Below are the most recent 13 friends' journal entries.

Monday, November 30th, 2009
lavendertook	10:26p	Red Maple on the Hill Just more pics of that red maple. BTW, all these pics are still from one day in October, over a month ago--the leaves are pretty much gone here now. ( And here . . . ) (Comment on this)
asylum_promo [ advertisemyrp ]	8:05p	Mod Cooperative & Old School RP ( Mod Cooperative - a place where players and mods come together to help each other out! ) ( Old School RP - a place to advertise games that follow old school rules of RP. ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
lavendertook	10:32p	Spectrum in Layers We're on the hill at the northwest corner of the lake. In the foreground is a sugar maple, and in the background is what I believe is a red maple, also known as a swamp maple. The swamp maples make some lovely cascades over the lake further along, as in this pic I took at the lake 2 years ago. These maples skip over the brightest fluorescent orange of sugar maples and go from bright yellow to a blood red you don't see on the sugars. I wish there was blue sky here, rather than clouds behind the leaves for a better contrast. ( Follow the falling leaves . . .  ) (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
lavendertook	10:38p	Waiting on the sun I've been sick since Thursday, so have been turning in earlier, without posting. This thing keeps coming back since mid-September--I think this is the third round. There's no fever, so it's pretty mild--mostly a sinus infection that moves about and some intestinal involvement, and general weakness--just enough to make you feel unwell. So I got to be home Thursday and was looking forward to a quiet day with the cats, doing some chores, and enjoying their excitement over turkey, but all I got done was cooking turkey and stuffing and doing laundry, and feeling cross about it because I felt lousy. Last night, I went straight to bed after work and dinner and slept 13 hours. The sun miraculously, actually came out today, but I didn't get to go out in it much due to feeling ucky. However, the nice part of the leaves dropping and the sun on a lower path is that my apartment gets a lot brighter and the kitties have sunlight to bath in--much more needed in the winter. The colors are a little less bright when the sun goes behind the clouds, and it's getting pretty low in the sky at this point. These shots are taken from stone landings along the bank toward the northwest corner of the lake. ( Floating a little further . . . ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
lavendertook	10:57p	Honey, honey . . . Ah, sugar . . . Sugar maple, brightest of them all! It's what makes New England and Ontario especially so grand in the fall. I'm not sure how far up north in Canada they do a good display--please chime in, Canadian flistmates. We don't have so many here, and there are fewer south of here. They kept a long display here this year, though many of them got rained off by their peak, and I guess most of us humans got rained in from seeing them. I love them pre-peak best, though, when they still have a lot of green to contrast with the flames. ( You got me wanting you . . .  ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
lavendertook	10:49p	Bradford Pear Tree Love These are more pics across Greenbelt Lake and down the southwest branch I took a month ago. See those dark green trees with a touch of burgundy in the center here? Those are Bradford pear trees. And they still had some pretty leaves hanging on this weekend--I took some pics I'll show you later. Let me just write a little encomium to Bradford pears, because I've come to love this tree a lot. In the spring it's one of the first trees to flower with clouds of white blooms. It's used as a total utility tree around here and planted all along the highways, so there are stretches along the Beltway that are just gorgeous in the spring. One of my spring observances is to make it a point to drive through the Ivy Lane Office Park and the Greenway Shopping Center parking lot--names that ring full of the romance of spring, right?--they are so full of these trees. Last year, while I was in the parking lot, some flurries fell while their blooms were already out, and it was wonderful to see white petals and snowflakes falling together. ( More nattering about trees and more pics . . . ) (Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
