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alisonborealis.bsky.social
alison says reinstate Link!
@alisonborealis.bsky.social
13K followers 5.5K following 66K posts
posts too much
ecol/biologist in climate change
settler. knitter 🧶. antiracist. chronically ill.
#yeg Edmonton Alberta Treaty 6 Canada
born @ 340ppm CO2
#BiInSci
Wildfire resources: https://bsky.app/profile/alisonborealis.bsky.social/post/3lqep5ttvnt25
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alisonborealis.bsky.social
This officer is still working.

Also, the caption for this photo...

Zero pictures of Renzo Geronimo in this article. Name and shame. We need to know who isn't safe for our communities.
#yeg
A screenshot from the Edmonton journal news article. It shows a photo of a police officer's tattooed lower arm and leg in uniform. The caption reads: "A video still showing an Edmonton Police Service officer who allegedly entered a woman's home and sexually assaulted her Aug. 27, 2023. The video does not include the officer's face. The officer was charged on Nov. 6, 2025, with sexual assault, unlawful confinement, being unlawfully in a dwelling house and breach of trust by a public officer. Photo by Supplied Photo"
November 11, 2025 at 7:13 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
OMFG

After my next paycheque, I'm getting bean merch! @billhookunion.beanyear.com

This, though I want, I probably shouldn't buy for myself (allergies) ... but I have vegan family who needs it.
A very long sticker, black with green holographic text reading SAY YES TO BEANS
November 11, 2025 at 6:56 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
Good news!
A poster promoting an Edmonton local coffee advent calendar! The design has an informational center and a red border that looks to be bound in a white ribbon with "YEG COFFEE ADVENT CALENDAR" repeating. YEG Coffee advent calendar 2025 Sip. Support. Save. 50 grams of locally roasted coffee beans, daily. 12 days $80 24 days $130 100% of proceeds go to Tiny HeartsCan Foundation Order online at www.tinyheartscan.org Featuring local roasters including Liberta, candid, Ace and two I can't read.
November 11, 2025 at 6:33 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
Here's a bit of a hint of the local chocolatier advent calendar.
It's an indulgence...
(But it's no longer available for purchase this year)
advent.jacekchocolate.com
Handcrafted in-house. You asked for magic - and our chocolatiers delivered. This year's calendar blends new flavours like Mayan Spice and Cocoa Nog with beloved classics like Cinnamon Bun and Poached Pear. You're in for something truly special. Three images of medium-scale chocolate-making: A hand holds a grid of truffle moulds (like a large ice cube tray) while a machine injects chocolate into them with a single long line of chocolate coming down into each space on the mould. A pair of gloved hands airbrush a grid of truffle moulds shades of blue. A tray of chocolates gets drizzled with streaks of chocolate.
November 11, 2025 at 6:19 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
I don't know if I've shared this before or not, but please enjoy this video of my large orange fur nephew, Carl, purring. He's a very loud purr-er. My brother thinks it's a self-soothing mechanism.
November 10, 2025 at 8:45 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
This is going to be a giant sock.
A sock tthat's pretty much full size, with needles in the leg. And a ball of yarn that's big enough to make two more just like it. The socks are striped in pinks, yellows, greens, and blues. In a somewhat random pattern.
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
Welp, the air pressure has taken a nosedive.
This may explain why I was laid flat all afternoon and early evening.
Not really sure I have the spoons to knit at the moment.
A line graph charting the surface air pressure in Edmonton AB over the last 24 hours (8pm November 8 to 8pm November 9, 2025). The line starts out fairly flat at 102.9 kPa from 8 until 10 pm. Pressure drops a little, but maintains a plateau at 102.5 kPa until 9am when it begins to drop and then drops rapidly over the late morning, afternoon, and evening. It is currently 101.1 kPa at 8pm, a drop (from 9am to 8pm) 1.4 kPa in 11 hours. Pressures dropped 0.2 kPa per hour from 5pm to 8pm.
November 10, 2025 at 3:53 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
I've started GG Precinct, which is a 6 episode follow-up/add on to the Taiwanese comedy/drama movie Marry My Dead Body (about a straight cop who somehow gets gay-married to a ghost).

