FyrDrakken

@fyrdrakken

I'm into knitting, cats, reading, sci-fi/fantasy, history, archaeology, healthcare, politics, tea, gardening. Deleted my Twitter a few weeks after the Muskrat bought it and went cold turkey on social media for a year or two. She/her.

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Bluesky

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FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· 27d

Just got a size-huge embroidery frame so I can work on more than one-eighth of this piece at once. The pattern BTW is from this set (www.etsy.com/listing/4469...) - I'm doing my favorite eight.

Large tapestry scroll frame holds a large piece of black aida cloth. A single rectangular section is being worked, so far just showing a white outline, some pink bits at the top and bottom, and a couple of flamingos.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· 29d

Oh, you have a Loki, too! Here is mine (who earned his name by breaking into the flour canister, reaching up to grab my ass while I was leaning over the bathroom counter flossing (repeatedly), and bringing a live snake into the house which he immediately freed).

Loki the snowshoe Siamese lolls on his back on the kitchen floor, pausing in mid-play with his calico lady Miss Kitty.

Loki enjoying the sun in a pile of oak leaves. He's on his back, eyes closed, head at the bottom of the photo.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jul 12

*verify your age* My mother stood in line to see this movie in the theater while she was pregnant with me. (Also Elvis died and smallpox was eradicated that very same summer.)

Star Wars poster - the very first movie, called only STAR WARS with no subtitle. Darth Vader's helmet looms in the background, the Death Star hovers while a swarm of X-wings attack, and in the foreground Luke holds up a lightsaber, Leia poses with a blaster while showing off some leg, and C-3PO and R2-D2 stand uncertainly off to the side.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jul 10

All the cats in a single photo. That's Ninja on the couch and Superdave, Loki and Miss Kitty in the background. 😺

Ninja, a nearly-grown black cat, lies on a pale blue blanket on the back of a couch in the foreground. Across the room, nearly-grown black Superdave and Siamese Loki sit in front of the back door while calico Miss Kitty lounges on the floor next to Loki.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jul 10

I feel you - a few months ago I started cross stitching again for the first time in thirty years and I absolutely *mangled* the French knots!

Closeup of a section of cross stitch mimicking the Bayeux Tapestry. The face of the leftmost peasant is epecially poorly embroidered.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jul 4

Post a random picture or else everything will go bad in July.

Editorial cartoon: An old man sitting in an easy chair says, "In my day, we had measles, polio and Nazis to worry about." Granddaughter on his lap thinks, "I don't have the heart to tell him..."

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jul 1

Finished the cross-stitching two weeks ago at my aunt's and uncle's house, did the blanket stitch around the raw edges last week, and just now framed and hung. 🪡

A cross-stitch hangs on a lavender wall. The fabric is sea green, the design is black, white and red. The image is of a quaint village. A flying saucer hovers overhead. Death rays strike down, smoke and flames rise.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jul 1

Ta-da!

Cross stitch showing little Bayeux Tapestry peasants in front of a small house. Caption reads "Behold! The field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is barren." A peasant woman gestures dramatically towards some wobbly brown lines denoting empty fields.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jun 29

A few new flowers for the front beds to replace annuals that succumbed to the heat. And a new crape myrtle for the backyard. 🌱

A shopping cart at Lowe's, whose front shelf holds a matched pair of lantanas in various shades of pink and orange, and a purple angelonia. Also, fridge filters. A pink crape myrtle reaches up from the main body of the cart.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jun 27

So the framing crew did an amazing amount yesterday and the four lonely posts sticking up from the sides of our driveway since December became a carport. Still needs more work, inspections and paint and shingles to match the house and a motion-detector light and house number...

A wooden structure stands behind a grey wooden fence, standing a bit taller than the neighboring garage. No paint, no shingles, just bare wood. A roof supported by four massive corner posts.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jun 27

That crape myrtle in the backyard has reached an impressive size. Pity it's white instead of purple, a nice pink, or even red... (There's a pinkish-purple one behind the storage shed where we can't see it.) 🌱

Foreground shows a tilting shepherd's crook holding two hanging baskets - catnip to the right and purple callibrachoa to the left. Background is a decent-sized backyard with a mighty crape myrtle covered in white blooms in the far corner. Along the back fence a junior crape myrtle blooms, also in white.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jun 18

Over at my aunt and uncle's house, watching the dog be menaced by the kitten my uncle found in a field last week.

Elvis the dog being assaulted by Sassy the month-old kitten.

