The Wordsmith's Forge

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Today's Smoothie
Today's Adventures
Cover Pictures
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Art
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday: Active Communities Spring 2022 E-M
Seed Banking
Birdfeeding
Poem: "The Painted Sky"
Landrace Gardening: Getting What You Want
Birdfeeding
Hard Things


The June crowdfunding Creative Jam ran this past weekend on "Sanity and Insanity." A couple folks wrote pieces from my prompts. \o/


There are two open epics at present.

"Rainshadow Road" belongs the Daughters of the Apocalypse series. People talk about crafts.

"The Heart's Best Tenant" belongs to the Steamsmith. Charlotte has some interesting business ideas for Maryam.


The weather has been cooler here after we got a bit of rain. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a small flock of sparrows, a small flock of blackbirds, a few mourning doves, a pair of house finches, a male cardinal, a male goldfinch, and a fox squirrel. Comfrey, spiderwort, lantana, marigold, black hollyhock, Asiatic lilies, yucca, a white flower in the wildflower garden, and daylilies are blooming.  Zinnias, purple coneflower, yellow coneflower, and elderberry have buds.  Blackberries and apples have green fruit. Black raspberries are just starting to ripen, but aren't very good this year. Wild strawberries and mulberries are ripe.  Pie cherries are done.

Today is sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mourning dove, a male house finch, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel.

I picked a bag of mulberries along the east edge of the yard. 

EDIT 6/20/22 -- I picked half a bag of mulberries in the south lot.

EDIT 6/20/22 -- I watered the barrel garden and the container garden.

EDIT 6/20/22 -- I watered tree seedlings in the savanna.

These are the character notes for "The Unbearable Clarity of Lost Things."

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Here are the content notes for "The Unbearable Clarity of Lost Things."


Many types of furniture damage can be fixed with simple repairs. This is more common in Terramagne than here, where people prefer to minimize waste. Hence putting out the truly shattered items as free salvage in case anyone wants to try more elaborate repairs or upcycling.  As a business, repairing or upcycling broken furniture has the advantage that you can get the stuff free or cheap, fix it, then sell it for considerably more.  If you're willing to haul away junk, you can even make money doing that!

Kylemore's end tables are hunter green with natural wood tops and drawer pulls. The matching desk has the same colors.

Kylemore's chair is painted a muted olive touched with gold leaf in places. It has a painting of a farmhouse on the back, and the seat is caned.

These are the two spindle chairs repaired with acrylic. This is the oval-back chair. Here is the headboard.

Birdseye maple is not a species, but rather a variation in sugar maple; the exact cause is unknown although various reasons have been proposed.

Vermont experiences many thunderstorms in spring, sometimes with damaging winds.