So far, the cop (same guy) is just as arrogant and close-minded as he was at the beginning of the movie so...
Promotional image for GG Precinct. Four Taiwanese people in blue police vests over street clothes, blue gloves, and baggies over their shoes, all crouching at some tagged evidence in a dimly-lit industrial space. There's a guy on the left with tattoos over his bare arms, wearing shorts and staring broodingly at the guy in the middle. The guy in the middle is wearing an athletic jacket (white leather sleeves, blue body and blue jeans, holding a stick or something in his and and looking askance. Behind them, a man in a yellow and black striped shirt grimaces while writing in a notebook. And to the right, a woman with glasses, jeans, and a pale blouse looks intently at something, hand held to her chest in surprise. Everyone is in their late 20s or 30s.
November 9, 2025 at 10:14 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
This weekend in the Okanagan...
A view of a wide stream surrounded by weeping willows and other trees all starting to turn a brilliant golden yellow. Yellow and orange leaves cover the ground. The stream's water is so calm it reflects a beautiful blue sky with scattered fluffy clouds. Some houses are visible in the distance, through the trees.
November 9, 2025 at 10:01 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
This is what my grandma's looks like.
It's like angel food but poppyseed.
I haven't made it in ages because it's so much egg yolk whipping... but it is light and delicious. (which means you can eat more, right? 😉)
A very large chiffon cake ring with a hollow center. The cake is a pale golden on the edges and pale off-white, speckled throughout with poppy seeds and drizzled in a translucent glaze.
November 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
more honourable mentions
Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth in Fringe. A Black woman with short, tight, curly hair, wearing a black jacket over a couple of dark tees, standing in a laboratory. She looks competently stern. Rima Te Wiata as Bella in Hunt For The Wilderpeople. A middle-aged Indigenous Aotearoa New Zealand woman. She's got shaggy shoulder-length dark hair, under a dark hand-knit toque. She's wearing a green and brown plaid overcoat over a sweater, sitting in front of a rustic house with a table of earthenware behind her. Julieanne Moore as Dr Alice Howland in Still Alice. A middle-aged white woman with loose shoulder-length red hair, sitting on a wicker sofa looking distraught in a plaid shirt. Her arms are twisted and braced in front of her as she stares off into the neutral distance. Viola Davis as Annalise Keating in How To Get Away With Murder. A middle-aged Black woman with a stylish straight-short cut and angular bangs drfting across her forehead. She's standing in front of a blackboard, wearing a form-fitting burgundy leather jacket, with bright hoop earrings.
November 9, 2025 at 8:14 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
additional honourable mentions:
Rachel Weisz as Penelope Stamp in The Brothers Bloom. She's a white woman wearing black tights, a black dress, and a pale khaki trench coat. Her shoulder-length hair is under a broad-brimmed black hat as she stands, smiling eagerly, arms extended to the sides, at a dockyard. Felicia Day as Charlie Bradbury in Supernatural. She's a very pale white woman with shaggy-bobbed red hair, wearing a blue and white plaid overshirt over a hot pink t-shirt. She looks concerned. Catherine Tate as Donna Noble in Doctor Who. She's a middle-aged white woman with long red hair, wearing a navy blazer over a pale grey low-cut top. She looks like she's mid-conversation with someone, while standing in front of the TARDIS (an old-style British police box (like a large telephone booth)). Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson in The Magicians. A brown woman wearing a gold crown and ornate eye patch. Her dark hair is pulled back and she has a deep burgundy-red top with a speckled pink and white scarf or collar. She has very dramatic makeup on, and looks shocked. Her mouth in a small "o" of surprise, standing in the forest.
November 9, 2025 at 8:00 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
honourable mentions:
Kaity Nguyen as Linh in The Last Wife A young Vietnamese woman wearing historical peasant clothing (late 1800s??? She's got a long-sleeved black blouse and a black skirt tied with a red belt. She's wearing and carrying a large woven hat shaped like a large flat-bottomed basket with about 8 inches of woven sides; it is being held on her head by the strap she's holding in her hand, down by her waist. She looks downtrodden and not happy as she walks past a long line of fellow villagers. Wu Jinyan as Xue Li/Jiang Li in The Double. A young Chinese woman in period costume. Her hair is up and long beaded strands and thin gold chains trail from the updo. Her earrings dangle long with single strands of tiny pearls. Additional pearls dot her face in matching lines down either side almost like a string of tears, and a small vertical column of four in the middle of her forehead. She looks sad. Elaine Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind in Northern Exposure. An Indigenous north american woman, wearing a patterned fleece jacket over a blue sweater, smiling off to the side, with her long dark hair pulled back from her face but hanging down. She has small, dangly earrings, and is standing outside in the golden light of sunset. Megan Follows as Anne Shirley in the Anne of Green Gables (and all the sequels) tv series. She's a red-haired young white woman in this photo. Her hair is up in a Gibson Girl-esque look (1890s to early 1900s), all her hair is up, but it's in a voluminous loose look that puffs out around her head, extending almost as far as the brim of the dark hat she has set back on her crown. She's wearing a high-collared white and purple-striped blouse with a pale vest over it as she listens intently. The fall leaves are golden behind her.
November 9, 2025 at 6:48 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
If you see this, post four women characters you love
Kim Tae-ri as Go Ae-shin in Mr Sunshine. A young Korean woman, standing, aiming with a sniper rifle. She's wearing historical clothes from the early 1900s in Korea... scrappy, dirty warrior clothes - wide-legged woven pants, a long-sleeved shirt of some kind under a padded vest (likely for warmth as much as anything else, and wraps of rags around her hands and the muzzle of her gun, to dampen the sound. Her hair is up in a men's style topknot, tied with another strip of rag. Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Quan Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once A middle-aged Hong Kong woman, mid martial arts move. Hands moving into a defensive position across her body, head looking to the side, towards her leading arm. There are papers flying through the are. Her face is streaked with blood, hair flowing, a look of concentration on her face, and one googly eye stuck in the middle of her forehead where most people think the third eye is. She's in a fleece vest over a pink floral printed blouse. Zooey Deschanel as Trillian in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. She's on board an all white space ship, wearing what can best be described as a pale blue leisure suit with a wide white collar and rolled cuffs. She's a white woman, smiling, her brown hair pulled back with loose tendrils around her face. In her hand is a glowing red knife that toasts toast while you slice it. Rashida Jones as Suzie Sakamoto in Sunny. A Black woman with a straight, chin-length bobbed haircut, wearing a pale t-shirt, stares concernedly into the glowing face of her personal robot (a large orb partially visible on the right side of the image, with a circular protrusion where an ear would be (but it's a fan).
November 9, 2025 at 6:26 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
Thought about going for a walk and treating myself to a coffee at one of the local coffee shops.

