#common grape vine

[hellsitegenetics]

Planning on becoming a biology teacher and whenever i see your posts it just gives me a motivation boost, it's so very interesting and i'm so very glad there's a blog for it 💕

String identified: ag cg a g tac a t t t g a tat t, t' ttg a ' ga t' a g t 💕

Closest match: Vitis vinifera cultivar Black Monukka isolate seedless chromosome 16 Common name: Common Grape Vine

(image source)

[k-star-holic]

Brad Pete ⁇ Angelina JOLLY 7 Years After the Divorce War ⁇ JOLLY, Bai Qi on Astronomical Litigation Costs

Source: k-star-holic.blogspot.com

[kiseiakhun]

Reading up on invasive plants continue to be a mistake because now that the garlic mustard's died back I am instead seeing dog-strangling vine everywhere. Admittedly Vincetoxicum rossicum and Vincetoxicum nigrum are pretty metal names but they really are out there blanketing the edge of every disturbed field and choking out the rest of the plant life...

[rexhya]

yandere!prince who's 3 months way from becoming king, the citizens and palace have already begun preparing for his coronation.

yandere!prince whos more terrifying than his father, nobles bow before him like GOD, his dark violet eyes gleaming with power.

yandere!prince who's favorite word is obedience, so it's no surprise when you're accepted as his personal maid he revels in your compliance.

"[Name], stand. Now." You're in his chambers holding a bowl of grapes. (he insists you feed him)

you stand.

"spin." you spin.

"lift up your skirt." you blush, giving him an almost disgraced face. as his personal maid, you were treated better but he'd never been perverted. you should have known better.

you move to set the bowl of grapes down anyways, you'd rather be humiliated for a moment then disobey and be forced to the torture many servants were subjected to. it wouldn't be so bad anyways, you had a petticoat under and would only lift the first layer.

the prince moved before you could, a pleasant smile taking up his brown cheeks, "God you really are perfect. I was joking, m'lady." he layed back down on his red velvet couch, motioning with his hands for you to continue feeding him.

now you were even more confused, the prince nicknamed "iron of evil" was making a joke? (and what was m'lady about, you were quite literally a commoner) you set the ruffles back down and continue pricking the grapes from the vine and into his mouth, this was probably your least favorite task he requested you do.

not because it was hard but because the prince was completely different from how he presented himself to the public.

moaning and whimpering exaggeratedly as you fed him the fruit, the worst is when he licks at your fingers, even taking one into his mouth, pearly whiteness flicking around the digit.

he always seemed to be smiling around you, it was worse knowing how horrible he could be to others.

like that time a noble staying temporarily was caught trying to poison him, usually their sentence to death would be immediate no questions asked but this prince loved to play games.

it was in the throne room, two gaurds stood by the captive and the prince stood in front of him ( you standing silently by his side praying they wouldn't behead him in front of you ) .

and after staring at the man for almost ten minutes without saying a word, he turned to you.

"pick a number between 1 and 1,000"

you jumped, eyes flickering between the man and the prince, "don't look at him, look at me. number quickly." he graps your jaw within seconds. you gasp, there was no arguing with the prince.

you stared directly into his eyes, sputtering out a number, "o-one"

"hmm." his grip doesn't falter, instead he turns your face side to side peering at all your features. "would you look at this, you actually have a desireable face."

you didn't know wether to take it as a compliment or an insult.

he finally lets go, "okay, have him drawn in quarterd. i want him out of my sight."

you gulped, guilt shredding at your heart as the man screamed. now you felt responsible for his punishment, though you suspect he would have done anything he liked anyways.

as usual.

the prince kisses your palm bringing you back to the present, he's been like this lately too. becoming affectionate in private spaces ( and in public spaces ), insisting you dote on him, care for him and play good girl all while you face the consequences ( many people think you're secretly sleeping with him, though hes met his suitor many times )

"what are you thinking of, tell me your thoughts love."

you gulped, "well honestly my prince i was thinking this is highly inappropriate and that your should stop so that the both of us will avoid trouble, and also—"

the prince stops kissing you, darkened eyes glaring at you viciously. "[Name]" he said suddenly.

you gulp, regretting your decision to speak up immediately.

"you're perfect, okay? i need you to continue being perfect so that everyone here stays happy alright?" you nod. "and i told you to stop calling me that."

"i-i apologize my-sorry um, Anul."

Anul grins and shifts his body to sit upwards, "good, now come here." he motions to his lap and you sigh, as of the past few weeks this was common as well. he pats his thigh impatiently and you smooth down your skirt to move towards him. his arms are around you before you can even make it on him, his nose grazing your neck, "mm, perfect, all mine, so perfect."

you sigh again and fold your hands over your lap, you wouldn't deny this prince was comfortable to sit on but it was not only highly unprofessional but horribly nerve racking.

you were just glad nobody was in here to see it.

and just then a knock came from the door. you scramble to move but Anul hold on fast, "come in." his voice was like murky water compared to how he was speaking to you before.

another servant maid opens the door, looking at your turned down face for a moment before adressing her reason for being here. "uhm, [Name] has been requested in the chambers by Ms. Jalei just for a quick meeting." Ms. Jalei was the head of all thr maids in the palace.

