@LillyHerself@mastodon.social
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

LillyHerself

@LillyHerself@mastodon.social

The two greatest challenges facing humanity right now are reversing climate change & halting the spread of fascism.
[Twitter: @LillyLyle & @CivicLilly1]

(Header is a photo inspired by a painting by Magritte, taken in Wick, Scotland. "Empire of Light")

(Avatar is a photo of me on a museum visit in Edinburgh, taken by my old friend Boon Low)
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LillyHerself, to random
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross @skatem I think you would both really enjoy this book, immediately recognising the people and places in it. Fascinating insights into modern Japan, an undercurrent of "Canadianness", and just very, very poignant.

I'd send you my copy but mine is being put on a special small shelf where I keep the "best reads of my life" books.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross @skatem It came out in 2013, so it's easy to get used copies for a couple of bucks. I think I paid £2.50 for mine on eBay, and that included postage.

Maybe it's because I mostly read library books as a child, but I kind of like reading a book that has already been read by someone else. The book feels friendlier somehow. Someone's been inside and put the kettle on.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross I'm envious of your bookshops of both types, that's something I really miss since moving from Edinburgh to this small town up north. Not a single bookshop! (at least 3 tattoo parlours, 2 vape shops and a tanning bed salon, but no shoe shop, no greengrocer and no bookshop...tells you a lot about the priorities of the natives.) As a result I am quite dependent on the online shops, as the local library is also quite far away.

It's quite fun in a way. Like presents in the post!

@skatem

LillyHerself,
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@ottaross @skatem I find Abe hugely overpriced and they mostly ship from the US, with the shipping costing more than the book. We have some people-run ones over here, like World of Books that also buy up people's unwanted books. A lot of older people want to move to a smaller house or apt after retiring, so there's a good supply of books.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross @skatem What a beautiful book!

I guess I just have bad luck with Abe. I actually stopped even searching them because after about 25 searches and the books are 80% more expensive than elsewhere, well...of course, I wasn't looking for rarities like yours, just regular novels and sometimes art books. Found them just eye-poppingly expensive.

ottaross, to random
@ottaross@mastodon.social avatar

At first I found it confusing that the Japanese word "omoshiroi" (おもしろい) could mean funny OR interesting. I mean, how was I to know which was intended in a sentence?

Well context tends to help, but beyond a writer's intent, I rather like suggestion that interesting things are also enjoyable and learning is entertaining.

Is there a fuzziness between those two meanings in usage sometimes? I'm not immersed enough to know.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross It strikes me that there is a bit of an overlap in the concepts in English, with "funny" meaning both amusing and/or strange/odd. The idea of something being "interesting" seems to hover over both those concepts.

BTW, have you read Ruth Ozeki's book "Notes For a Time Being"?

kim_harding, to fuckcars
@kim_harding@mastodon.scot avatar

It is time that we took back our cities, towns and villages from the invasive motor vehicles

#FuckCars

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@kim_harding wow, that cartoon is so on mark - I honestly see these dialogues played out every single day.

Richard_Littler, to asd
@Richard_Littler@mastodon.social avatar

If you've ever wondered what it's like being autistic with ADHD, it's a bit like this for me. (I always assumed everybody thought like this).


@actuallyautistic

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@Richard_Littler @actuallyautistic Fascinating!

kim_harding, to random
@kim_harding@mastodon.scot avatar

"Every UK political party is failing to tackle crisis facing nature, biggest charities warn"
https://inews.co.uk/news/every-uk-political-party-failing-tackle-crisis-nature-3050643
Four leading nature charities are sounding the alarm as one in six species in the UK face extinction

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@kim_harding A bit unfair on the Green parties, IMO.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@Wen I would have loved to have read the opposite:
"Every political party has halting the climate emergency at the top of their agenda"

I really can't grasp why it isn't so. Job creation, fighting crime, immigration issues, the "economy" - none of those things have any meaning without a functioning healthy environment.

@kim_harding

ottaross, to ramen
@ottaross@mastodon.social avatar

You know you're eating your #ramen properly when it's splashing on your glasses.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross Approved by the Ramen Eating Society of Canada:

ottaross, (edited ) to linguistics
@ottaross@mastodon.social avatar

My morning radio feed has a new fill-in traffic reporter with that current language trend of not pronouncing terminating Ts and it's distracting. I wonder where it came from and why it's so rampant recently?

"There's an acciden aa the stree where ih crosses the river in the wess end."

