Igenlode Wordsmith

Spam!

Tue, 12 May 2026 23:53:05 GMT

I got an actual comment on "Little Gentlemen", only to discover that it was from yet another spambot. https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hildajoe99/profile

Attempted to report it and got hit with a "please prove that you are not a robot, enable JavaScript to continue" unnavigable roadblock...

comments

"Before Dorothy", Hazel Gaynor

Sun, 10 May 2026 18:09:32 GMT

Unfortunately I'm not sure I can use Before Dorothy as a 'comp', because it managed to thoroughly get up my nose within the first few pages, in addition to being nothing like my story :-(

In many ways it reminded me a lot of fan-fic, which raises the spectre that perhaps this type of fan-fic is not, as I had supposed, merely incompetent, but is actively attempting to emulate this type of book... :-O ( Read more... )

The basic concept of the book is fine, and the plot, such as it is, is fine. (Not entirely sure about the Big Twist, but the author had to get some dramatic conflict out of somewhere.) The execution of those ideas is what kills it for me.

If I'd just pulled this book down off the shelf in the library out of curiosity without knowing anything about it, I would definitely have put it back almost immediately, since it doesn't meet the 'read a few random pages, care about the characters and want to know what happens next' test. As it was, I persevered through 384 pages of the stuff -- given that what I'd been reading previously was Rumer Godden, Jack London, and Barbara Hambly, the difference in prose quality was all too apparent. You know you've got a problem when you find yourself consciously having to force yourself to continue reading a novel instead of taking refuge in your Russian textbook!

It also immediately makes me want to start editing it...

( Rewrite )

comments

Tulips

Sun, 10 May 2026 17:39:57 GMT

The tulips have finally died down, more or less, and I can now attempt to lift and store them. As suspected, this involved uprooting practically everything else in the trough, including the garlic, a lot of field poppies on the point of flowering, a couple of self-sown marigolds, and what was either camomile or love-in-a-mist, as well as the usual chickweed and forget-me-nots. (Forget-me-nots are a pretty blue, but the flowers are pretty tiny compared with the size of the plant, and unlike the speedwell and ivy-leafed toadflax (also uprooted in the process while in full flower) the plants themselves have quite large and dominant rosettes of leaves that can easily take over a pot entirely.)

Where the foliage had died down entirely it was actually pretty hard to *find* the bulbs, given that they had been planted four inches deep and were in the middle of a mass of roots! Hence the general destruction... ( Read more... )

comments

Peas

Sun, 10 May 2026 09:44:30 GMT

Moved the last of the dwarf peas into its probably-final pot -- they are all flowering now. At least one of the sweet peas will need potting on further, but none of those are in bloom yet; I now have three pots of 'saved' and one of 'shop' sweet peas, which was not a deliberate ratio but may reflect the viability of the older seed :-O We shall see whether the first-generation offspring are worth keeping...

( Collapsed towel-tomato )

The two tiny chive seedlings were really not thriving in their (guaranteed sterile) coconut compost, so I have tried transplanting them into a small pot of general mix, where they may or may not survive -- they had almost no root. Ironically the original tuft of surviving chives has been thickening up quite nicely, although they are now dwarfed by self-seeded flax in that same pot! The pak choi/brassica has germinated, despite the age of the seed...

comments

The end of the furry hedgehog

Wed, 06 May 2026 09:49:03 GMT

The furry hedgehog wildife garden is clearly a complete failure; I don't really want to simply empty the compost back into the communal bags, since it is full of 'fairy grass' seed that may germinate in years to come, so I used the base tray to plant some more rocket. (Of course it has no drainage holes, so would be better used as a plant-saucer under one of the larger pots... however, this way the grass-seed has a chance to rot down further in a visible position.)

In the three little pots of candy-tuft, all of which are of the 'toy' size that is really too small to grow anything seriously, I sowed saved seed from love-in-a-mist, poached-egg plant, and the mutant pak choi from 2023 -- the latter mainly in order to get rid of the envelope! But it is some kind of brassica at any rate, and the seedlings can presumably be eaten.

