discoveredinalj | Entries tagged with bleakmidwinter

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

And it's time to clear everything away, ready for a new year again - but I'm always sad to close this challenge, and I am this year too because it's been so fab to see everyone's posts, even though I've not had a chance to read and comment on them all yet (stoopid moving house...) Thank you so much to everyone who took part again this year, and to

loxleyprince for our lovely challenge artwork, and to Bodie and Doyle and everyone in our CI5 universe for just being them!

I've not had a chance to catch up with adding all the links yet, but hopefully by tomorrow afternoon you'll be able to use the calendar below to catch up on posts that you might have missed (or just fancy reading again). If you're an author or artist, and haven't yet archived your work elsewhere too, please do think about doing that as well -

discoveredinalj is intended to remain as its own archive, and is periodically backed up on Dreamwidth as well, but a back-up to the back-up always strikes me as a good idea... *g*

1st In the bleak midwinter	2nd Frosty wind made moan	3rd Earth stood hard as iron	4th Water like a stone	5th Snow had fallen
6th Snow on snow	7th Snow on snow	8th In the bleak midwinter	9th Long ago	10th Winter solitude
11th In a world of one colour	12th The sound of wind	13th Clouded with snow	14th The cold winds blow	15th And shrill on leafless bough
16th The robin with its burning breast	17th Alone sings now	18th The rayless sun	19th Day's journey done	20th Sheds its last ebbing light
21st On fields in leagues of beauty spread	22nd Unearthly white	23rd Thick draws the dark	24th And spark by spark	25th Happy Christmas Day!
26th The frost-fires kindle, and soon	27th Over that sea of frozen foam	28th Floats the white moon	29th My windowpane is starred with frost	30th The world is bitter cold tonight
31st The moon is cruel, and the wind				1st Happy New Year!
2nd Is like a two-edged sword to smite	3rd God pity all the homeless ones	4th The beggars pacing to and fro	5th God pity all the poor tonight	6th Who walk the lamp-lit streets of snow

Winter poetry credits:
In the Bleak Midwinter - Christina Rosetti
Winter Solitude - Matsuo Basho
Winter - Walter de la Mare
A Winter Night - Sara Teasdale

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to next December already. *g*

macklingirl.livejournal.com

So here we are, at the end of the wonderful Discovered in the Bleak Midwinter challenge in DIALJ.

My prompt was Who walk the lamp-lit streets of snow from Sara Teasdales Poem "A Winter Night"

The lads are walking home, waiting for the new tasks that will come.

( Disclaimer )

unbelievable2.livejournal.com

With thanks to

macklingirl who kindly suggested I could post my delayed fic today!

Title: The Spy Who Couldn't Quite Come In From The Cold
Type: Gen
Rating: General Audiences
Word Count: 3,057
Summary: Doyle's escaped to foreign climes. It's just that he's chosen the wrong one.
Author's Note: The prompt – 'The world is bitter cold tonight' - comes from the poem 'A Winter Night' by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

( Read more... )

gilda-elise.livejournal.com

The best of New Years, too!

Pros Champayne bubbles

gilda-elise.livejournal.com

Hope everyone's Christmas was filled with laughter and joy!

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

Squeaking in under the wire, in my traditional fashion... A long time ago I was reading the Pros letterzines Cold Fish and Stale Chips, which was basically a letterzine of WIPs in one form or another. Some were complete and inviting comment before publication elsewhere, some would later be completed, and some were presumably abandoned, but the authors who submitted a piece were asked a series of questions. One of them was "Do you intend to finish this story, or would you like to see someone else do so?" For some reason, a story by Emily Ross caught my attention - believe it or not it was an elf story, and I found myself wondering what happened next. So I had a bit of a play. *g*

I tried to track down the original author to ask more about the story, and whether she would mind her beginning being posted online, but with no luck (if anyone knows her and could put me in touch that would be great) and so instead of posting her beginning here, I rewrote it and offer up all credit to her for the original idea. I've marked the section that begins my own part of the story with a double-asterisk.

