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Title: Medovina
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Radek/Rodney
Tags: Drabble, Alcohol
Rating: G
Word count: 100

Summary: Radek cradles the bottle with care and reverence.

Author notes: Spring defiance from under the crushing forces of capitalism = a drabble a day in April. This one for verdande_mi who wanted something for SGA and remembered that I was fond of Zelenka.

Medovina on AO3

( Medovina )

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Title: Manual Labour
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: Shetland
Pairing: Jimmy/Duncan
Tags: Drabble, Gardens/Gardening
Rating: G
Word count: 100

Summary: “What are you doing?”

Author notes: Spring defiance from under the crushing forces of capitalism = a drabble a day in April. This one for verdande_mi who wanted something for Shetland.

Manual Labour on AO3

( Manual Labour )

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The Summer That Changed Us by Cathy Bramley was a book I grabbed either in a charity shop or from my free station book exchange, thinking it might be a light, frothy read I'd pick up one day - but definitely wasn't on my priority list.
And it is fairly light and frothy - for all that it deals with some quite heavy topics - and I absolutely loved it.
It tells the story of Katie, Robyn and Grace, three women of three different decades, who meet by chance on a beach one day and form the kind of deep, abiding female friendship I thought you only found in books - but that reminded me vividly of some of the wonderful women I now have in my own life.
I could say it's rather lacking in diversity and it's a bit reductive in some ways - but I devoured it in a couple of days, forgoing almost everything else to read it for long stretches at a time. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me very happy.
Definitely a five-star reading experience for me.

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Title: Spring Rain
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing: Nick/Stephen
Tags: Drabble, Kissing in the Rain
Rating: G
Word count: 100

Summary: It catches them by surprise.

Author notes: Spring defiance from under the crushing forces of capitalism = a drabble a day in April. This one for kitarella_imagines who wanted some Primeval characters. 

Spring Rain on AO3

( Spring Rain )

***

Apart from the hotel snafu and leaving my meds behind, we had a great time in San Diego.

We started Saturday off by going to a cute little French cafe. Then we went to the Zoo. Sticker shock: Adult admission to the zoo for one day is $80! Holy cow! We rented a wheelchair to push HalfshellHusband around, but he'd still had enough after 3 hours, which was too bad. We covered about half of the zoo— it's huge! But we saw most of the birds, monkeys, and the African section. We never quite found the red pandas, and had to skip the giant pandas because you either pay extra or wait in line for more than an hour to see them. We missed the fossa, which was either indoors or hiding, but saw the serval (which was larger than I expected). We also saw the orangutan baby, the tiny Chinese alligator, and watched hippos snoozing underwater (but didn't realize we missed the chance to see a pygmy hippo! *cries*). The exhibits are large with really nice habitats, and the landscaping is beautiful. I could have spent the entire day there.

We went to dinner at BJ's Brewhouse, and had a monster pizookie for dessert. It was delicious, though our daughter shunned the blue ice cream. I can't really blame her.

Sunday, we went to the La Jolla Shores beach. Parking was a nightmare because EVERYONE was there, both local and people visiting for Spring Break. SO crowded, which was completely new. This doesn't happen in Oregon or Northern California— the weather at the beach is colder, so fewer people go there to hang out all day. Our daughter joined us, and we watched the waves and the little kids and enjoyed the sun.

Dinner was at La Cesarina, our daughter's favorite Italian restaurant. Sticker shock again! But really good food. I had ravioli with mushroom sauce, and HSH had (as usual) the lasagna.

Our daughter had to work quite a bit of Monday, but mid-afternoon we went to a cafe on an ocean bluff where people board hang-gliders to sail out over the beach. That was really neat!



Then we went to see the Padres/Giants baseball game. The stadium was really impressive, with lots of different types of food available. HSH and our daughter opted for hot dogs (what). I passed due to ongoing queasiness. The Padres' fans love them, and it was a great experience. I had qualms during the national anthem, though. The crowd near us was largely Hispanic and very patriotic, and it hurt to see that and know how badly we're treating them.

I'm not much of a baseball fan, so one of the biggest surprises for me was the number of left-handed batters. It seemed to be about 1 in 5, which apparently matches the MLB overall. Interestingly enough, my profession (embedded software engineering) also tends to have that same, higher proportion of left-handers. The new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system is in play now. The Padres invoked it for one of the pitches, but the umpire was ruled correct. The Giants ultimately won that game (HSH was happy about that), though the Padres got their only two runs in the 9th inning, so it was close!

Our last morning there was Tuesday, and we had brunch at a New Zealand cafe(!) in the heart of downtown. It's our daughter's favorite place for French toast, and we all ordered it. SO good, though I wasn't expecting the cinnamon.

Then it was time to say goodbye, so we could get to the San Diego airport ridiculously early. It's always hard. We really wish our daughter lived closer. After the farewells, we had a slightly convoluted trip to the car rental facility, thanks to a couple of Google Maps glitches. That was a first! But the return went smoothly, and we got to the airport in time to spend about 2 hours sitting at the gate. \o?

It was great, but over much too quickly!

A quick first post on my encounters with wildlife, to introduce the challenges I'm involved in.

British Trust for Ornithology
Garden Bird Watch:  I began this last summer, as part of my 25 Things in 2025.  I continue to record my sightings (such as they are) every week.
Birds in Green Spaces: The project is running from April to June this year and asks for a count of the birds seen in specified green spaces.  There are two designated green spaces near where I live, so I'm aiming to visit them once a week.

UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme
Flower Insect Timed Count: Runs from April to September, and asks for 10 minutes to count insects on certain flowers.  It requires a warm, preferrable sunny, day.

Butterfly Conservation
Big Butterfly Count: Happens from the middle of July to the middle of August
Garden Butterfly Survey: I'm waiting for warmer weather and the flowering of some of our bushes
Butterflies for the New Millennium: An ongoing count, which I'm currently doing when I do the birds in green spaces count

While there may be other opportunities which are less structured, these are the ones I'm using when I go for a walk locally.

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Title: Thaw
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: The Professionals
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Tags: Drabble, Spring
Rating: G
Word count: 100

Summary: Everything is dripping

Author notes: Spring defiance from under the crushing forces of capitalism = a drabble a day in April. This one for kitarella_imagines who wanted some Bodie/Doyle.

Thaw on AO3

( Thaw )

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