Anul looks bored at her. "She's busy." and quickly turns back to you, but the maid hasnt left yet.

she clears her throat again, "it's umh, it's urgent." she say looking at you and the man, his arms tighten around your waist. "[Name]? what should i do? seems likes there another pest trying to disturb our peace. number, 1-1,000" the maid freezes up, even she knew was this meant.

your eyes went wide as you looked at him, god not this again. "I-I don't want her to get hurt."

"Oh how sweet. Don't worry she won't feel a thing." Anul smiles devilishly. The maid looks ready to cry.

You turned between them, you hears what happened with the other guy, you didn't know who this was but you certianly didn't want her to get hurt, not because she f you anyways.

"w-what can i do? to fix it, i don't think she deserves such a punishment. it's me there asking for anyways, so what should i do?" you pleaded.

that caught his attention, "What you can do...?" He thought for a moment, "You. Get out."

The door was such in seconds.

"ya' know ever since i've met you [Name] i've just been so much better, i'd really love it if you gave me a kiss. I think i deserve it dont you?"

you gulped, you saw something like this coming, you were prepared. you gave a small okay and Anul shifted so you were sitting on his crotch rather than his lap. "okay here i go." and placed the tiniest contact on his lips he almost missed it.

he blinked, "what was that."

"well, i just kisses you my prince. as you requested."

"that wasn't a kiss."

"well—" you don't get a chance to answer as he cups your mouth with his, your tounge sliding on the roof of his mouth, by the time he's finished you can barely breath. his hands had someway crawled themselves onto your side and he found himself craving you, needing you carnally and more than ever. he lets go.

"that was a kiss, and don't make me teach you again."

[amnhnyc]

Do you think Valentine’s Day stinks? Then we’ve got the perfect flower for you! The largest flower in the world, the stinking corpse lily (Rafflesia arnoldi), may look beautiful—but it smells like rotten flesh. The pungent aroma is meant to attract carrion flies, which spread its pollen from flower to flower and help this South Asian rainforest plant reproduce. The parasitic corpse flower has no stem, leaves, or roots. Instead of using energy from the Sun to make nutrients, it draws all of its nourishment from its host, a species of vine in the grape family.

Photo: Maizal Chaniago, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

[gatheringbones]

[“Magnificence in clothes was considered a prerogative of the nobles, who should be identifiable by modes of dress forbidden to others. In the effort to establish this principle as law and prevent “outrageous and excessive apparel of divers people against their estate and degree,” sumptuary laws were repeatedly announced, attempting to fix what kinds of clothes people might wear and how much they might spend.

Proclaimed by criers in the county courts and public assemblies, exact gradations of fabric, color, fur trimming, ornaments, and jewels were laid down for every rank and income level. Bourgeois might be forbidden to own a carriage or wear ermine, and peasants to wear any color but black or brown. Florence allowed doctors and magistrates to share the nobles’ privilege of ermine, but ruled out for merchants’ wives multicolored, striped, and checked gowns, brocades, figured velvets, and fabrics embroidered in silver and gold. In France territorial lords and their ladies with incomes of 6,000 livres or more could order four costumes a year; knights and bannerets with incomes of 3,000 could have three a year, one of which had to be for summer. Boys could have only one a year, and no demoiselle who was not the châtelaine of a castle or did not have an income of 2,000 livres could order more than one costume a year. In England, according to a law of 1363, a merchant worth £1,000 was entitled to the same dress and meals as a knight worth £500, and a merchant worth £200 the same as a knight worth £100. Double wealth in this case equaled nobility.

Efforts were also made to regulate how many dishes could be served at meals, what garments and linens could be accumulated for a trousseau, how many minstrels at a wedding party. In the passion for fixing and stabilizing identity, prostitutes were required to wear stripes, or garments turned inside out. Servants who imitated the long pointed shoes and hanging sleeves of their betters were severely disapproved, more because of their pretensions than because their sleeves slopped into the broth when they waited on table and their fur-trimmed hems trailed in the dirt. “There was so much pride amongst the common people,” wrote the English chronicler Henry Knighton, “in vying with one another in dress and ornaments that it was scarce possible to distinguish the poor from the rich, the servant from the master, or a priest from other men.”

Expenditure of money by commoners pained the nobles not least because they saw it benefiting the merchant class rather than themselves. The clergy considered that this expenditure drained money from the Church, and so condemned it on the moral ground that extravagance and luxury were in themselves wicked and harmful to virtue. In general, the sumptuary laws were favored as a means of curbing extravagance and promoting thrift, in the belief that if people could be made to save money, the King could obtain it when necessary. Economic thinking did not embrace the idea of spending spending as a stimulus to the economy.