Elvis the dog being stalked by 15.5oz of pure feline menace.

Elvis the dog inspects the wee grey kitten Sassy.

Sassy the kitten wrestles with Elvis the dog's forepaws.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jun 4

The garden is doing reasonably well. 🌱

Left foreground, a red hibiscus blooms in a pot on a patio table. Right foreground, a pinkish-purple Peruvian lily (alstroemeria) blooms. Befind the hibiscus, a miniature rose shows red and white blooms. At the far edge of the table is a rectangular planter with strawberries gearing up for their next crop.

Behind the table a shepherd's crook leans, holding hanging baskets containing richly purple callibrachoa on the left and catnip on the right.

In the background raised beds stand against the garage wall. Nothing is blooming, but gladiolus spikes rise, the bougainvillea prepares for another round, and potatoes overflow the large tiered bed.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Jun 2

Here it is!

One hand showing nail polish in neon pink, purple, blue, green and yellow on respective fingers. Wrist is resting on a steering wheel with a blue and purple galaxy print cover.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 28

So the new toy I ordered in December arrived yesterday, and I don't have the home charger installed yet, so as soon as I get off work I gotta go find the nearest fast EV charger and top my battery up. Isn't the color amazing?

Nissan Leaf in seabreeze blue. Big red bow on the hood so the dealership could get a photo of the excited (exhausted) new owner with my new car.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 23

Dave is the one who looked at me when I said "Beep beep beep," Ninja remained staring out at the yard. Dave is also the one about to be stuffed into a carrier and taken to the vet.

Two smol black cats lounging on a coffee table, one looking at the camera and the other not. A dingy dishtowel lies to the side, waiting to be needed for drying wet doggie paws.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 16

And here I have all the white stitches done. Time to switch to black! (There are only three colors in this pattern. Not counting the background fabric, which has to contrast with them all.) 🪡

A rectangle of sea green fabric is stretched across a rectangular embroidery frame. White stitches outline snowy ground, picket fences, a barn, two houses, plumes of smoke, and a flying saucer hovering overhead.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 14

Superdave, chaos goblin, is sleeping very hard. He's a year old sometime this month... 😺

Smallish black cat lies on his back, twisted round in a curve, forepaws curled up and back feet in the air. He's on a couch with his rump up against a pillow printed like C-3PO's midsection. A small makeup case printed with Botticelli's Birth of Venus only with rabbits is in the lower left corner.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 3

Good lord. I wish I could show that article to Ninja - last fall she got flytrap glue all over herself and while she quite appreciated a cooking oil massage to dissolve the glue she found her third! bath! of the morning! to be offensive and unreasonable.

A very unhappy sticky baby. She had glue all along one side and up onto her face.

Sticky baby having to wait for me to reach my lunch break working from home so I could make my first proper attempt at removing the glue. Didn't work - I gave her a bath but didn't know about soaking the glue in oil until I googled the topic after the bath failed.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 2

New project begun today... I tried to start it yesterday, but the spring green I bought for this project was lighter in person than on the screen and the white stitches were nearly invisible against it. I had also gotten a package of sea foam green and lavender aida cloth, so here we go. 🪡

Sea foam green cloth stretched across a rectangular embroidery frame. A few stitches in white make a house roof and a long waving stream of smoke coming from the not-yet-stitched chimney.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 2

BEHOLD! The project upon which I spent my April. Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is complete. (And needs framing.) 🪡

Oatmeal-colored cloth showing a cross-stitched house and three peasants. Images come from the Bayeux Tapestry generator. Deliberately wonky caption announces, "Behold! The field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is barren." One of the peasants gestures dramatically towards a few brown lines denoting empty fields.

The masking tape keeping the edges from unravelling during the stitching process needs to be removed. I did not leave a wide margin between the stitched area and the edges of the cloth. Framing may prove challenging, given I'll have framed only one project before this (which I also haven't actually framed yet).

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· May 1

Post your warning sign

Sign reads: "DANGER: Do not breastfeed the rabies vector." A silhouette of a bat is included to indicate which rabies vector you should seriously never be touching with an ungloved hand, let alone placing to your bared breast.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 26

Some nights when I get up I see all four of the cats on the couch at once, but I haven't gotten a picture yet. Last night was three on the couch plus Loki on the recliner.