Assessed my current outfit: sweats and a not-matchy sweatshirt.

Decided to go for a walk and then make coffee at home. Just as indulgent, less expensive, still exercise, and nobody fashion-policed me.
A tiny table with a french press wearing a blue knit cozy, a handmade mug with a big flower on it, holding a very pale cup of coffee (so what, I enjoy cream sometimes), and a towel bundle of pears for snacking.
November 8, 2025 at 11:31 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
The magpies are very bold today.

Was standing on the balcony, trying to figure out where the smell of smoke is coming from (somewhere else, thankfully) and three landed on the railing (each individually) to grab peanuts.

Here's one
November 8, 2025 at 11:25 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
I have been reading (slowly b/c brain mush) @premeemohamed.com's short story collection One Message Remains and I have a complaint to register:

Completely on-theme with the stories in the book (so far), the book keeps disappearing every time I set it down.
Is it on the couch where I left it? No!
The paperback collection of Premee Mohamed's short stories One Message Remains. The cover is a deep navy blue and looks like an oil painting. There's a misty door in the middle and a pale hand reaching through from the darkness above. Small orange-red dots light up the darkness and a couple look like flowers growing from misty stems. From the pale mists along the bottom and the darkness all over, hollow-eyed heads and agonized specters emerge. Two quotes: "Premee Mohamed is one of speculative fiction's greatest authors and this collection provides further proof." - Chuck Wendig "This one is tough to shake." - Publishers Weekly.
November 8, 2025 at 10:03 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
Adding in alt text.
(Also 1, boom boxes ate batteries)

I just need to say "The Fabulous Weird" is so wildly wrong.
None of this is weird!

Nostalgic and historical? Yes. But not weird. All of this is incredibly everyday.

We need to make a nostalgic weird list.

Let's compile items in the comments.
The fabulous Weird checklist Give yourself 1 point for each thing you've never done. 1 operated a rotary phone. 2 slid a floppy disk into a PC. 3 typed on an actual typewriter. 4 snapped photos with a film camera. 5 played music on a CD. 6 rewound a cassette tape with a pencil. 7 dropped the needle on a vinyl record. 8 rocked a Walkman like a rebel. 9 blasted tunes from a boombox on your shoulder. 10 watched a movie on VHS and prayed it doesn't jam. 11 sent or received a fax like a business wizard. 12 recorded songs from the radio like a mixtape hero. 13 rented a VHS at Blockbuster on a Friday night. 14 heard the screech of dial-up internet. 15 looked up someone in a phone book. 16 sent a postcard with actual handwriting. 17 used a paper map and didn't get lost. 18 owned a proper dusty dictionary. 20 had a whole encyclopedia set. (Yes, 19 is missing)
November 8, 2025 at 9:09 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
One of the perks of all-night migraines (le sigh) is that I have made a lot of sock progress...

