bumblebeeappletree - Tumblr blog

[bumblebeeappletree]

[bumblebeeappletree]

message to all bitches

please survive

[bumblebeeappletree]

“Did you know the Italians have 200 different words for pasta?”

[bumblebeeappletree]

┊┊┊┊⋆ ✧　 　 · 　 ✧　✵ ┊┊┊☆ 　　 ⋆ ┊┊★ * the stars and the universe love you ┊┊ . 　✦ ┊☆ ° ✧　 　 · ★*

[bumblebeeappletree]

[bumblebeeappletree]

Listen if the study of ancient humans doesn’t make you at least a little bit emotional idk what to say.

I started crying today at the museum because they had reconstructed the shoes of Otzi the iceman.

Either he or someone he knew who cared about him made these shoes out of grass and bear skin and twine and he was wearing them when he died over five thousand years ago.

And a Czech researcher and his students did reconstructions of these shoes and wore them to the same place where he died to test them out and they were like yep! These shoes are really cozy and comfy and didn’t give us blisters while hiking!

Is that not just the coolest shit ever????

[bumblebeeappletree]

Stable electricity is essential to patient care, enabling health workers to run medical devices like heart monitors, quickly heat water to disinfect surgical tools, and refrigerate medications and vaccines.

Electricity has been one of the major challenges for health centers in Masisea and Iparia, rural communities in the Amazon rainforest, reachable only by boat. More than 12,000 people live in these communities, representing 87 indigenous groups, such as the Asháninka and the Shipibo-Konibo.

The panels installed by Socios En Salud store this energy in a battery, ensuring electricity is available even on cloudy days. As part of its efforts to strengthen health systems sustainably and for the long term, Socios En Salud trained clinic staff on how to maintain the solar panels and their batteries.    Ever since the panels were installed, they’ve been powering the health centers in more ways than one.    “Now, patient demand is more regular,” says Mónica Córdoba Macuy, an obstetrician at Masisea Health Center. “Before it was not much.”    The stable, 24/7 electricity supplied by the solar panels has directly impacted care for at least 1,200 patients in Masisea.    “Now that they’ve put in solar panels for 24-hour lighting, that helped us a lot,” says Vázquez. “It’s the first time in my life since I was born that I’ve seen lights 24 hours a day.” 

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Ecuador's Nunalabs crafts premium plant extracts to benefit indigenous communities sustainably

At Nunalabs, we intertwine our work with ancestral wisdom and traditions. Our sourcing is deeply rooted in long-term trade relationship with indigenous communities throughout Ecuador tapping into the richness of wild crafted and organic products.

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I'm honestly not sure how to go about spreading optimism. Social media, the news, and sometimes your peers make everything seem bleak as hell. But really, things are improving little by little. It's kinda reflective of my own life. There are dips and potholes, but it's generally been getting better. I don't know about everyone's individual situation, but in a more zoomed put perspective, it's more of an 80/20 split. I'd lie to encourage positive lines of thinking, but I have no idea how to do that.

For now, though, have a chicken orb.

[bumblebeeappletree]

So You Want to be Solarpunk?

If your neighborhood has a vacant lot, get some neighbors together and turn it into a community garden.

Organize a block party.

Create a maker space enabling folks to repair, repurpose, and swap their old stuff.

Organize a bunch of plant-savvy neighbors to help folks convert their yards from resource hungry yuppie lawns into something sustainable that fits the local biome.

Get a few friends together and clean up the trash on the streets. Make sure to recycle.

Set up Little Free Libraries and Little Free Pantries.

Get tool-savvy neighbors together to help folks with needed household repairs and upgrades.

The punk in solarpunk is about resistance to the alienation and consumer culture that makes our communities unsustainable and our environments toxic.

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Another attempt at some sashiko! This one is in the same thigh-rubbing spot as previous, but on a different set of jean shorts. Given how much I have to wrangle patches in this particular spot, I'm genuinely tempted to just put one in right as I buy the pants, maybe with some cute fabric so it's gradually revealed?

