#edit: this is also my 250th post so a two-in-one celebration it is!

[dogmanincorrectquotes]

It's my 2 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

[heynikkiyousofine]

✨Hello, 2024!✨

I'm excited to share with you a few projects I'm hoping to start posting this next year, while also branching out on some new things, such as new pairings, a different POV, and even an attempt at an original novel by myself. Cheers to the next year!

⌘Sweeter Than Fiction

(InuKag, modern au, strangers to lovers, librarian/hockey player au, eventual smut, fluff)

Summary: Kagome Higurashi is a loner, something that has never bothered her. She has her close friend, she has her favorite books she devours every chance she gets, a family who loves and supports her, and she is in her final year of college, with a dream to become a writer. Kagome’s content, but in reality, she wishes for adventures and excitement, much like the characters in her books. In steps the captain of her college’s hockey team, a rude, unruly, and cocky hanyou named Inuyasha Taisho, and suddenly, her whole world is turned upside down.

Keep an eye out for some fabulous art by @clearwillow with this one.

⌘How To Train Your Human

(InuKag, space/other world au, strangers to lovers, eventual smut, chaos, fluff, funny)

Summary: In their 250th year, every youkai receives their human familiar after they complete all the necessary tests and read the handbook on how to train their human. Even Inuyasha will, despite being the first half demon to do so. He expected a kind, docile human as described in said handbook, similar to how his mother was when she met his father. So what does he do when Kagome Higurashi, his human, is the exact opposite?

Keep an eye out for some fantastic art with this one by @heavenin--hell

⌘Terms and Conditions

(InuKag, modern au, arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, eventual smut, angst, fluff)

Summary: After the disastrous day I had, there were two things I was certain of. One, Inuyasha Taisho, the country’s most eligible bachelor, was going to be my fiancé, and eventual husband. Two, we might kill each other before we ever make it to the altar.

Also planning some fabulous art with @brain-rot-hour for this one as well.

⌘Gifts for amazing people in this fandom.

I've been working with a select few others in creating gifts for the amazing readers, writers, artist, creators of this fandom, so be on the look out for some one-shots and drabbles of our favorite half demona and modern miko, along with new pairings that I'm dipping my toes into.

⌘Becoming Theirs (An Original Novel)

(new novel, modern, strangers, stalker, dark, humor, fluff, smut, healing my own inner trauma with this one)

Summary: Charlotte's life has been turned upside down with meeting Jackson and Elliot, only for her entire world to be shifted again when a past danger reveals itself.

⌘ Maybe/Maybe Not's:

(depends on all the time I have)

Epilogue Chapter to 12 Days of Smutmas: InuKag Edition

Sequel to A Deal With A Demon

Bird In A Cage (InuKag, strangers to lovers, dark and twisty, feudal era and modern au, fluff, first time, teaching, smut.) Summary: Kagome finds herself escaping a fate bestowed upon and stumbles upon a whole new world, where not all are who they seem to be.

Currently celebrating hitting the 400 mark in followers. If you would like to be added to the tag list or removed, please let me know, so I can update it. Also, if there's anything you're excited for, feel free to let me know! I will happily let you know when a new chapter is coming. I'm finally at a point in my life where I have time and energy to create new things and push my creativity. And I'm so beyond excited to share it all with you. Happy New Year! ✨

[gadgetgirl71]

Top Ten Tuesday 8 September 2020

Welcome to this weeks Top Ten Tuesday. Originally created by The Broke & The Bookish, which is now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week it features a book or literary themed category. This weeks prompt is:

Books for My Younger Self:

(These could be books you wish you had read as a child, books younger you could have really learned something from, books that meshed with your hobbies/interests, books that could have helped you go through events/changes in your life, etc.)

