Margaret Mills

@margaretgracemills

Clinical/research virologist. Knitting, dahlias, kids and pets, and lots of sportsball. Manager of Trafton Street Dahlia Farm, aka my front yard. Anti-fascist, anti-racist, pro-queer, pro-trans, anti-genocide. She/her.

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Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· 13d

Ok so. It’s Blueberry Season, and that’s my fav fruit, and I have to share The Very Best Blueberry Muffin Recipe Ever For Real I Am So Serious. Apologies to the Boston Globe and Jordan Marsh, but my mom’s edit is gospel.

Article from the Boston Globe by Marian Burros: The Battle Over Blueberry Muffins.
Recipe (Jordan Marsh’s Blueberry Muffins, significantly adapted by my mom):
Prep: 10’
Bake: 30’
Ingredients:
- 1/2 c butter
- 1/2 c sugar (100g) [1 1/4 c + 3T in original]
- 2 eggs
- 2 c flour (250g AP)
- 1/2 t salt (optional)
- 2 t baking powder
- 1/2 c milk
- 2 c blueberries, picked over

1. Cream butter and sugar until light
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
3. Sift together dry ingredients, add to butter alternately with the milk
4. Crush 1/2 c blueberries with a fork, mix into batter. Fold in remaining whole berries
5. Grease 12 muffin cups, fill with batter. Bake 375F 30’
6. Cool 30’ before removing. Store uncovered, or muffins will be too moist the second day, if they last that long.
Yield: 12 muffins

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· 22d

Behold the fearsome hunter, who is completely bewildered and unsettled by Doug (made by the middle schooler months ago and resident of this house for months, just noticed by fearsome predator just now apparently).

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· 24d

Gwyllgi (twilight dog) usually has some vocal dream episodes, but yeah he’s entirely unbothered by outside noises. Fireworks, thunder, meh.

A black lab is sleeping in an absurd position, mostly on his back but head arched to one side and front paws off to the other, on a dog bed.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jul 14

Oh she is PRECIOUS. I’m completely fascinated by Siamese / heat-sensitive coloration, the difference between my seal point cats at that age vs 5 years is so amazing. Mine are less snugglers and more talkers-and-petters, but we love them so much.

Sylvie (upright) and Loki (horizontal, under the cupboard), 4 month old Thai (old-style Siamese) kittens, exploring their new home

Loki (5 year old seal point Thai cat) lounging on top of folded towels

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jul 11

Norwegian former coworker and I say:

Quoting Micah’s post
Coworker: “I appreciate that he looks the most Viking too”
Me: “LOVE THE VIKING PEDANT.”

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jul 6

Hey here’s one of the dogs! His coat gets absurdly prettily wavy when it’s wet, and here it’s extra-pretty bc he’s still wet and shiny!

A black lab who just got done retrieving in a lake is hanging out in a campsite. His coat is super wavy and shiny, but he’s at attention because someone is walking past who might be a friend.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jun 15

YESSSS we encountered him (in that same jacket/hat combo) at the Christmas craft fair at Brooklyn Navy Yard in late 2022. He made a to-order patch for my friend while we got to watch his artistry at work. We’re crafters, we were blown away.

A Black man working his artistry on a Singer chain-stitch machine

A Black man in a shiny olive bomber jacket and an embroidered blue baseball cap, with his Singer chain-stitch machine, carefully embroidering something on a heavy off-white fabric.

A Black man in a shiny olive bomber jacket and an embroidered blue baseball cap, with his Singer chain-stitch machine, carefully embroidering around the edge of something on a heavy off-white fabric, onto a heavy black fabric.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· May 24

First camping trip of the year, and at lunch, both 10yo and 13yo were reading Dragonbreath books (by @tkingfisher.com). Now-13yo has read these since ~3yo, now on reread “who knows” (10+). 10yo isn’t a huge reader, this devotion is really noteworthy. Brought vols 5-11, they ALL got read.

