Wednesday, June 12th, 2030 09:22 pm
The Mass Observation Project (MOP) is a unique UK-based writing project which has been running since 1981, and before that from the 1930s to the 1950s. Every year on 12th May, people not part of the project are asked to contribute a diary of their day to incorporate into the records.

I did that this year, along with a number of other people, and it was so interesting to see what everyone else did, thought I would try my own "mini" version of the Mass Observation Project, and post a monthly "Day in my life" post on the 12th of each month. Other LJers wanted to join in, and on 12th June 2013 a number of us posted our diary entries. But they were all in individual journals, and what was needed was to have them all in one place... and so this Community was born.

It is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, as long as they have an LJ and want to join in.

Membership is moderated, but posts aren't. If you would like to join, please send a message to the community

The rules are very basic:

1. A diary entry is kept for the 12th day of each month, either typed directly onto the pc or written down in a notebook and typed up and posted later.
2. Posts can be any length, but if you need to scroll down more than once, please put some of it behind a cut!
3. Pictures can be included, but please keep them to a reasonable size, and again, if more than one, behind a cut.
4. Each post should be tagged with your LJ name, the year and the month. i.e. hobbituk, 2013, June.

At the moment, the community is set up to be members only able to post and read, but this may change over time dependant on what the community members want to do. There may be polls...!
Tags:
Friday, September 26th, 2025 08:48 pm
but it was a set of two regular palmsized scrubbie brushes for dishes. Which was disappointing, but E made the amazing discovery that they are really fun to smash together, bristle to bristle, so that's all right.

****************


Read more... )
Thursday, September 25th, 2025 06:23 pm
My fav event as harvest season approaches
is the rough seed that escaped the plots.

If  there’s a cornfield adjacent to another bed
of   vegetables, you can count on imperfection,

you can see stalks standing where they’re
not supposed to be, the winds have ideas,

seeds who choose wildness, here they are,
with red potatoes, alfalfa, peas, sunflowers,

they look pleased w/  themselves, outfoxing
clever farmers, making it to the unplanned

ground where nobody is around, recovering
where the amiable dirt will welcome them.

Seeds are so fun and determined,
there’s no concept of  liberty, no need for it,

guaranteed if   I were a seedling I’d abstain,
you know I would, I’d find a way to renounce

what’s expected of  my common name,
gliding over the roads until a dream takes root


**************


Link
Thursday, September 25th, 2025 05:45 pm
These questions were originally suggested by [livejournal.com profile] bricksonbricks.

1. Do you consider yourself to be a good housekeeper? Why or why not?

2. Are there any household chores that you enjoy doing? If so, what and why?

3. Which household chore frustrates/angers you the most?

4. When doing household chores, what do you do to make them seem less of a "chore"?

5. Which chore do you find yourself doing most often, and why?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 09:24 am
Now that the leaves are dropping, I've discovered a wasp nest the size of my head in my front tree. 

Home ownership is balls.
Monday, September 22nd, 2025 06:09 pm
What difference, if any, is there between telling somebody “stop” and “time-out”?
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025 12:11 pm
Title: 299
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters/Pairing(s): Donna Noble
Rating: All ages
Word count: 1,408
Spoilers: None
Summary: The intersection of coding and design satisfied Donna's restless brain in ways it hadn’t been satisfied since before ... well, before whatever she’d lost had left her adrift again and her mother and Gramps tight-lipped but supportive.

follow the fake cut to the fic
Sunday, September 21st, 2025 07:24 pm
Black and white and so friendly and tiny, too. Definitely not a feral!

******************


Read more... )
Sunday, September 21st, 2025 09:06 am
On Friday, I met a friend and we visited the Leighton House Museum (the history of which you can read about here). I've been there many times, but my friend had never seen it, so it was nice to show her around and see the temporary exhibition: Victorian Treasures from Cecil French and Scott Thomas Buckle, which was about to close.

I love Leighton House - it has amazing interiors and was clearly a beloved home to Frederic, Lord Leighton, who extended and added to it over time. It was built in 1865 when Leighton was 35 years old and already an extremely accomplished and popular artist, and was designed to be the perfect house for an artist with an enormous studio. It was also a place where Leighton could display various objects he acquired on his many travels abroad, including my favourite space in the house - the Arab Hall - decorated with tiles, and with a wonderful fountain in the centre. It is so tranquil...
IMG_3226.jpeg

However, we were there to see the Victorian drawings and paintings in the collections of Cecil French and Scott Thomas Bucle, and under the cut are some examples, including a few things from the house (just because).  Picture heavy (they enlarge with a click).
Read more... )

It was good to catch the exhibition before it ended and my friend really enjoyed visiting Leighton House and is determined to visit again.

Saturday, September 20th, 2025 08:58 pm


The camera angles work really hard to make the dogs look vicious and dangerous, but they can't fool me! Those are some happy, friendly puppers!
Thursday, September 18th, 2025 11:24 am
White shirt, pink text "The Cake Boys". It just ended up in their laundry, so it's hers now.

She was worried about what the motto might mean - I mean, it's *probably* a bakery, but what if it's some neonazi slogan she's unaware of? - but a little googling reveals that "The Cake Boys are a NYC based network highlighting local drag kings, trans and non-binary performers, and queer artists through live and digital media." Well, alrighty then!

*********************


Read more... )
Thursday, September 18th, 2025 03:41 pm
These questions were originally suggested by [livejournal.com profile] polypolyglot.

1. Do you believe you can have more than one soulmate in life?

2. Are you with that soulmate now?

3. If not, how long did your relationship with your soulmate last?

4. Do you still think about your soulmate, if you are not together?

5. If you're not together, do you think your soulmate still thinks about you?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 01:11 pm
I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.
It's like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
      full of moonlight.

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.


************


Link
Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 06:22 pm
I am just brimming over with excitement.

*************************************


Read more... )
Saturday, September 13th, 2025 10:47 am
I'm even not bad at decluttering, so long as it's okay to literally throw everything out. (They'll sooner or later send another copy of that late bill, don't worry! And you can always order another birth certificate, probably.)

But I'm not so good at routine maintenance. Does anybody have any already set up daily/weekly/monthly/periodically checklists for various areas of the house that they can recommend?