#Virginia willow

[faguscarolinensis]

Itea virginica / Virginia Sweetspire at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[souplover-69]

inside view of an uncompleted cooling tower at Willow Island, WV where the scaffolding collapsed, 1978

[vandaliatraveler]

Where it narrows and plummets through a steep gorge at Valley Falls State Park, the Tygart Valley River has broken the Connoquenessing sandstone through which it passes into massive, jumbled slabs. In the margins of these wrecked pillars, where sediment and fine sand wash out, a great diversity of life has sprung up. The river is both destroyer and creator, more powerful and relentless than any god man has dreamed up.

From top: royal fern (Osmunda regalis var. spectabilis), a water-loving beauty that clumps in the nooks between the boulders; the elegant tassel rue (Trauvetteria carolinensis), with its sharply-lobed, palmate leaves; yellow star grass (Hypoxis hirsuta), whose six-petaled flowers and delicate, grass-like leaves are quite attractive; American water willow (Justicia americana), whose creeping rhizomes allow the plant to form extensive colonies at the edges of streams and rivers; silky dogwood (Cornus amomum), a thicket-forming wetlands lover; and ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron), easily identified by its brown stem.

[kaynineacademy]

i wrote about you before i knew you. that faceless figure creeping into every stanza i’d craft, every page i’d leave stained with lead. i wrote about your hair and your eyes and your smile. i wrote about how you’d wander into my life and suddenly summer would be that tiniest bit brighter. i wrote about how you’d listen to me talk and compliment my handwriting. i wrote about you for so many years and yet you leaving still hurt like a bullet wound. there was only one ending to our story, and you wove it into existence. i don’t know whether to thank or resent you.

[moominvalley-state-of-mind]

in honor of the wild robot movie coming out this fall,

couldn''t put more, but some honerable mentions:

wind in the willows

watership down

honestly, theres probably more lmao :P

!!PLEASE RB!!

[aesthetic--mood]

Pocahontas Aesthetic (Disney)

[swankpalanquin]

To the Mole

Little digger, dirt delver, I watched you scramble over Wet bricks, soon to the safe shrubs, Unseeing swimmer of soil To what treasures do you tread? A wriggling worm, ringed and writhing, A soft slug covered in silt?

Oh, Mole, your brother by the river Tossed all work for the waters And yet still felt the call of home. After so long, do you? I would be your heart friend To have quiet adventures. Shake the rain from your pelt, The last drops of a passing cloud. Come out from under the flowers, For I am lonely And long for a companion.

[bibaybe]

top songs on my oc playlists

virginia - bay - sun-hi - emika - willow - faith

taglist: @wordspin-shares @ocappreciationtag @eddysocs @foxesandmagic @veetlegeuse

[saytrtiara]

Mary-Sue: Well, have you heard of World United's campaign to bring peace to Simnation?

Virginia: Why don't you tell me about it haha

[elijones94]

🍃🍂 Pocahontas knows how to hide among the tall grass. I based this on an original animation drawing by Tom Bancroft. 🌲🌳

[faguscarolinensis]

Physocephala tibialis on Itea virginica / Thick-Headed Fly on Virginia Sweetspire at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[rosegarden-society]

Out of all the differences between Hunter and Lost Sheep!Hunter, the one that’s always gonna hit me the hardest is just the isolation that LS!Hunter faces after her parents murders, and it isn’t even genuine. 

She grew up believing that Mr. Jackson had saved her, helped her bring her parents killer to justice. When really all he wanted was to give the Black Roses a loyal Thorn. Someone that would be obedient out of devotion and trust, not out of fear or for the money. 

And he succeeded. When the truth was revealed as to why she was being trained in the skills she was a few years after being taken in, she didn’t question it. Accepted their ‘offer’ to work for them. 

As if she had a choice. At that point, she had been moved from her hometown, many of the other kids she had grown up around were children of other Black Roses, her entire support network was connected to them in some way shape or form. 

Even if she learned the truth, it’s unlikely she’d be able to convince herself to cut ties the way she does in the canon timeline. The Black Roses are all she knows after all, and she doesn’t have anything or anyone worth leaving for. So what would be the point?

[florwal]

PORTSIM SAVE FILE 1.0

portsim is a small city in the south. it was established as a town in 1752, and the current population is 97,915. it's full of history and has a lot of culture. with increasing poverty rates, gang violence, and a drug epidemic, crime is at an all time high. will the city’s new mayor be able to make portsim a safer place?

CONTENT WARNING: storylines involving drug use & violence

download + info under the cut

OUTDATED - download 1.1 here

watch my save file overview on youtube

4 months in the making and it’s finally here! huge thank you to everyone that’s been following me through the process. ♡ y’all are so kind and supportive and i really appreciate all the love. this was originally going to be a personal save, it’s inspired by my hometown (portsmouth, virginia) most builds are based off real places around me, and some households are based off my friends and family. this is very much still personal to me!

willow creek, newcrest, and magnolia promenade have been rebuilt, repopulated, and transformed into one large town

i own all packs and kits, if you don't you can still play this save but build and cas objects will be missing

check out the portsim townie index (wip) to read their bios and keep up with their stories. some already have posts but some are empty, i’ll be adding more as i play

21 residential lots / 19 community lots - please read community lot descriptions because most are multi functional! i also left some empty commercial spaces that are “for lease” so i can add things as new packs come out

added new holidays - i changed names to be more realistic and added a few (spring cleaning day, easter, independence day, halloween, christmas eve)

added 5 new clubs (city officials, a gang, a cult, a record label, painting classes by a townie)

notes:

view update log here

i’ve never made a save file before, and this is just the first version. please let me know if you run into any issues. i want to eventually add more households, and i also want to add + rebuild other worlds

i highly suggest turning the eco lifestyle ep’s eco foot print + npc voting off, unless you want the town to look apocalyptic and the trinity church community space to be set to the winter version during summer etc

i turned neighborhood stories off, but sims were still adopting babies and divorcing each other so i kept them all in the my households tab, you don’t have to keep them there!

shoutout to @cowplant-snacks and @nightlioness for letting me use some of their sims as background townies so there's not as many ugly npcs

next world that’s going to be added: oasis springs + del sol valley - idk which one will be out first! but they're coming soon ♡

DOWNLOAD on patreon (always free)

*required mods for the lit version*

please tag me in anything involving the save! id love to see how y’all play in it!