Well there are a few series that I would have liked my younger self to have read which are mainly fiction along with only a few non fiction and they are:

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

A new edition of one of the best-selling and best-loved books of recent years, with a new introduction by the author. The publication of Wild Swans in 1991 was a worldwide phenomenon. Not only did it become the best-selling non-fiction book in British publishing history, with sales of well over two million, it was received with unanimous critical acclaim, and was named the winner of the 1992 NCR Book Award and the 1993 British Book of the Year Award. Few books have ever had such an impact on their readers. Through the story of three generations of women — grandmother, mother and daughter — Wild Swans tells nothing less than the whole tumultuous history of China’s tragic twentieth century, from sword-bearing warlords to Chairman Mao, from the Manchu Empire to the Cultural Revolution. At times terrifying, at times astonishing, always deeply moving, Wild Swans is a book in a million, a true story with all the passion and grandeur of a great novel. For this new edition, Jung Chang has written a new introduction, bringing her own story up to date, and describing the effect Wild Swans’ success has had on her life.

The State of Me by Nasim Marie Jafry

It s 1983 and 20-year-old university student Helen Fleet should be enjoying the best days of her life, but while all her friends go on to graduate and have careers in London, she is forced to return to her parents home, bedridden with vile symptoms that doctors can’t explain and often don’t believe. She is eventually diagnosed with M.E, a cruel illness that she must learn to live with over the next decade. All of her relationships are tested and changed by her condition, but Helen s story is so much more than an account of her suffering. Far from it. The State of Me explores the loneliness and chaos of one of the most misunderstood illnesses of our time, but also celebrates the importance of family, friendships, and sexual love. A stunning, eloquent and linguistically perfect debut novel.

Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda

Sayo Masuda’s story is an extraordinary portrait of rural life in japan and an illuminating contrast to the fictionalised lives of glamorous geishas.

At the age of sis Masuda’s poverty-stricken family sent her to work as a nursemaid. At the age of twelve, she was indentured to a geisha house. In Autobiography of a Geisha, Masuda chronicles a harsh world in which young women faced the realities of sex for sale and were deprived of their freedom and identity. She also tells of her life after leaving the geisha house, painting a vivid panorama of the grinding poverty of rural life in wartime Japan.

Many years later Masuda decides to tell her story. Although she could barely read or write she was determine to tell the truth about life as a geisha and explode the myths surrounding their secret world. Remarkably frank and incredibly moving, this is the record of one woman’s survival on the margins of Japanese society.

Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World by Lesley Downer

Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, we have been intrigued by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of fictional creations from Madame Butterfly to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha’s existence has rarely been described. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but literally arts people. Their accomplishments might include singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument but, above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing worries of highly paid businessmen who can afford their attentions. The real secret history of the geisha is explored here.

A Night Out with Robert Burns Arranged by Andrew O’Hagan

January 25, 2009, marks the 250th anniversary of Burns’s birth. It will be a huge event around the world, not least across Canada. And we have the book!

Robert Burns (1759-1796) is part of your life. If you’ve ever given or received a romantic red rose, or talked about a “do or die” situation, or if you’ve sung “Auld Lang Syne,” you’re included.

Others celebrate this ploughman poet with an eye for “the lasses” more directly. Every year, literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians, from coast to coast, go to Burns Suppers in January to celebrate his life. This year —2009 — will be the biggest ever, since it’s a 250th celebration of his birth.

CBC TV is joining with the BBC to produce three one-hour programmes on his life, all written and hosted by Andrew O’Hagan, who is now the authority on Burns. This is because this book, published by Canongate in 2008, has already become a classic, bringing Burns to ordinary readers. Because Burns was on the right side of history, against privilege and rank and for everyone getting a fair chance, he is beloved around the world — in Andrew O’Hagan’s words, he is “the world’s greatest and most loveable poet.”

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Bequeathed a rare diamond by her late uncle, heiress Rachel Verinder has no idea it was stolen from an Indian temple or that it has a cursed history. When the diamond disappears on her eighteenth birthday, multiple suspects – including Rachel’s suitor, Franklin Blake – are implicated in its theft. Determined to prove his innocence, Franklin begins his own investigation. Did one of his fellow Englishmen steal the jewel? Or was it whisked back to India? The case, which unfolds through multiple narratives, takes startling twists and turns in pursuit of the truth.

Widely considered the first great detective novel written in English, The Moonstone is one of Wilkie Collins’s most famous works.

Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows Series) by Kim Harrison

Rachel Morgan lives in a world where a bioengineered virus wiped out most of the world’s human population – exposing the existence of supernatural communities that had long lived alongside humanity. It’s her job as a white witch working for Inderland Security to protect the humans from things that go bump in the night.

