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Lily Evans

I had some thoughts about Lily and just decided that Ms Evans had a beautiful garden and Lily shared this passion for plants with her, herbology was Lily's favourite subject. When she was younger she actually became interested in pressing flowers and planned on being a florist when she discovered that one of her mum's friends was a florist, though this was only when she was young and Lily soon grew out of this idea.

I also though that Lily was not a fairytale kind of kid. Lily ditched Roald Dhal for Lovecraft. She had a slightly morbid obsession with ghost stories and when she discovered ghosts were real, she studied them in depth.

When joining hogwarts, Lily's interests in ghosts and ghouls only strengthened. She often would ask ghosts in the castle morbid questions and soon she grew a fascination for peeves as she tried to understand the mystery of poltergeists, their existence and creation.

Her love for plants and horror cultivated an interest in poisonous plants which she had a scarily extensive knowledge of. I imagine such knowledge may have been helpful in potions.

[ericainafurcoat]

Peter Pettigrew

People say Peter was a coward with little intelligence or power, who joined voldemort out of cowardice and fear. They say the sorting hat was wrong and he should've been in Slytherin. He is one of the most hated characters and often wiped out from the Marauders entirely.

But I think people haven't taken a moment to consider Peter Pettigrew as anything beyond Harry's opinions of him. We see Peter through Harry's eyes and Harry rightfully despises him. But Harry also hated Bellatrix, the Malfoys, Barty Crouch Jr ect

If people can sympathise with characters who have done far worse than Peter then why can't they try to understand him.

Peter was not a coward. He spied on Dumbledore and betrayed his friends, which takes incredible bravery. Snape is considered "the bravest man" that Harry ever knew for essentially doing the same as Peter. Peter was a spy who put his life at risk much the same as Snape did, yet people praise Snape's bravery and call Peter a coward. Peter faced the voldemort knowing he had upset him, something which some other deatheaters were too cowardly to do.

Peter was powerful. Peter was an illegal animagus as a teenager which is an incredible feat of magic. Furthermore, Peter blew up a street of 12 muggles and then successfully faked his own death for over a decade. He gave voldemort a new body with very powerful and dark magic. So how can people say he had little magic ability and therefore hid behind powerful people who could protect him?

Peter was intelligent. He successfully spied on Dumbledore who is considered one of the most powerful and intelligent wizards of his age. No-one suspected Peter because he was clever enough to not be suspicious. Sirius considered Remus, but never suspected Peter.

We don't know why Peter joined voldemort. Perhaps it was cowardice and fear, but that makes little sense by itself. If he is a coward, wouldn't he have tried to escape the war entirely? Joining voldemort would only put him in more danger. Perhaps voldemort saw Peter's intelligence and power, he could have asked Peter to join him. Peter could have been pressured into joining voldemort. Think about it, Peter's family is never mentioned. Perhaps voldemort threatened Peter's family, and given the choice between family and friends, Peter chose his family. Perhaps Peter's own wellbeing was threatened. We will never know, but speculation can always go beyond "he's just a coward".

The sorting hat was not wrong. The hat recognised Peter's slytherin traits but understood his bravery trumped them. Peter was shrewd, atleast before being a rat for 12 years which probably impacted him mentally. Self-preservation is Peter's thing. Giving voldemort a body was all for self-preservation. Peter knew the other deatheaters would happily kill him and voldemort was not pleased with him. Giving voldemort a body meant he might be forgiven which would protect him at the very least in short-term. Peter's patronus also hold's alot of slytherin traits. However, every single thing that Peter does which showcase his slytherinn traits require immense bravery, which the hat recognised. Besides, most people who say Peter should have been in slytherin say so because they dislike him, not because they recognise his slytherin traits.

Peter should not be wiped out from the Marauders. In edits, fanfictions and basically everything, people try to erase Peter. Peter was one of the marauders and he was close friends with them. That's why his betrayal was so painful and shocking. Peter is said to have been around the boys growing up by other characters and when he is confronted in the shrieking shack, Sirius and Remus say that Peter shouldn't have betrayed them and Sirius said "I would rather die than betray my friends" which shows how close Peter was to them.

You don't have to like Peter, but it frustrates me that people misunderstand his character so much. It also strikes me as odd that Peter has so few fans.

