#cedar swamp

[newjerseyisthebest]

Active Bear warning sign in Cedar Swamp at High Point State Park, NJ.

[los-plantalones]

sweetbay magnolia.

[pamietniko]

hiking past an alpine pond

Snoqualmie, Washington

[aphermion]

The Pine Barrens, New Jersey.

[sspacegodd]

Trees sneaking out of the forest.

[rainbowlimenade]

YEAH GUYS ITS MONSTER HIGH HEADCANON TIME

LOTS OF TEXT WARNING

Frankie has a huge box of fidget toys stored under their bed that they typically don't use and instead just give to people to have or borrow

However they do keep several furbies in their room, and Drac is terrified of them (the furbies). (She doesn't like furbies and finds them unnatural and disturbing)(at some point Frankie did zap said furbies with a spark of life and now they just wander around the room and occasionally mess with Draculaura)

Draculaura is not actually super great with new technology and her iCoffin is severely out of date, same with her computer and pretty much all her electronics.

Clawdeen has chew necklaces that she uses when she's stressed because a couple of times she was stressed out and started chewing on the Moon Claw.

That time Draculaura made a self portrait while not having a reflection was due to the mirror she used having silver. She didn't actually need to use a mirror with silver in it, but she wanted to challenge herself.

Headcanon break! Fun fact: Vampires only don't appear in mirrors or on cameras with silver in them! Silver seems to be a general weakness for most monsters. This does mean that they can appear on modern cameras and mirrors

Back to headcanons, silver is strongly prohibited at Monster High, and possession of silver will have extreme consequences.

I've discussed this before but Gory is a pathetic bully. She literally cannot bully anyone no matter how hard she tries. When people pick up on the fact she's bullying them they'll act upset so she doesn't get upset, but most of the time Gory's bullying straight up comes off as compliments. Once she tried to pull a prank on Lagoona by putting a water bucket over her door and Lagoona's only reaction was: "Thanks Gory! I really needed that!" This caused Gory to run down the hall sobbing.

Robecca actually is a former human and qualifies as undead. Her brain and bones are preserved within her robotic body. However, her brain has had a few additions to keep her running smoothly, which has caused her to lose her internal clock permanently. (mini fun fact Robecca canonly has adhd) Also, Hexiciah is her actual father, but Robecca got hurt badly in an accident which also caused Hexiciah to lose his arm. ( I associate Robecca with the song Cabinet Man by Lemon Demon)

Moanica genuinely hates any "Human Passing" monsters because she thinks they get off easy. (Mummies, Headmistress Bloodgood, Jackson, Kiyomi [I'll explain this in another headcanon], and Ari.) She also doesn't like were-monsters for a similar reason. (having human forms, can easily have been former humans and go back to their normal lives, etc) part of her anti humanism is being formerly human, on top of zombies being treated poorly by the monster hierarchy.

Most monsters are scared of Moanica, and she makes sure it stays that way.

Moanica did kidnap Frankie and attempt to murder them. (Frankie is fine)

Kiyomi has a more human looking form with human skin and stuff but she has literally no visible face in this form

haha now im going to add ever after high to monster high and u cant stop me

Briar is part plant monster and is always half asleep (basically when a cartoon character acts "high") (she still is incredibly ambitious and loves to party)

Honey Swamp got trapped as a puppet for an extended period of time and that's how she met Cedar wood.

Heath is a demon and has horns.

Holt and Jackson are both still conscious when the other is in control but are basically just a voice in the back of eachothers heads, and can occasionally gain enough control to like, move an arm or make the other blurt something out.

Spectra is a Tumblr user

Deuce is a trans dude.

[qesii]

my anniversary party invitations turned out perfect !!!!!! I can’t believe I found an oyster mushroom theme

[paulpingminho]

[swamp-gremlin]

23

23. If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be?

probably something about not fucking procrastinating on work and finding a healthier way to set up work schedules- or to not pick up smoking

[muirneach]

sitting around on a sunday afternoon contemplating what my top all time tree species are

[cameronsbabydoll]

BASIC TRAINING — CHAPTER TWO

WARNINGS — power imbalance, suggestive comments, physical touch (shoulder, hair, guiding), age gap tension, gaslighting-style manipulation, rafe being icky/possessive, grooming-adjacent behavior, internalized guilt

You weren’t supposed to be alone.

Your dad gave you rules. More than rules, really—an entire itinerary. You were supposed to read for your summer classes, organize his files, avoid the barracks, and “keep to the other officer’s kids if you need friends.”

Except the other officer’s kids are twenty-somethings with active duty assignments or civilian lives far from here. They don��t sit at mess. They don’t linger by the soda machine. They don’t stop and say hi.

But Rafe does.

You don’t know his name yet. Not officially.

You just know the way his eyes linger. How his shoulders stretch his t-shirt. How his dog tags swing low when he jogs past you in the mornings—shirtless, dripping with sweat, smirking when he catches you staring.

You hadn’t meant to stare.

But it’s hard not to.