For the last five years Rachel has been tracking down lawbreaking Inderlanders in modern-day Cincinnati, but now she wants to leave and start her own agency. Her only problem: no one quits the I.S.

Marked for death, Rachel will have to fend off fairy assassins and homicidal werewolves armed to the teeth with deadly curses.

Unless she can appease her former employers by exposing the city’s most prominent citizen as a drug lord, she might just be a dead witch walking.

The Last Orphans (The Last orphans series) by N W Harris

One horrifying day will change the life of sixteen-year-old Shane Tucker and every other kid in the world.

In a span of mere hours, the entire adult population is decimated, leaving their children behind to fend for themselves and deal with the horrific aftermath of the freak occurrence. As one of the newly made elders in his small town, Shane finds himself taking on the role of caretaker for a large group of juvenile survivors. One who just happens to be Kelly Douglas—an out-of-his-league classmate—who, on any other day, would have never given Shane a second glance.

Together, they begin their quest to find out why all of the adults were slaughtered. What they find is even more horrifying than anything they could have expected—the annihilation of the adults was only the beginning. Shane and his friends are not the unlucky survivors left to inherit this new, messed-up planet. No, they are its next victims. There is an unknown power out there, and it won’t stop until every person in the world is dead.

A spine-tingling adventure that will have you gasping for breath all the way until the last page, The Last Orphans is the first book in an all-new apocalyptic series.

The Breakers Series by Edward W Robertson

In the Breakers series, humanity faces not one apocalypse, but two: first a lethal pandemic, then a war against those who made the virus. This collection includes the first three books and is over 1000 pages (350,000 words) of post-apocalyptic survival.

BREAKERS (Book 1) In New York, Walt Lawson is about to lose his girlfriend Vanessa. In Los Angeles, Raymond and Mia James are about to lose their house. Within days, none of it will matter. A plague tears across the world, reducing New York to an open grave and LA to a chaotic wilderness of violence and fires. Civilization comes to an abrupt stop.

Just as the survivors begin to adapt to the aftermath, Walt learns the virus that ended humanity wasn’t created by humans. It was inflicted from outside. The colonists who sent it are ready to finish the job–and Earth’s survivors may be too few and too weak to resist.

MELT DOWN (Book 2) In upstate Idaho, Ness Hook is run out of his mom’s house by his bullying brother Shawn. In Redding, California, Tristan Carter is graduating college, but with no job and no prospects, she’ll have to move back in with her parents.

Then the world ends: first with a virus, then with an alien invasion.

Ness and Shawn take to the mountains to fight a guerrilla against the attackers. In California, Tristan and Alden are taken prisoner. Separated from her brother, Tristan crosses the ruins of America to track him down. She will stop at nothing to get Alden back–but her fellow survivors prove even more dangerous than the monsters who broke the world.

KNIFEPOINT (Book 3) Raina was just a girl when the plague came. She survived. Her parents didn’t. Neither did the world. As civilization fell, she took to the ruins of Los Angeles, eating whatever she could catch.

After two years alone, she’s found and adopted by a fisherman and his wife. Their makeshift family lives a quiet life–until a man named Karslaw sails in from Catalina Island with an army of conquerors. Driven by visions of empire, he executes Raina’s new father as a traitor and takes her mother captive.

But Karslaw’s people aren’t the only ones vying for control of the ruined land. As violence wracks the city, Raina joins a rebellion against Karslaw’s rule. She will stop at nothing to free her mother–and to have her revenge.

Wrong Number, Wright Guy (Bourbon Street Boys Series) by Elle Casey

When a mysterious text message summons May Wexler to a biker bar in downtown New Orleans, she knows something is very wrong. Her sister has sent out an SOS, but when May gets there, she’s nowhere to be found and May is the one in trouble—she’s wearing pink espadrilles, she’s got a Chihuahua in her purse, and she’s in the middle of a shootout.

After tall, muscular Ozzie comes to her rescue, May has no choice but to follow him to safety. At the headquarters of his private security firm, the Bourbon Street Boys, she finds a refuge for the night—and the offer of a job. But it’s not long before a gun-toting stalker isn’t the only complication in May’s life: the more time she spends with Ozzie, the less she can deny that they’ve got some serious chemistry. A wrong number got her into this mess…Will it also get her the right guy?

