iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 14/10/2026

For supper, a marked down ($5.37 off) piece of filet with a sauce of cremini mushrooms (also on sale) cooked down with olive oil, butter, thyme, dried chives, a Tablespoon of McCormick’s brown gravy powder, brandy from deglazing the air fryer, and heavy cream.

A white diner-style china plate with green trim holding a roughly six ounce filet mignon with two slices cut to show pink center, and next to the beef, a large portion of mushrooms in thick brown sauce.

030 3

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 09/10/2026

The Gold Branch Dead leaves scribbled with futures of empire lay scattered like autumn Even as deity bridled the Sibyl, straining at flesh still totally other, Wrenching the tongue into utterance: “Only the Gold Branch gives men 1/n #poetry

Engraving: "The Golden Branch," Wencelaus Hollar (1607-1677). Landscape background to the viewer's left, to the viewer's right, foreground, Aeneas, in Roman armor, reaches for the branch; Venus's doves perch just above it.

120 2

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 08/10/2026

Beda dog does not see the point of model railroading.

Left foreground, an N scale Nickel Plate Railroad “Mikado” steam engine rounds a curve on an unsceniced part of a layout: right background, a white dog lies on a landing, looking the other direction.

140 4

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 02/10/2026

From "Amphibian: A Sonnet Sequence", the first part of _Falconry and other poems_ : XXV. All I Know My still unravished bride, no touch of age Has made you less than she whom I first saw, Delighting in the sight, so long ago I doubt I knew myself—much less knew love. 1/n

Photo from the Indiana Audubon Society: a male Red-winged Blackbird, with prominent epaulets, perched on a board, facing right.

120 2

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 01/10/2026

First go at home canning: marmalade made with rhubarb from the raised bed, two oranges, & an incredible amount of sugar. Lid concavities *seem* to have formed as directed. (Tastes great, but I can’t really tell the rhubarb is in there.)

At left front, on a cutting board of two contrasting woods, a marmalade sandwich in progress; sticking out from under the cutting board, the Ball Blue Book guide to preserving foods; to the right, six pint jars full of orange-brown marmalade.

060 6

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 27/09/2026

As a slightly late welcome to fall, slow cooker pot roast, which I for once thought to prep and turn on before leaving for Mass this morning.

A largish white dinner plate with a blue border, holding half a ciabatta roll, and, surrounded by some of the velvety brown gravy made by immersion-blendering the cooking liquids (including half a bottle of Cabernet) and vegetables, a healthy portion of chuck roast, a pearl onion, a carrot, and several pieces of potato.

050 5

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 26/09/2026

I am apparently something of a leftist.

Chart showing curves for responses from all US adults, Democrats, and Independents, with my results in the 1st percentile, at the far left.

220 2

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 23/09/2026

Who has four paws & a doggy door but has been sitting outside in the rain staring at me through the kitchen window to say “It is supper time!” when he could have been inside eating said supper the whole time?

Wet 40 pound white dog eating from a blue and red puzzle tray on a multicolored braided rug on a wood floor.

130 3

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 18/09/2026

No better way to wait for lunch than to have one last look-over before the new pb goes on sale (October 1, if I don’t find any corrigenda).

Cafe bistro table top with place setting wrapped in a napkin, glass of Diet Coke, and paperback copy of _Falconry and other poems_ (featuring a field of daffodils from Longwood Gardens).

011 1

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 17/09/2026

God of all times and seasons: Give us grace that we, after the example of your servant Hildegard, may both know and make known the joy and jubilation of being part of your creation, and show forth your glory in the world; 1/2

Hildegard is depicted in a grey habit, seated, writing in a book with a quill in her left hand while closely examining a flower in her right. There is an abstract background, mostly of pastel rectangles, with a bright red irregular shape behind the Saint. In the center of the separate bottom panel (which tilts to open) there is a golden lyre against a red background.