Consider this, people sympathise many deatheaters. Bellatrix is often justified through people saying she was abused as a child, she's seen to be mentally deranged after azkaban, and people say that voldemort groomed her. Barty Crouch Jr is often justified through his father neglecting him, seeing voldemort as a father figure and being very young and impressionable when he first met voldemort. Snape is often justified through child abuse and being bullied. People even try to justify Tom riddle. Characters who have tortured people, slaughtered thousands, done every awful thing you could think of, are somehow seen as more sympathetic than someone who betrayed his friends for unknown reasons and only commits violence when it is necessary for his survival.

What's one thing all the characters above have in common?

They're considered attractive.

We don't know what Peter's childhood, family or school years were like. We don't know how young and vulnerable he was when he met voldemort. We don't know if he was pressured by family to join voldemort as we know nothing about his family.

Nobody gives Peter any characterization or story of his own. The only headcannon that i've heard of about Peter is that he's asexual which again relates to the fact that fans don't find him attractive.

This is all so frustrating.

[ericainafurcoat]

Copper Butterflies

This is by no means all Copper butterflies as I believe there are sixteen species at the very least.

Number one : Large Copper

The picture above is a male. Females have slightly less bright orange background colour to the forewings, with dark spots and a border. The underside of the wings are grey and spotted.

This species was once widespread among Europe but has become increasingly scarce in central and eastern Europe. In western Europe, it still persists in scattered populations in France and the Netherlands. The British form was once fairly widespread in the wetlands of East Anglia, but has been extinct ever since 1864.

It inhabits various types of wetland, including fens and marshes, wet meadows, and borders of lakes and rivers. In the fens of Eastern England, it was associated with traditional practices of peat and reed-cutting, but it became extinct in the middle of the nineteenth century as these practices died out and the fens were drained for arable agriculture.

Attempts to introduce the similar Dutch subspecies to England were successful for quite long periods, while conservation management in the Netherlands seems to have atleast halted the decline of the butterfly.

Number two : Small Copper

The underside of the wings are pale and scattered with darker spots. Whilst the picture above has black spots, others may have blue spots.

This butterfly is one of the most familiar and widespread of all butterflies in Europe, strangely it is not seen in large parts pf central Sweden and Norway, but its quite widespread further north. In Britain and Ireland, they are found everywhere except the uplands of northern England and Scotland.

They find home in dry grassland and heaths with well-drained soils. They are also found on coastal dunes, worked-out sand quarries, roadside verges and urban brownfield sites, usually sparsely vegetated with patches of bare ground.

Males perch prominently and actively challenge passing insects, including females of their own species, which they pursue with a very rapid flight. Females are less active, and lay their eggs on food plants of their caterpillars, either common sorrel or sheep's sorrel, depending on availability.

Number three : Purple-edged Copper

The picture above is a male. Females are brown with vague areas of dull orange towards the middle of the forewings and rows of faint dark spots. The underside of the wing is grey with black spots and a band of orange.

This butterfly is widespread in suitable habitats throughout most of Europe. However, it is not found in Britain, Ireland and northern France.

They favour damp, flowery meadows where the food plants of its caterpillars (sorrel and various docks) grow. Like many meadow species, it is threatened by the spread of intensive agriculture, especially in lowlands.

Number four : Violet Copper

The picture above is female. Females have slightly more purple than their male counterparts.

This rare and beautiful species has only scattered populations in Western Europe, but is more widespread in central and northern Europe, extending northwards to central Sweden , Norway and Finland. It is absent from Britain and Ireland.

It inhabits humid meadows, moist glades, and open banks along streams and bogs in woodland, where the food of the caterpillars grow in abundance. They settle, often with wings open, on leaves of bistort, or take nectar from its flowers.

The females lay their eggs on leaves of bistort or alpine bistort in the north of their range. These butterflies emerge in May, and can be seen until the middle of June. This species is seriously threatened throughout Europe due to drainage and changes in forestry management.

Number five : Purple-shot Copper

This butterfly has several distinct form is different parts of Europe, but the typical form of males in the northern part of its range looks like the picture above with the orange background and black spots, all suffused with violet scales.

It is widespread in southern, central and eastern Europe, but is absent from or vary rare in the north-west. It reaches the northern limit in the Baltic states, where it is very localised. It is absent from Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia.

It inhabits flower-rich meadows, sheltered hollows in hillsides and sometimes open woodland clearings and roadside verges. These butterflies are active, taking nectar from meadow flowers such as ox-eye daisy, and fly in one annual generation from June to the end of July. The caterpillars feed on leaves of sorrels aswell as other plants in the dock family, and have strong associations with ants.

