(no subject)

I've started spraying my herbs with soapy water. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be agreeing with the dill at all. It's also making the wild sorrel turn brown and wither. Maybe I was too enthusiastic with my first application....

I've also concluded that I'll have to prune the sage and the winter savory severely in order to make this work. Both are so tangled and bushy that there are leaves in the interior that aren't getting sprayed. I think the beetles may be living down near the bottoms of the plants.

The golden sage is probably dead. Most of the leaves have been eaten. I'm sad about that because it's managed to survive two winters. Maybe, if I get rid of the beetles, it'll manage to come back. We have a few months before the fall frosts hit.

I'm pretty sure at this point that what I've got is striped cucumber beetles and that the 'worms' I'm seeing are the larval stage. I'm not sure why the larva seem to be on the dill in a separate bed while the beetles are on the sage and winter savory in the next bed. Maybe I just can't see the larva over there and the beetles are going for the bigger leaves.

From what I've gathered about striped cucumber beetles, they'll eat anything and are very hard to eradicate. Of course, most of my information comes from websites written by people trying to sell pesticides. I'm hoping the soapy water will help. If not, I'll see if I can find neem oil and escalate.

So far I haven't seen any beetles in the new bed. It's several feet from the nearer of the two old beds (the front steps intervene), and the plants have been in less than a week. Nothing around the back of the house shows any signs of infestation, either. With luck, the pests will stay away. Or maybe I can get the beetles to eat the bindweed in the back yard....

I can dream, anyway.

Remix

I got my Remix assignment. I'm tentatively pleased and a bit amused because I predicted correctly what fandom I'd match on.

I haven't started poking at the eligible fics yet. That'll likely happen in an hour after I see Cordelia and Scott off to a party. (Assuming the party happens. It's an outdoor pool party, and it's currently 62 degrees in these parts and either raining or threatening rain. I wish the mother who planned it had included some sort of bad weather statement.)

If you happen to be remixing me, I hope you have fun! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I don't know if it's allowed, but I'm okay with you remixing one of my WIP if that appeals to you. I'd think that "Rheotaxis" would be too long, but the two chapters of "Torsion" can more or less stand alone (to the point that I've considered making them stories in an arc rather than chapters in a long fic).

I very much like seeing how much of a different direction a different author will take when starting from the same point, so I'm likely to be pleased by whatever comes of this because it won't be what I'd have written and won't look at situations from the same angle. In some ways, the greater the differences, the more fascinated I'll be.

ETA: I've had troubles with my website recently due to changes in hardware. If any of the links aren't working, please have somebody let me know. I've fixed everything I know about, but I might have missed something.

(no subject)

I've come to the conclusion that the books I'm having the best luck reading are in the 'middle years' category. I hadn't previously had a name for the category, but someone recently used it, and it fits. What I can read ends up bracketed by stuff that's too simplistic and too short and stuff that's often too hard. I had thought for a while that I was looking at some sub-category of YA, but I couldn't figure out how to differentiate it from everything else.

I can read maybe one book in ten out of those I attempt at the adult level. YA gets to about four books in ten but tends to get too grim or mature or too Problem focused. Middle years, at least in my preferred genres, gets more like seven in ten. I may struggle with some of them or give up after reading most of the book, but I'm more likely to finish.

The difficult part is that I can't identify the middle years/YA split very well when I'm just looking at a book on the shelf. Our local library has some books I'd label as 'middle years' in the teen room and some in the youth (kids) room. That means that I'm looking for recommendations. I don't care so much about the age that the books are aimed at, but I'd like the middle years sensibility, and a happy ending is required.

I'm mostly interested in SF, fantasy and mystery titles, and of the three categories, I'm least interested in mysteries. I'm not interested in vampires, werewolves or unicorns unless they're spectacular or go along with other things I love (that is, I won't reject a book for having one of those things, but the book will have more to overcome to get me to finish it). Romance tends to run aground for me when the characters act stupid-- even when there's no reason they should know it's stupid-- or do things that involve embarrassment/humiliation. I also don't like noir or paranormal crime stories (except in extraordinary circumstances).

To give some clearer idea of what works for me and what doesn't, I'm going to list some books and authors that have worked for me. They're not all 'middle years,' but they should give some idea of what works for me. I've included comments with caveats on most of them. They're not in any particular order apart from as they occurred to me.

( The List )

I am aware that some of these authors have said or done things of which I disapprove or by which I'm frustrated and/or offended. That doesn't change the fact that their books work for me and help define the category of Things The RCK Can Read Without Panicking.

I'll probably respond to some recommendations with comments about why this or that particular book or author worked or didn't work for me. Negative comments won't be intended as a way of saying that those things are terrible or that the commenter has bad taste or anything except that the book/author is not right for me right now. I don't expect all the recommendations to be spot on. After all I can't tell what will work for me right now, even after several years. How on earth would I expect anyone else to know?

I have left off some things that I loved when I read them but that I strongly suspect I couldn't currently read for the first time.