( Corn-marigolds )

I potted up a dozen or so basil seedlings into a couple of tubs, but there are still rather a lot left...

comments

Splitting up

Tue, 05 May 2026 22:13:37 GMT

I finally got round to splitting up the various things that have been germinating in the dill pot, three or four of which were dill. I have been putting this off because, in addition to all my other normal reasons for putting things off, I couldn't be sure whether any of the winter purslane seeds might have germinated, or might yet be about to germinate; however, I now have several large plants that look as if they are more likely to be cornflower or flax, and some that are either Linaria, toadflax or alyssum, plus some that I already identified as chickweed or Oriental poppies and pulled out. I suspect the one that I had hoped was another mesembryanthemum is actually only the furry leaves of a forget-me-not, and I don't think I'm going to get any purslane out of that handful of seeds (which may or may not have ripened sufficiently in the first place). However, I have left the remaining soil in the tray just in case anything further germinates in it :-(

( Dwarf peas and towel-tomatoes )

( Orange poppy and not-a-strawberry )

Lesson 21 was another unexpected misfire from the Russian TV course, being basically an inferior reprise of the winter sport vocabulary in Lesson 18, only with worse acting and a lot less plot :-( I note that Lesson 18 is credited to the Kiev educational film studios and Lesson 21 to their Leningrad counterparts, so possibly the repetition was the result of someone carelessly assigning the same course material to two different production teams; at any rate the second team were evidently a good deal less creatively inspired by it than the first.

comments

Le comte de Monte-Cristo (2024)

Sun, 03 May 2026 17:30:20 GMT

The BBC decided to show a French "Count of Monte Cristo" on BBC4, so I thought I'd watch it as a change from watching Russian programming; ( Read more... )Since it was being shown as a serial in several parts, I had rather hoped that this was *not* the recent French film, of which I'd heard various mixed and on the whole less than approbatory reviews, but some earlier TV production, but according to the end-credits of the first instalment it was filmed in 2024 and is thus the new one after all.

On the basis of the parts that I've seen, I'd have to concur with the mixed reviews. This is *not* an immediate success; in fact the opening is one of the weakest parts, and might have turned me right off, but it does get better later on. ( Read more... )

comments

Tomatoes

Sun, 03 May 2026 00:12:27 GMT

( Towel-tomatoes )

The Roma tomatoes *finally* seem to have turned the corner and are starting to look more vigorous, and much to my surprise we have a chive seedling -- and possibly a second. And what may be a second and extremely delayed nasturtium; I had assumed that the seeds which had not germinated had simply rotted away by this point. (Zero signs of any of the non-germinated dwarf peas showing up as 'pea-shoots', and the two that were previously showing some sign of life in that pot are very small compared to the ones that were properly sprouted before going into the soil.)

I have sprinkled yet another batch of orange poppy little black dust seed across the soil, which must consist of a high proportion of dead poppy seed at this point! The single adult orange poppy plant is on the verge of opening its bud, and the yellow poppy has two flowers open and another one already over.

comments

Plant log

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 15:49:24 GMT

Potted on most of the dwarf peas and sweet peas, and some of the most crowded of the kale. ( Towel-tomatoes )

( Basil, poppies, calendulas and rudbeckias )

I think the two not-tomato seedlings, which have survived and thrived, are actually cornflowers and not pot-marigolds. Which is good, because I like cornflowers and haven't sown any this year, owing to the 'wildflower trough' being still taken up by tulips (finally starting to show signs of dying back...).

( Lettuce and rocket )

( Verdict from a real Russian )

comments

Comparable titles

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:06:01 GMT

I spent two and a half hours non-stop in Waterstone's bookshop again this afternoon looking for 'comps', which was both mentally and physically taxing-- if I look any further I shall have to find another shop, because I can't face going back in there after hanging around for so long, reading so much, and buying absolutely nothing! The question you are supposed to be asking yourself, apparently, is 'which table in the bookshop would my book be on and what other books would be next to it'? ( Read more... )
I found precisely three potential 'comps', only one of which is actually a good fit: ( Night Fire )

Where it doesn't match at all is in the travel/adventure aspect, and as I said, I failed to find anything at all that did :-( The other 'wild card' match that felt closer than most of the others was a very different kettle of fish: ( The Phoenix Ballroom )

The third title I noted was the one and only example of published fan-fiction I found on the shelves (as opposed to the Jane Austen-marketed one, which looked promising from that respect but turned out to be based on the real-life history of her nephews and nieces, which isn't the same thing!) ( West of Wicked )

comments

All the cases

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:33:12 GMT

I can't believe that after delaying the introduction of *any* mention of noun case-endings at all until Lesson 9 (and anything more complicated than the accusative and prepositional cases, which the other book covers in the very first lesson, until *after* dealing with verbs of motion!) the 1960s Penguin Russian course then proceeds to hit you with all the plural cases at once -- plus all the numerals from 1 to 100 in addition -- to be memorised in the course of a single lesson :-O
( 1930s Russian Basics )

Of course it's ridiculous to be doing this after a year's worth of intensive Russian listening practice, multiple films, and a whole load of fairly complex song translations, but I'm afraid I do actually need the formal grammar, and it hasn't painlessly inserted itself into my brain by means of mere passive exposure, toddler-fashion...

comments

"Mam'zelle Guillotine", Baroness Orczy

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:45:34 GMT

The scenes in England at the beginning are verging on self-parody (and abuse of adjectives) on Orczy's part, but the French setting is vivid and alive, and it's interesting to have a female antagonist for a change, while Gabrielle gets an unusually detailed backstory to explain what made her the way she is: I was getting strong flashes of Madame Defarge in "Tale of Two Cities", the victim who becomes a monster out to destroy an entire family. ( Read more... )

comments

Chillies et al.

