Flowering Quince

@coastal-quince.bsky.social

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Bookish, treeish, peripatetic, frequently salt water adjacent.

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Flowering Quince

Worth thinking about how long Tolkien goes on in Return of the King about despair being a weapon, and presenting defeat as a forgone conclusion being a deliberate and effective tactic

An unexpected break in the heat, or at least enough of a break to let me run a comfortable 4 miles and walk two miles home.

2 of the slowest miles of my life gave me lots of times for noticing. Apples, cherries, and ripening blackberries were sighted.

3 relatively zippy kilometers until my body threw a fit about being active while warm. Reader, it was 65. Gaaaaah!

Also? Go read this excerpt. It’s lyrical and lovely. And I always love it when magic is conflated with grammar. My language loving self adds “as it should be.”

ok so you've seen the cover, would you now like to read an excerpt from my next book in [checks notes] [checks notes again] ... Cosmopolitan magazine www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainmen...

Exclusive: Check Out Amal El-Mohtar's Debut Solo Novella ‘The River Has Roots’ Cover Reveal and Excerptwww.cosmopolitan.com The This is How You Lose the Time War author will leave you speechless with her new story.

Always the Sabbath, never the Jubilee. It’s like they don’t actually know their Bible.

the "Judeo-Christian tradition" has always regulated the Sabbath as a shared day of rest, huh? so... which day is the Federally Mandated Sabbath Day of Rest, the one we ALL share, going to be?

I went got a walk today, and arrived at my coffee shop to discover that the baristas have organized into a “nag me to drink more water” gang. I love them.

How is this Amal El-Mohtar’s “debut”? She’s been essential reading forever, right? Okay, my internal fact checker says there was a time before This Is How You Lose the Time War. In the meantime I can’t wait for March.

Oh hey y’all guess what I have a new book coming out in March 2025 & you can pre-order it if you want! You can do so from anywhere, I recommend your local indie, but meanwhile here’s Macmillan’s link us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Two very slow miles while I pretend that one day my body will get over its heat aversion. The heat feels as oppressive and inescapable as bindweed. It should start to cool off in a couple of days. In the meantime Nalgene’s of hibiscus iced tea and lime juice are my friend.

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french knots on the prowl

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Hello social medias... You may not be aware a major Cat 5 hurricane struck an area that normally doesn't get them. The eye passed directly over Carriacou and Petit Martinique. The devastation is tremendous. The need is great. You can help and make a difference: www.gofundme.com/f/the-people...

Help the people of Carriacou and Petite Martinique recover, organized by Marine and Yachting Association of Grenada MAYAGwww.gofundme.com On 1 July, the eye of Hurricane Beryl bore down on two tiny i… Marine and Yachting Association of Grenada MAYAG needs your support for Help the people of Carriacou and Petite Martinique recover

Some mornings the victory available is acknowledging that— despite best efforts at hydration and getting out the door while it’s still cool— I’m having trouble with the heat and quitting the run portion of the program early. Disappointing but sensible.

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This has been the year of reading Martha Wells’ stand alone fantasy back catalogue. Because my particular brain finds her buttoned down, thinking first, “oh shit, I’m having a feeling, make it stop” POV characters congenial. Also I find her method of oblique world building fascinating. 🧵1

Hill repeats and cadence drills, reminding me that despite my ongoing love affair with running long distances, I was built to sprint.

My avowed long term goal is to enjoy running as much and as long as I can. The last few weeks of slow jogging have been in conflict with the enjoyment part. So today? Speed drills! Fun restored for the moment!

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stumbled onto this lynda Barry comic again which always makes me a little verklempt

Decided that I didn’t give a damn about speed and ran some slow interval, because I wanted to be moving and a walk sounded slow. I am occasionally utterly bewildered that running is a thing I do without a gym teacher yelling at me.

Two miles this morning out of respect for the current round of allergies. I’m messing around with pace, partly because I want to run a 10k in October and I want to do it in the middle of the middle aged lady pack, partly because slow runs at a constant pace tend to make me squirrelly.

A cool grey day, and a body that refused to get on board with the whole running project. I called it at 2 miles and walked home. Tomorrow is my planned long run and maybe an actively resting run will help save energy for it. But whatever happens, tomorrow will be different.

3.5 miles this morning. Too hot. To be clear, my thermal sweet spot for vigorous outdoor exercise is 50-25 degrees, so I’m going to spend a lot of time complaining and working on my shorts strategy for the next few months.

Joy! Rapture! Wonderful news!

Not to alarm anyone, but I have written a book and will tell you all about it and have preorder links this Wednesday night. For now I will say: it’s Wedgeford #3, and the title ends with “n’t”.

A lunch time run because I scheduled a doctor’s appointment in my morning run time. D’oh! The temperature rose 5 degrees in half an hour. I wore too many clothes. But I decided that I was bored with running slowly, and keeping my heart rate down so I played with short sprints. Joy was had.

A better run today: four miles on a cool but still and humid morning. In the last mile the breeze came up, and it was delicious.

It’s been a week of tough runs. I suspect I’ve added too much distance too fast. And Junuary is turning into summer at last. My cold loving body is upset. Today was supposed to be my long run, but my body said NO. Gold star for listening, but my inner perfectionist is annoyed. Sigh.

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A new blood test can predict if breast cancer will return years before the disease shows up on scans. #ShareGoodNewsToo www.bbc.com/news/article...

Breast cancer: New blood test can predict return, researchers saywww.bbc.com The test can find traces of a tumour's DNA before a full relapse, allowing treatment to start early, experts say.

2 miles. My body hated everything about running today. I don’t know why. Maybe the distraction of carrying a water bottle? Maybe bad sleep? Maybe the barometer which can’t make up its damn mind? But I ran those two miles and didn’t lie down on the sidewalk and whimper, so I won.

3 slow consistent miles: not maximum slow, but just enjoying my miles and music without blasting my heart rate into orbit. It’s peaceful and present. Even meditative. I walked the last mile home. I allowed myself to be annoyed about how the Garmin programmers understand yoga. Whoops. 1/?

Four miles of slog. Very consistently paced slog, but slog nonetheless. I was so done by the time I finished that I forgot to take a picture. Not every run can be a shot of unadulterated joy. Unlike this poppy whose picture I took on Wednesday.

Two and a half miles at a pace I chose. Being more in control of my pace is relatively new and I think it’s neat. It’s not hot yet, but I’m a bit braced.