Wait, What Do I Have To Do Now?

! vote yes even if you didn’t think martha stewart owned it !

take this test (https://www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd/, it's a color perception/comparison test, it's pretty fun. precision does not matter, just accuracy), then come back here:

the lower the number, the closer two colors have to be before you can't tell the difference

it doesnt have to be a good score, you dont have to take it multiple times, you dont have to get on a good screen, etcetera. just gimme your score please this is my final project grade :)

Those of you who notice such things will know that in a little less than two weeks, it's going to be a year since @petermorwood departed this plane of existence.

As the date's been getting closer, I'm becoming increasingly clear (due to mood swings and sleep disturbances and other such stuff) that it would be a really good thing for me if I don't have to live through this first anniversary of his loss anywhere near the house where he breathed his last.

For that day, and ideally a couple/few days on either side of it, I really need to get away from here.

So that's my plan, if I can get all this to come together (with everybody's help). ...It's not like any brief escape will get the pain to stop, you know? That's years away... if ever. But at least this move will prevent a short-term crisis, and allow me (after the really painful day has passed) to start getting back to what around here now passes for "standard operating procedure"—meaning writing, and doing other work, and getting on with the rest of the current form of life—as quickly as possible.

What I have in mind is to spend the days on either side of May 9th—and the day itself—as far away from the cottage as physical issues will allow me to travel. Let's think of it as a long weekend, an hour or two's flight away. To manage that, though, I need to boost sales at the Ebooks Direct store over the days to come. If the necessary funds manifest themselves over the course of this week, I'll have time to make the necessary arrangements.

So can I get those of you who see this post to reblog it, and bring the Ebooks Direct store to people's notice as widely as possible? ...As numerous ebook bundles are available at discount prices. (There are more than show in the slide below: that's just a snapshot of how the front-page carousel looks.)

...And if none of these appeal (or if you've got them already and want to give them to somebody else): hey, there are gift cards! (I finally managed to get these things organized correctly...) 😅 They come in per-bundle versions, or in a number of cash values to suit your preference.

Finally: if you've already got too many ebooks, or otherwise just prefer to drop a little something into the kitty to help me escape for a few-ish days, here's my Ko-Fi.

...So let's see if this can be pulled off. And for all your past help, and assistance to come: thanks, friends. I appreciate you so much... as your voices, heard daily, are pretty much all that makes the local silence bearable.

Wood Engraving Wednesday

English/American artist, writer, and illustrator Clare Leighton (1898-1989) was a frequent visitor to Cape Cod in all seasons during her lifetime, and in 1954 she produced these wood engravings to express her fondness for this part of the American experience. She writes:

Because I love this particular earth and sea I have tried to show the basic, enduring life of Cape Cod. Too many of us come here only during the months of summer, when the scene is cluttered with vacationists, and the true spirit of the land is forced into hiding. . . . But fully to love Cape Cod, we must live the loneliness of the winter, and be fearless against the assault of a northeaster. . . . Only then can we enjoy to the full those incomparable days of sun and sea that come in their due season. But, . . . of greater value is the life of the workers upon the land and sea. . . . If you should know and love Cape Cod you must be aware of the fishermen and their families.

Such is evident in these engravings, reproduced in Clare Leighton’s Rural Life: An Anthology, published in Oxford by the Bodleian Library in 2023. The book was edited with an introduction by Leighton’s devoted nephew, David Leighton (1931-2022), who sadly did not live to see its publication.

View more posts from this book.

View more posts with work by Clare Leighton.

View more posts with work by women wood engravers.

For the people in the notes going "why is Boston like this": a) the insults are a way to show you have no ulterior motives when helping someone (and don't need to be thanked or repaid), and b) Boston was settled by the Irish

actually...