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:28:55 GMT

I finally pricked out the Demon Red chillies from their windowsill pot, putting six of them into a narrow tub in the mini-greenhouse with an eye to thinning them out later, and two into a temporary cardboard toilet-roll with an eye to giving them away in the near future; I should of course have hardened my heart and simply disposed of the spares! I did steel myself to throw away the very small ones.

The seedlings had better roots than the ones I potted up last year, although of course I'm doing so a week later.

And I do *finally* have a single nasturtium coming up, very belatedly.

I moved the Roma tomatoes out of the mini-greenhouse to make way for the chillies to live outside; the ones that were inside it do look a lot more vigorous than the ones that have been outside and unprotected all April, but it's quite possible that I put the 'best' seedlings under shelter in the first place and left the runts to take their chances! It looks as if I *may* have some germination from the fresh batch of basil that I put in there a couple of weeks ago, although the soil in that pot is looking very green and compacted. The only sign of life from the furry hedgehog wildlife garden is a single shoot of grass and a whole lot of white mould, but I shan't repine if that basil doesn't grow at all :-p

comments

"The Witches of Wenshar", Barbara Hambly

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:20:06 GMT

I finally came across another copy of "The Witches of Wenshar", and could see why, as I remembered, I didn't really get on with it on my first reading; maybe I'm biased by the fact that I have now read all three books in this series, but I still feel that this novel is far more closely dependent on its predecessor than "Dark Hand of Magic" was on this, despite the mentions of "the King of Wenshar" in the opening lines of the latter. And it still feels darker in tone.( Read more... )

comments

Too much poetry

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:54:52 GMT

Lesson 20 is a rare misfire from the "Let's get to know one another" course; these shows usually have an excellent balance between the simplified vocabulary required by the learner and the level of creativity put into making the story-telling/info-dump sound natural and entertaining. Unfortunately this one involves illustrating the life-story of Pushkin with chunks of Pushkin's actual verse, which is on a comprehension/vocabulary level well above the surrounding dialogue -- the result being that a significant portion of the broadcast is effectively inaccessible :-(( Read more... )

comments

Plant update

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:14:28 GMT

I finally potted up the coriander (the two seedlings left over at the end got a whole tall pot to themselves, so it will be interesting to see how much better, if at all, they do!)

Having got my hands muddy I then proceeded to 'top up', or rather fill in the bottom of, one of the dwarf peas that didn't seem to have a lot of soil depth in its pot, and took the chance to give it a stick at the same time. None of the peas have really grasped onto their various sticks, which is a bit disappointing...

( Chives )

Also resowed the orange poppy, which has likewise shown no sign of life after a couple of weeks.

comments

Song of the Jester

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 22:22:23 GMT

I know I said I wasn't going to do any more of these (I always say that) -- but having said that I couldn't do this one because the chorus was just not amenable to translation, I naturally had to find a way of doing it :-p

Original lyrics (including a middle verse that Boyarsky doesn't sing here): https://sovetskaya-estrada.ru/load/bojarskij_mikhail/quot_pesenka_shuta_quot/36-1-0-1474 [Edit: sheet music!]

( Literal translation )
( Verse translation )

comments

Damping off

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 19:09:04 GMT

I have lost four otherwise vigorous towel-tomato seedlings, from both batches, to damping-off already, which is annoying, though I currently have plenty of spares (just as well).

I have potted up half the marigold seedlings, leaving the remainder still tumbled in their original tub; we shall see how they go. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of self-sown marigolds in other pots :-p

comments

The Eldest Son (1976)

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 22:49:40 GMT

Having just counted up the number of 'pending' Russian videos that I had acquired, I ended up jumping straight into a forty-third when YouTube suddenly presented me with "Старший Сын", the film that gets cited in the documentaries as Boyarsky's 'breakout' picture. It was only an hour long (it turns out that this was in fact an opening episode!), and I thought I'd take a look at the start at least without bothering with subtitles or anything, as I was no more than mildly curious about it. The start (a) has nice music and (b) is practically wordless and was thus undemanding to follow, so I was ten minutes in or so before things started getting complicated, and by that time it had grabbed me emotionally...
( Read more... )

