@louisa_@mastodon.social
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louisa_

@louisa_@mastodon.social

A container of multitudes and an ebullient wally. Tina Belcher in her 40s. I'm ok.

#slaithwaite #ColneValley #Huddersfield #yorkshire
#cats #blackcats #dogs
#hiking #cycling (touring) #bouldering #swimming
#nature #gardening #GrowYourOwn
#art #textiles #crochet #embroidery
#history #SocialHistory #heritage
#books #SpeculativeFiction #HistoricalFiction
#gaming #oxygennotincluded #factorio #aoe2 #openttd

Profile alt: a 40 something white woman in profile. She has curly hair & glasses.

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louisa_, to random
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louisa_, to fibrearts
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Monday: carefully cut out strips for the quilt I've been thinking about for months, and pin a few together.

Tuesday: sew them together. Realise that was the wrong thing to do for the vague plan I have in my head. Spend 2hours* making an Actual Plan (* many mistakes!). Pick apart sewn strips.

Wednesday: chop up the initial strips into sections & assemble them according to the Actual Plan. Sew the pieces into long strips x3. Delighted at finally making progress...

1/2

@fibrearts

louisa_, to random
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All evening, I've heard the sound of applause leaking out @johnl's headphones. Is this... Is this how he has such good self esteem?

RickiTarr, to random
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Just to balance things out, tell me an artist, that as far as you know, seems to be a decent person, as well as a great artist!

louisa_,
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@RickiTarr Fiona Apple seems to be a good 'un.

As well as donating money, she is a Court Watcher, helping prevent criminal injustices: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/fiona-apple-explains-how-she-became-court-watcher-1234681247/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Apple#Philanthropy

louisa_, to Cats
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Chonky boy Kaufman taking a break during his exercise yesterday.

We used to go on daily walks together when we had a dog and I'm worried he's got out of the habit of going out by himself (hence the chonk) so I'm trying to take him out more again.

louisa_, to random
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Bit foggy in the hills today.

louisa_, to Cats
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Matilda injured her tail the other day and managed to yank out a strand of ligament 🤢 (The vet described it as "the weirdest thing I've ever seen"!)

She had a little tidy-up procedure and we put her in kitty jail (two dog crates fixed together) while her sedative wore off. The next day, when we left her out of jail for the first time, she immediately jumped up onto this window sill -- she clearly wanted to be with her lamp-kin 😆

A black cat with a cone on her head is sitting on a deep window sill next to a small lamp. The lamp's shade is a similar shape to the cat's cone. The

louisa_,
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She's doing fine now: she still seems to have movement and sensation in her whole tail, so hopefully it'll heal just fine.

She's figured out how to move around with the cone on, and only occasionally gets stuck places. She seems happy enough in herself though, and is enjoying all the extra attention from us and the other cats 😀

We're still crating her overnight as she's trying to work out how to get her cone through the cat flap 😆 We'll hopefully be able to take it off in a few days.

louisa_, to Madeira
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Spent the last week in in an attempt to convince my brain not to completely hibernate this winter. It was an experiment as we've never done anything like a package or winter sun holiday before, and we mistimed it somewhat: the week before had been full sun every day, whereas we got clouds most days, and some HEAVY rain.

Still though, we got out and about everyday, so hopefully my eyes soaked up some rays.

A dark sunset over the sea. In the foreground, a hill and tree are silhouetted against the dying light. The sea is a dark navy, the top of the sky a soft blue and in between, on the horizon, a streak of blood orange.
A landscape over rocky hills and the sea. It's the start of sunset so the horizon - where it's visible behind the hills - is painted in pinks and yellows.
A boat sailing across the horizon at the start of sunset. The sea is a pewter grey, as are the clouds above, but in-between there is a line of soft blue and peach, lit by a streak of the low sunlight.

louisa_,
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We'd planned for it to be a walking holiday but while we did walk (at Pico Do Arieiro, Fanal, and the Eastern peninsula, as well as around Funchal & Saõ Martinho), we ended up swimming as much - which was great.

As well as swimming at the hotel every day, we swam in the sea at Faial, Calheta, Doca do Cavacas and Ponto Moniz. The latter two are natural sea lava pools and were surprisingly rough! @johnl loved being pushed by the waves at Porto Moniz - he ended up grazed & bruised but grinning!

A view over a sheltered sandy bay. A sea wall protects the beach from the full force of the ocean so the sea calmly laps on the sand. At the bottom of the photo is a wide promenade and just visible are two palm trees and the start of a beach bar.
Sea pools amongst natural rock formations. Some people are swimming in the middle pool. The white breakers against the cliffs in the distance and the rocks in the pools show the sea is not calm. Soon the lifeguards will stop people swimming until the sea settles again.
A large swimming complex built around natural lava stone formations on the edge of the ocean. The pool looks fairly calm but a huge wave is breaking on the side of it.

louisa_,
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On our last day, we went on a boat trip to see the island from a different view point. We didn't expect to see any of the dolphins or that were the supposed point of the trip but we did. We saw bottlenosed dolphins swimming amongst a pod of pilot whales - then the sailors all got very excited: they'd spotted a humpbacked whale. They're apparently quite rare in Madeira and even rarer to have one swim right next to/under the boat, then breach less than 20m away 🤩

louisa_, to random
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Yesterday, at the end of a training session, the leader asked everyone for a song that pumps them up. I usually shy away from answering questions like that but not this time - no hesitation: "Get Better" by Frank Turner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB4Avdlz3lk

It's on his 'Positive Songs For Negative People’ album (that's me!) and it's basically been my anthem for the last year. It never fails to lift me.