Number six : Sooty Copper

The picture above is a male. Females tend to be similar to males but usually have a more prominent orange border. The underside wing ground colour is fawn or slightly yellowish-brown with black spots, and a black-bordered row of orange lunules along the wing borders. Their wing shape is distinctive with a rather pointed tip to hindwing and relatively narrow forewings, especially in males. Their appearance is quite variable, tending to be darker further north and at high altitudes.

They are widespread and common in most of Europe, reaching north to Denmark and the Baltic states, and apparently now extending its range northwards into southern Finland. It is absent from the rest of Scandanavia, Britain and Ireland.

They're found in dry meadows, open glades in woodland, scrubland and other flowery places where the caterpillars food plant grows. There are just two flight periods, from mid-May to mid-June and again from mid-July to early September. Their eggs and laid on sorrel and probably other plants in the dock family.

[ericainafurcoat]

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper

This is my baby, the eastern lubber grasshopper. Their scientific name is romalea microptera though their common names are quite interesting too. In the black adult colour phase, they are widely known as black diablo and in Louisiana, they are known as the devils horse. Colloquially they are also sometimes known as the graveyard grasshopper.

The name I know it by, the eastern lubber grasshopper, is due to its clumsy and slow movement. It mostly travels by walking feebly, linking to 'lubber' which which is derived from an old English word 'lobre' meaning lazy or clumsy. In modern times, it is normally only used by seafarers, who call people inexperienced on boats 'landlubbers'.

It has several defense strategies, the first being its brightly coloured pattern that varies from pale yellow to orange with black spots to black with yellow detailing, which warns predators that its emits a foul-smelling gas from its thorax when disturbed. It also lets off a loud hissing sound.

The eastern lubber grasshoppers only natural predator is the loggerhead shrike, a nasty cruel bird that decapitates them and then impales their carcasses on thorns or barbed wire fences so the sun can bake out the toxins before mealtime. I would love to decapitate a loggerhead shrike and impale its carcass, however unlike a loggerhead shrike, I have dignity and a merciful nature.

There are some lovely animals which prey on the loggerhead shrike for me : snakes who will attack them and eat their eggs, crows and magpies, larger birds generally and domestic cats who kill billions of shrike a year. Good kitties.

The loggerhead shrike cruelly breaks the neck of mice and brutally slaughters frogs, lizards, beetles and crickets. Shrikes grasp mice by the neck with their pointed beak, pinch the spinal chord to induce paralysis and then vigorously shake their prey with enough force to break its neck. They are sometimes known as 'butcherbirds' due to their violent nature. Fortunately, the loggerhead population has declined by more than 80% since the 1960s, possibly due to pesticides killing their insect prey.

On that note, as much as I adore lubber grasshoppers, they are garden pests. Although they can defoliate entire plants, more typically, they defoliate only regions of plants, eating holes or portions of leaves instead of stripping them bare. Because of this behaviour, lubber grasshoppers can be pests of ornamental or vegetable gardens, especially when they gather together. What can I say, my babies have slightly mischievous tendencies to ruin gardens.

Unfortunately eastern lubber grasshoppers are often seen in biology classrooms for dissection due to being big bois as they grow up to 3 inches which is larger than other grasshoppers.

Also, grasshoppers are just so cool. Grasshoppers are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic period around 250 million years ago. They can also jump 20 times the length of their own body. Strangely, their auditory organs are found on their abdomen rather than their head.

[ericainafurcoat]

Lily Evans

One thing that really frustrates me is that Lily Evans is always considered in relation to another character, whether that is being a mother, a sister or girlfriend/wife. So on the rare occasion that Lily is actually given some characterization, its almost always considering how someone could be attracted to her, or theorizing that this where Harry got a specific thing from ect.

The Marauders fandom is almost 90% made by the fans. People are invested in Pandora, Dorcas Meadows, Marlene ect but nobody cares for Lily. If I type up Lily on tumblr, sure I get a few posts of Lily but alot relate to shipping ect and some of them don't even have lily in them.

People have recently complained about this fandom's treatment of female characters, which I understand, but has anyone considered that Lily desperately needs to become an individual.

Jily is nice, sure, but has anyone considered that this limits Lily's character even though it shouldn't. Even Marylily, which i love, still considers Lily in relation to other characters. I think Lily needs to be considered as an individual for once.

If I were to ask fans about Regulus or James, there'd be plenty to say. If I ask about Lily I usually just get a couple of ships thrown at me which focus more on the other character involved.

What about Lily's personality? Her childhood? What did she want to do with her future? Nobody knows because nobody has bothered to sit down and give Lily her own story.

I think the fandom's attitude towards Lily is quite sexist in its consideration of her. I think if people want to stop female characters being sidelined, it starts with lily needing to taken as an individual.