I do appreciate that I may lose alot of non-AU (and non-elf!) readers right here, and I may lose a few more when I tell you that there is much more of it to be written, but my excuse is still moving house/job/Christmas all at once I'm afraid - I've still not been able to catch up, and much as I tried to write something new and more CI5-ish, it just didn't happen. I will try to write something over the next few weeks though, because things are finally calming down - just a bit too late for the Bleak Midwinter...

( Halfworld Mercenary )

kiwisue.livejournal.com

During my recent UK holiday I visited the National Arboretum at Alrewas, in Staffordshire, with

constant_muse. We were there to visit Lew's memorial in the Allied Special Forces Grove - as neither of us had much knowledge of where that was on the site we were basically "winging it" As I recall it was a day that offered us clouds and sundry scattered showers, and the results were in evidence all over the soggy lawns and paths of the Arboretum. The sun came out as we finally found our goal. We had a few adventures finding the grove; possibly our lack of navigational skills, but then the map outside the Remembrance Centre was not terribly clear and at the time we decided to set out there didn't seem to be any volunteers around to ask (there were plenty later, I am not sure where they'd all disappeared to at the critical moment). So we walked all the way around the Arboretum until we finally found ourselves on the right path according to the now-visible signage.

This post is dedicated to future visitors, may they be less directionally-challenged than we were!

Firstly, here is a google image of the Arboretum, with arrows showing the way visitors to Lew's memorial should walk. Needless to say we went in completely the wrong direction!

Directions: From the car park, enter the main building (the Remembrance Centre). From there you can walk through the cafeteria to the courtyard and into the Arboretum itself.

If your immediate goal is the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove and Lew’s memorial, don’t take the diagonal path to the right, towards the impressive War Memorial mound, as you will get lost - the only signs seem to be the ones on the direct route. Walk along the main path, past the Falklands memorial, until you reach the intersection a little before Hut 2. Head right towards the river Tame then turn left onto Annette’s Memorial Way. The Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove is along that path. The first garden is dedicated to the men and women of Special Operations, the second to “Our Friends” (it is here you will find the plot dedicated to Lew). There are several more gardens further along. There is a WWII pillbox nearby, overlooking the river, and many more memorials to view during your visit.
( Pictures Beneath )
The Arboretum is a wonderful place to visit - so many stories, I truly didn't mind wandering about (well, I didn't once we'd found what we were looking for, before then I was a little anxious).

More Information: http://www.thenma.org.uk/
http://www.alliedspecialforcesmemorialgrove.org.uk/

File download (*.pdf file of the Arboretum image above, including the arrows and directions): https://www.dropbox.com/s/3socu9jlsyc6p4f/NATIONAL%20ARBORETUM.pdf?dl=0

Also I have locked this post to the community. Possible paranoia on my part, but while I think a map would have helped us, and hopefully will help others, I wasn't sure it was something that should be open for the world to see. Tell me I'm wrong and I'll unlock it. ETA: unlocked

kiwisue.livejournal.com

Happy New Year to all. May 2018 bring us good things, and "may the world be kind to you", and your loved ones, particularly if 2017 was tough going.

Over the last few months I've been party to conversations about fic: finding fic, saving it, knowing where it all is, and so on. The Automated Hatstand (AH) ceased to exist in August, but the older Hatstand archive is still operating. Hagsrus has run the Proslib mailing list consistently for the past umpty-thump years (more than a baker's dozen?). However the Circuit Archive (CA) has not uploaded any new stories since 2010 (with a sharp falling off for a year or two before that), and there are stability problems with the ageing software used by the site.

( Other places on the Internet )
Of course there are other sites that have gone away forever, and I think fandom is more conscious than ever that there is very little that is permanent on the internet, especially personal sites, and there are only so many pages that have been captured by the Wayback machine. People want to know where the fic is, and if it is safe there, not for the writers alone, but for the readers too.

