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Rene Astle 🍁🌻

@castle88.bsky.social

1.2K followers 450 following 890 posts

Author of science fiction and fantasy where characters find their families and their place in the world ... or the universe. Reader of same. Urbanist and environmentalist (the former stemming from the latter). She/her. Find me at reneastle.substack.com.

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · Mar 8

If you're looking to (temporarily) escape to the great big sea of stars, book 1 in The Lyra Cycle is free at your favourite online retailers.

Follow the ragtag crew of the cargo ship Lyra as the reluctantly get embroil in adventures they didn't ask for.
books2read.com/lyracycle1

The book A Dead Ship in the Deep Black sitting on a table with tea

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 1d

What a great site! Hmm, I might have new plans for the weekend. Oh, wait I already have a solo rpg to play 😂

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 1d

Once. At least here, drivers have to take a test once. They might have to have a fitness to drive examination starting when they're 80 but nothing to test that they recall the rules of the road or understand any new rules. And vehicles are becoming tanks.

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 1d

Gorgeous photo!

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 1d

Non-ebike owner here. Yeah, I also get irked at people basically riding electric motorcycles in bike lanes or trails and not following the rules - but people who are jerks will be jerks whether they're on a bike or in a car. We can deal with dangerous ebike riders ... after the dangerous drivers.

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 2d

I think we all just need to find and nurture our inner Dolly.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 3d

That's great! Is a cat included?

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 3d

Gardening situation was a little insane this year, so I ended up planting a lot of beans because they're generally easy to grow.
There's some new varieties this year I'm interested in trying.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 3d

Getting ready to put away this year's bean harvest. Next year's seeds have already been separated.
Most prolific was Grandma Walters, a Romano-esque pole bean that broke its support system halway through the summer. But propped it up and it delivered.

So many beans in so many baskets and bowls

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 3d

Marlon Bundo is in good company

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 3d

doomscroll break

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 3d

The latest edition of the newsletter, where I chat about ants, food, and interesting books.

reneastle.substack.com/p/ants-in-my...

Ants in my pants

Science, history, and books - oh my!

reneastle.substack.com

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 3d

The analogies just keep coming! Look at the diversity of housing forms - different crabs have different needs.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 3d

This is the hermit crab effect of housing. Except with hermit crabs you can watch it in real-time.

No, I can't afford the fancy new shell but maybe I can afford the fifth shell down the line and then another crab can afford my shell.

And any shell is better than no shell.

Dave Thompson 🇨🇦 @davethompsonvic.bsky.social · 3d

Landlords and housing opponents hate this one trick.
assets.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/sites/cmhc/p...
#Housing #affordability #yyj

Image of text from linked report discussing vacancy chains

Image of illustration from linked report showing how vacancy chains work

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 4d

This is an amazing program. Something like this would be a great way to strengthen Canadian culture - and could even be a net positive to the economy.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 4d

A bit about this in the Irish press from Monday: www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
I hope they eventually release a breakdown of how the return was calculated! I'm sure they will - seems like the whole world is paying attention...

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 6d

I also appreciate how quickly Saanich has built out a protected network from almost nothing. Once Shelbourne is complete, it'll make it easier to be even more car lite.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 6d

How about words I use that *literally* drive other people crazy - like unthaw (for taking something out of the freezer) and irregardless. Sometimes you learn what you learn and it's hard to unlearn. And sometimes you know it drives people crazy 😈

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 6d

The challenge with being a vendor is the money I spend on everyone else's fantastic things! 😂

D.C. Greschner @dcgreschner.bsky.social · 7d

So stoked to be a vendor at the @halloweenmarketyyj.bsky.social this year! 👻🎃 Sharing a table with @castle88.bsky.social and we’ll have some awesome sci-fi and fantasy books for you. Don’t miss it! Oct 25-26. Tickets go fast!

#halloweenmarket #vendor #scifibooks #indieauthor #scifiauthor #buylocal

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 7d

Every day! Science is amazing - and apparently funny.

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 7d

The Ig Nobel is incredible , one year an Indian guy won it for calculating the average surface area of an elephant and during his acceptance they had an elephant hold up a sign with the surface area of the scientist on it, they do showbiz better than the Oscars

Jeffrey J. Hall @mrjeffu.bsky.social · 22d

Video: a Japanese scientist was attacked by flies while giving the acceptance speech for his Ig Nobel Prize-winning research paper that proved painting Zebra-like stripes on cows led to a decrease in biting fly attacks.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 7d

We're probably all eating bug bits anyway so yogurt from bug acid isn't so bad.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 8d

Wow, that must be colourful with the beet and the turmeric ... though I guess there are golden beets are well. Still colourful.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 8d

I love this artwork - the colours and texture are gorgeous - but also the timelapse in the comments is mesmerizing.

Dan Liimatta @danliimatta.bsky.social · 8d

Meditate noodling over a previous daily

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 8d

I'm always amazed at how far we've come in the last century since Pluto was discovered... but apparently I only need to go back 30 years.

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 8d

This week (!) is the 30th anniversary of the announcement of 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet found orbiting a star like our Sun - since then, we've found over 6,000!

To celebrate, @alexwitze.bsky.social and @nature.com collected some astronomers' favourite planets:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why

Space scientists look back on 30 years of exoplanet discoveries — from rows of massive ‘super-Earths‘ to worlds with perfectly synchronized orbits.

www.nature.com

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 8d

And here's the non-traditional kimchi after steps 2 through 6. I experimented with adding apple this time.

I had to refer to my old blog post for instructions
creneastle.com/2019/10/20/g...

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Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 9d

Oh, and this year it's cabbage from the garden!

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 9d

My non-traditional baechu kimchi step 1 ... quartering and salting the cabbage.

As a veggivore, I omit the fishy ingredients but it's still tasty.

Next it sits, having the water drawn out then I vigorously massage the paste into it, pack it in a crock and let it ferment.

Salted sui choy cabbage sitting in a container on the stove waiting to have some of its water drawn out.

Rene Astle 🍁🌻 @castle88.bsky.social · 9d

This one was tricky indeed.
I solved the daily Clues by Sam (Oct 2nd 2025) in less than 12 minutes
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cluesbysam.com