Hello and welcome back. This is Issue 15 of “a bit of bird words” and it’s my favorite time of year at last. The season of spectacular color and surprising cold. Perfect tea weather. Or hot chocolate.

By the way, the whipped cream in a jar thing really works. Add cream, close, shake for 30-60 seconds. Instant whipped cream.

What did I do this month?

I’ll be honest, I spent most of the month getting hooked on Neopets again. Sadly I wasn’t able to get my old account back—I don’t know why the support team thinks I’m going to remember purchases I made fifteen years ago but whatever—but I’m cruising on my new account. I just miss my Skunk Draik. I’m probably going to create a spiritual successor.

I also celebrated my partner’s birthday, which was a nice time!

I was playing Silksong in bits and pieces this month, but then Pokémon Legends Z-A came out and man I was so wrong about this game. I was so certain I’d be bored out of my mind since the focus of the game seemed to be battling, but it’s honestly a relatively small part of the game overall. There’s catching Pokémon (and running away when they punch you, the human, in the face) but there’s also exploring Lumiose and doing a vague impression of parkour, which has completely won me over. (I want to get into parkour. I shouldn’t be telling you this, per my last blog post, but you can have this one as a treat. Speaking of, I wrote another blog post this month. Check it out.)

I didn’t read too much this month; I gobbled up The Tombs of Atuan, which was delightful, and picked up and read Ask Iwata. It was kind of fun to see the ways in which Iwata and myself are a bit similar! I started reading a Langston Hughes poetry collection after that but I’ve stalled due to games. (And Neopets. Which I guess is a game.)

What else?

I lost my fucking job!

We’ve been putting up and replenishing balls of bird food at a steady clip this month, and this time I saw a brand-new visitor: a soaking-wet but hungry Eurasian jay! We’ve never really seen them right around where we live; I suspect all the new construction is forcing more birds and bird species to fight each other over increasingly less food.

I’m really living right now for Saturday nights tabletop gaming. I like the game itself, I like the players, and I especially like having a GM who is so patient and helpful. (And a general shout-out to all of them for accommodating me in my timezone.)

Do I have a recommendation this month? I guess it would be, if it’s autumn where you are, savor the colors while you can. Autumn increasingly feels like a season that is being squeezed out by summer and winter, and that’s a shame!

Meanwhile, I’m going back to the NP grind on Neopets. See you next month!