So where's this going?

Just before the AH closed its doors in August, I made a list of authors and titles. I then started to cross-match that data with the other main archives, with the aim of figuring out:
- What stories were hosted on the AH?
- Where else are the stories archived now?
- What stories do not appear to be archived anywhere now the AH has been deleted?

I got a list of 728 stories (698 when duplicates are removed). Then I downloaded the story lists from the Circuit Archive, Hatstand proper, Proslib and AO3, and crossreferenced. The upshot: out of 698 individual stories, 150 are not archived anywhere else*.

Because the Circuit Archive has been flaky lately I have done much the same thing for the 1954 files (including art and vids) on that archive. The only difference is that I've run out of time so I have only crossmatched with Proslib and AO3 at this stage. It looks as though there are about 180 stories that aren't archived anywhere other than the CA**. That's a lot of fic potentially gone one day. Anyway...

A crossmatched listing of the fic that was on-line at the Automated Hatstand, together with another list of the fanworks currently on-line at the Circuit Archive as of December 2017, is now available as a shareable googlesheet for your downloading pleasure: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b8KCbIm1qQszQPq3YDXsZvE9RevRI1QFqmd2Bzz8gV4

The idea is that this becomes a resource that people can use to find out what stories they might be missing, and to decide on the ones they want to find.

I've removed formulae and other columns that might make the individual archive sheets too confusing. I'll progress the other archives when time permits and I intend to keep up to date with both AO3 and Proslib. Ideally it would be better to design a relational database and solidify some protocols to deal with the many slight variances between archives, but I have limited dB access now I'm not working, and most people find it easier to deal with a basic spreadsheet or googledoc.

There is a modified copy of the current Proslib index at http://hatstand.slashcity.net/proslib/dvdindex.html

*I think quite a few people downloaded the pdf's before the archive closed, so if you are after a story you should be able to find it by asking the usual sources.
**Of the "missing" stories, some may be in the queue to be sent out to proslib subscribers, of course, and some may be waiting for authors to tinker with them before uploading to AO3. There is also a very small number locked to members of AO3 only, but that isn't a problem for fans with an AO3 login. I have listed these as "no" against AO3 just in case.

hagsrus.livejournal.com

Author: The Hag
Title: Home Is Where
Wordcount: 100
Characters: Bodie/Doyle (older lads), Castor and Pollux (cats)
Relationship: Slash
Companion drabble to Crackers et al

"Late Christmas pressie from your girlfriend."

"What, Yasmina? Let's have a shufti."

"Budge up, Castor." Doyle sat. "And stop that bloody shedding. Don't want the whole sofa redone ginger."

"Addressed to you as well."

"Squashed in below. Just an afterthought."

"Tall, grey and beautiful, what do you expect?" Bodie unwrapped an obviously handmade pottery bowl.

HOME IS WERE THE CAT IS was proclaimed against a background of feline figures.

"Well, who needs spelling? Mind... home... with you..."

"Don't need cats, right?" Bodie leaned forward for a kiss.

Castor and Pollux were indifferent, knowing that Home Is Where the Food Is.

murphybabe

New Year's Reprise
Author:

murphybabe
Wordcount: ~809
Relationship: Slash
ProsLib: Yes please - I'll send it

Notes: apologies that this is very rushed. I ran out of time as I've been a bit under the weather so I have had to cobble the ending together, as is fairly obvious. Sorry. May you and your loved ones all have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

unbelievable2.livejournal.com

I am so very, very sorry but I have failed to meet my deadline. I do have a ficlet, which is almost finished, but it won't be finished in time to post tonight. Many apologies, but RL has bit me in the bottom once again. I am so sorry to have let down the comm.
I shall post it as soon as it is finished (craving all your indulgences).