Funny how speech trends come and go, and sometimes stay. I suspect Tiktok is amplifying it. Modern accents are becoming disconnected from geography and more about subculture/demographics.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross Some thing cropping up in Canadian English in the last couple of years that really bugs my ears is "Keyjanada" ,🤮

dave, to climate
@dave@europhiles.uk avatar

This article in the i newspaper falls to mention that the one in six species in the UK facing extinction includes, in the worst case scenario which we are currently on course for, us!

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@dave Every UK political party? Er, I wouldn't include the Greens or the Scottish Green Party in that!

kim_harding, to random
@kim_harding@mastodon.scot avatar

Sad to hear that FreeFlow Technologies https://freeflowtechnologies.com, the Glasgow-based e-bike motor manufacturer, has gone into liquidation 🙁

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@kim_harding
That's sad, but I don't think they understood the market. It is not my impression that the mountain-biking crowd are the ones wanting battery-assisted cycling. Someone drives them up a hill and they come careening down at speed. No battery needed, that just adds weight, cost and complexity.
The actual market (IMHO): urban commuting, people 50+ yrs old, parents of small children, school run, shopping and getting about in small towns with poor public transportation.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@Wen I had a flatmate in Edinburgh who would invite his downhill biking crowd over once in a while, and they seemed mostly interested in getting covered in as much mud as possible and having an adrenaline rush, hahahah. They would pile themselves and their bikes onto the back of a pickup, someone would drive them up the (giant) hill, they'd plummet down trying to avoid trees. Totally nuts, man!

I also know someone who does this for his two young sons, pre-teen. They time them.

@kim_harding

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@Wen
I bought a used ebike online as my "beginners" bike and under no circumstances could I lift it. The thing is like a car minus the bodywork. A Ridgeback. What I really wanted and still need is a cargo bike, but I have nowhere to store it. The Ridge isn't longer than my regular ride, whereas the shortest cargo bike I could find was at least 20 cm longer.

@kim_harding

ottaross, (edited ) to random
@ottaross@mastodon.social avatar

Well, we're out in the night, on a bit of urban farm and watching the skies. There's a lot more cloud than expected, but seeing stars overhead, and a crescent moon.

No sign of from here, but there's lots of light pollution and residual post sunset glow.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross I had a glimmer of it at dusk, way down on the horizon, but then it clouded over and I went to bed!

ottaross, to random
@ottaross@mastodon.social avatar

Looks like Europe is getting thoroughly fluxed from this solar storm! Happy everyone!

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross It seems to me like it was far more visible in more southern latitudes this time. Time to rethink the name "northern" lights? 😄

kim_harding, to random
@kim_harding@mastodon.scot avatar

Individual and combined effects of non-native earthworms and native white-tailed deer on understory plant survival, growth and reproduction https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2745.14285
Forests in northeastern North America have undergone dramatic transformations due to losses and gains of species, changes in land use and pollution. Historic stressors combined with new threats of white-tailed deer and non-native earthworms are threatening native plant diversity.

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@kim_harding Non-native earthworms? Here I thought there was just one kind...

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@kim_harding Well, I'm glad to hear I am not alone in my earthworm ignorance!

@Wen

LillyHerself, to random
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

Bread dough blowing bubbles, hee-hee 😊

ottaross, to random
@ottaross@mastodon.social avatar

Supper tonight, taking the easy way out and doing hot beef sandwiches.

It's that common dish elsewhere? A hot beef sandwich drowned in gravy?

It's a classic Canadian roadside or service station restaurant meal. Often it's an unattractive whole plate of beige food, if you get them with French fries. lol

We'll be a bit healthier and do it with fresh green beans. A real comfort food vibe tho.

?

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross Now you made me nostalgic for the hot turkey sandwiches of my Canadian childhood, absolutely drowned in delicious gravy, with green peas on the side, on the soggy white bread of the era, not good for much but good for absorbing the gravy.
I do a version with Quorn filets. They are a bit thick for the right "tooth", so I slice them lengthwise in half. On toasted sourdough, with Bisto gravy, which is vegetarian. And the peas, bien sûr!

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross Edinburgh already has a Montreal style bagel shop!

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross Aye, an important resource, but an 8 hour train journey away, and they don't ship :-(

LillyHerself,
@LillyHerself@mastodon.social avatar

@ottaross weirdly, no. Caithness is like a giant ironing board - nearly treeless, and perfectly flat with a sharp drop off the edges. I honestly didn't realise this before I moved here, being fooled by the word "Highlands".
You can see Orkney across the water and it's very nice there.
Much further west you get into some quite spectacular scenery. Public transport is poor though, so it's hard to get around without a car.

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