blamebrampton

Happy Birthday, bottle_of_smoke! You've had such an incredible year, I don't think I can wish for anything more fervently than I did for you to have a head cold (we know why that was good!), but I do hope that everyone surpasses themselves in the gifts, cake and enjoyable fuss stakes on your behalf. You're a gem!

And, fanfic recs!

I am dipping in and out of hd_erised like a weak-willed swimmer at a cold beach. It's revoltingly hot or humid here most days, so in theory I have loads of reading time. In actuality, I have a disastrous house and garden after two months of Mr B 'doing' the housework and we still have boxes to unpack, so I am forcing myself to do things and then need brief comas to recover, so I've not made it through half as much as I ought. But I come bearing some real treats!

Firstly, my gift art! I don't know why more people don't request art, because you are likely to be on such a winning bet if you do. And I won hugely! It's a multi-page work called Fiji and it's utterly fabulous. The faces! The eyes! The hands! The story is simple: Hermione goes on holidays, so Harry is free to skive off, taking his grumpy assistant Draco with him. But the emotion that comes through the simple marks on paper is astonishing and beautiful, as is all this artist's work.

And now, fics! I think that Tea and No Sympathy was the first I managed to catch, and it was such a good start! It's long, 70K, but written in such an engaging style that it never feels as though you are labouring. Basically, Draco spells himself into a Groundhog Day style loop and becomes convinced that he needs Potter to get him out of it. I loved the fact that the author held out for a non-easy end on this one, it really paid off dramatically. A sterling blend of humour and drama, and with the most splendid little owl OC. No, trust me, Pip the Owl is totally a fully fledged (pun intended) character!

Similarly assured in its writing was House Style for Gryffindors. It's a fifth the length of Tea and No Sympathy, so if you're pushed for time, start here. Draco works on a wizarding version of the Tatler, along with half his schoolmates, including Hermione Granger. When editor Pansy hires Harry Potter for sports and general buffness, Draco takes refuge first in prossecco, then in refuge, and finally in denial. None of these work. It's the best kind of silliness, loaded with light, sparklng wit, but with a few moments that make you pause and say 'Oh …'

And I do have more, but my left hand is still meh, so I'll come back later. Have a marvellous New Year, you lot!

Happy Birthday, nenne! Your life always sounds so full of joy and love, and I hope that today is especially so! I hope that this year is splendid for you, you delightful human of insight and kindness!

You would be dying of laughter at me today: it is 12 degrees C and I am freezing. Oh, for a Scandinavian house with insulation and draughtproofing!

ALL THE CAKE!

You did not eat my rec post, although you told me you did. Why panic me when we've been having such a rough week? You were going along so well and then suddenly, you were flakier than a teenaged lead guitarist. Still, at least you're better than my router, which has decided it no longer wants to be wireless. Screw you, router, I own cables. I will not have to break my budget plans this month!

In better news, BIRTHDAYS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY teganscrush! You've had such a couple of years, I cannot tell you how inspiring you have been! You kick arse, even on the days when you don't feel like doing any kicking. Your generosity and support for all those around you is a constant source of joy to the sensible parts of your flist, and kind of amazing. I wish for you a year of new housing somewhere fab, new people who are the sort you'll be happy to meet, and at least a few nice men to shyly mention that you look amazing, just because it's a nice thing to hear now and then! And your bands playing gigs close to you!

HAPPY SLIGHTLY LATE BIRTHDAY pinkdiamond! You're another inspiration: SO MANY FROCKS! I love the passion you bring to textile history, and the cleverness of all your creations. For you, I wish Swift and Very Helpful Medical Advances, plus an unexpected pile of cash, so you can get to all those museums you've been craving. That and All The Silk!

I know that I owe comments abungo, and thank you to those who have been chatting, especially on the last post. But right now, sleep wins! Talk soon!

ETA: Sod it, I forgot again to say Happy Late Birthday rada_1185. LJ did not tell me it was your birthday on Tuesday! For that, I hope you have a year of faultless internet, bakers popping in extra croissants, and people just giving you random good stuff because they thought you might like it.  And now, really, sleep!

I know that a lot of you out there have kids who are interested in all things HP, which is what makes the new comm set up by leochi  one of the coolest things around at the moment. yay_potterkids  is a safe place for fic and art that features kid-friendly themes set in the HP universe. So far there is some lovely art and I know that several writers have fics and drabbles planned (including me, eventually!)

On the topic of comms, hp10k_showcase began posting today with a fantastic story by snegurochka_lee . It's beautifully written, if tremendously sad. Catch it here: The Path of Least Resistance. The remaining stories are all very very fine, too, and written in support of many good causes (which you can ignore and just go straight to the fic, but the universe may be a finer place if you do not.)

Next Yays, HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY to gameazel ! Sorry it's late, I have been writing and running around  like a fiend this week. I hope you had a great one.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY for today to the lovely micolerose. I am sending you every wish for good health and good luck for this year, with added father discovers housecleaning and niece or nephew is perfect child of great sleeping and behaving with no regurgitation issues luck. You are such a cool chick, but I am not following you into the darkside of new fandoms. Oh no. I am too far behind in just the one!

And the final yay, the university that I was doing some work for last year, the one who had students who believed in Evelyn War and that one was best going to Antarctica from Tasmania via South Georgia and then Macquarie Island, has FINALLY paid me! Only six months late. It is so nice not to be several thousand dollars behind any more! I have ballast in my account again! Yippee!