[asoftepiloguemylove]

i love you like a rotten dog, i love you like my canines are falling out of my gums. like a monster, like a beast. like something not worth loving back.

Marie Lu The Young Elites / @/bloodyhellharry (on tumblr) from The Infamous Willow Prank, Part Three / Hélène Cixous excerpt from Love of the Wolf, "Stigmata: Escaping Texts" / @/thymoss (on tumblr) / Virginia Woolf The Waves / Deborah Landau Soft Targets / Tory Adkisson Anecdote of the Pig

i. Marie Lu, The Young Elites

[ "So. Tell me, little wolf. Would you like to punish those who have wronged you?" ]

ii. @/bloodyhellharry

[ Pencil drawing of three panels of a comic strip. The first image is of a closed hatch. The second image shows the hatch being opened slightly. The third imagine is the largest. It shows a wolf with a large shadow, snarling at the cracked hatch. "IF HE'D GOT / AS FAR AS THIS HOUSE, / HE'D HAVE MET A FULLY GROWN / WEREWOLF" ]

iii. Hélène Cixous, Love of the Wolf

[ "The lamb loves its wolf. The wolf turns all white and starts quivering out of love of the lamb. The lamb loves the wolf's fragility, and the wolf loves the frail one's force. The wolf is now the lamb's lamb and the lamb has tamed the wolf. Love blackens the lamb." ]

iv. @/thymoss

[ Messy sketch of the head of an animal with teeth surrounding the outside of it's face, pointing away from it. "I will / remove my teeth, for I / want to remain / kind despite / my anger" ]

v. Virginia Woolf, The Waves

[ "I press you to me. / Come, pain, feed on me. / Bury our fangs into my flesh. Tear me asunder. I sob, I sob." ]

vi. Deborah Landau, Soft Targets

[ "We are animal hungry down to our delicate bones." ]

vii. Tory Adkisson, Anecdote of the Pig

[ "Do you still believe myths / can save you? Foolish creature. / Let me be clear: every version of the story / ends with you being slaughtered." ]

[breelandwalker]

Witchcraft Exercise - Creating Correspondences

There are dozens of plant species in the arsenal of the green witch. Commonly-used varieties and usage varies somewhat between traditions, but most of us are fairly familiar with industry standards like basil, bay, rosemary, sage, and so on.

But what do you do when faced with a plant that has no listed magical correspondences anywhere that you can find in your witchcraft library? Simple - you create some.

Allow me to demonstrate with a little plant I found in my own backyard. It's a common weed called Virginia copperleaf (Acalypha virginica). But despite it's widespread range and abundant growth as a field weed, there are surprisingly few references to the plant in regional folk medicine and none at all that I could find in contemporary witchcraft.

So in order to incorporate this hardy little weed into my practice, I set about creating some correspondences for it.

First, I researched the physical properties of the plant. It is a small annual spurge with long taproots, a resistance to drought and many herbicides, and a reputation for fast growth and being difficult to eradicate from fields due to prolific seeding. The leaves turn coppery-red in the fall and small spiky flowers bloom among the foliage. It is also mildly poisonous. The juice of the plant may cause contact dermatitis or a mild rash in some people and if ingested, it may cause GI symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

Next, I researched references to the plant in folk medicine. I could only find a single reference that cited copperleaf as a possible diuretic and expectorant. That does track with the previous mention of GI symptoms, but it doesn't mean the plant is safe to use. I did discover that an alternate name for the plant is three-seeded mercury or mercury weed, likely because of its' tendency for fast growth and the fact that it is propagated by the wind.

So now comes the business of creating the correspondences, using the physical properties of the plant as a basis.

The first and most obvious association is strength. Any weed that is resistant to drought and herbicide and uprooting is bound to be useful for spells involving tenacity and fortitude. Prosperity is also a likely use, both because of the name copperleaf and the way in which the plant grows and spreads quickly. Because of the alternate name mercury weed and the wind propagation, it could be used for wind magic or communication spells. (I often associate the element of air with communication and the name of a messenger god is right there as well, but your mileage may vary.)

The plant could also be used as an ingredient for baneful magic, either to bind and frustrate someone's efforts by consuming available ground where their ambitions might grow, or in its' capacity as a mild poison, to cause physical discomfort and stomach trouble.

So in the end, I have a handful of copperleaf and a listing in my witchbook that details the properties of the plant and notes that it could be useful for spells involving strength, tenacity, prosperity, wind, or communication, as well as possible baneful uses including binding, discomfort, and sickness.

This is my system for assigning correspondences to previously-unknown plants, and I encourage readers to use it as a template for their own practices or to create their own system. Either way, I recommend the use of a field guide or plant identification app like PlantNet to properly identify plants as you find them. Remember to forage and harvest responsibly, be a good steward of the land around you, and always label your plant cuttings.

Happy Witching! 💚🌿

(If you're enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. You can also check out my show Hex Positive wherever fine podcasts are heard. 😊)

More witchcraft exercises here:

[unteriors]

Willow Street, East Bank, West Virginia.