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photo dump: Assateague Island, Maryland,

June 2025

The sweet sweet babies! 😍 We saw at least three different foals during our week here, and quite a few yearlings, too. This little one was nursing her mama still.

And mama is just having a little back scratch on the grass.

The ponies here are not shy. They will absolutely take over your campsite if they feel like it. It's kind of like being on a safari.

The campground is pretty rustic. There are no hookups at either the state or national park, and the wind, rain, and sun can be pretty harsh at times. But the plentiful sun meant our solar panels gave us all the device charging we could ask for. And the state park, where we stayed, has warm showers in the bathhouse.

Mostly, I just love being able to walk over the dunes to the ocean. The cool ocean spray, falling asleep to the sound of the waves. ❤️

You probably can't get much closer to the ocean for only $30/night.

The weather was mostly overcast and stormy. And yes, my pasty ass still got burnt through the clouds. The water wasn't too cold, and the waves were strong. I caught a couple on the body board, but mostly I ate sand, lol!

(It might be on my bucket list to properly surf at least once before I'm too old for it!)

Sunset is over the dunes here. Sadly, I was far too lazy/tired to wake up for sunrise over the ocean this time. Most mornings we were awoken by the horses roaming around the camp, so I guess that was more interesting than the sunrise. Sorry, sunrise.

Some other favorite critters. The ghost crabs are so funny to watch as they scurry in and out of their burrows with their little eyes peeking out. You could almost miss them, with how they blend into the sand. Careful you don't step on one!

And this thing, which is...? An eel? An egg sac? An alien, maybe? 😳

If you know what this is, please share!

But the main attraction here, of course, are the feral ponies, strolling through the campground like because they own the place.

And then sometimes they sneak up on you in the dark, raid your last campfire while you’re still sitting at it, toss your chairs, and chomp down a half bag of marshmallows that you were still eating, still in their plastic bag. (Hope the dummy didn’t choke!)

They are completely unafraid of humans here and that's maybe not a great thing. Wild animals and humans should maintain a healthy fear of each other. I know, this is their island and we’re only visiting… but they sure can be asshole hosts sometimes! It’s honestly easier camping with bears. 😳

Plus the one horse who decided my camper bunk was an excellent place to scratch his rump at 5am every morning. Shook the whole camper.

This island is always an experience!

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The Princess Bride (1987) dir. Rob Reiner

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Going back to Assateague soon! 🤩

Photos are from 2013-2016. I have been there since, but I had a baby along and definitely no camera. He's five now and a lot more independent, so maybe I can be a photographer again???

That foggy morning was so cool. I didn't manage to catch any ponies in the fog that morning, but wouldn't that be the prize shot?!?

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"So let me get this straight, you kidnapped my daughter, cured her of her deadly illness, and now you're finally calling for a ransom? Why!?" "Well your daughter was going to be useless to me dead."

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Writing isn't the hobby. Being insane about little fake people is the hobby. Writing is just the only outlet i have for that

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Labyrinth (1986) dir. Jim Henson

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I miss when all my writer friends were working on novels all at the same time, and we could all cry our woes at each other. Those were fun times! Now they're all busy doing life stuff (fair enough, I was too for a while) and not writing anything. And I guess I need to meet brand new writer friends and I don't wanna! 😭 Or mind control my old writing buddies *start writing a new book and come cry with me!*

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Preschool field trip to a farm park! 🐓 🐎

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Spring. And nail wraps. 💅

My hubby bought me a nail art brush set as a gift once because I had all these nail art pictures pinned on my Pinterest. But like, there is no way I could ever do this kind of detail on my own hands. 😆

I do use the brushes for paintings, though. They are nice for finer details.

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The most useless thing I do on this whole stupid internet is to read the comments of two strangers who are arguing with each other. People I don't know, have never met, will never meet in my whole life. I read their whole argument, silently, without chiming in of course. Maybe I take a side, or maybe I don't. But what a waste of my life! WHY DO I DO THIS??? 😵‍💫

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the year is 2025

scientists are still scrambling to figure out what “zigazig ahh” is so that they can give the spice girls what they really really want

the spice girls are getting impatient

war is upon us

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the grief of growing

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Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

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via indiarosecrawford

Frog Paints a Water Lily Pond 🪷🎨🐸

𝑓ₒᵣ ⲕᵢ𝑛𝑔 ₐ𝑛𝑑 𝑐ₒ𝑡𝑡ₐ𝑔ₑ

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Owls in my yard last night. They were having a whole conversation up there! 🦉

Phone camera, because of course as soon as I went to get my real camera out, they flew away. 🙃