We can get better. Because we're not dead yet.

What would you have picked?

#Tunesday #TuneTuesday

louisa_, to random
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louisa_, to random
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A throwback to Nov 2017 for : a pic of our old dog Daisy in the woods behind where we used to live on the border between & .

While we love where we live now, we very much miss all the woods of the Aire Valley, but especially the ones between Calverley & Apperley Bridge. We walked in them nearly every day and watched them change with the seasons for 11 years. Daisy loved paddling in the streams, swimming in the canal and .. um, maybe chasing the odd squirrel 😆

louisa_, to Mushrooms
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Walking to our village today, I walked through a field dappled with assorted mushrooms. These were my favourites - so vivid!

Possibly a Splendid Waxcap? It certainly was a splendid sight.

I also met a cat and we had a long chat/cuddle session.

I was late for swimming but no regrets.

Snoweider, to swimming
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Small thing but maybe the swimmers out there can relate. Discovered today that I've been doing breaststroke wrong for the past 40 years!! After realising that I have a very high stroke rate, I did a bit of reading. Tweaked my glide phase (quite radically) today and knocked 20 strokes and 30 seconds off my 100m. 🏊‍♀️ Would like to go back in time and have a word with my school PE teacher, who I've just found out wasn't just a mean bully, she was also very wrong. 🐬


louisa_,
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@Snoweider Better late than never! Good work!

I'd barely learned how to swim breaststroke by the time our school lessons ended so didn't have time to refine it, let alone explore other strokes - had to figure that out, poorly, by myself in my 20s. I finally took adult swimming lessons for improvers a few years ago and learned lots of technique tweaks. I would totally recommend them to other people -- though I think you've shown it depends on the teacher somewhat!!

louisa_,
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@felicitymartin @Snoweider Breathing technique was one of the main things I worked on in my swimming lessons. I still didn't get it right though - I was fitter then than I am now, and could hold my breath for a length of crawl 🤣

I much prefer outdoor swimming when possible too. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a wetsuit for winter or whether brave it out... They feel so restrictive but on the other hand, brrrrr!

louisa_,
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@felicitymartin @Snoweider oh that's interesting. We often swim as part of walks and taking a wetsuit is a backpack burden as well as faff. I'll look for some gloves and see if that helps. Thanks for the info!

louisa_, to Cats
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On a walk into the sunset with Strange-cat.

(Vertical pic.)

louisa_, to random
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This was supposed to be a radish but it turned out rudish 🫣

johnl, (edited ) to pizza
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Had a Pizza Pieces in Bradford for lunch. Been going there for 25+ years or so now. As good as it ever was! Enjoyed it too much to stop and take any photos so here's one from 2018 instead

louisa_,
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@idletim @johnl I don't think they sell them. They were getting a test order done for staff and I was cheeky. I begged them to let me pay them for it, but they wouldn't take any money from me. I don't think the staff even wear them now.

louisa_,
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@idletim @johnl had (has?) a shirt from Omar's near Queen's Hall. We used to go there super regularly back int' day (at least once a week) and were cheeky when they got their new staff shirts in about 2008.

I'd love an International t-shirt though - one intentionally branded rather than all my existing t-shirts that are just accidentally stained by their products... I'd also love a Sweet Centre one. Still haven't found anywhere like that in Huddersfield for breakfast.

mortalberyl, to random

I swear if history at school had been like this I would have been into it.

louisa_,
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@Timberwolf @mortalberyl my GCSE history teacher picked a niche syllabus for us - I didn't realise how unusual it was until later.

It included the history of the American South from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement & beyond; the Vietnam war; the Arab-Israeli conflict; Hitler's rise to power & life in Nazi Germany; and colonial South Africa & apartheid.

I'm forever grateful to her for giving us context for a huge portion of still current issues. Much more important than rose designs!

louisa_, to Cats
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Two years ago today, Halloween 2021, we adopted three tiny black . They were only 7 weeks old but their poor mum, only a young cat herself, had 2 huge litters back to back and she was spent by that point. The rescue asked us to take some of the stronger/mostly weaned cats early so they could focus on feeding the smaller ones.

Our dog loved them immediately and our older 3 came around surprisingly quickly.

We sadly lost Fibonacci last month but Hickory & Ren remain daily joys.

Two black cats, asleep together on a crochet blanket, with their heads pressed together. One of the cats has his arm around the other one.

louisa_, to crochet
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Really struggling to finish the border on this blanket because how on earth can I disturb these little princes???

(My blankets are always covered in fur well before they're finished.)

Two black cats snuggled into a crochet blanket
A close up on a black cat asleep, snuggled into a crochet blanket. He's on his back with his paws in bunny mode.

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