Magpie Miller
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magpiemiller.bsky.social
Magpie Miller
@magpiemiller.bsky.social
A.K.A.: Kim. See also: poems; books; trees (fruit & family); Appalachia (east TN, KY). Likewise, melodious felines, unfounded optimism. Confounding hounds. Further reading: science-adjacent, spirit-curious. Vintage. Allergies: DMs, bigots.
Good Morning, BlueSky Friends! 🐦‍⬛🪺
“To someone who had really seen, words mattered no more than the chatter and whistling of starlings.”
— The Forest of Hours, Kerstin Ekman

#TheForestOfHours #KerstinEkman #NordicWriting #NordicFantasy #ScandinavianLiterature #ScandiWriting 💙📚🖋️
November 4, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Last time I’ll receive Trick-or-Treaters in Lexington, Kentucky as The Witch of Kenwick, The Sorceress of Aurora!🎃🧙🏻😘 So happy for the many good memories made here and so glad that soon the other kind will vanish into the ether behind me. To happy new beginnings! #NewBeginnings #HappyHalloween
November 1, 2025 at 12:35 AM
This week’s book haul! I think 2/4 qualify as Halloween-worthy!😉🧙🏻🐺🧟‍♀️
📚💙📚🖋️
#StephenKing
#CycleOfTheWerewolf
#TheBriefHistoryOfTheDead #TheHistoryOfLove #JosephBrodsky #JosephBrodskyPoems
#Halloween
#BookHaul
#bookhaul
#thriftingbooks
October 8, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Colleen, my dog-daughter/ Kentucky Coonhound (hound-dominant mix)/ Princess, did not get the Blue Star Clean Plate Award today! Her brother (RIP, Pup) would’ve wolfed this down. Colleen daintily picked out the chicken and most of the rice. I’m still having some for a late lunch! #ungrateful #picky
September 12, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Today’s moving pic: The Granny or Mamaw I aspire to become (with or without grandchildren😉) says: “L-yeah!”🤌🏻 That pawpaw even has the slightly-green finish of the real deal! Like a hill-person mango gone wild. I love you, Ale8!😍😍😍
#ale8 #kentuckyproud #appalachianmamaw #givegrannyherpawpawale8
August 7, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Packing pic, part 2: Chessie guarding the passage of boxes to the “leaving” area!😉🐱 #packing #catswhohelp #packingwithcats
July 12, 2025 at 5:47 PM
July 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
“In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.” — Herman Melville
Had to sit with that: As if he saw oligarchs jet away to marry while farm laborers are carried off in chains.📚🖋️💙
June 30, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Today’s packing pic: reward-reading chapters of Lessons in Chemistry the past few days! Only sorry to finish! 🥰🧪📚 (Also, a few reads from earlier packing breaks!😉) Thanks to the Goodwill donor & to several Bluesky readers for steering this joy my way!📚💙📚🖋️
#lessonsinchemistry #bonniegarmus #packing
June 24, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Fun fact: To kill bedbugs with heat, the object must be exposed to 118F for 20 minutes or 113F for 90 minutes. (Don’t just believe me. Check Orkin and others on-line.) There’s a lot about summer I don’t like, but leaving my newly-thrifted books in the car for an afternoon soothes my OCD soul!🤣📚💙
June 22, 2025 at 3:18 PM
One more packing pic: started scribbling an abbreviated inventory for each box as I go. Really, really wish I’d thought of it months ago. 🤦🏼‍♀️📚Oh, well! “Discovering” all the uninventoried books one box at a time will be fun, too!💁🏼‍♀️📚📦
📚💙📚🖋️💙 #packing #packingbooks #homelibrary #methodvsmadness
June 21, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Today’s packing pic: “Truce.” I’m frequently using this bed as a packing table & box-assembling & book-sorting space, but I try not to disturb the Silver Sisters too much in the process. Sigh: Littermates, but never friends. So: Truce. #packing #silvertabbies #packingbooks #booksandcats 📚💙🐱
June 20, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Today’s packing pic: Yes, I looked it up — a Canadian show I must need to watch? But even without context, I love how this image can become either a defense or an indictment. In these politically-charged times, I know how I read it. How ‘bout you?
#allegedly #lookdonthide #timetoact #nokings
June 16, 2025 at 2:57 PM
June 12, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Packing on the porch! 🧳📦📚 Foreground: yesterday’s score!🤣💙 Found while scavenging for packing towels at GW. Background: recent day’s take, while hunting packing sheets at GW. The careful eye will notice some repetition😉. Hoping to start a book club or Little Library! 💙📚💙🖋️💙🧪📚 #packingbooks #moving
June 10, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Today’s packing pic: Ultima Thule, swaddled and coddled in its Bankers Box! So looking forward to some quiet time in the future with this massive friend.
📚💙📚🖋️📚🧪
May 26, 2025 at 4:01 PM
“What’s wrong, you ask? I’m growing up in the ‘70s. Not the cool ‘70s with hippies, pot, & bell bottoms. I’m just a kid. I won’t be a car-driving teenager until the ‘80s, when it’s over.” #vintagepackaging #1970s #1970schildhood #tradlife #tradkid #tradmom
May 19, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Today’s packing pic: dear flotsam🌊📚!
“Carrion,” Riverwind, pp. 24-25, 1997. Today I’d probably end the poem on “early March wind.” Wind down that need to insert myself, get some final final-word.
📚💙🖋️💙 #appalachianpoetry #revisingpoems #farmlife #tennesseepoet #kentuckypoet #hockingcollege
April 26, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Packing-break pic: Revelator by Daryl Gregory. 🐦‍⬛ Full disclosure: read the word “Michigan” in the back cover bio and thought, “Well.” Hit a scene that referenced Jergen’s Lotion, and had to stop, drop, & Google. Who is this guy?!! 1/3 #revelator #darylgregory #cadescove #appalachianhorror 📚💙🖋️💙📚🧪
April 17, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Chessie, in her Appalachian Goth phase? But also: literary fiction from The Great Far North and a serving of Midwestern body horror. She just can’t decide! Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen; The Adversary by Michael Crummey; and The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo. 📚💙📚🖋️ #catslovereadingtoo
April 15, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Today’s packing pic & a confession: I DID end up busting through Smothermoss. Couldn’t help it! Then turned to my pacing-myself read, Demon Copperhead, & suddenly couldn’t get this MC’s fate out of my head. Finished the last chapters as slowly as I could bear. Then started reading it again! 📚💙📚🖋️
April 3, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Today’s packing (break) pic: Smothermoss! ❤️ Trying hard not to burn through it too quickly! Setting feels both richly new and lushly familiar. As an Appalachian, I recognize the eeriness of nature and of home. Very taken by this story! #smothermoss #alisaalering #appalacianfiction #packing 📚💙 📚🖋️
March 27, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Guess which of life’s small, perfect pleasures is once again springing up in grocery stores like a crocus breaking free?!? 🥳🫶🏻🥳
March 26, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Today’s packing pic: Finished in the last few days.:) The Winners: a faithful bedtime snack for a while, (usually) a calming end to the day. The Lost Apothecary: earlier in the evening; for the last several chapters, I switched it to afternoon packing break, for the pace picked up even more! 📚💙 📚🖋️
March 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Today’s packing pic: Sweetland by Michael Crummey.📚❤️📚 Going into a lidded box labeled “More Frequent Access” because I just finished reading 2 days ago and am still “talking” with the MC and author. We aren’t done! Hurrah! 📚💙 📚🖋️#michaelcrummey #newfoundland #packing #packinghouse #canadianlit
March 19, 2025 at 4:19 PM