Two kids sitting at a picnic table with red and white checked tablecloth under a temporary shelter, with sandwiches on blue metal plates in front of them along with other camping nonsense on the table. Both kids are paying some attention to their sandwiches and more attention to the Dragonbreath books they have open in front of them. They’re reading books 6 (Revenge of the Horned Bunnies) and 8 (Nightmare of the Iguana) respectively.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Apr 27

Hey so I have an 80yo brick house with some random holes in the brick, and apparently one of those holes is inhabited by a bee type critter? Anyone got any insight into the species/intentions? We had bald-faced hornets nesting in the rhododendron last year and are a bit skittish. 🌱

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Apr 7

My spectacular new shirt from @bornmiserable.bsky.social arrived today! So I wore it when the younger boys and I took the dogs up to the elementary school for some exercise

A smiling woman standing in a playground wearing a “TRANS LIVES MATTER T-shirt where the text is in a Transformers font

A black lab sitting waiting for a chuck it ball to be thrown. A red lab is standing in the back, ready to run along with the black lab. They’re on a grass strip along the side of an elementary school building, and two kids are kicking a soccer ball back and forth behind them.

Two labs running back with orange balls in their mouths, legs and ears all over the place.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Mar 11

At least SOME dahlia seeds are sprouting! Weirdly, these are all from Brookside Snowball, not from one of the collarettes. But hey seedlings are good! 🌱

A set of 15 little planting containers with dirt in them, under a light. One line of 3 containers all have multiple green cotyledon popping up in them.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 20

Hubs really wants to train this chucklehead to find truffles. If he knew they could hunt Matsutakes together too???

An absolute goofball of a black lab sits still for a split second. He would LOVE to be asked to find stuff with his nose (especially if he got food as a reward).

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 18

Related, she is extremely good at being extremely present. Also at purring extremely loudly.

A sick human lying in bed, but Sylvie, a small seal point cat, has climbed under the covers and is providing extra heat while staring at the camera with very big blue eyes that are also wondering why she isn’t getting pets right now.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 18

“I pet the dog and he smiles.” - Sylvie, probably

A red lab standing next to a dining room table. A seal point cat is reaching down from the tabletop to pat the dog on the head with one black paw, and the dog’s head is raised (with nose starting to curl) to meet the paw.

Red lab looks up from where he’s standing next to a dining room table, black paw from a seal point cat on the top of his head. Both cat and dog are looking at the camera, and the dog’s teeth are partially bared in a grin that he thinks makes him look adorable.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 16

I’ll be 48 this year. 44 is a hard number but it can still be a good year.

Dahlia “I’m a Hottie”, hot pink informal decorative

Dahlia Hollyhill Orange Ice, Informal decorative (I think) bicolor that’s orange with white tips

Dahlia Parkland Rave, a cheery pink cactus

Dahlia AC Ben, semi-cactus, amazing peach with orange/yellow and pink highlights

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 12

Not nearly as lovely, but this was my view from the train on my way home today, and it was indeed wonderful.

Mt. Rainier, as seen from the Sounder south line train in the late afternoon. There’s a fair bit of crap in the way (building, power pole, some trees) but the mountain is beautifully lit by winter sunlight.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 9

Related: (of course I managed to wake him up by trying to take this picture, so his cheeks aren’t sagged open anymore)

A young black lab is lying on his back, front paws sticking up and back legs stretched out, one ear dramatically flopped onto the floor. Notably he’s lying on the wood floor, immediately next to (but NOT on top of) the very nice dog bed. The red lab in the picture is also not on the dog bed, but he is at least lying on a rug.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 9

Here’s a hat I’m very pleased to have designed and knit years ago, and then also repaired for myself! Currently wearing.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 9

I joked that my low-consequence New Year’s resolution was to learn to repair knits. Well I spent a good chunk of this weekend fixing this sock — knit for my oldest kid at least 6 years ago, currently worn by youngest kid — and I’m decently proud of myself for doing so.