The sumptuary laws proved unenforceable; the prerogative of adornment, like the drinking of liquor in a later century, defied prohibition. When Florentine city officials pursued women in the streets to examine their gowns, and entered houses to search their wardrobes, their findings were often spectacular: cloth of white marbled silk embroidered with vine leaves and red grapes, a coat with white and red roses on a pale yellow ground, another coat of “blue cloth with white lilies and white and red stars and compasses and white and yellow stripes across it, lined with red striped cloth,” which almost seemed as if the owner were trying to see how far defiance could go.”]

barbara w. tuchman, from a distant mirror: the calamitous 14th century, 1987

[ashthesalamipiece]

I LOVE YOUR WORKS!! i request bakugo who has a crush on reader who keeps getting weird comments from mineta and bakugo becomes overprotective over her 🫢 thank you!!

Thank you so much♡♡

Enjoy♡

“Tch. She’s Mine, Grapeface.”

(Bakugo x Reader | Scenario)

It was just another day at U.A., or so you thought — until you walked past Mineta in the common room and felt his eyes stick to you like glue.

“Damn, Y/N… You’ve been hitting the gym or are you just naturally that fine?” Mineta grinned, leaning way too close for comfort. “You know, if you ever get tired of all the loud guys around here, I’ve got a shoulder you can cry on~”

You grimaced, taking a step back. “Uhh, I’m good. Thanks.”

You didn’t see it, but Bakugo did.

From across the room, he was glaring daggers. His pen cracked in his grip. The moment he saw Mineta inch toward you again, Bakugo stood up — slow, deliberate, and pissed.

“Oi. Grapeface.”

Mineta froze.

Bakugo stomped over, practically radiating fury, fists clenched, eyes burning like he was two seconds from exploding the grape off the vine.

“You tryin’ to flirt with her again?” he growled. “Didn’t I tell you what’d happen if you didn’t back the hell off?”

Mineta squeaked. “I-I was just being friendly—!”

“Friendly?” Bakugo stepped between you and Mineta. “She doesn’t need your brand of friendly. You got two options. One — shut the hell up. Two — I shut you up.”

Mineta scrambled back like he saw death itself. “I-I’ll go now!!”

Once he was gone, you blinked up at Bakugo, still surprised. “Katsuki… You didn’t have to do that.”

He scoffed, not meeting your eyes. “Tch. Of course I did.”

You tilted your head, a teasing smile on your lips. “Were you jealous?”

“Wha—?! Hell no.” His ears turned red. “I just don’t want creeps talkin’ to you like that.”

“So you’re overprotective?”

He grumbled something under his breath before finally muttering:

“…Yeah. ‘Cause I like you, dumbass.”

Your heart skipped.

He still didn’t meet your eyes. But the tension in his shoulders eased when you slipped your hand into his.

“…I like you too, Katsu.”

“…Tch. Good. 'Cause now I don’t gotta blow anyone else up.”

[rozalthiris]

I HATE the way TikTok will take a beautiful song and overplay it while simultaneously CHANGING THE ENTIRE MEANING OF THE SONG!!!!!!!!!!

In ‘Too Sweet’ by Hozier, they’ve taken the lyrics ‘You’re too sweet for me’ and literally flipped the entire meaning. They are understanding the meaning to be Hozier feeling too rough and brandished for this person. They think Hozier is saying ‘you’re too sweet, you shouldn’t be with someone as troubled as me.’

WRONG!!! HE’S SAYING THEYRE TOO SWEET AS TOO REFINED, TOO SOFT, TOO PURE IN A NEGATIVE WAY. HE’S SAYING HE’S RAW AND DIRTY, THAT HE’S TIRED OF PEOPLE BEING PERFECT. ‘Who wants to live forever’ THIS PERSON IS TRYING TOO HARD, NOT ENJOYING LIFE FOR THE DIRTY DEPRIVED MOMENTS WE ALL CRAVE. ‘You treat your mouth like it’s Heavens gate, the rest of your body like you’re the TSA. I wish I could go along, babe, don’t get me wrong’ (the common quote of ‘treat your body like a temple’ speaks to me in those moment, as if this person is treating their body like one, eating properly, not enjoying ‘whiskey neat and black coffee’. Taking this very literal.) THIS INTAKE OF MONITORING EVERYTHING THEY PUT IN THEIR BODY, ALMOST BECOMING OBSESSIVE OVER IT. THEY SHOULDNT CARE THAT MUCH. ‘Pretty as a vine, as sweet as a grape. If you can sit in a barrel, maybe I’ll wait’ (my fav line) REFERRING TO THE PROCESS OF GRAPES BECOMING WINE!!!! HE’S TELLING THEM TO GROW UP, THAT IF THEY CAN MATURE MAYBE HE’LL STICK AROUND.

In conclusion, ‘Too Sweet’ by Hozier is NOT A LOVE SONG.

TikTok should be banned for this completely INACCURATE lyrical interpretation.

