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A few quick things in this time of excessive heat and bleah:

*I have taken my first group Reformer class in Pilates and loved it. When I told my youngest brother and his husband, however, they both started singing the old Snow song "Informer," and now I can't stop thinking of that whenever I think of 'reformer'. Goofballs.

*I really enjoyed Mr. Malcolm's List when I saw it last week, and if you're in the mood for a light, amusing Regency rom-com whenever it comes out where you are, I recommend.

*Variety reports that Dalgliesh has been renewed for not just a second season (which is filming now), but also for a third! So happy! Yay Bertie Carvel!!

*And on that note, while I realize that I am becoming ever more niche, anyway....

I've been glued to the ongoing Tory meltdown in the UK this week, and am hoping for the best outcome. But, perhaps because I've been reading Leupagus's "Treads on the Ground" fic with Finn/Liz from Babylon, I had to revisit my own Finn/Liz occasional saga to memorialize this political disaster: "Schadenfreude and Love". Also mentioned, Mycroft/Anthea and Fortnum and Mason, because I am who I am.

Whatever. Hugs to all. :)

What a week+ of hideous news here in the States.

While I try to figure out how to respond to those horrors, here's a couple of links of good cheer:

*Tom Hiddleston gave a great interview with even better photos to The Gentleman's Journal. He talks The Essex Serpent and Loki, of course, but he also talks theatre, to my joy.

*Mr. Malcolm's List, a Regency rom-com with diverse casting, opens this week in North America cinemas and in the UK in August. Zawe Ashton is getting rave reviews for her work as the anti-heroine who nevertheless finds love; here's a typically thoughtful interview with La Ashton.

(It makes me low-key happy that both interviews reference their engagement but don't dwell on it.)

Lastly, BNF fan Leupagus has had a whole Bertie Carvel coup de foudre -- which I wholly understand -- and while they've been pushing for Dalgliesh fic, they've also revisited the 2013 TV series Babylon and they've fallen for Finn/Liz. They've also started a fake-dating fic, "Treads on the Ground", which is 2 chapters in and a lot of fun.

(You might remember that I've written a few Finn/Liz fics in my time.)

So there we are, a bit of distraction. Now I'm going to turn up the Stones' "Waiting on a Friend" and dance for just a minute or two. May you find surcease in hard times!

How is my work already so stressful. How.

Anyway, it's Saturday, and thanks to MLK Day, I can take two days to try to recover. (I have to catch up on things on MLK Day proper.) This doesn't count the stress of having to purchase and set up a new laptop, but let's not dwell.

So, three things for this mid-January:

*All Creatures Great and Small Series 2 has begun here in the US on PBS. Siegfried Farnon is my eternal joy, thanks to Sam West. Apparently the fandom ships Siegfried and Mrs. Hall, which I HEARTILY endorse, but I don't think I'll write fic. (And the looming shadow of WWII is ever present, so....)

*The subtropics have been strangely warm through December and early January, but a blast of COLD is bearing down on us. My very chilly house never shines in times like that. However, Miss Adventure has taken to snuggling on my lap in the evenings, which is a pleasant counter to the cold.

*I did not buy anything in the beginning-of-the-year sales. Fear my self-control.

Cheers and hugs to all!

Oof, it's been nothing and a lot all at the same time these last few weeks. Just...oof.

I will say, however, that I took a restorative stretching class (using a foam roller) at my local Pilates studio last night, and I could feel the bands of tension everywhere, la la la. I think I might have attacked the first level of it, at least -- the very exemplar of "hurt so good."

Otherwise, the following:

*I've LOVED Dalgliesh the first season (on Acorn TV in the US, on Channel Five in the UK). Bertie Carvel is brilliant, although of course I admit that I don't have any real investment in the 1980s Dalgliesh so there are no invidious comparisons. He's all be-suited and soft-voiced and cool-eyed, and it works like gangbusters for me. Hope there will be a second season.

*Enjoying the Bookshelfie podcast this season, which comes out of the Women's Prize for Fiction UK organization. Zawe Ashton is the host this year, and she is exceptionally good at asking smart questions and responding warmly. I recommend.

*Reading: Tyler Merritt's I Take My Coffee Black, a memoir with a difference; the new Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle book set in her futuristic off-world series, Guild Boss. I've been rereading her Amanda Quick books for comfort the last few months, and this new book fits the bill as well.

*Lastly, I do not watch Succession because I don't have HBO Max, but I follow along via memes etc. It is so funny to me to think of Teh MacFadyen now being identified as another character named Tom, but you know, he'll always be Tom Quinn to me.

Hope all is well with you all, and hugs!

It'll be a work and errands day for me today, after a month's worth of socializing in 5 days, so... let's list.

1) The Loki finale had some fabulous moments, but it was the weakest of the six episodes for me. ( Spoilers )

1a) If someone would like to make me a THiddles icon, I would be grateful. Doesn't need to be Loki. :)


2) Want to see Hunter B15 glammed up? Here you go -- an Essence article about Wunmi Mosaku, with GORGEOUS photographs of her. She's as photogenic as damnit.

3) I had something else to say, but Miss Adventure has just started her morning bark and that has drowned out thought.

Cheers and hugs for your end of week!

Before I actually go off to do a workout and then work --

Happy Monday! Let's have three positive things to start a new week:

1) Miss Adventure did not lunge at any passing cars on our walk today, (She wanted to, but for once I kept a firm hand on the leash and the appropriate deployment of "Stay." Baby steps.)

2) Episode 2 of Loki was DELIGHTFUL, with banter and surprise Latin and amazing Hiddleston hair. The cliffhanger makes me nervous, but it'll be fine. I'm just along for the ride. (We'll see if I write any fic for it.)

