jatgsl

[jatgsl]

There used to be a lot of activities that took place around a populated area like a village or town, which you would encounter before you reached the town itself. Most of those crafts have either been eliminated in the developed world or now take place out of view on private land, and so modern authors don't think of them when creating fantasy worlds or writing historical fiction. I think that sprinkling those in could both enrich the worlds you're writing in and, potentially, add useful plot devices.

For example, your travelers might know that they're near civilization when they start finding trees in the woods that have been tapped, for pitch or for sap. They might find a forester's trap line and trace it back to his hut to get medical care. Maybe they retrace the passage of a peasant and his pig out hunting for truffles. If they're coming along a coast, maybe your travelers come across the pools where sea water is dried down to salt, or the furnaces where bog iron ore is smelted.

Maybe they see a column of smoke and follow it to the house-sized kilns of a potter's yard where men work making bricks or roof tiles. From miles away they could smell the unmistakeable odor of pine sap being rendered down into pitch, and follow that to a village. Or they hear the flute playing of a shepherd boy whiling away the hours in the high pasture.

They could find the clearing where the charcoal burners recently broke down an earth kiln, and follow the hoof prints and drag marks of their horse and sledge as they hauled the charcoal back to civilization. Or follow the sound of metal on stone to a quarry or gravel pit. Maybe they know they're nearly to town when they come across a clay bank with signs of recent clay gathering.

Of course around every town and city there will be farms, more densely packed the closer you are. But don't just think of fields of grains or vegetables. Think of managed woodlands, like maybe trees coppiced-- cut and then regrown--to customize the shape or size of the branches. Cows being grazed in a communal green. Waiting as a huge flock of ducks is driven across the road. Orchards in bloom.

If they're approaching by road, there will be things best done out of town. The threshing floor where grain is beaten with flails or run through crushing wheels to separate the grain from its casing, and then winnowed, using the wind to carry away the chaff. Laundresses working in the river, their linens bleaching on the grass at the drying yard. The stench of the tanners, barred from town for stinking so badly. The rushing wheel-race and great creaking wheel of the flour mill.

If it's a larger town, there might be a livestock market outside the gates, with goats milling in woven willow pens or chickens in wooden cages. Or a line of horses for the wealthier buyer or your desperate travelers. There might be a red light district, escaping the regulations of the city proper, or plain old slums. More industrial yards, like the yards where fabric is dyed (these might also smell quite bad, like rotting plant material, or urine).

There are so many things that preindustrial people did and would find familiar that we just don't know about now. So much of life was lived out in the open for anyone to see. Make your world busy and loud and colorful!

[jatgsl]

[jatgsl]

Florida Softshell (Apalone ferox) male, family Trionychidae, Rainbow River, FL, USA

Photographs by Bill Hawthorne Turtle Survival Alliance

[jatgsl]

“get a job” nope im splashing in da pool

via

[jatgsl]

This is how the world should be ❤️

[jatgsl]

made another robot & i love this one.

she is made up of two layers, and all of the visible screws and pins are functional & holding the outer plates to the inner frame. this also gives her a pleasant weight; still quite light, but feels more substantial to handle than my other dolls. the fingers were supposed to be plated as well, but i ended up preferring this spindly look and left them bare.

the floral patterns are cut out of napkins, my eternally realiable method for avoiding painting tiny details, and the eyes are salvaged from single-use led decorations. they don't light up anymore, but there's a reflective bit of metal inside that makes it look like they do.

[jatgsl]

Look at these pathetic and very pink lobsters covered in barnacles from the Schmidt Ocean Institute ROV dive off Uruguay:

aheem heem 🥺 i got covered in barncles 🥺

(link for the livestream)

[jatgsl]

Gundula Blumi - Fata Morgana

Website | Tumblr | Instagram

[jatgsl]

live laugh love Herbert Ponting's descriptions

[jatgsl]

Liu Lu - Voiceless Light, 2025 - Acrylic on canvas

[jatgsl]

Introduction to The Iliad, Emily Wilson

[jatgsl]

Light at the end of the world: Longyearbyen under the polar night - Author: Zynthessa

[jatgsl]

the ross’s gull (rhodostethia rosea) is a small gull and the only member of their genus. they primarily breed in siberia, living through most of the year on ice packs distributed throughout the arctic. they are known for the soft pink coloration they take on during summers. like other gulls, they primarily feed on aquatic prey like fish and crustaceans. they lay clutches of 2-3 eggs; within a few days, chicks are rarely fed and become independent quickly. they are considered vulnerable, with a population of less than 10,000 birds.

[jatgsl]

I drew every seal from the earless/ true seal group 🦭

[jatgsl]

GUYS NEW SHARK JUST DROPPED

Well, technically it's not new : it's a nurse shark. What's new, however, is that it's the first xanthic (imagine albinism but in yellow) nurse shark ever found !! Not only it's not common AT ALL to find fishes with xanthism (it's the first cartilagenous fish ever recorded with this type of genetic "anomally"), but if it's there and still existing as an adult, it means the species is chill-ish with other predators (it probably would have been eaten by then). Its eyes are white so it can also be a form of albinism, in addition to xanthism !!!!!

And most of all : ITS SO CUTE !! AND IT'S SUCH A COOL FIND !!

Please if a marine biologist or someone with more info can interact with this post to feed me some more info or correct me on wrong infos i'e given I'd love it !

(Also if you have pics of animals with xanthism, it's also very appreciated!!)

[jatgsl]

#sealmay continues!

[jatgsl]

crayfish galore!