[ericainafurcoat]

Violet Carpenter Bee

So, this is the violet carpenter bee which sprung a huge argument in my groupchat. I showed an image of this bee and accidently started a debate about whether its wings were blue or purple. What do you think?

The violet carpenter bee is about three times the size of the biggest bumblebee measuring atleast 25mm in length but appearing rather larger in flight. Despite its size being slightly intimidating, it is not aggressive and unlikely to sting you.

As large bees, it is proposed that they are effective pollinators of poricidal flowers as they touch the stigma while buzzing flowers and remove more pollen per visit.

In the past century it has occasionally strayed to Britain, and has made one or two unsuccessful breeding attempts, but in 2007 it became established. A colony was set up and thriving in a dead Bramley apple tree. in the garden of a retired couple near Leicester.

The reason, almost certainly, is climate change which has seen insects from continental Europe moving north into Britain.

The range of violet carpenter bees extends from Europe across to Asia as far as central China. In India, any all-black species of xylocopa are reffered to as bhanvra and sightings of bhanvra are often mistaken for this species.

In 2006, the violet carpenter bee was reported from Wales and in 2007 it was found to be breeding in England for the first time. A northwards expansion of its range followed in aFrance, Germany and the Channel islands.

So the Xylocopa Violacea (the violet carpenter bee) is the most common European species of carpenter bee and one of the largest bees in Europe. It is native to Asia and like most Xylocopa, it nests in dead wood.

They hibernate over winter and emerge in spring around April or May. The adults hibernate in wood with abandoned nest tunnels. In late spring or early summer, they may be seen searching for mates and suitable nesting sites. During this time there is tremendous competition between males to mate with females, with males sometimes attempting to disrupt couples in flight. I will not give the details of mating, however I did find an image of a male holding a females antennae during the act so do with that information what you will.

The violet carpenter bee is univoltine (having one generation and one flight period per year) and like other xylocopa species, average female fecundity is very low with only 7-8 eggs per nest. Like other solitary bees, the female creates the nest alone. The name 'xylocopa' is derived from Greek and means 'woodworker' which seems fitting to the nesting habits of the species. After mating, the females make tunnels in dead wood, which is where the name "carpenter bee" came from, although old nest tunnels can be used. Nest cell partitions are also created in the tunnels from chewed wood fragments. The eggs are laid within a series of small cells, each of which is supplied with a pollen ball for larvae to feed on.

Violet Carpenter bees are very similar to Xylocopa valga (the splay-footed carpenter). When comparing females, a microscope would be needed however the difference in males is easily visible due to male violet carpenter bees having a reddish tinge at the tip of their antennae.

The violet carpenter bee is polylectic and forages wisteria, lavender, peach blossom and Sweetpea among other plants. This bee falls into the short-tongued category and as with other carpenter bee species, they are known to buzz pollinate.

Buzz pollination occurs when bees use sonification (vibrations) to release pollen from flower anthers as some flowers may be poricidal, meaning that without sonification, they do not give up pollen easily. Their value and impact due to their use of sonification being highly effective at pollinating a large range of flowers and crops has been assessed in commercial farming.

For those who don't understand the difference between short and long tongued bees, the tongue of a bee has four segments which are roughly the same length in short-tongued bees but for long-tongued bees, the first two segments are longer than the second two. In short-tongued bees, the tongue is stout and a much shorter straw is formed and bees with this tongue tend to mop or dab at nectar stores rather than suck them up.

Anyways, back to the colour debate. The bee is named as such for many reasons, however the violet aspect seems to apply to its wings. So the real question is if violet is a shade of blue or purple.

[ericainafurcoat]

Quotes from a friend

someone says theirs something on their hands, friend dramatically stares at hand "What have I done? What did I do? Who did I kill" - it was ink

me talking about #im14andthisisdeep, my friend says "no I'm 14 and deep in your dad" - its not even funny but you bet I giggled

"Is this why my poetry sounds so emo? Does everything I say have emo connotations? Do my words have undertones of spilled blood?" - I think this quote sums up why their poetry sounds so depressing

In class, my friend analysed a quote "So his 'infinite sadness' means he's very sad and he's a 'prisoner' because he's hopeless" - ah yes, I'm sure he's very sad, understatement of the year

after me mocking my friend for all of the above, they say "I have taken a vow of silence so that my words will never be twisted" - the vow lasted less than five minutes

nevertheless, this friend is absolutely amazing despite, or perhaps because of, all of the above