lavendertook	2:02p	Wolftrap, Virginia: RotK Symphony, Fri & Sat 9/10- 9/11/2010 OK, my dear Hobbit Posse, the tickets for RotK in September went on sale this past Saturday, and the center front orchestra seats are already sold out for Saturday night 9/11. We can still get side front orchestra seats, but I wouldn't wait past tomorrow to try to get those. We can get much better seats for Friday night 9/10--they've only sold through the first 2 rows of center front orchestra, and row CC is still open, which may actually be a little too close, so we have a little more time to get tickets if choosing Friday--I'm keeping my eye on it. So I'm emailing with some folks right now about who can't make Friday or Saturday. Let me know your preferences here, so we can make plans for getting tickets together or near each other on the same night. Info on the performance is here. There will probably be tickets available close to the concert date, as I got tickets the last 2 years much closer to the date, but you just wouldn't be sitting with us and as close. The guest apartment in my building is available for rent that weekend if a few folks are coming from out of town and we need it. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 20th, 2009
lavendertook	10:42p	Colors and Turtles Across the Lake The focus isn't very sharp in these pics, but the colors are so vivid I figured I'd show them to you anyway. We started on the east end of the lake, and we're going along the northern shore and are nearing the west end now. Across the lake from this picnic shelter you can sort of make out the opening of the south branch or fork of the lake. ( Following the kaleidoscope on the southern shore . . . ) (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
lavendertook	11:12p	Geese Floating on Glass Happy Birthday to mererid who loves birds and the sea. We're about half way down to the far end of the lake. The park around the lake is called Buddy Attick Park--kind of a hobbity name, don't you think? This has been a stressful week, so I'm just going to float along with these Canada geese here. And I'm having a mug of almond milk, with a shot of amaretto and rose water as a thunder storm passes over outside, and Saki is lounging on the ottoman in front of me keeping guard. The rain's picked up, falling louder on the windows, so Tuxie has just dashed into his bunker behind the futon for safety, and Moo just wandered by wondering if she should be worried. ( A time to reflect . . . ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
lavendertook	11:28p	Tree and Sky and Water Looking up to the tree tops and seeing blue sky between brightly colored leaves is one of the joys of life. ( Bright stuff by the water. . . ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
asylum_promo [ mugetsu ]	4:51a	Vagrant Story, Batman, The Joker, The Pirates of Dark Water fandom asylums octopon - Pirates of DarkWater fandom asylum. Completed! gotham_gazetteCompleted!</i> vagrant_story - Vagrant Story fandom asylum. Pending/WIP. Please keep in mind that I will be retiring Vagrant Story and Gotham Gazette if no further interest is shown. And, Please feel free to join commedia; a personal project of mine, aiming to review and analyze comics (and other selected media) that feature DC Comics' The Joker. It is currently a WIP because I am still going through my 500+ hardcopy!issues collection. I do not download torrents/scans. Two important polls need to be voted on, as seen here explaining two routes the asylum's project can take. IE: spoiler free reviews, spoilerific reviews, etc. This asylum will continue to be WIP until further interest is shown. I am also open to affiliating with other comic book and/or Batman related asylums, except for RPGs. Current Mood: hungry (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
lavendertook	10:17p	But for a moment, then gone . . . From the path, we're looking at a little peninsula that juts out from the place we started round the lake. The bright sea green color on the water is a layer of algae covering this shallow, still part of the lake. ( And a little further . . . ) (Comment on this)
lavendertook	8:33p	DA WURLD AKORDING TU TUXIE: Click to embiggen. HAND OVR TEH KAMRA KORD NOW N NOBU-D GETZ HERT!!! K? Saki: Yeah, you better do what Tuxie says, or he's gonna fuck up your face good! Moo: Mmmmmmmm, box. I love my box. Yeahhhhh. When he was a stray kitten outside my building, following his mom Moo around, Tuxie Tinuviel Proudfoot didn't let anyone touch him, or even approach him. But the very first part of indoor life that called to him was the dangling chord on my old camera. It was more fascinating than any old snake, or worm, or delicious mouse tail, or twig he had ever seen, and he found that a toy made from artificial fibers, unalloyed by any touch of the natural world, was what he craved most. Toilet paper rollers, crumpled up pieces of foil, plastic bags, may be the found objects most other indoor cats love most, but for Tuxie, it's the toy specially made for cats that fills him with glee. And lasers are this boy's best friend. Still, a chord dangling from a camera maintains a special place in his furry little heart. (Comment on this)