[mellotunekitty]

DPS - Married Anderperry HC’s

This is a small one, but them living in their lil house has been on my mind lately

They would be so good at interior design

Definitely have that Lenox Spice Village

Have a brown cat named Walt Whitman 

Live in a farmhouse with a wrap around porch 

Only warm lighting 

Grape themed kitchen with all the vines on the cabinets and stuff 

I feel like this is a common one, but I think that Neil took Todd’s last name because he wanted to detach from his father 

Huge closet full of candles 

They have a little garden in the back that Neil isn’t allowed to take care of because he doesn’t have even an inkling of a green thumb unlike Todd

Combined closet. They wear each other's clothes a lot.

During their Welton days, Todd threw away one of his poems because he didn’t like it, but Neil ended up loving that poem so he took it from the trash and has had it in his wallet for years

[najia-cooks]

[ID: A pyramid of crystalline snow topped with deep orange syrup on a bright blue plate. End ID]

بقسمة / Buqsuma (Palestinian snow dessert)

بُقْسُمَة ("buqsuma"), or بوظة الشتاء ("būẓa shitā'", "winter ice cream"), is a dessert, possibly of Aramaic origin, eaten in cold and mountainous rural regions within Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. It consists of freshly fallen snow topped with grape molasses (دبس العنب; "dibs al-'inab"), date molasses, pomegranate molasses, or storebought snow syrup (شراب الثلج ; "shrāb aṯ-ṯalj"). In Lebanon it may be topped with honey or orange syrup; and in Syria and Lebanon it may also be called سويق or سويقة ("sawīq" or "sawīqa").

Buqsuma is eaten for only a few days a year at the end of the snowy season in February. An old rhyme cautions against eating snow too early in the season:

أول تلجة دم تانية تلجة سم تالتة تلجة كل ولا تهتم

("ʔawwal tallaja damm "tānya tallaja samm "tālta tallaja kul wa lā tahtamm")

("The first snowfall is blood "The second snowfall is poison "The third snowfall, eat and don't worry")

Journalist Hussein Saqr speculates that the intention may be to allow the first snows to clear the air from summer and fall dust and other pollutants before the snow is safe to consume.

During these late winter days, eating and sharing buqsuma becomes a social ritual; guests are invited to share the dessert from a wide platter, or given individual bowls to dress to their taste with syrup, milk, and sugar. Children bring bowls of snow inside and eat buqsuma by the fire to warm up and recuperate from a day at play.

In Syria, buqsuma is prepared especially in the مُحافظة السويداء ("Muḥāfaẓat as-Suwaydā'"; Suwayda Governorate) in the south; in the طرْطوس ("Ṭarṭūs") and إدلب ("'Idlib") Governorates in the northeast; and along the جبال لبنان الشرقية ("Jibāl Lubnān ash-Sharqiyya"; Anti-Lebanon mountain range) from جبل الشيخ ("Jabal ash-Shaykh"; Mountain of the Sheikh / "Mount Hebron") to the جبال القلمون ("Jibāl al-Qalamūn"; Qalamoun Mountains) in Damascus Governorate.

In Palestine

Within Palestine, buqsuma is eaten only in الخليل ("Al-Khalīl" / "Hebron"), in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian food writer Reem Kassis points out that the regional specificity of the dish is due to the nature of the land: Al-Khalil is one of the few places in Palestine to receive snow.

Al-Khalil is also famous for its viticulture. "It is well known among Palestinians that Al-Khalil grows the best grapes," according to embroidery artist Wafa Ghnaim. Though grape vines have existed in Palestine since antiquity, Al-Khalil was one of the few locales to maintain them even during the Crusades, which caused the abandonment of olive and grape orchards elsewhere. As with oranges and pomegranates, an association between terroir, agriculture, and design reveals itself in Palestinian art: the قطف عنيب ("qiṭf 'inab"; "bunch of grapes") motif is common in Al-Khalil embroidery (تطريز; "taṭrīz"; often transliterated "tatreez").

Around 1700, Rabbi Gedalia mentions Al-Khalil's grapes as being particularly praiseworthy:

ויש בא"י הרבה פירות האילן, כגון ענבים, תאנים, ורמונים, זתים […]. והענבים הם גדולים ועגולים בירושלים. אבל בחברון תוב"ב הם מרובים וגדולים מן הענבים אשר בירושלים. וכשמוכרים את הענבים של חברון בירושלים משבחים אותם וצועקים: בואו ותקנו הענבים של חברון ! ומענב אחד מתמלא הפה ממשקה. And there are in the land of Israel many tree fruits, such as grapes, figs, pomegranates, and olives [...]. The grapes are big and round in Jerusalem, but in Hebron they are more numerous and larger than the grapes in Jerusalem. And when vendors sell the grapes of Hebron in Jerusalem, they praise them and shout: Come and buy the grapes of Hebron! And one grape fills the mouth with nectar. (pp. 337-8)

Al-Khalil's viticulture is closely integrated with Palestinian food culture. Three distinct harvests yield different products. In the early spring, some of the leaves from the grape vines (وَرَق الدوالي; "waraq ad-dūwāli") will be harvested, when they are young, tender, and sour: good for stuffing with rice, meat, and vegetable fillings to make several popular Palestinian dishes.