100 1

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 13/09/2026

Couldn’t get them all in frame, but Beda-dog and I saw ~15 whitetail grazing in this field of clover on his walk this evening.

Looking west: a field of clover, some dust in the air for atmospheric perspective, a row of trees, spectacular orange sunset. One whitetail doe about 10’ from the camera, at least 8 more of various ages in the distance.

060 6

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 11/09/2026

I have *got* to kill off that mulberry tree that is strangling my trellised rosebush, but other than that, it’s a nice view from here on the patio.

Looking along a typical brown metal patio table with an umbrella above it supported by a pole in the center; horizontal sunshade on the left. Ten feet away, a trellis and fence overgrown by a mulberry; 50 feet away, a silver maple of some years; 75 feet away, a screen of fifteen foot tall arborvitae. Throughout, a lawn that needs to be mowed but probably won’t be at the rate we are going.

130 3

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 09/09/2026

in the transfer process, reflexively jerked away, lost control of the tongs, and dropped--nay, flung--almost all of the remaining salmon onto the kitchen floor. Seldom has a dog looked so vindicated. 4/4

White dog with perky ears and fawn facial markings lying alertly in his crate on a cherry-colored towel and faux-shearling pad, looking toward the camera with his mouth open. (The crate door is open, but out of frame on the left.)

040 4

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 08/09/2026

One of our village celebrations ought to be the Annual Turkey Vulture Fest.

130 3

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 01/09/2026

I mean, “Beda Houghton” is just how they have the little fella listed at the vet’s.

40 pound white dog with perky ears sphinx-posed on a bed, on an old gold bedspread, looking out a window out of frame to the right, with morning son on his face and front paws.

000 0

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 30/08/2026

Book opening home video? Sure, why not? (Though this is, as the lawyers say, nunc pro tunc: doing something now as I ought to have done it back at the time.) Available direct from the printer here (at a discount), or from your bookseller, Amazon, B&N, etc.: shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params...

290 9

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 29/08/2026

Ha ha! Here’s the first or second one, but iirc they still follow the same pattern.

Front page of the 1793 OFA, including the tag “being the first after leap year and the seventeenth of the Independence of America.”

110 1

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 28/08/2026

If I can persuade you that I had not yet been born in 1898 . . .

Sepia-toned 1898 map of Union Township, Marshall County, Indiana, showing "Houghton Lakes" [sic] at left center, just above the letter "U" of "Union."

000 0

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 24/08/2026

Black Angus filet marked down by half at Walmart, reverse seared with a ridiculous amount of butter, deglazed with red wine, and currently being enjoyed in the shade and breeze on the patio. Inside the house, the dog is Up To Something.

A largish filet mignon swimming in butter, pan juices, and red wine on a white china plate.

170 7

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 18/08/2026

+Paul V. Marshall, VIII Bethlehem (Penn.), when merely a liturgy professor w/ his cross still postnominal, advised us to always try the pulpit before choosing something else: “they *probably* put it there for a good reason.” (Photo just for fun.)

Orson Welles as Father Mapple, preaching from ship’s prow pulpit, in John Ford’s 1956 b&w _Moby Dick_.

020 2

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 17/08/2026

Burridan’s sleepy pup. (Actually, he sometimes sleeps on the rug but very rarely in the bed: so he isn’t really paralyzed by free choice of the will.)

40 lb white dog stretched out on the wood 🪵 floor about a foot away from his dog bed and slightly farther from a braided rug.

000 0

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 12/08/2026

FB informs me that 13 years ago I was using the mid-week night off from the Seattle _Ring_ cycle to investigate sparkly vampires. (Not actually a fandom I'm part of; Forks was just a convenient place to spend the night on a drive around the peninsula.)

A foggy day--looking across a three-lane street we see three or four pine trees, a row of shrubbery, and the nondescript front of the Forks Motel.

