Here, then is the first fruit of my crackfic crossover: eventual length 9800 words, a little longer than estimated. (And weirdly enough I actually had an idea for something that turned out to use the BBC versions of the characters, even though I was under the impression at the time that it was the siege of La Rochelle -- if I'm going to write that one I probably need to do it quickly before it fades, because that really *will* be a one-shot, and ironically probably a good deal more saleable to the fandom at large...)

Meanwhile this one is going to need a summary of some sort, which I had forgotten all about :-(

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Little Gentlemen

Chapter 1 — A New Arrival

In the last of the evening light an ox-cart came slowly along the road beyond La Vallière, the heavy beasts and their driver alike weary and powdered with dust. But the day’s work was almost over, and the oxen lifted their heads, nostrils flaring as if at the scent of water, as they approached the familiar homeward bend up ahead.

“Here, lad.” The driver lifted his long goad, not unkindly, to nudge the shoulder of the ragged boy perched astride the rear beam of the cart. A jerk of his chin indicated the pair of entrance posts they were passing, and beyond them a long white house in the distance, half-glimpsed in the growing dusk. ( Read more... )

(click to view entire image)
I managed to repair an old lace parasol (not 'vintage', I think, as the inside had plastic parts) by cutting down and lashing on a cut-down rawlplug to replace the missing wooden tip, so that the canopy extended under the appropriate tension when unfolded.
Ideally it would have been a wooden rawlplug for a better match, but I couldn't find one in my collection of scraps and wasn't about to go out on a hunt for an entire new packet of rawlplugs :-p

I lashed and whipped the edge of the lace canopy fairly securely through the split in the 'tip' (held together chiefly by the whipping!)

Now I just need to find an appropriate recipient, i.e. a lady who thinks a lace parasol is pretty and doesn't object to the fact that it has been 'rescued'...

I left my front light on low beam for over 24 hours, and it was still on when I got back, albeit showing the low battery warning -- and despite that warning, I was still able to switch it off and then switch it back on again. So leaving the light switched on inside my bag when I'm not on the bicycle is probably a safe solution, albeit a slightly bizarre one!

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My final batch of windowsill spring onion stubs are all dying off after being planted out despite having initially sent up new shoots; it is presumably either too cold or too wet for them to establish outdoors. The two survivors from the original set are fine, albeit slightly nibbled by snails...
The winter purslane is living up to its name and continuing to produce new salad leaves that I can harvest, although I think the sorrel and rocket have slowed down a lot, if not stopped regrowth altogether. The mint has died down to dry sticks, which I need to remember to trim when I get the opportunity, or they will get in the way of picking the new shoots next year :-p
The garlic that I planted is thriving, and the second clove that I put in nearby, which initially had its shoot emerging almost horizontally in response to conditions in the vegetable rack, has now miraculously straightened itself out and is heading for the sky.
And I did eventually get round to rigging up a new washing-line, having had the inspiration of taking *three* turns around the railing before making the half-hitches instead of the standard two, thus making it much easier to keep it taut while completing the knot!

I randomly listened to one of the chunks of the four-part "27 Years After" Soviet Musketeers documentary ( and I can definitely understand a lot more of it than I could what I first encountered it )

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† I was extremely excited to discover a couple of weeks ago that "When I Was Athos" was actually about to be republished in print form via a crowdfunding scheme, having, according to the funding blurb, only been available in 'samizdat' form -- I stumbled across it while chasing his Kino-horoscope back in June, via an unlinked reference on an old Livejournal blog entry about the making of the film, and by a massive coincidence had pretty much just finished reading my way with incredible slowness through the online version a couple of days before I heard the news.( Read more... )

My front bike light started reporting low charge and then went out altogether on my way home tonight, although it can't have been on for more than a couple of hours; most USB-charged lights are normally rated for at least three hours on maximum beam, and for what I knew was going to be a long journey I was deliberately using this one on what should have been its lowest power consumption, the slow flash mode :-( ( Read more... )