Later in the spring, grape farmers harvest early, sour grapes (حصرم; "��iṣrim"; Levantine dialect "ḥuṣrum"). Some of these will be pressed to make عصير حصرم ("'aṣīr ḥuṣrum"; "juice of sour grapes"), a tart liquid that may be drunk plain, or used to give acidity to soups or salads. Others will be pickled in brine, or dried and ground to make a sour condiment called "سماق الحصرم" ("sumāq al-ḥuṣrum," "sour grape sumac").

The third harvest is in the late summer, when the grapes have fully ripened. Grape farmers in Al-Khalil may sell some of their summer harvests to Palestinian wineries and arak distilleries. Other ripe grapes will be pressed and their juice boiled down and dried to produce مَلبَن ("malban"), a Levantine fruit leather. And still more of this juice will be reduced into dibs al-'inab, which is then used to make buqsuma, added to tea as a sweetener, or mixed into tahina and scooped up with bread; it is especially popular during Ramadan as a quick way to boost energy.

Dibs al-'inab has been produced in Palestine for hundreds of years. Rabbi Gedalia describes grape molasses, which he calls "grape honey" ("דבש של ענבים"; "dvash shel 'anavim"):

שמבשלים את התירוש היוצא מן הענבים מיד כשסוחטין אותן, והוא אז מתוק מאוד כדבש ממש, וכ"כ מבשלים עד שנעשה עב כמו דבש. They cook the must which is expressed from the grapes immediately after they are squeezed. It is then very sweet, like real [bee's] honey. Then they cook it again until it becomes thick as honey. (p. 338)

The recipe below is for buqsuma with Al-Khalil-style grape molasses.

[ID: An extreme close-up on snow crystals topped with syrup in bright white and various shades of orange; bubbles are trapped throughout the syrup. End ID]

Viticulture Under Occupation

Today, the tending and harvesting of grapes in Al-Khalil take place under the shadow of Israeli settlements. Israel encourages the transfer of settler populations to settlements in Al-Khalil—including particularly fervent Israeli nationalist cells in the middle of Palestinian areas—with financial incentives and the creation of infrastructure that only settlers can move through freely. Palestinians are forbidden to drive in the "H2" area of Al-Khalil, which encompasses the central Old City and the الحرم الإبراهيمي ("Al-Ḥaram al-Ibrāhīmī"; Sanctuary of Abraham), and has been under Israeli military control since 1997. Israel conducts regular raids in the nominally Palestinian "H1" area, forcing people to leave their homes, destroying property, and committing arbitrary arrests and imprisonments.

The rapid expansion of settlements in the areas around Al-Khalil, such as those in what Israel calls גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן (“Gush Etzion”; Etzion Bloc) and גִּבְעַת חַרְסִינָה ("Givat Harsina"), pushes Palestinians into ever-smaller and denser areas surrounded by settlements, rendering them still more vulnerable to Israeli control.

Alessandro Petti describes the strategy by which Israel fragments and isolates Palestinian areas, while allowing flow of movement between territories for non-Palestinians, as a distinction between free-flowing settler "archipelagoes" and Palestinian "enclaves." Infrastructure such as patrols, roadblocks, barriers, curfews, strip-searches and thorough searches of luggage—to which only Palestinians are subjected—make travel a time-consuming, nerve-wracking, and uncertain process: one that may end with being denied a permit, turned back from a border, or jailed for driving on a road which turns out to be prohibited to Palestinians. Because the rules are constantly changing, Palestinians may continue to avoid a road that is no longer actively barricaded out of fear that attempting to traverse it will lead to arrest.

Official Israeli military policy and settler violence alike cast a pall on Palestinian agricultural tradition and innovation. Farming and shepherding communities in the southern hills of Al-Khalil have been subjected to harassment, home demolition, and forced displacement at the hands of settlers and military bulldozers. Settlers burn grape and olive orchards and cut down mature grape vines. Palestinians are no longer allowed to access ancestral agricultural land that has been overtaken by colonists. Israeli military orders and settler harassment emptied Al Khalil's Old Souq of its vegetable and fruit markets in 2000; in 2019, plans were made to raze Palestinian shops and build a new settlement atop them. These plans would move forward in July of 2023.

Reprisal and collective punishment in the wake of militants' October 7th attacks on settlers have been felt in the West Bank and also impact agriculture in Al-Khalil. Grapes rot on the vine with farmers forbidden to tend them. Streets have been closed, shutting Palestinian farmers into their homes, while Palestinian shepherds in villages in the Al-Khalil area have been displaced and harassed with drones. Settler attacks and destruction of crops, already on a continual uptick for the previous several years, increased to a new high in 2023.

Olives, Grapes, and Resistance

Agriculture has been an important site of Palestinian resistance to settler incursion as, despite harassment, surveillence, and violence, Palestinians insist on staying on their land and in their homes. The Palestinian minority who inhabit the H2 area of Hebron, continuing to tend their olive trees, prevent the area from becoming settler-only and keep alive the hope that Al-Khalil will not become a "ghost town."