Big smooshy couch with folded blankets along the top of the back. A middle-aged calico lies on the couchback close to the viewer, with an adolescent black cat on the next blanket over. Another smol black cat lies on the seat of the couch. A middle-aged Siamese lies on the back of a recliner across the room.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 23

Note to myself for next fall, so I can tell where in the walkway flowerbeds I need to put some more daffodil bulbs. 🌱

View from the rosemary to the street: petunias, evolvulus, asters, vincas, petunias, gomphrenia. And also, some spindly daffodil spikes along the inner and outer borders and a lot of spaces where more should be.

View from the rosemary to the house: carnations, petunias, snapdragons (in highlighter yellow!), petunias, osteospermium, asters, lobelia, geraniums, stock, and callibrachoa (just starting to fill up the blue pots and soon to spill down the sides). And spindly daffodil spikes along the inner and outer borders.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 20

Note: We've been in this house sine 1999 and could only afford remodelling since 2019 or so. Here's what we did with the fireplace and guest bathroom (aka my bathroom):

Fireplace with brickwork painted royal blue, ashy grey, lavender and pale blue. Note that the light blue matches the living room, the royal blue matches the front door and entryway tile, and the lavender matches one of the hallways. A large white rabbit is on the bricks in front of the firewood cubbyhole (wondering where her cage went - disassembled for the fireplace repairwork) and a Siamese cat surveys her from the endtable.

Seafoam green tiles with a stripe of Greek key patterned tile extends into the shower cubicle which replaced a leaking tub. Wall includes a mermaid print, a "Blackbeard's rugged tampons" print, a robe hook, a towel bar, and a makeup mirror mounted to the wall (for inspecting the back of my hair in the cabinet mirror on the opposite wall).

Opposite corner of same small bathroom displays French colonial vanity, crown molding where the walls meet the ceiling, and bell-shaped lights over what I seem to recall was the largest size of mirrored medicine cabinet Lowe's sold in February 2019. Also a fancy silver-plated light switch (and matching electrical socket on the wall just above the countertop, hidden by toiletries) and matching crystal doorknob.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 18

Ninja got her name because she spent her first day or two in the house hiding, while Superdave (adopted the same day) was climbing on people getting to know his new digs. A few months later, here she was on my knee.

Black kitten draped over photographer's knee waits for the phone to be put down and petting to resume. Other black kitten sits on coffee table watching for his chance for attention.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 18

So here's what our back garden currently looks like. Details in alt text 🌱

In the foreground is a patio table covered with potted plants. Most are miniature roses, but also 2 lavenders, a mint, a plastic tub of acorns, a pot of long trailing leaves from something unidentified that hasn't bloomed yet, and two long boxes at the far edge of the table filled with strawberry plants.

To the left a wrought iron holder supports dangling terra cotta pots holding miniature roses that bloom variegated red-and-white. To the right of the terra cotta pots a tilting shepherd's crook holds a pair of hanging planters, purple callibrachoa to the left and catnip on the right. (The catnip is the whole reason I had to get hanging pots - Loki will eat a catnip plant to the roots if he can get to it.)

Behind the table are seen a purple tomato cage with a bit of the top of the tomato plant, and to the right of that a full sized rosebush in a pot at the corner of the patio.

Further back in the yard two raised beds stand against the wall of the garage. The new smaller one holds delphinium, columbine and bouganvillea planted a few weeks ago. The old tiered bed still has a mass of mugwort I need to rip out so it stops blocking the sun from my sprouting potatoes.

A few steps forward from the other photo, showing one of the three grow bags standing on the patio edge east of the table. Two different kinds of potatoes and yams in the third.

Also in the yard a small white muttadoodle enjoys being outside after a rainy morning spent in the house.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 16

Power went out maybe an hour ago, still not back yet. Given my plans for today were for another day spent in front of the TV playing with threads, this is mildly inconvenient. Yesterday I finished a sock, and began the toe of the second. (Details: ravel.me/FyrDrakken/oss)

My left leg, modelling a kneesock in stripes of light and dark blue with a swirling pattern just below the knee ribbing.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 15

Such a lovely morning for kitties to nap in the yard. #ProofOfCat

Calico lounging in the grass. Raised garden bed that needs clearing to the left of her, purple callibrachoa in hanging basket in right foreground.

FyrDrakken@fyrdrakken· Apr 3

Check this shit out - Mom started rummaging through her cross stitch stuff and turned up this thing I did like 30-some-odd years ago. Seems to be finished - seems I gave it to Mom to handle framing it and it got tucked away and forgotten instead... 🪡