I think that it is the day of birthdays for so very many fine people!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY i_autumnheart ! I actually remembered to talk to you this morning, so that's one piece of usefulness. You're a person who I am just glad to know, filled with wit, intelligence, competence and talent. If you weren't so bloody likeable, you'd be annoying ;-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to dumbys_baby , too! You swelegant swonderful girl! You had better be writing this year, or there will be Serious Words. I still blame you for me ending up here, but do not begrudge it ;-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS also to under_an_oak  -- keep on with your loving for all things gorgeous, miss! Between hot J- and K-Pop boys and Neil Gaiman, you have the best taste! and to celandineb , you gentle soul! I love the recipes, recs, Juno walks and other moments of your life that you share with us.

Clearly, the start of March is an auspicious  time!

A very happy birthday to dumbys_baby and i_autumnheart, who are both nearly at the day after, but the phone was used! Fingers crossed life will calm down enough for the three of us to catch up in person before too long. Easter, I suppose.

Happy birthday also to celandineb who is such a force for good, I hope that the silly things that are plaguing you will stop soon and under_an_oak, who wages a glorious battle against faceless corporatism, with style and wit. I hope you have both been visited by the present fairy. Happy birthday for tomorrow to aoifene, you're lovely, but you know that.

OK, that's enough about people whose parents were frisky in June.

Saw Min this evening, she was mildly interested to see us, which changed to fairly interested when we pulled the tins of pink salmon from my handbag. She'd not been eating today, probably because they offered her cat food. After hoovering most of one tin, she looked up at us with an expression of mild satisfaction. The vet laughed a lot. We explained that when she was feral she lived on rats and scraps from the Thai restaurant and was fed tidbits by the posh restaurant crew.

She seemed in reasonable nick, if quiet and grumpy. She hates her drip, but may well lose it tomorrow if she keeps eating and drinking. And then it looks like chemo on Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Then we were trapped in a traffic jam on the North Shore, where people cannot manage a simple merge to the point they cause accidents. At least there's a fair chance it was an actual OAP ...

Tasmania is a beautiful place, and if only LJ would allow me to stick in photos from my hard drive, I could show you. Alas, I will have to refer you to the tourism websites and contemplate joining the 21st century with a Flickr account sometime between now and my eventual death.

It's probably for the best, I am a terrible photographer and the only shots that were really good were those of the Following Chicken, the large white hen who kept me company on every walk I took around my friend's farm. At first I thought I was hallucinating, because who really has a Following Chicken? Then I suspected her of being a pecking hen, in a similar vein to that staple of my childhood Pixie the bum-biting pony, but no, she was just a friendly Following Chicken.

I found her charming, as did Bella the daughter of my farmer friend's fabulous new girlfriend. Bella is two and we spent a lot of time asking each other "Can you see the Following Chicken?" We thought this was HILARIOUS. Nearly as good as the fact that when you ask Bella to make the sound a snake makes, she starts speaking in Parseltongue. We bonded. Over Harry Potter and the Following Chicken. People don't believe you when you say that chickens can be charming, but they can!

Unlike peacocks, peahens and peachicks. Evil evil evil! And mad.

Now I should declare bias here. My grandparents' farm has always had peacocks and so my childhood was filled with nights where I was wakened from childish dreams by the unholy shrieks of Satan's own giant budgies. On two occasions people have tried to feed me peacock; a meat I find even less appetising than turkey and nearly as godawful as swan. When I was very little, the peacocks would run at me with their tails up high and stand and screech their mad cries.

Which I had rather put out of my head when I saw my Farmer Friend's lovely boy and declared "ooh, how pretty!" Ten hours later when I was clutching a pillow over my head, it all came rushing back.

The next day we played bird rearrangement. We threw the ducks down into the goat pond from their hiding spot under the tree ferns (where I could fit to scare them out, I am much shorter than Farmer), I rescued a duck that had managed to catch its head behind a stick of fuchsia, through a large gauge wire fence and finally in a chicken wire fence (I ended up pushing on its beak while keeping the neck steady, not an easy trick!) and we lost only about half the flock who ran away down the road (literally. With my v tall Farmer friend chasing them shrieking "Come back, ducks!")

Then the peahen appeared with her chicks. "We need to catch them!" he declared. "She managed to kill all the last hatching through neglect." I, foolishly, agreed to help. He set after the hen with a net, while we caught the chicks and stuck them in a bag. Four out of five chicks later, the peahen flew away into the remnant bush behind his house and sat up in a gum tree, glaring at us.

I had a vague idea we could tempt her with the chicks in an enclosure peeping for their mum, but we were thwarted by the remaining errant chick, which she rescued and popped up onto her back before running off with it into the wilderness. So Farmer had to build an incubator and we spent the night trying to acclimatise peeping peachicks to humans. Boy can those bastards peep.

That night, the peep of peachicks, the screech of the peacock and the aggrieved screams of the peahen were the soundtrack to my sleeping hours. And a waddle of ducks stampeding past my bedroom window quacking that since the lights were out now, it was probably safe to come home.

I advised my friend that his chickens were clearly the best part of his farm. Though the goats were cute, too.

anthimaeria, I saw no Tasmanian tigers, but I did buy you a postcard. It wasn't posted from Tassie due to sundry bird related disasters (let us not speak of the missed flight home), but you should receive it soon! snottygrrl, alas, no card for you. I will find something suitably stupid from Sydney instead!

Happy early birthday, jadzialove! I have a present for you but it may be a trifle late. Happy slightly late birthday to geoviki, you kind, smart, talented person, and happy slightly early birthday to nqdonne -- a generous soul who has tempted me into evil but in the good ways.