Various projects based in Al-Khalil combat settler technologies and strategies. Farmers in Al-Khalil launched the Cooperative Society for Agricultural Marketing and Processing in 1984 to increase grape farmers' self-sufficiency, reduce produce waste, and contribute to the production of Palestinian grape delicacies. The 2022 Counter Surveillance project, launched by Palestinian activist Issa Amro and artist Adam Broomberg, meets the Israeli security cameras stationed among Al-Khalil's olive groves with its own video feed, livestreamed online and to art museums.

Palestine's annual grape festival at حلحول ("Ḥalḥūl"), just north of Al-Khalil, took place in 2023 as scheduled; farmers displayed boxes of grapes of all colors and varieties, and sold dibs, malban, raisins, and jam. And Palestinian farmers and activists contribute to resurgences of indigenous seed varieties—such as the دابوقي ("dābūqi") grape, historically particularly prominent in Al-Khalil—in an effort to preserve Palestine's biodiversity and economic self-sufficiency.

Buy seeds from the Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library

Help Palestinian families evacuate Gaza

Contribute to an eSIM donation drive

Ingredients:

For the syrup (makes 2/3 cup):

2.5kg (5.5lb) tart green grapes, stems removed

For the base:

A large bowl of fresh snow

If it doesn't snow where you live, you can try making shaved ice using a snowcone machine; putting water in an ice-cream maker until you achieve a slushy texture; or running ice cubes through a blender.

Instructions:

For the syrup:

1. Remove grapes from their stems and rinse.

2. In a large bowl, mash and muddle grapes with your hands or a potato or bean masher; or pass grapes through a blender, food mill, or juicer.

3. Strain mashed grapes through a metal strainer, and then a cheesecloth (if you used a juicer, skip right to the cheesecloth). I had 4 cups (1 litre) of grape juice at this point.

4. Pour grape juice into a thick-bottomed pot with a large diameter, preferably one with a light-colored bottom. Heat on medium to bring to a boil.

5. Continue simmering juice, skimming scum off the surface as it arises. Occasionally wipe down the edges of the pot with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar from sticking and burning.

6. Eventually scum will stop rising. Continue to simmer until several shades darker in color and bubbling vigorously. Syrup should still pour freely, and just barely coat the back of a spoon. I had just over 2/3 cup (160 mL) at this point.

7. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before pouring into a jar. Allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. If you want to keep the syrup for multiple months or at room temperature, use a sterilized jar.

Compost the grape peels, or reserve to make fruit scrap vinegar.

For the dish:

1. Set a large bowl out several hours into a heavy snowfall; or collect just the top layer of freshly fallen snow after it has been snowing for several hours. Snow that falls earlier in a snowfall, or that has been sitting out for a longer period of time, is more likely to contain pollutants.

2. Compact the snow with a spoon to make the texture homogenous. Some people run it through a blender. Fill individual serving bowls with snow.

3. Pour cooled molasses to taste onto the snow and mix.

[talonabraxas]

“Dionysus is the life-spirit of all green vegetation – ivy, pine tree and especially the vine; he is, in Dylan Thomas’ phrase, “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” — Sophocles Dionysus Talon Abraxas Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Semele, was a Greek god who represented the more spontaneous and unrestrained aspects of human experience. He was the god of wine, winemaking, fertility, music, dance, and inspiration, and was sometimes counted among the Twelve Olympians—the most important gods of the Greek pantheon.

The mythology and cult of Dionysus were often characterized by madness. Some sources claimed that Dionysus used his invention of wine to drive his enemies mad, while others said that Dionysus himself went mad. Said to have traveled far and wide, Dionysus was regarded as a bringer of civilization in the form of wine cultivation—with both positive and negative consequences. Dionysus was usually imagined as a youthful god. His most common attributes pertained to his function as the god of wine and intoxication; these included grapevines or grapes and a special kind of ivy-covered wand called a thyrsus.

In art, Dionysus was often shown holding a large wine cup. He was also associated with wild cats, especially leopards and panthers; ancient artists liked to depict him riding these exotic creatures. His entourage included mythical beings such as satyrs and silens and frenzied female worshippers called maenads.

Dionysus was worshipped throughout the Greek world, though the Greeks themselves thought of him as a foreign god imported from the East. The cult of Dionysus tended to revolve around ecstasy and intoxication; because of this, Dionysus was often viewed as a god who lived on the edge of civilization.

At the same time, Dionysus was worshipped as a god of culture and the arts. Indeed, it was at the annual festival of Dionysus in Athens that Greek tragedies and comedies—some of the most important literary creations of the ancient world—were performed in honor of Dionysus.

[mogruith]

OC Questions

Thanks for tagging me in your original post @ratchsellsfornax!! I also enjoyed your posting the answers to these for Micah! It took me a bit with a busy weekend and start to the work-week but I've finally ironed it out.

Anyway, on to the blabbing about my baby boy, Coranzan.

👕Appearance 7. Is there someone your character tries to look similar to?