Of course, as it happens, this sort of thing -- a conflict of loyalties, assumed identity, and emotional betrayal -- is very much more up my street than the standard romantic drama of will-they-won't-they with lashings of sexual action... But it's *not* Boyarsky, because he's really barely in it -- frankly, I'm not sure how this was a break-out role of any sort -- it's simply the film itself. ( Read more... )

comments

Another new buckle

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:07:23 GMT

I noticed last night when taking in the washing that the new buckle on my secondary clothes line had cracked through in the same way that the original Bakelite buckle did, and after about the same amount of time; however this time I knew where to go to purchase a replacement! The current new buckle is green, but I don't think it's as thick in cross-section as the last one, so I don't know how long it will last. What I really need is a metal buckle, of course (though doubtless the weld holding the bar on would eventually fail; they are simply not designed for heavy loads). Possibly I should *get* a metal buckle and then make a strap to fit it, as opposed to trying to find buckles to fit the existing stout woven strap -- which has lasted remarkably well.

Current cycle mileage: 878 -- 271 miles since January (plus a few more that didn't get recorded due to bike issues). Spot on the usual average of 18-19 miles a week :-)

*reads rest of past blog post*
I currently seem to have two videos on Venjamin Smekhov queued plus two on Igor Starygin, having watched four on Valentin Smirnitsky... well, I currently have 42 videos queued ;-p
( Read more... )

comments

Pitching Arctic Raoul

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:18:55 GMT

I sat down to try to write a 'pitch' for Arctic Raoul, only to discover after wasting an evening on some rather anaemic attempts that I had in fact already written a rather livelier version back in 2022!

My attempt at supplying the "putative extra paragraph at the end" to justify the length and acknowledge the fanfic aspect: "From the Phantom's Shadow" is a wide-ranging historical adventure of 125,000 words that takes its protagonists from the seas of the nineteenth-century Arctic and the lonely wilds of Scandinavia down to the south of France, and back up for a final confrontation, as they learn who they really are and what matters most. It's a story that seeks to bring a fresh twist to the classic themes of the original Phantom of the Opera while ultimately remaining true to its period and its overall message of redemption.

I spent some time in Waterstone's looking for appropriate 'comps' and couldn't find anything even vaguely similar before running out of time; ( Read more... )

In further slightly alarming news, I have been asked to supply copyrighted copies of my collection of poetry translations (which also involved trying to research the original authors of the lyrics in order to credit them) after an ex-associate of the Russian department at Cambridge saw one of them and was very impressed :-O

comments

Plant maintenance

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:21:50 GMT

( Gypsophila elegans, pink Linaria and Swan Rover daisies )

( Kale )

Tumbled the entirety of the tub of flax into a deeper pot without splitting up the root-ball at all. The marigolds are the other thing that really needs potting up, but that means finding a lot of individual pots and of compost to fill them, and I couldn't face it.

No sign of germination from my second attempt at chives, despite the success of the spring onions; I'm afraid the seed library appears to have been a dead loss on my first attempt. I hope the seed I donated there is doing better for other people :-(

comments

Hockey as a martial art

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:52:51 GMT

Sometimes it seems that everyone else is watching/reading Heated Rivalry.
Meanwhile YouTube presents me with Soviet Russia doing this:

comments

People who go quiet when hurt

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 01:52:01 GMT

"People who go quiet when hurt" -- apparently this is a new piece of pop psychology. https://www.bolde.com/psychology-says-people-who-go-quiet-when-theyre-hurt-arent-shutting-you-out-they-learned-early-that-pain-leads-to-these-10-consequences-so-silence-feels-safer/

But the conclusions they draw just don't ring true to me at all. No, I don't 'reach out' when I'm hurt; I don't respond well to group sessions or psychotherapy, because my instinct is to shut up like a clam and I'm not just dying to tell the world about all the times someone humilated or cheated me (why would I want to expose my own failures?) In fact I know people who are never happier than when they are talking about how wronged they are, and I find it frankly uncomfortable to be around.
( Read more... )

comments

Plant progress

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:06:28 GMT

Pricked out the Gypsophila vaccaria from its brown-paper pot, where the compost was worryingly dry despite the fact that I'd watered it only about ten minutes before; the other paper pots should probably be disposed of too.

I think we have dill germination, though I still can't be sure if any of the other seedlings in there are winter purslane or not. The double-fronded seedling was definitely a California poppy (and a fairly unhealthy-looking one) so I have disposed of it.

Winnowed the last of the 2024 basil in its brown paper bag, and sowed it. My previous attempt using commercial seed has clearly failed; the timing was over-optimistic. (I should, of course, be winnowing the 2025 basil seed and using that for preference, rather than trying to 'use up' the old bag first...)

I have been thinning/harvesting the lettuce, and probably ought to be sowing some more in order to have a progression; I harvested my first real crop of rocket today, and the kale has been yielding well (although it is now being afflicted by some kind of sap-suckers on the young growth).

comments