I'm about halfway done here, and you can tell just how much drawing out the grid (in this case, with lines every quarter-inch) helped me get the pattern I was aiming for much more effectively than the last one, where I was freehanding the lines.

Originally, the plan with this one was to have all the zig-zags point the same way, but honestly? I kinda dig the tiered waterfall vibe on this one more! Quite the improvement, in comparison to the one previous, I'd say, and that all comes down to technique.

I really enjoy the process of sashiko mends, it's very satisfying to load up a few straight stitches onto the needle just so where they need to be, then smooth out the fabrics they pin together, over and over. Very meditative, which makes it a good way to keep the hands busy while listening to a podcast! (Like, say, my podcast, Paper Cuts, perhaps? :3) plus, after you're done, you get to return a piece of clothing to use you would have lost otherwise! Isn't that a delight on its own?

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hello. to anyone who’s into gardening and such (especially if you’re in the us): i encourage you to check out r/seedswap! i used to do a lot of trading there. basically you just agree to trade specific seeds with someone and then you send the seeds in a letter envelope.

important note: i have never been scammed on there personally but it has happened to others. be careful out there lol

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Foraging

Monday I picked dandelions and violets to experiment with flower-flavored syrups. It was time-consuming, but I just felt like trying something new. I have done violet jelly before, although the results were mediocre.

The first step after separating the petals from the greens was to pour boiling water over each kind and let them sit for a day. The violets had a greenish-blue extract by evening, and by morning it had settled into a deep blue. I tried adding a couple of drops of lemon juice, which shifted it to blue-purple. Violets have the same pigment, anthocyanin, as red cabbage, and it is pH sensitive. I am curious why my tap water (from a well) would have a pH of 9(ish), but I'll go ahead and blame limestone.

I cooked the dandelion first, adding sugar equal to the amount of liquid (1.25 cups). I cooked it for a while and then bottled it when it seemed like it had thickened up (the bubbles start to PLOP instead of 'pop', if that makes sense).

Here it is, compared with honey. The color is virtually the same!

Then I started with the violet. As I heated it, the color shifted BACK to greenish-blue. I added a little more lemon juice, and it ended up weirdly purple from some angles and blue from others, depending on how the light hit it. It's also DARK, too dark for me to photograph and show you much color. When it cooled down it a) turned a steely blue-grey and b) crystalized.

That. that is NOT what I was going for. It also doesn't really taste like anything. Just 'sweet'. Drat.

[bumblebeeappletree]

Let's look at some backyards in my neighbourhood. This one is ours:

Not the greenest, very tame, but I'm working on it.

This one is a few streets over, and I think it's amazing:

There is so much green, and stuff for children to play on, and benches to sit for the parents, and the trees are cherry apple trees I harvested last autumn, and even the garbage tons have their own green enclave. I love this backyard.

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And because I have already collected them on my walk yesterday, have a few more impressions of my neighbourhood.

It is another empty lot at a big street, probably where I am going to replant the hazelnut saplings that are growing outside my front door.

This one is a slow-drive zone around the corner from a school, only 30 km/h allowed:

This is the apple quince bush where me and my friend harvested a lot of quinces from back in autumn. It grows in the public space of one of the three Kleingärten-Anlagen in walking distance from my flat.

The next picture is an interesting construction, where the parking space for cars is in the middle of a very wide road, flanked by a line of trees on each side. We have a few of those in my city that I know of, but I have no idea why they exist.

Found this rough looking patch of guerilla gardening around the corner from this street. The sign reads: 'Dear bikers and dog owners, this is a planted patch, please respect it. Thank you.'

And a few steps down the street:

It's a box for electric switches for internet and things on a street, with 'Love for all' in German graffitied on it, and the anarchy symbol under it.

[bumblebeeappletree]

In this bonus chat, Ariel and Christina talk about the 1984 Studio Ghibli film - and solarpunk inspo par excellence - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Does the film live up to its significant reputation and deserve its cred? Is Nausicaä a solarpunk role model, or is this more of a princess-on-a-mission-style of legend? Tune in as we discuss this and more!

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