Not exactly in looks per se, but Coranzan was inspired in many ways by a human bard lay-worshipper of Eilistraee he met while training as Cleric of Eilistraee, based loosely on my oldest OC and account namesake, Mog Ruith. He mentored Coranzan while he was in Clerical training and cheered him up with the grandest tales of romance and adventure, introducing him to many foreign concepts that would consume Coran to understand. It changed Coranzan from being somewhat dismayed about living on the surface to inspired and embracing of it.

📦Objects 14. Is there an item your character is embarrassed they own or want?

Coranzan has done a LOT of writing. And lot of it was frankly terrible until he received some of the aforementioned mentoring. Although he doesn't travel with them, his Waterdeep family home contains a chest full of many of his early drafts in attempting to write. They range from over-the-top ballads to cheesy puppy love letters. He keeps them with a mix of pride and embarrassment.

🍽️Food and Drink 10. What is a childhood meal your character cherishes?

As a common Menzoberranyr, he didn't have access to any rich foods, so nothing that would sound particularly special. But a simple bit of spore bread sweetened with the jam of cave vine grapes would be as a fancy and tasty dessert to him.

🌤️Weather and Nature 2. Has your character had a meaningful encounter with an animal?

Nothing terribly meaningful, but some of the rare still moments Coranzan enjoyed were when he was made to sit quietly and listen to the night - a challenge for someone constantly on the move. When given the time to focus and decompress, the sounds of night-singing songbirds (blackbirds, mockingbirds, nightingales, etc) would catch his attention the most. They would occasionally end up in some of his songs and poems, sometimes appearing as characters in his fictional ballads. During the quieter evenings, he loved to imagine the tales they could be telling in their songs.

🤝Community and Relationships 3. How comfortable would your character be singing and dancing in front of others?

Coranzan has always been a bard first and foremost in his heart, despite all the other life changes he's ever made. Since he was a sprog, he's his happiest with an audience and loves to perform. And true to his insufferable ego, he's quite proud of his form and knows he cuts a striking figure when he dances, so he engages in it at every chance.

💓Mind, Body and Soul 19. Are there scents your character dislikes?

Stealing this answer from another ask: The smell of exhaust and lubricants from machines and mechanical constructs like the Steel Watch. Coran hadn't encountered very many of these kind of creatures before, but encountering so many in Baldur's Gate resulted in a strong dislike of the smell.

🎲 Hobbies and Activities 3. What is a talent your character wishes they had?

Coranzan wishes he had a talent for comprehending mathematical concepts and solving such problems quickly. If it can't be understood intuitively, and has any abstractness to it at all, he can't envision the concept and make sense of it. Numbers, generally, give him a lot of trouble. He admires those who can seemingly do it all in their heads.

No pressure tagging @moriarfer @pavusprince @majorasnightmare @arach-tinilith @hootshooligan @the-weeping-dawn @albweado @mystxmomo @lutethebodies @nemo-of-house-hamartia @autisticdrizzt @bloodsol94 for whatever OC and fandom you feel these questions would fit best with!

If you are dying to talk about your OCs and we're mutuals, please don't feel shy about doing this and tagging me. I am nosey and love to read and reblog about other people's OCs.

[vormoranox]

A few toxic plants native to Southern Ontario, Canada

This is a series I'm playing with and these pieces will continue to get tweaked. And I'll be doing more.

About the plants:

Canada Moonseed: this is a climbing vine that can be mistaken for wild grape. Every part of the plant is toxic to consume. Kids have died from eating the berries. Unlike wild grape, moonseed does not have tendrils for climbing; there are also differences in the leaves (please don't take my diagram as 100% accurate in leaf anatomy though). The principle toxin in it is alkaloid dauricine, which is of the same family of paralytic toxins as the curare toxins used by South American tribes in warfare and hunting. Some birds do eat the berries.

Common milkweed: this beautiful plant is widespread and it's the only host plant for monarch caterpillars. As they eat it, they become toxic too, helping them avoid predation. The sap is toxic to mammals if consumed in large quantities and can irritate the eyes and skin. The primary toxins are cardiac glycosides. This and/or related species have also been harvested for warfare and hunting uses as well as medicinal uses of the sap. It's considered an agricultural pest because cattle will eat it and fall ill, but it's an important native species.

Pokeweed: this stunning weirdo forms thickets if left to thrive. Its berries are an important food source for birds, but again it is toxic to mammals. It contains several toxins of the triterpenes group as well as saponins. Every part of the plant is toxic, and can irritate your skin to touch. Some people do eat pokeweed leaves by boiling it several times and discarding the water in between. It can cause death by respiratory paralysis.

[aloesarchives]

If you don’t mind me asking, how did Yuuji and Nobara react to Megumi’s dad being the infamous Sorcerer Killer?

Yuuji and Nobara share the same reaction because they share the same brain cell lol.

