emeraldlabyrinth

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Introducing

Andante

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Introducing

Key

I thought it was about time to get a new betta. Key is from a small, privately owned fish store in Lexington, KY, called Most Valuable Pets. This is also where Vibrato, Staccato, Bell, and Harmony came from. I have been happy with the quality of their fish thus far and I know he puts a lot of effort into trying to find different kinds of quality fish. Hopefully, he lives a long happy life here in the Musicorum.

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Vibrato just wanted to say "hi"

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Introducing

Ballad the Second

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Introducing

Symphony

Good grief, these little guys are hard to take pictures of

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Update

First, I would like to apologize for not giving you all an update sooner. I had to make a lot of very big decisions this year and work harder than I have ever had to before. Hopefully, this all will set my future up for success, and that makes me happy. Emeraldlabyrinth's online bookstore will never be coming back. Except for a couple of individuals, no one really bought books from it. So it is not really worth keeping around until Emerald Labyrinth's in-person store opens up. Even then, I don't think I want it to sell books online, but rather it will give information on Emerald Labyrinth, have an event calendar, and a way to register for an event, as well as resume Emerald Labyrinth's main blog. The other big news is that Staccato and a member of Harmony have died as well. They got sick after Ballad died. I presume since I was on vacation and my pet sitter told me the day I got back that he died. His body may have been in there for a while and made the water quality bad. I got the water parameters back to a safe level, but I think it was just too much Staccato, and that little fella from Harmony. I have gotten some new members for the Musicorum, and they are really awesome. I believe I will be ready to give them all introductions sometime tomorrow.

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Let's read together?

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Where the Wizard's Tale Ends

Ballad the Magical Wizard has been on this journey with me from the very beginning. And, has magically outlived every other creature around him. His time, though, has unfortunately come to an end. I have some pretty amusing moments to remember him by, and I do have to say. For a snail, he was an awfully good little fella to have around. I will have to find a worthy successor for our wonderful little magical wizard.

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Sooo, you spontaneously decided to accept a marriage proposal from a man much, much older than you, whom you have only met once? Then you disobeyed your parents, sneaking out to wander about the night. Only to discover a thief trying to steal a boat, and then! You tried to stop him, only to be dragged out onto the water with him. And then! By his mercy, he decides to let you travel with him till he no longer needs the boat. And then! You decided you have fallen in love with the man, telling him you can assist him in his journey. What could possibly go wrong…

This was the beginning of the most uniquely amusing, heartwarming, and impressively sad story I have read thus far. It has earned its right to live on my bookshelf to be read and lent out to people whom I like. You may find time has made this story rich, and its point as true as an element. 

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Time is always passing. Often passing smoothly, sometimes passing harshly. But always passing by and by. You can learn something new every minute of the day and still be clueless fool. Who or what is a loving and kind person whose been dulled by the edge of time? Till their mind can see horrors and not have the sense to realize what they are seeing. When is it not your problem? And, whose job is it to fix this? I would say this story, is more about what is happening around this girl than the girl herself. The people who hurt her, the people who take her in, the people who left her. It was a good read and it reminds you to take note of what you can do with your own life and that nothing is without meaning.

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While I was in Lexington, KY, visiting Black Swan Books, I also went by a cafe/plant shop called Michler's Greenhouse. Now, this place was a sight to behold. I definitely would like to come back eventually and talk with the owner (and maybe buy a plant).

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I Finally Did It!

For quite some time, I have been working on talking to booksellers to create videos. This will be the first one I am actually publishing to YouTube. I realize I have been taking so long to publish the video because I find the quality to be poor and embarrassing. But I have come to realize it is much more shameful to say your going to do something and never do it just because you aren't perfect. If you have any recommendations on how to improve Emerald Labyrinth's content, or have video ideas that you think would be cool for Emerald Labyrinth to do. Feel free to leave a comment; I will try to read and respond to everyone.

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Trimmed two of my aquariums and got a decent pic of my plant corner in my apartment

This is becoming a really zen area of my apartment that is so nice to spend time in. My cats also love to sit up on the table and look at the fishies

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Book pic with my dahlias 🥰 . . .

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Happy Earth Day

Plankton by Christian Sardet This is a fantastic book. When I first started reading it, I did not quite understand how many creatures are considered plankton. The term plankton is actually a really broad description. The author is also great about not getting in too deep but still being very informative and entertaining.

The Book of Life by Stephen Jay Gould Disclaimer: I keep saying I really want to read this book, but haven't actually gotten around to reading it. It is hard to find a dinosaur book that isn't for kids. This book has stunning art work and good pictures and diagrams to help you understand information. It is also not overrun by pictures and art. It has a pretty nice picture-to-word ratio.

Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier If I were to choose only one set of gardening books in the world to have. This would be it. It is split into two volumes and is the size of a textbook, and costs as much as one too. The name describes it perfectly; these two books are all about how to make an edible forest.

Grow Your Soil by Daine Miessler This is a pretty quick and easy read that is very informative and interesting.

How Animals Heal Themselves by Caroline Ingraham I recently discovered this one through talking with another bookseller. She said this was an awesome book and was recommending it to a lot of people. The title was interesting enough to get me intrigued, and it has great ratings.

Rodale's 21st-Century Herbal by Andrew Weil and Michael J. Balick I can't remember why I picked up this book. I wasn't actually interested in herbs. It was great that I did pick it up, though, because it is a great read. It's kind of fun because it talks about a wide variety of uses of the herbs, how plants have affected modern medicine, and some of the strange and interesting beliefs some people have or had in using herbs.

If you would like to check out what Emerald Labyrinth has in stock, you can find me at Emeraldlabyrinth.com

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I gave up on my plans for a red scape and green fish lmao as soon as I realized that I needed dense floaters for the fish...which limits the amount of light I can get to the plants....and well, my red guys got REAL leggy in a week.

On top of that, my mother in law has bestowed upon me the meanest bastard fish I have ever plunked into a tank. The very moment he was freed from plastic bag prison, he turned immediately to crimes [hunting/chasing my shrimp and eating EVERY SNAIL].

So please meet Hugh Jassole.

I hate him, so he's gonna live for a decade out of sheer spite. He's perfect👍

His giant fins are a huge drag on him tho, he struggles with them more than any other betta I've cared for...So that meant planting some new furnishings...he needs leaves that are rubust enough for him to sit on so I went ahead and got some for him.

There are anubias in the back that hopefully should grow nice and tall as well and give him some nice little shelves to chill on.

I really missed having a betta...there's something just very nice and soothing about watching them.

EDIT: WRONG BLOG this was supposed to go on @bee-menagerie aaaaaa ah well.......enjoy ur random fishpost I GUESS

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Ballad the Magical Wizard