(And forgot to put in a marker at the beginning of the heel gusset. Argh!)
My sock, which is now almost to the heel, stripes from the toe up: pink, yellow-pink, green-yellow, yellow, pale grey-green, green, yellow-green, pink-yellow, purple-yellow, blue-yellow, purple-pink, pink-pink, pink-yellow, and now purple blue. There's a collection of blue stripes coming up next in the ball of yarn, so it's going to have a blue heel.
November 7, 2025 at 12:15 PM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
oh hey, look.
more rollercoaster.
a line graph of surface air pressure changes in Edmonton AB over the last 24 hours (from 4am Nov 6 to 4am Nov 7). Pressure starts off down at 100.3 kPa at 4am and climbs over the day to a high of 101.3 kPa at 5pm and stays (roughly) at 101.3 kPa until 10pm, dropping over the remainder of the evening and overnight, reaching 100.8 kPa at 4am.
November 7, 2025 at 11:38 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
A total rollercoaster.
surface air pressure map fo northern north america at 00:00 UTC November 7, 2025 (6pm MST Nov 6). There's a large low pressure system off the BC/Alaska coast, moving inland, especially through Alaska and Yukon. At the same time, a high pressure system from th eArctic is spilling down the east side of the Rocky Mountains through NWT, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, and moving southeastward to Ontario. All of North America is weirdly messy with variable and changing pressure systems. Highs in the US West, a mild low in the central prairie, high on the US Eastern seaboard, and lows in Atlantic Canada and Northern Quebec while a bunch of weird high-low-high-low stuff is happening across NWT and Nunavut and the Arctic archipelago. Greenland is maintaining its high pressure system. a line graph of air pressure in Edmonton, AB over the last 24 hours (from 11pm Nov 5 to 11pm Nov 6. Pressure was low overnight at 100.3 kPa from 1am to 5am, and then climbed continuously over the morning and afternoon, reaching a high of 101.3 kPa at 5pm. It has remained very close to 100.3 kPa all night so far, though it appears to now be dropping.
November 7, 2025 at 6:51 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
68 stitches fits well... but I probably could've gotten away with my usual 64. Holy moly is this yarn deceptive!

It holds up extremely well to multiple un-knittings, though!
I'm truly not sure why I chose this colourway except that it's not red.
It's fun, and I like it.
Progress is happening!
My striped sock in progress, on the knitting needles and the ball of yarn I'm knitting from. The sock is about mid-foot right now and has stripes from the toe up: pink, green, yellow, pale grey-green, speckled and then dark green and moving into yellow-green. The yarn bal has some yellow-pink, and then I think it's going to be pink pink and then yellow-blue. Further in are blue-blue, blue_green, blue-yellow, purple-yellow, and pink-blue stripes.
November 7, 2025 at 1:45 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
A Canadian 90s Alt-rock deep cut...
1990s Canadian band, Glueleg's album Clodhopper. The image is a close-up of a horse's mouth, where the horse's jaws are wide open, lips raised above teeth, and its tongue is hanging out. The horse is wearing a harness, which is visible along the left side of the image. The whole thing is in red and orange tones, oranges being the brighter highlights on lips, teeth, tongue and metal harness bits. A green script "Glueleg" runs across the center.
November 6, 2025 at 10:56 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
There's a Stranger Things Babybel tie-in??!?

Is Babybel IN Stranger Things?

They didn't have any non-themed cheeses.
November 6, 2025 at 5:42 AM
alisonborealis.bsky.social
Oh goodness...
It's obvious First Frost s a romantic get-together snow...
But it's really taking an interesting route to get there.

Also... LOADS of sexual harassment and untoward rumours. Victim blaming, typical teenage attitudes to pretty girls extending into adulthood...
Promotional image for The First Frost. A pretty Chinese woman smiles as she's carried on a handsome (ok, pretty) Chinese man's back. They're both smiling /looking happy.
November 6, 2025 at 2:12 AM