Ran

I can't put into words the feeling of watching our government, a hive of evil antisocial filth, the absolute worst humanity has to offer, colliding with the best. Ordinary people trying to help each other, risking everything to stand up for what's plainly, unambiguously fair and right. It's unreal

(Answer: he was arrested for bigamy, let out on bond, fled to England, and then people found out he had a *third* wife and family)
(and maybe a common-law fourth wife)

Me: Okay, self, please try to contain the historical factoids like a normal person—

Me, not much later: So can you remember if the Singer sewing machine founder was chased out of the country for being a ho, or if he fled in disgrace?

From "You're not mourning this hateful white supremacist enough!" to "Murder's funny again!" and back without a speck of self-awareness

A brand new monarch butterfly hangs upside down by its recently emptied chrysalis

Less than a week! I'm glad I checked, because I almost missed them.

One of the monarch caterpillars went on a grand adventure across the garden & porch before settling down under the railing. It's pretty wild to think of how in a week or two, they might be on their way to Mexico.

A yellowjacket eats a spotted lanternfly

Nature is healing*
*"healing"

Look, y'all, that fwd about milkweed instantly killing lanternflies is nice to think about—but it's got no legs.
Yellowjackets, however, have six legs, & now we know they'll make snacks out of these invasive buggers.
Let's let the zesty little monsters work.

Me: Viking Blod mead is made with hibiscus, so hibiscus mead is definitely a viable concept—
Also me: add jasmine, make Viking Soape

I have still managed to grow weirdly pretty garlic, even with the onion fly catastrophes of this spring.
This year my garden savior was neem soaks; next year I'm adding a mesh tent + yellow sticky traps.

This does mean, though, that my reaction to a destructive + invasive groundhog was . . . Possibly a little disproportionate.

I raise you
An Egg

That awkward moment where I'm supposed to show prep & plan for the future, when the future's just been fucked over in ways we're not gonna fully understand for a long, long while.

"Everything I don't want to hear is fake & everything he says (that makes me feel angry, afraid, or like I'm better than someone else) is true—except for when he's just joking, or being far too clever for someone like YOU to understand, or *insert more cult shit here*"

So now I've got a couple yard patches of these unfussy guys, which so far play well with the lawn, duck mostly under the mower, & will produce tiny snacks for the next few months (if I look for 'em).

Fragaria virginiana has white (sometimes pinkish) flowers, little berries that droop downward, and—here, at least—more of a yellow-green shade to the leaves. They were also crossbred with the larger south American strawberry in order to make our better-known, more sizeable garden strawberry.

Potentilla indica has yellow flowers, evenly colored berries that sit upright, a way more aggressive bloom-and-run growth pattern, and—in my patch, anyway—more of a blue-green shade to the leaves.

So f. virginiana ones aren't bland! They're really flavorful—like, spoil-you-for-store-bought, spent-weeks-hunting-local-plants flavorful. They just get mixed up with potentilla indica, or mock strawberry, which tastes like lies and sadness.

(Aw yis, plant spam time~)

This year's regular strawberries continue to struggle, due to birds/chipmunks/friendly fire (strawberries are allelopathic)—but the feral patch of f. virginiana persists, despite having been mowed over a few times.

And yes, I've got red-painted rocks scattered through the beds. Last year it seemed to work on everything but the chipmunks; this year, robins are snagging & mangling everything strawberry-shaped, red or not.

A handful of strawberries that have been picked way too early or otherwise mangled by birds.

In 1881, William Morris watched birds pillaging his strawberry patch—and in response, created the iconic Strawberry Thief textile/wallpaper print.

I am not William Morris. I can't effectively make my strawberry thieves into a print—but if they keep it up, I might turn them into bird pie.

A giant beaver statue stands ready to take us on a Texas-style bbq adventure

This could be us but you got no brisket

"No worries!"

All worries. ALL of them. They're mine now. Don't tell my therapist. :b

Two days of good light later:

On the left, a regular-looking petunia with white flowers. On the right, the same petunia glows greenish in the dark.

Who has two thumbs
Hella impulse control issues
And a glow-in-the-dark petunia?

Somewhere his fan base can nat easily zee it?

Folks call your Senators now!! A ban on any state laws on GenAi for 10 YEARS is gonna do unthinkable harm!

For those of you wondering what to say here are two posts you can use to build your own script (use alt script to cut and paste)

Need to find your representatives? Here you go:
5calls.org

Like a reverse Operation Paperclip

A calico cat asleep in a person's lap

A calico cat lounges on a couch

This is Possum; every day I'm reminded of how happy she is to spend time with me, even if we're not really doing anything. Also, she gets the importance of regular work breaks.

"I want to make new things"
+ "Wait, I planted something here?"
+ "Wtf did I plant here anyway??"
= Flower stack on 16ga stainless, with a handy plant tag. It weebles, it wobbles, it doesn't blow away or wash off or crumble or turn to mush like the rest of this year's plant markers.

What if cats Also experience cute aggression?