In the meantime, herewith a picture, which is sort of on-topic.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

B and D dec 2017 edit2

sc-fossil.livejournal.com

For my offering, I give you a new vid. It's a miracle I was able to finish since my vidding program decided it suddenly didn't like my files. The same files on the same computer I've used for more than a few years. *sigh* And these are the old remasters, not the pretty new ones so the file is fairly large to preserve the quality. In any case, I hope you enjoy it. Below are several options to view and/or download. Hopefully they will cooperate for everybody who's interested.

Happy New Year!

Song: Any Time At All
Artist: The Beatles
Genre: Slash B/D
Size: 400MB

Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/249034844

4Shared:
https://www.4shared.com/s/fO1Egi8jAei

Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ghqp9oQaOquT3FzhKMbnPRyEjilvLdmv/view?usp=sharing

londonronnie.livejournal.com

Another new year is almost upon us.

Here's something to see us through all the trials, tribulations and happy times that 2018 is sure to bring.

Clicking HERE will take you to a Pros calendar for the year, featuring our lads... well, being our lads, I suppose!

Each page can be downloaded and then printed, kept as your computer's wallpaper, drooled over, lusted over... whatever takes your fancy!

Happy New Year! Enjoy!

Current Mood: hopeful

cim3745.livejournal.com

Many thanks

firlefanzine for her encouragement and assistance.

We are able to take a look at the lad´s place now and Bodie is not amused......

“Oh C´mon Ray ”

“ What´s the matter now, Bodie “

“ Christmas is over “

“ Yeah, I´ve noticed – we´ve had to work, without a villain “

“Ray........ I didn´t complain about singing Christmas songs “

“ But I have to – you can´t sing, sunshine ”

( If you want to see and hear more.... )

airelle1.livejournal.com

I wanted to add a comment to each pic, but I don't know how to do it! And I'm a bit late, so I can't post them separately.
Let's just say that, in the last pics, Bodie is temporarily in a wheelchair because he's been injured on the job, at Christmas of all times, and Doyle is trying to cheer him up with an array of delicacies and he's about to open the Champagne (can you tell I'm French? LOL)
Also, in their lounge, Bodie is serenading Doyle with his guitar, and they set up a little tree too here.
I'm not the best photographer in the world (this is an understatement...) but I hope you enjoy my little display!
Their pajamas and bathrobe were made specially for them (not by me!) by a very talented person who deserves my thanks.

airelle1.livejournal.com

: Christmas at the lads'

This year, they put the biggest tree in their bedroom, with their dog and one of their cats watching over the presents.

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

Merry Christmas, everyone - no matter what and where you celebrate in the mid-winter, here's hoping that you're having a peaceful and bright day!

And for anyone with a few spare moments today, or who would like to escape the real world for a wee pool of Pros-y calm, I invite you to post here at

discoveredinalj today - leftover Pros that you've created and found again, new Pros that you've been looking for an excuse to post, surprise Pros that you thought you'd give a go while surfing the creative net and not got around to trying before, or old Pros that you'd just like to show people again. Even just Pros-y thoughts and seasonal wishes! Basically - its a general Pros-love day for anyone who'd like to share, in the spirit of mid-winter feasts everywhere!

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

It's the 21st December - Happy Solstice, everyone! Happy Winter Solstice especially, just because it's lads'-time, and the night has long closed in around us, up here. At least there's the lads to keep ~~each other~~ us warm... *g*

All of that said - I was really hoping to do better for you all today, and I just haven't at all. I had a story in my head last night, and this morning, and even at lunchtime, but by the time I finished work all but the bones of it had vanished again, and try as I might I've not been able to spot them through the murky mists... So - I do have a story for you, which I've not posted online before, although a few of you might have read it before. It's not even vaguely Christmas-y, and not even throwing in a strand or two of tinsel would make it so, but... it's lads!

There's a vague chance that I might be able to dig out something else before midnight strikes, but if not then I hope that this at least is something...