040 4

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 31/07/2026

Currently marked down at Amazon, but now available at a *significant* discount through The Quartermaster's Store at Annandale Military Academy: _Treble Magicke_, the omnibus edition of my three novels about AMA. #writingcommunity #indieauthors www.annandalemilitary.net/quartermaste...

Grey cover, reading at the top "Treble Magicke: A Thaumaturge of Annandale Omnibus" and at the bottom "John William Houghton." In between are miniatures of the covers of _Rough Magicke_ (predominantly black, with a photo showing various items lying on a wooden desktop, including the AMA regulation book, a necklace with a iota-chi insignia made of nails, a stole of the sort used in hearing emergency confessions, and a gold class ring), _Like a Noise in Dreams_ (predominantly green, with a photo of the head of a classical sculpture), and _The Advent of the Yule Queen_ (predominantly blue, with a photo of a graveyard).

061 6

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 27/07/2026

I only today realized what the Year A epistle is for the Sunday near my birthday.

Bronze plaque in my honor in the narthex of the Hill School Alumni Chapel, ending with citation of Romans 8:38-39.

000 0

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 19/07/2026

Visiting the Alumni Authors section in my old school. Not entirely different from looking oneself up on Google.

Bookshelf: small framed execrable b&w photo of oneself at 17 in full dress military academy uniform; first edition paperback of one’s first novel _Rough Magicke_ face on in a stand; pb of the fat new omnibus edition, _Treble Magicke_, and _Falconry and other poems_, also in paperback, both spine-out.

180 8

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 17/07/2026

I thought it must be. I don't think they bothered to make Mr. Holbrook look very much like him.

Hal Holbrook as then-CDR Rochefort in _Midway_, wearing a fairly heavy mustache.

020 2

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 19/06/2026

Post a robot that is not from Star Wars or Transformers?

Robot Daneel Olivaw, savior of galactic humanity. Cover of Isaac Asimov’s *The Naked Sun*; yellow background, red and black text, portrait of a humanoid figure with shirt partly off, revealing an open panel beneath the right breast, showing mechanical workings within.

030 3

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 05/06/2026

Current state of Big Boy observation.

Empty field with empty Nickel Plate trackage in the background.

000 0

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 04/06/2026

Beda doesn’t usually like other dogs at all, but he adores Ginger, who is staying in my guest house with her human.

Two dogs playing with each other on a grassy lawn, each in mid-jump: a reddish wolfhound named Ginger, running away from the camera, and Beda, a white 40 pound mutt, running toward it. In the background, a flowering quince.

040 4

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 29/05/2026

If Pascal were a wagering pup: “The server just brought me a treat. So the reasonable thing to do is to lie looking toward the kitchen, from which more treats might come.”

40 pound white dog lies on wood floor, head away from us, between a wood cabinet to his right and a refrigerator unit to his left, resting his head and front paws on a black rubber mat. To his left is a dog bowl of water, with ice.

030 3

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 25/05/2026

Nineteen years ago this evening, on the feast of St. Bede, at Trinity Church in Fort Wayne, the Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little, II, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana, acting on behalf of the Bishop of Louisiana, ordained me a presbyter in Christ's one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.

A scrum of clergy in various vestments (cassock and surplice, with and without black pellegrina, alb with white stole) extend their hands into the center of the frame, where my head cannot be seen beneath them.

040 4

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 25/05/2026

Ha! (My mother knitted this little number back when I was in grad school.)

Scarf showing four sections: Harvard H in crimson on white, with a crimson border, Yale Y in blue on white with a blue border, IU monogram in red on white with a red border, Notre Dame monogram in gold on a dark blue background with a gold border.

020 2

John Wm. Houghton @numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net · 22/05/2026

After attending the memorial for the late Lord Great Steward, I almost had to bring the Crown (below, w/ me, 40 years ago) home through Dulles security. I was able to convince the new LGS that "Guardian of the Crown" in my style & title didn't mean I actually had to have the object in my home.