Jenifer 🌻 plants wildflowers for fun and profit

So many - plus the over-people rules, which are tough, and plus the local police depts using the airspace for security. Would love to get aerial photos of Boston rally from a safe distance, but I'm 99% sure the BPD won't allow it.

Terrible idea. Flying over crowds is tightly restricted and you generally need FAA waivers and solid safely plans to do it. Parachutes and such.

And more to the point, they're not going to help normie protest-goers feel safe about attending.

"Flying drones above the rally"?

Are you out of your mind?

Flying drones over assemblies of people is tightly restricted by the FAA. Plus local police dept's rules and restrictions; they won't allow it if they have their own drones in the air.

Everyone reading along - do not do this. Just don't.

As a keeper of three, I can say you're not entirely wrong!

(I do love our goofballs. But they're a lot, and def not for everyone.)

Scarlet macaw stands on someone's arm and tastes small bits of ice from a plastic spoon. The bird is rich red with a white wrinkly face and silver eyes. It's not easy to see, but the bird is wearing a nylon harness and leash to keep him safe.

Macaw discovers ice and loves it

(not my macaw)

A punk rock anthem for Market Basket The iconic grocery chain’s community spirit is what Boston punk rock band Stop Calling Me Frank strove to capture in “MB Anthem (The Market Basket Song).”

Did the Bostonians on here know about the Market Basket song?

You need to know about the Market Basket song.

www.wbur.org/news/2025/10...

This show provided some of the most durable memories of my early childhood. I even met Bob McGrath when I was four or five (and have an autographed photo somewhere). Such a pleasure to watch clips as an adult - the heart in the writing and acting is so clear to see.

Tom Kimmerer (@tomkimmerer) There are a few trees that I seek out each year to enjoy a spectacular autumn display. One of my favorites is sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum, a southern tree in the understory of poor woodlands. Its co...

Sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum, with its blazing red foliage and yellow racimes of capsules is one of the most spectacular autumn trees in the southern Appalachians. It also makes wondeful honey. More at Our Trees.

Oh, is that why I'm suddenly getting a bunch of new followers? Look at all I miss when I do productive non-Bluesky stuff for a few hours. Huh.

Explains the Thomas meme, too. OK.

Oh my god here we go again

👀

C-GZPT Flight Tracking and History - FlightAware Flight status, tracking, and historical data for C-GZPT including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times.

A pilot out in Nova Scotia seems to have had some fun yesterday.

www.flightaware.com/live/flight/...

The world is still mostly a dumpster fire, but at least the Israeli hostages are home.

I'm unspeakably thankful for that.

Honestly, I was pessimistic about it right through tonight - kept expecting it to fail, somehow, some way. But they're really home. ❤️

Ecological landscape designer: "We found jumping worms."

And it already happens way too often: "Pilots reported 12,840 laser strikes to the FAA in 2024."

The more I study for Part 107, the more I understand how fragile our national airspace is, and the more I'm horrified at the shit done by idiots.

Anyway, big fines:
www.faa.gov/about/initia...

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

A comically large sycamore leaf with a small female hand on top of it for scale. The leaf is three-lobed and starting to tint a deep purple between the veins. Behind it is a silver maple sapling with a pink bow and a metal ID tag; the forest thicket and floor are visible in the background.

Uh, in my experience, they grow fast. With enough resources, it might be taller than you by this time next year!

This one was a tiny little thing when planted in our Miyawaki forest last year. Not shown: the dang thing is at least ten feet tall.

From MIT's president: "In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education."

Compact rejected. Good.

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

He shoulda just retired after the Patriots - this is embarrassing to watch.

(Pats fan here, on principle. Can't say I'm a fan of certain individual personalities that have been in that organization.)

I wanted to read this, but kept getting bounced out of the editorial because I don't (and won't) subscribe. If you're going to post here, at least make it possible to read the linked article, thanks.

The important questions now are whether, and how, we organize resistance to the violence that is absolutely coming (to blue cities at least). Who will be on the front lines? Who will need protecting? How do we route around broken systems?

Horrifying that we have to think this way now.

If U.S. states have any degree of sovereignty, if there’s any states’ rights at all, it is the right not to be invaded by the armed forces of another U.S. state.

Tawny owl

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

Yeah, I get it. 🙂 Glad more people are thinking this way!

I hate that. Up here near Boston, we have lovely people who reenact Revolutionary War scenarios on a regular basis, and they have excellent costumes (many with tricorns). For us, it's absolutely not conservative-coded. Sad to see that it is in other parts of the country.

They're not fools. They may have been sold on a beautiful idea that's just a *little* too good to be true, that's all.

A little education can go a long way! Most people understand when it's explained. But condescension and snobbery does no one any good.

People who would love to get rid of their lawn, actually. They'd rather have a more natural landscape, eg a native wildflower meadow, that doesn't need to be mown every 2 weeks.

What they don't know is (1) initial weeding + watering is hard work, (2) invasives will take over w/o constant vigilance.

Lucky for me, ecology and plant stuff can be easy to explain (at a certain level) to laypeople. So when people try to argue with me on FB that "native plants means no care and no watering!" I have a 50/50 chance of successfully mythbusting.

One does need to rehearse non-patronizing answers, though.

Lacking a little conviction there, aren’t we?