( Nobody by Slantedlight )

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

It's November... *g*

...and this year's Pros December/winter/solstice/Christmas/let-there-be-light challenge festival is Discovered in the Bleak Midwinter! Our challenge artist this year is

loxleyprince, who made the beautiful banner and our icon - thank you so much (and do give her a round of lj-applause, everyone)! If you go over to the comm itself you'll see the full-size version as the banner - its definitely worth it, and very inspirational! It might be cold and it might be bleak, but somewhere else, somewhere warm, the lads are there together... *g*

If you'd like to participate in our Pros December-Christmas-Winter-Solstice-festival-of-light-of-all-kinds challenge (please do!), then you simply need to choose a free date from the calendar and let us know in the comments. That day is then yours to post something Pros-y and somehow seasonal to the comm. It doesn't have to be Christmas-y, it could just be winter-ish, or it could be related to another celebration or festival - perhaps you prefer Hanukkah, or Bodhi Day, or to celebrate the long summer (cos you're in the southern half of the world...) Your post might be inspired by the prompt on the calendar day you choose - or not. It might even be completely anti-Christmas (although a passing reference to fit into the challenge would be nice), and just be a present offered to any Pros fans passing through the com. You can also post as often as you like on that day - just once, half a dozen times, every hour on the hour - it's entirely yours to be as Pros-y as you'd like to be.

The hope is that people will receive something Pros in their flist (or by visiting the comm) every day leading up to Christmas, and even through and to the New Year. We're sadly getting fewer and fewer on the ground these days, and whether we'll be able to fill the calendar is more and more uncertain. ( There are a few ways around this... )

It doesn't have to be fic that's posted either, of course - though that's always brill, obviously - it could be art, or icons or other graphics, or it could be something completely different. Your own Pros trivia quiz? Doyle's letter to Santa? Betty's Christmas card list? Start a discussion about why Cowley adores winter and the lads hate it? Make up a Pros wordsearch puzzle, or colouring-in page! Post that scan you have of a pic no one else would see otherwise! Anything connected to our lads and CI5 is welcome. *g*

This year's prompts are lines from poetry, starting of course with Christina Rosetti's In the Bleak Midwinter (and see other credits below the calendar), but you don't have to use them or think about them at all - they're just extra inspiration for anyone who'd like it.

As ever, I'm happy to post for you, if you'd rather not do it yourself for any reason (such as Christmas being a hugely busy time for many people!) If you'd like to offer "extra content" that can be slotted into days nobody has claimed, or if someone has a disaster and can't fill their day after all, that would be greatly appreciated as well! Drop me an email at my address on the User Info page.

( Signing up... )

( How to post on the day )

If I've missed out anything vital, or you have any questions, the do let me know in the comments - and otherwise, sign-ups are open, for the twelfth Pros Christmas/Solstice/Winter

discoveredinalj challenge!

1st In the bleak midwinter	2nd Frosty wind made moan	3rd Earth stood hard as iron	4th Water like a stone	5th Snow had fallen
6th Snow on snow	7th Snow on snow	8th In the bleak midwinter	9th Long ago	10th Winter solitude
11th In a world of one colour	12th The sound of wind	13th Clouded with snow	14th The cold winds blow	15th And shrill on leafless bough
16th The robin with its burning breast	17th Alone sings now	18th The rayless sun	19th Day's journey done	20th Sheds its last ebbing light
21st On fields in leagues of beauty spread	22nd Unearthly white	23rd Thick draws the dark	24th And spark by spark	25th Happy Christmas Day!
26th The frost-fires kindle, and soon	27th Over that sea of frozen foam	28th Floats the white moon	29th My windowpane is starred with frost	30th The world is bitter cold tonight
31st The moon is cruel, and the wind				1st Happy New Year!
2nd Is like a two-edged sword to smite	3rd God pity all the homeless ones	4th The beggars pacing to and fro	5th God pity all the poor tonight	6th Who walk the lamp-lit streets of snow