#JustForFun #Top Ten Tuesday #TopTenTuesday #TTT

[dansnaturepictures]

Lakeside walk today and 8 wildlife/photography things I have coming up in 2018

I had originally had the second bit of this post timed to go out much nearer to the end of the year and I’ll explain it fully later on. But firstly I decided to post it today and am editing it just before midday because I have just returned from a Lakeside walk where I took no pictures. I found out this week I start my new job on 2nd January. I thought shall I post this and another similar post on an evening that week when I’m at work to avoid it clashing with pictures from my last two weeks of days off, but I decided against it as the nature of these two posts make it much better to be posted inside 2017. So I thought since I at this point knew I don’t have any photos to post today and certainly won’t have many in any event I’d bring it forward as obviously the day it was timed to be posted I may very likely have pictures to post after a trip. Also this week I am naturally looking ahead to 2018 as I saw the last of my big bird targets of 2017 the Lesser Redpoll at Blashford Lakes and also took my record year list to 190 whilst also tying up the knot of seeing my 250th ever bird with a Caspian Gull there too. So whilst I’d love to see more birds this year I would be very happy to finish on this total.

Furthermore as I’ve said I always start my birdwatching year by doing a walk over Lakeside my local country park to get year ticks and today I did the rehearsal of that walk that I now usually do so I am naturally looking ahead to 2018 which is what the theme of this post was exactly originally. I only do a rehearsal as the Lakeside walk is likely to be the time in a year when I’m seeing most year ticks together of very common and some unusual birds so might be the most birds for a long time I have to come home and record at once. If it rains heavily during this walk, which doesn’t effect my ability to do it as I always like to start the year like this to engage myself in it and cap the excitement of New Year even if I should expect a 2017 hangover a bit as I had a 2016 one and I’ve seen nine more birds this year than last year at the moment, then I might not be able to record birds as I see them either on my phone or on a notepad. So this rehearsal flexes my short term memory muscles so to speak and I remember the birds in the final fall back format of just keeping them in my head and writing them down when I get home. The rehearsal Lakeside walk often covers less ground so less species are seen but its still a very useful exercise and allows me to see what I may expect this coming New Year from Lakeside too. I didn’t produce any pictures from this walk but me counting the 22 bird species I saw on this walk makes for a very accurate Wildlife Sightings Summary and I didn’t want to waste it, so here it is below. Actually I say in the rehearsal I usually see less but 22 was the amount I saw over there and on the way on New Year’s Day in 2014 and 28 was that number this year so this excites me even more. 

Wildlife Sightings Summary for my Lakeside Country Park walk this morning: Two of my favourite birds the Buzzard and Green Woodpecker, Woodpigeon, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull, Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Starling, Jackdaw, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Redwing, Goldfinch, Mute Swan, Mallard, Moorhen, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Chaffinch. 

Ahead of my final/recapped end of year celebrations of a fantastic 2017 over the New Year weekend I penned this post when I had a bit of spare time earlier in the month. I have a few in places different things sort of booked in my wildlife watching/photography year for 2018 already so I wanted to look ahead to them as well as other things that may possibly happen that impacts my hobby and things that I do every year I intend to do again just so you know what I have coming up and why I should be excited for the New Year. I managed to include 6 photos of mine from this year in this photoset of the ones that did happen this year, this acts as a very different post to the ones I normally do too as I think it sort of speculates and looks ahead rather than simply describing my experiences to accompany my pictures and wildlife watching.

1.       Mystery birdwatching trip for my 21st birthday

This is number one looking ahead to 2018 not just chronologically but in how excited I am about it too. I know for my 21st birthday on the 7th January all of my family have chipped in for me and my Mum to join a birdwatching tour for a couple of days. I don’t know where it is but all I know is it involves taking a train and changing at London from Waterloo to Kings Cross to get there and I imagine it will be somewhere in the North East of England or even further up from the hints I have been given I definitely know it’s in the UK. Hopefully this will lead to many amazing bird species seen and I know it will be the perfect present for me whatever. I think there should be good landscape photo opportunities up there wherever it is too. It will also be nice to start a birding year a bit differently as in 2016 and 2017 I broke my bird year list record obviously and both relied on me cramming species into and many amazing ones my first few weeks and month of the year. So this trip may do the latter but it means I may have to wait a little bit into January to really see massive growth in my year list to the whole week off which will be unique. In terms of my bird year list total I’m not aiming to beat the record again too much to begin with as I am too humble, I would like to see between 130 and 150 species again which I aim for every year right now and this trip could certainly help but other than that we’ll see.