The sole of a well-worn rainbow striped sock. There’s a blue strand of yarn darned across the bottom of the (faded) blue stripe, and a bunch of white sewing thread woven across several holes as darning guides.

The same rainbow striped sock, repaired with yarn from the original skein. There are some new purple spots in the toe, a solid blue pad below the toe, and some green darning below that.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 5

This is far and away the happiest I have ever seen this cat. This was a look of utter adoration for his (well established) favorite human. This was after a long and vigorous wrestling session, which is why this is his favorite human.

A blissed-out cat on his back on the lap of his favorite human getting his belly rubbed, bright blue eyes staring up into the human’s face with more happiness than I’ve ever seen from a cat.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Feb 5

This was our Zero Thoughts chocolate lab (with bonus toddler). Husband used to joke “he was bred for his looks, not his brains.” He was the perfect dog at dog parks: he just wanted to chase a ball, and any herder was welcome to chase/bark/nip at him. So many herder owners were so grateful lol.

A chocolate lab on a sand beach with a young toddler next to him. There MIGHT be one thought in the dog’s brain: “ball??” Otherwise, it’s entirely empty.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 31

Load-bearing.

Basil
@LinkofSunshine
People on twitter will really be like "you believe in voting? that pales in effectiveness to my strategy, firebombing a Walmart" and then not firebomb a Walmart

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 29

Liquid pup. They get only marginally more solid. ❤️

A 3yo black lab sleeps in a ridiculous position on a dog bed

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 29

These dogs live for “take it”. The red one will never “put it down” while the black one is around, or his ball is instantly grabbed. Black one’s mouth can hold TWO BALLS. And black one will look at you so happily, tail wagging away, chewing his ball while you command “put it down”. For ages.

Two labs are sitting on grass. The black one in the foreground has an empty mouth with a gigantic tongue hanging out, he’s tired but excited for his ball to be thrown. The red one in the background has his tongue hanging out around an orange and blue ball that he is not dropping for any reason. He’s even more fixated on the ball to be thrown than the black one is, though even if he beats the black one to the ball he’ll just poke the ground near it with his front paws then back away so the black one can grab it.

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 24

@catsofyore.bsky.social I know you said that claiming a cat is weird is like claiming that water is wet. But I’d like to posit that I seem to have extra-wet water. (Volume on, and note that I’d been washing dishes so my right hand was quite wet at this time!)

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 24

Remembered that this is my description of her in Rover, lol. She is nothing if not herself!

Screenshot of a pet description in the Rover app.
Name: Sylvie
Cat breed: Siamese (technically Thai/Old Style Siamese, but close enough)
Female, 4 years 7 months old, 9 lbs
About: “A bit shyer than her brother, but still extremely social even with people she’s just met. Wants to be talked to and pet more than she wants food, even when she really wants food. Purrs absurdl…”

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 23

One thought? Maybe? Pet me and talk to me and love me! More! NOW!!!

A seal point cat standing on top of some stuff I was trying to take a picture of, reaching out to the camera and meowing loudly to try to get me to pay attention to her

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 23

IS ME. And somehow one (1/3) of my children ended up with this??? It’s what my mom’s hair looked like before she went grey, and she always said she wished she’d had a kid with curls. Mine never looked like this outside a ridiculous rainforest.

A teenage boy with a full head of spectacular brown ringlet curls

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 18

I went through my stash over holidays staycation and purged about half (!!!) so I’m down to five bins plus a short bin for swatches/sketches. But critically, this means the yarn is organized AND all in latched bins! And I have lists of WIPs and planned projects to remind myself!

Pre-reorg picture of four big plastic bins full of yarn, stacked, next to a fifth bin, in front of a messy closet awaiting purging/organizing

Margaret Mills@margaretgracemills· Jan 2

No cheating. Reset with the most recent picture of your pet. This is one of four pets, but so appropriate.