When they first meet Toji, they thought he was a chill dude that happened to be a hot dad. Both of them knew where Megumi got his looks from. Their first impression of him was he wasn't so bad. They also met Toji on accident when they went to see Megumi at him and Reader's home. Toji answered the door in only a grey tank top and black sweats. Yuuji and Nobara were like "who is this hot dude at Fushiguro's house?!" Then Megumi pops up behind Toji before shoving him to the side to make way for his friends to come in.

But there were bits and pieces they picked on that knew he was different. Yuuji's main one was seeing how muscular Toji's body is when he saw him training in the courtyard when Megumi told him to come over to his house before they go into the city for a mission. Nobara's was Reader's vague and subtle statements that hinted at Toji's fighting abilities. But, like Megumi, they heard the through the grape vine about Toji's epithet but both couldn't see it because Toji never presents himself as intimidating around them.

It wasn't until they saw Megumi get single handedly cooked by Toji without breaking a sweat. That's when they knew Toji was the real deal. Then with the whole reveal Reader did about Toji's involvement in the star plasma vessel incident, it pretty much solidified Toji's deserving title. Especially when they found out how Toji defeated Suguru and Satoru, even killing Gojo at one point. Their special grade teachers, noted to be the strongest in Jujutsu society, were beaten by a man who possessed no curse energy nor technique.

Their reaction were both awe and shock. They weren't necessarily afraid of Toji. Mostly because that's Megumi's dad and Reader's husband, and by the looks of their family life Toji isn't abusive or evil towards them. In fact, they could tell that Toji was very present in Megumi's life, considering their constant banter and bickering. Additionally, Reader is like Toji's handler. So if he does try something, she'll get the spray bottle and spray it in his direction. And they KNOW Toji never talks back to Reader.

Anyways, they were shocked because they didn't know that Toji was capable of doing any of that. That and for an absolute unit of a man to be Megumi's father is surprising because him and Megumi act completely different to each other. The only thing they saw in common was their flat expressions and occasional grumpiness. They were in awe as well because he is powerful in his own right to be able to take down sorcerers with minimum scars.

They were mostly just shocked because he seems like a chill DILF who loves his wife and kids, not a person that killed people for sport. But when they heard everything that Toji's done in the past, Yuuji and Nobara just said "Okay, I can see that now. That makes sense." They are aware that Toji isn't purposely being deceptive towards them and what he did was in the past. They mostly just roast Megumi every now and then about being related to Toji. But not all the time out of respect for Megumi since Toji is his father and that's his family business.

Nobara: Still can't believe Fushiguro has a dad like that! Toji-san is super human and Fushiguro is. . . well, Fushiguro. . .

Yuuji: Kugisaki! We can't say that about Fushiguro-kun like that! But then again, Toji-san did bag (L/N)-Sensei so maybe he got rizz.

Nobara: If you think Fushiguro got rizz for being an blunt anti-social person, you must be smooth brain, Itadori!

Megumi: Will you two just quit it?! Stop talking about my old man like that, he isn't all that! Plus, it's the other way around. Out of the two, my mom has the most rizz. She rizzed up my dad so hard he became a stay-at-home dad and husband. My mom literally domesticated my dad! Get your facts right, you two!

[friendlyloveaffair]

The plants in our little deck garden are pretty interesting.

Fig (success!!! Lol)

Mulberries

Calamansi (local lime) - this is common in our country

Kumquat (finally it bears some fruit) - this is the citrus fruit whose rind is sweet and can be eaten (once ripe) while its pulp is sour and acidic.

Pomegranate. This fruiting branch spills onto the neighboring roof. The tree is growing taller now.

Basil flowers. This means it's the onset of the plant's final stage. Within these flowers are the seeds. Once dried, you can pop the seeds out of the flowers. I remember using these seeds as a topping for my garlic basil bread that I baked.

I guess it's time to gather the leaves before the plants die.

Rosemary. I couldn't believe they'd grow from such a small cutting (from a plant I bought three years ago).

Flowering tomato plants. I hope they'll bear fruits this time. It's still tomato season, right?

Bushes of wild raspberry (we call it "sampinit") but I dunno if they will bear any fruit. But at least they don't die out. They usually thrive in the mountains and highlands (we live on the hills but it's still hot here).

Grape and passion fruit vines intertwining each other haha.

This is sort of experimental gardening since some plants we grow are not native.

[flowerishness]

Helleborus (hellebore, Christmas rose)

It's fast approaching the end of hellebore season and, as the common name Christmas rose implies, this is another cheerful winter-blooming flower. The hellebores have had a tough time in Vancouver this year. After a very mild winter, on January 12 the temperature suddenly fell to - 14.4 C (6 F) followed by more than 30 cm (1 ft) of snow. All the snow melted and three days later it was gone but the damage was already done.

Believe me, the local plants did not enjoy this 'extreme weather event'. We have brown foliage and heavy leaf drops all over town. Laurels and rhododendrons have been particularly hard hit and provincial grape vines will produce no fruit this year. Considering all this bad news the hellebores have done surprisingly well. Not to worry, time marches on and spring is well under way. Next stop, daffodil season. I can hardly wait!