One very small garden

Spotted today.

Yes, it this tomato plant is growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. It's about a foot and a half tall and it is bearing!

Matt Smith's Goodbye-and-Thank-You Message to the Fans & Producers & All (Doctor Who related, in case you were wondering)

All I can say is "awwwww."

The Hour Before Morning--Kickstarter

Remember back when I interviewed Arwen Spicer about her movie The Hour before Morning (You can click the nice link if you don't)? We had a nice chat about filming in quarries, various sources of inspiration, and the plot.

In a nutshell, The Hour Before Morning focuses on the struggles of three prisoners Elek, Jenchae, and Meravyn. "On board a spaceship taking them to their deaths, they have only the length of the flight to make sense of their lives, if they can. Their story takes place against a backdrop of struggle between the Ashtorian conquerors and the Sama people who resent being forcibly “civilized” and want their worlds back. There is a deep hatred between the two peoples and a long history of struggle in which the questions of right and wrong are not easy to answer."

The Hour Before Morning is on Kickstarter where, Arwen says, the movie

has raised $1278 on Kickstarter! Can you help us get all the way to $5000 by July 7th? We have a wide range of rewards for contributors, including a copy of the novel, the movie, and credit in the film, among others.

Contributing is easy. Just click "Back this project" and check out through Amazon.com We need to raise the full amount to get a penny of the funding, so please help us get there if you can.

Check out our Kickstart page here

Please spread the word! And thanks in advance for helping us out with this movie. It's been a labor of love for all of us!

Find out more about it and see images, trailers, and clips on the Hour Before Morning Facebook page.

Link List: Miscellany

This and that from here and there and then and now:

1) A couple cleaning their chimney found a the body of a World War II carrier pigeon still carrying its coded message. So far, no one knows what it said, or why it was in code. If you happen to find out, do let me know! These things have a way of vanishing from the news, stories left all dangling and unfinished in a most untidy way.

Thanks to Charlotte of Charlotte's Library for bringing this to my attention (See "Christmas won't be Christmas without any [dead pigeon bones]")

2) There's an old, not-quite abandoned, city/oil platform, Neft Dashlari, in Azerbaijan, of the former Soviet Union. Really, this should be under "photographs" as well, as it includes a slideshow of the near-ghost town. Part of what's so haunting is that it is not quite abandoned. Some people still live and work there, as the place crumbles around them.

3) And that made me remember this long ago video of China's empty cities. Nearly-empty would be more accurate, and that makes the images all the more haunting. Can you imagine living in a someday-town, waiting for it to come to life?

4) Herman Goring had a little brother, Albert, who worked to save Jews. He did it quite openly, trading on his name and his brother's protection (at least, his brother intervened for a while). Unfortunately for Albert, no one really believed that after the war was over—not with that last name--so he couldn't get work and died poor and bitter. There's also a biography, Thirty Four, by Will Hastings Burke, that came out in 2009.

5) Then there is this tale in Wired of scholarship, computer translation, friendship, a 250 year old code, and asecret society that may or may not have been spying on another secret society. Long, strange, and completely fascinating.

6) Remember the Neiman-Marcus Cookie recipe? Neither do I. That is to say, I remembered the story quite well, but had failed to keep the recipe for the delicious cookies. Now, thanks to Wired, and this article, Eat Like a Geek: The Neiman-Marcus Cookie Recipe, I have it again--and so can you!

The Worl'ds Most Awsome Carousel: The Marine Worlds Carousel

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am more than mildly fond of carousels. Well, take a look at this beautiful, extravagant, wonder of a machine: Presentation - The Marine Worlds Carousel - Les Machines de l’île - Les Machines de l’île And if you're anywhere where you can ride it, do! Then tell everone all about it in the comments, so we can live vicariously through you.

Edit: I just watched it again. It really is a marvel. I love they way they chose the weird and wonderful creatures of the deep sea for so many of their creatures.

The world is a brighter place because someone built this.

Sightings

While out walking:

A mosaic-covered house, cupboard, and porch with an assortment of objects awaiting further work scattered about.

A horse and rider calmly using the crosswalk and then moving into the bike lane to continue on over the bridge.

A snowy egret landing in the Los Angeles River near sunset.

Pink, gold, and orange clouds over the river.

A family riding together, Mom and Dad on horses, younger child on a pony, the two smallest in the saddles in front of their parents,  accompanied by a cheerful black and white goat which trotted along quite happily, unleashed.

The Laughing Mannequin

I'm starting to keep an eye out for her:

At the beach.

Near Halloween.

Last year at the Civil War reenactment.

Review of Eureka: Lost

Short version: No, the "twist" did not make up for the frustration of thinking they had hit the reset button again(1).

Longer version: Up on The Geek Girl Project.

(1) I actually like the Season 4 reset, since they had the guts to keep the changes, and the sense to make sure the core characters traveled together & kept their relationships, but things can be carried too far, and this would have been. "It was all a dream" is almost never a workable solution.

Just Because: Birds by the Long Beach Bike Path

I think these are swallows, and I think the nests are in progress rather than finished. They're under the extremely busy, extremely loud Long Beach Boulevard, and there are hundreds of them. They seem to like the scrubby area around the river and the bike path quite a lot:

Review: Once Upon a Time, The Stable Boy

I have my review of Once Upon a Time: The Stable Boy written & posted. The full version is up on The Geek Girl Project. The short version: For the first time ever for an episode of Once Upon a Time: "Meh."

Just Because: And the Ladybug Came to the Ladybug Picnic

Just Because: A Cozy Tree

I recently visited the Mesa Verde Library again, and of course I checkd to see if the knitted "sweater" was still there. I couldn't actually tell whether or not the original was still up, but in in any case, it is a very well-wrapped, cozy tree:

Because Nothing Says Merry Christmas Like a Vampire Hippo!

Merry Christmas!

Pigeons for Dinner

The meal never gets old.

They Still Need Those Umbrellas

Ruby's still needs those umbrellas.


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Yarn Bomb Outside Costa Mesa/Mesa Verde Branch of the Orange County Public Library

I stopped by the Costa Mesa/Mesa Verde Library last week and found someone had been there yarn bombing the tree out front.

It made me smile.

This one came with a label and an address to the blog of the bomber(s?) in question.

*Wanders over to look at blog.

Bombers, it is. Plural. They seem to have been moderately busy, too, and to have a couple of cats on their side.

Fishy Crackers

These crackers are smiling at me. I can't tell you how disturbing that is.

I mean, really. I'm supposed to eat a flock of friendly food? Really?

Scruffy

I like pigeons, really I do, but these two are certainly doing their best to uphold the image of pigeons as a scruffy, disreputable bunch of bandits.

False Advertising?

This definitely got my attention. I'm not sure that it will entice anyone into the store, however.

Just Because

This is still attracting attention and tributes.