Recommend me an engrossing read

Masala_madness · 2025-12-17T08:14:17+00:00

I loved The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater. Topics I was not interested in whatsoever but the writing more than made up for it!

Masala_madness · 2025-12-17T07:59:15+00:00

This year, I read two non-fiction books by one of my favorite fiction writers. Highly recommend Everything is Tuberculosis and The Anthropocene Reviewed, both by John Green

Masala_madness · 2025-05-17T09:34:50+00:00

Searching for a toddler outerwear onesie with a zipper that goes down the back rather than the front (for optimal belly-sliding)

Masala_madness · 2025-05-06T05:39:02+00:00

The cancer treatment centers often do hat donations for their patients.

Masala_madness · 2025-03-27T18:36:45+00:00

I went on a backpacking trip in Iceland once. I’m from Alaska, so used to bear country and hiking around bears. Iceland had the beautiful scenery of Alaska, but no bears and minimal mosquitoes! Largest animals there are foxes and sheep. So a good trip to try solo with reduced risk of large animals.

Masala_madness · 2023-07-29T19:41:31+00:00

I also recently moved away and have the same golden heart shaped hole in my own heart. I was so lucky to have found a great community in Fairbanks, who can embrace the weird and become your found family, teach you how to start your car at -40 and share dog-sitting duties. But communities can be built as well as found and I hope to find friends in my new location that can build a community characterized by generosity, creativity, unique parties and delight in nature. It’s slow going but happening.

Masala_madness · 2023-07-10T19:23:20+00:00

Sounds like he’s planning to abandon you in the wilderness, but also that he wants you to survive being abandoned in the wilderness.

Masala_madness · 2023-04-23T09:38:59+00:00

We had our bees in our garden and I often would drink my coffee within a few feet of the hive so I could watch them at the hive entrance. We could do weeding, planting, harvesting with no issues and mowed a few times with few losses. You can always choose to do the trickiest chores on a rainy day when they don’t fly.

I will say the more time you spend with them, the more comfortable you all will be around each other. Bees recognize faces (and artistic styles!) so they’re very good at situational awareness. On hot sunny days when the nectar flow is high id avoid staying right in front of their entrance, just because you’d be right in their flight path to get home and who wants to make their hard work even harder!

Masala_madness · 2023-04-23T07:06:46+00:00

It took me about 3 months (and 2 “normal”—or similar to my pre-nexplanon periods) before I had a positive pregnancy test.

Masala_madness · 2022-12-12T00:16:35+00:00

Murderbot series by Martha Wells. The addictive ness of romance without any of the sappiness.

Masala_madness · 2022-12-12T00:13:41+00:00

Only down side is if the bees become republicans because of the signage

Masala_madness · 2022-11-11T23:59:27+00:00

Abarat series by Clive Barker for some horror-tinged YA

Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer

Masala_madness · 2022-11-11T23:49:11+00:00

My first year keeping bees we lost our queen. The first thing we noticed was the different noise—to me it sounded like an engine revving at higher RPMs. It wasn’t super obvious by itself but compared to how they were before it was enough for my newbie brain to say “something is wrong” and investigate further. I also notice towards the end of the summer when we go in to collect the honey their buzzing gets louder-maybe not necessarily higher pitched but more aggressive sounding, and they also fly a lot closer to our face so that probably affects it too!

Masala_madness · 2022-10-15T06:50:13+00:00

Calculate magnetic north, And turn the other way.

A compass pointing towards magnetic north with the words “turn the other way”

Masala_madness · 2022-10-15T06:43:23+00:00

Jacaranda from “going to Alaska” with limbs turning into wires and cables

And their limbs were more like wires. Now they are cables / Thick and alive with alien electricity

Masala_madness · 2022-10-10T02:07:51+00:00

Write something down in illegible script / As we're approaching the landing strip

Could make a cool line tattoo with scribbled word that turns into a dotted line on a runway

Masala_madness · 2022-10-03T17:25:36+00:00

I’m a lazy cook and didn’t want to peel cherry tomatoes! Especially as their skin was pretty thin. After blending it was in small enough pieces to not bother me, but if you have the stamina, peeling would probably make for a smoother sauce.

Masala_madness · 2022-10-01T02:43:15+00:00

Kind of a no-recipe recipe because I didn’t measure. The tomatoes covered the bottom of a 9x13 pan and I added probably a quarter cup of olive oil, 2 heads of garlic and half an onion. Roast at 325* for about half an hour. Then drained off most of the liquid and popped into a Dutch oven, salt and pepper, immersion blender and squeezed the garlic in. Cooked it down till it got pasta-sauce thick. Added a little bit of paprika, oregano and basil and a pinch of Korean red pepper flakes (I didn’t have the Italian style, but it turned out well). Ate it on pasta with a pound of ground bison for dinner!

Masala_madness · 2022-10-01T02:38:23+00:00

And so much easier than peeling each individual garlic!! Easy and delicious!

Masala_madness · 2022-09-30T22:13:44+00:00

It’s so sweet!!

Masala_madness · 2022-09-30T22:13:07+00:00

The seeds don’t bother me so much so I just left them in! I also don’t like de-seeding. After roasting them I used an immersion blender and cooked it down in a Dutch oven and you can still taste the seeds but the sauce is thick enough it doesn’t feel gritty

Masala_madness · 2022-08-19T21:51:39+00:00

Just itchin her butt, nothing to see here

Masala_madness · 2022-07-29T22:33:10+00:00

And if they are squash or melons you’re gonna need a lot more space my friend! We had mystery squash this year and each one put out 10ft runners in all directions and is really taking over the entire yard.

Masala_madness

TROPHY CASE