3) I had two great Pilates classes last week. The Thursday class in particular was somehow soothingly familiar and challenging at the same time, going through the Essentials and Intermediate moves but without pausing between exercises.

All hugs and good thoughts for your week.

I just realized that I haven't posted here for a couple of weeks. Work and then tiredness, la la la.

So much for planning to post more!

Anyway, here's a fun link -- Emma Thompson's 2021 profile in British Vogue. La Thompson is brilliant as usual, and I love this story:

She tells a story from her months filming Cruella in London, where, having been “heaved” into an elaborate creation by costume designer Jenny Beavan and done up to the nines at the film’s base in a South Bank car park, she had to get to a location across the river. “There was a demonstration and we got stuck,” she says. “The worst thing you can do on a film set is be late, so I said, ‘We’ll get out and go by Tube. It’s fine. It’s Sunday morning, it’s 9am.’” She quivers. “It was rammed. I was on the Tube in a dressing gown, Ugg slippers, a wig 3ft high, eyelashes out to here. And do you know what? Everyone completely ignored me. They just thought I was a drag act on my way home after the last performance.” She pauses wistfully. “I love London.”

Otherwise, I am planning next week's "staycation." I am currently contemplating a program of reading, writing, knitting, Pilates, walking Miss Adventure, and an art-museum visit. Oh, and because I am fully vaccinated and I need one desperately, a massage.

I'm super exciting, huh.

Anyway, hugs to all and a great weekend ahead.

Yeah, it's been a hot minute since posting. That is because of WORK and STUFF.

But here are other things to think about:

*The Hiddleston Renaissance! Whooo! As I noted previously, he's filming The Essex Serpent# in, well, Essex, and there are lots of photos from the set of Mr. TH swanning about in ye olde Hot Vicar attire circa the latest Victorian times, and it's all v. pleasing.

#Amusingly, last weekend I thought to myself, "Self, maybe it's time to try to read The Essex Serpent again, despite bouncing off it the first time through. Too bad you returned it to the used bookstore. Perhaps a Kindle?" And then, Amazon told me I had already purchased it for my Kindle many months ago. Which indeed I had.

I can report it's more enthralling this time around.

*Also, related, Hiddleston Renaissance: He's prepping for the onslaught of Loki press, including going to the BAFTAs in a Ralph Lauren tux.

Look, it's been a hard year and a half, I take my simple pleasures where I can.

*Also recently read: the latest in C.S. Harris's Sebastian St Cyr novels, What The Devil Knows. It's a slightly different mystery, based on a real-life murder case. Corruption in Whitechapel with brewers and weird Middlesex politics -- really cool.

*My subtropical Small Town has been Pollen-and-Drought Central this season, but we've actually gotten enough proper rain this week to wash some of the nasty yellow stuff out of the air. HOORAY.

*And I now have my second vaccine shot, and going back to workout is only a couple of weeks away. SO HAPPY.

May your weekend be full of simple or complex pleasures, as you prefer.

As usual, the pollen here in the subtropics is at Danger levels, and I am craving a break. An Anywhere but Here. A rest.

So that's not happening, obviously. And I am rather glum in general, just dragging through the days.

So, quickly, 5 Things:

*It's been a great year for azaleas; most of them bloomed at the same time, and my Small Town was awash with bright bright color. As usual, of course, they are now fading at the same time. Oh well.

*The local power company came by and cut back my front-yard cherry tree away from the power lines. However, "cut back" is a bit of a euphemism: they butchered the tree. This is why my usual tree service is coming this week to even it out. La la la.

*I forgot to say that I watched the Feb 28 Instagram Live reunion of the folks from the 2019 production of Betrayal which lives in my heart. BLESS.

*And I'm ready for Loki, even though I have three months to wait... Hope THiddleston has something on his plate for 2021, since it's rumored he'll be shooting the second season of Loki starting in January 2022. Come on, THiddleston! Find a project I want to see. :)

*Miss Adventure wishes you all a happy middle of the month.

Some bits and bobs for this Sunday morning, after a mile-and-a-half walk with Miss Adventure in the frost...

WHAT I'M NOT READING
Some kerfuffle on Twitter about ye olde "fanfic is bad" canard. I cannot be bothered.

WHAT I'M GOING TO BE READING
Next book up is The House at Vesper Sands, by Paraic O'Donnell. It's just getting a US release (after the UK publication in 2018). The review makes it sound right up my street.

I'm finding Victorian historical fiction compelling these days in general. I'm not sure what that's about.

WHAT I'M WATCHING
To preface this: when I cut cable TV some years ago, I went with Hulu and Live TV, thinking I needed access to network television and...stuff. In a New Year stock-taking of subscriptions et al, I realized that I literally never watch network television live and the exorbitant price of the full subscription made no sense. However, I do like some of the shows Hulu has, so when I canceled Live TV, I kept Hulu. And, um, because of the bundling, I added Disney Plus.

Which is one reason I am watching WandaVision.

I am not a devoted MCU fan -- I've seen the Thor movies and Doctor Strange, what, so I like Hiddleston and Cumberbatch it's not a crime -- but I'd seen Wanda and Vision in one of those late Avengers movies, so I have a passing knowledge of the sad ending of their story. The sitcom frame in the trailers for WandaVision intrigued me, however, so I gave it a try.

After the first two episodes, I can say I am thoroughly enjoying the pastiche and the Twilight Zone notes of oncoming dread. I love what Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany are doing with their performances. And in Episode 2, EMMA CAULFIELD FORD, WHAT!! She's brilliant, too, and will be recurring in more episodes. But I know this is going to end in tears, and I am not looking forward to where we're going at all.

WHAT IS COMFORTING
F&M tea, the camellias coming into bloom, mat Pilates at home, riding boots, Inauguration Day.

Hope you're reading or watching or finding comfort these days.