 2.       Durlston in April

From my birthday to Mum’s birthday when we always aim to do a seabird watching day trip around 17th April and I am sure we will do this again not least because I doubt we’ll get to Skomer or another Puffin and Kittiwake featuring seabird colony this spring and this is fine as I know we can’t do that every year and Durlston always allows me a valuable chance to see other of my favourite birds the Guillemot, Razorbill, Fulmar and Gannet fairly locally. Hopefully I’ll capture many more great things like the Early Spider Orchid from this year’s trip in the 1st picture in this photoset.

 3.       Two of my calendars being made for 2019

As I said with my photo of the year systems ending one of the things I’m doing is making one calendar for my wildlife pictures and another calendar for my landscape & outdoor (minority) subjects pictures for 2019 which I get as my Christmas present each year. The Puffin as my last ever wildlife photo of the year on Skomer Island this June the 2nd picture in this photoset goes automatically onto the wildlife one and 2018 pictures will compete to go on it too obviously and I’ll reveal all in about May (or maybe June) on here and Twitter as always so I think this should be a photographical highlight of my 2018. In a year’s time I’ll also be doing my new more casual and coincidentally expansive end of year tweets with my 10 Wildlife/Photography highlights of 2018 blogs posted only in December and I can’t wait for the new era with this system as I explain in depth in a post about it in the last week of the year.

4.       Knepp safari

In July we are venturing to Knepp the acclaimed rewilding project in Sussex one Sunday, I am excited for this and the main purpose is to see if we can finally catch sight of the wonderful Purple Emperor butterfly which five summers of visiting Bentley Wood whilst I’ve seen amazing species there always and Pamber Forest once haven’t allowed me to see. It would make that butterfly season whatever it’s like really stand out against all the others if we manage to see it.

 5.       The Bird Fair

We definitely plan to go to my eleventh consecutive Bird Fair I just need to fully obtain the time off but the hotel is booked and whilst since I did ten consecutively this year not being able to go for one year wouldn’t be the end of the world I can always find a way to at least get a bit of the weekend and I would certainly miss getting to see one of my favourite birds the Osprey like the one from this year shown in the 3rd picture in this photoset.

6.       Richmond and Busy Parks

Another permanent fixture in our years Richmond Park as shown in the 4th picture in this photoset this year and Bushy Park which like the Bird Fair is very important for certain bird species I’m sure we’ll find the time to go again this year.

7.       A new house?

This one is by no means certain to happen in 2018 but I know we will look at doing it at some point as I said in a recent sunset post and it is very likely to happen next year. It’s my Mum’s house that would change and I would continue to stay at my Dad’s house two days a week. It would impact my wildlife/photography hobby in that there’d be a big celebration post as I’d miss living here with the sunset pictures I can get from my bedroom window on the third floor, the garden birds and being a stone’s throw from Lakeside the country park I’ve been to all my life where I took the Robin picture in the 5th in this photoset on my annual New Year’s Day year list foundation building walk this year. That walk by the way for as long as we’re in Eastleigh which is where we aim to stay will always happen, even if we did leave Eastleigh I’m sure I’d still find a way to keep the tradition up as it’s such a good place for it.

8.       More of the same week in week out

I didn’t know how many things to include and when I naturally thought of seven I thought why not tot it up to eight for 2018 with just saying week in week out at weekends and other bits of time off I will do all I ever do to craft my birdwatching, wildlife watching and photography years and hopefully it will follow on from this year and a last few years I am incredibly thankful for. They’ll be trips to all the normal places in particular the New Forest and precious bits of Hampshire and surrounding counties to see wildlife and take pictures like the 6th in this photoset showing Farlington Marshes throughout the year. I am sure when I come to plan and write my 10 Wildlife/Photography highlights blogs of 2018 the new experiences will be merged in alongside many highlights from my wildlife watching and photography week in week out.