopping wood (under close supervision), which she greatly enjoyed! \o/

I'm behind on writing up books, these are all ones I read during my trip.
The Female Soldier, Or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell (1750)
Hannah Snell was an actual woman who did dress as a man and enlist as a soldier after being abandoned by her husband, but sadly this is not a particularly good book. In fact, it is not so much a book as a repetitive advertisement pamphlet to pay money to go and see Hannah Snell's show! Where she wears regimentals! And does musket drill! She was in Carlisle during the '45, but there's very little detail about that. Also there's a lot of emphasis on how physically strong she is (survives 500 lashes!) and how she kept her virtue (operated by herself on a wound in her groin to avoid discovery!). According to the pamphlet, discovery by anyone would inevitably have led to instant gang rape, because That's How Men Are.

The Amateur Cracksman by E W Hornung (1899)
Raffles is one of regshoe's fandoms, so I decided to read this on our trip. Raffles and Bunny are much like Holmes and Watson, if Holmes was a master criminal instead of a detective. And this is apparently not coincidence, since Conan Doyle was Hornung's brother-in-law. Anyway, I liked it! These are short, snappy, entertaining stories with enjoyable prose (although my eyes glaze over whenever I encounter cricket terms). The stories are slashy, yes, but I felt kind of...protective of Bunny? Like, Raffles has a bit too much advantage over him and I haven't seen enough of him so far to be entirely convinced that he cares enough? But regshoe assures me that future stories complicate their relationship more, so I guess I'll try them.

Löwenskiöldska ringen by Selma Lagerlöf (1925)
I read something in Swedish! This is a variation on the 'ring is stolen from a grave and misfortune follows everyone who takes it' idea, set in the 18th century. It's also a ghost story. I liked how it showed people from all levels of society as it followed the ring; it had enjoyable writing, some good plot twists, and some moving courtroom drama.

This is a blanket thank you for your comments on the last post! <3

I seem to be out of danger for concussion now, which I'm very grateful for. Also, I'm fascinated to experience that it's actually true that you can have a wound like that and feel no pain at all. There was pain on first impact, but then it disappeared and I was feeling around the back of my head wondering where all that blood was coming from. Huh. Well, good to know for fic writing purposes, I guess. And there's been surprisingly little pain from the wound overall; I guess an infected wound would be a different kettle of fish. Honestly the hardest thing about all this is not being able to sleep on my back and only with great care on my side.

Heh, and the doctor much appreciated my short-cropped hair. *g*