He’s… tall. And mean-looking. He has a buzzcut that makes him look even meaner. You’re not really into tattoos, but he’s got one on his arm you keep thinking about. A snake winding around a dagger.

You’d only noticed because he caught you looking. Again.

And then he winked.

It’s been three days now since you arrived on base. Your dad is swamped. The heat is unrelenting. You’ve reread the same chapter of your textbook six times and still don’t understand what Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is even about.

So you get up early.

You walk the perimeter road.

You grab a Coca-Cola from the machine outside the barracks. Sit on the shaded curb. Watch the soldiers run drills in the distance, far enough away that you don’t feel weird about it.

That’s where he finds you.

“Didn’t peg you for the early morning type.”

His voice startles you.

You twist around fast, can already feel the pink rising in your cheeks. It’s him. The man from the jogs. The tattoos. The stare. He’s not in uniform this time. He’s in a white shirt and gray sweats, both clinging like they’ve earned the right to his body. You hate how that thought even forms.

“I—uh. I didn’t know anyone else came here this early,” you manage, gripping your drink tighter.

He smirks.

“And here I thought this base was crawling with rules.”

There’s a beat. “But I guess that only applies to the rest of us.”

You blink. “Huh?”

He crouches a little, elbows resting on his knees. Close, but not too close. His eyes flick to your soda.

“You know there’s coffee inside, right?”

You shrug. “I don’t really like coffee.”

“Right.” He squints like he’s just realized something. “Sugar rush, not caffeine.”

He says it like he knows something about you that you don’t.

Then: “Makes sense. You’re a sunshine type of girl.”

“A what?”

“You know,” he grins. “The kind that wakes up humming. Writes in a pink notebook. Says stuff like ‘golly.’”

He leans closer. “Am I wrong, sugar?”

You feel like your brain short circuits. You try to laugh, but it comes out awkward. “I don’t say ‘golly.’”

“Yet.”

You don’t know what to say to that.

He just keeps looking at you. His gaze feels heavier than it should. You shift in place. His eyes follow the movement, pausing too long at your knees before flicking back up to your face.

“I’m Rafe,” he says finally. “Staff Sergeant. Been here too long.”

You nod. “Nice to meet you.”

“You got a name, princess?”

You tell him.

He repeats it. Quietly. Like he’s tasting it.

It shouldn’t make your stomach flutter.

After that, he starts showing up more.

He always has a reason. Always casual. Always calculated.

You’ll be carrying a box of your dad’s reports—he takes it from your arms without asking.

You’ll be at the vending machine—he guides your hand to press the right button.

You’ll be reading alone—he sits just close enough that you can smell him: sweat, cologne, something like cedar and anger.

Every time he calls you princess or sugar, you go still.

He’s so much older. More experienced. Bigger. His voice is always low, like he knows you’ll lean in to hear it better. And you do. Every time.

One afternoon, he catches you by the printer in the admin hall, struggling to staple a stack of papers. Your dad asked you to file them, but the staple keeps jamming.

You hiss softly, shaking the thing out. That’s when a broad hand appears behind yours.

“Move,” he says. You do, startled.

He fixes it in seconds.

Then he looks down. You hadn’t realized how close he’s standing. You’re basically against the wall. His hand is still on your shoulder, firm.

“You gotta be careful with these,” he says, low. “They bite.”

“Yeah.. I-I noticed,” you whisper.

He leans in, his mouth next to your ear.

“You ever been bit before?”

You don’t answer.

Your cheeks are burning. Your eyes drop to the floor. You know he’s watching them water.

When he finally pulls back, he taps your chin once with his finger.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

You try to avoid him the next day.

But it doesn’t work.

You’re walking back from the mess hall, still chewing a bite of banana bread, when a shadow falls across the path in front of you.

It’s him.

You stop. So does your breath.

He raises an eyebrow.

“No ‘hi’ today?”

You look down. “I didn’t see you.”

He hums. “That’s a lie.”

He steps forward. You step back.

But it’s just one step. Then he sighs and hooks his fingers into your bag strap.

“Relax, sweetheart. I just wanna walk with you.”

You’re not sure why you let him.

But you do.

He walks slow. Leisurely. His hand brushing yours every few seconds, like he’s testing to see what you’ll do. You don’t pull away.

When you reach the main building, he tugs your strap again—just a little.

“I ever make you uncomfortable, you tell me.”

You blink. Look up at him.

“No,” you say. “You haven’t.”

That smile again.

The one that makes your chest feel weird.

“Good girl.”

You can’t stop thinking about that for the rest of the day.

Not the words. But the way he said them.

Low. Rough. Possessive. Like it meant something.

Like you meant something.

[newjerseyisthebest]

Cedar Swamp in High Point State Park, NJ.

[greater-than-the-sword]

The other thing is like.... I wish everyone knew about the ecology of dead logs because. Not all dead trees turn into kindling. If you've ever seen how a red cedar decomposes into mulch you'll know that shit is so wet you couldn't set it on fire if you tried. Every red cedar log is a haven for mushrooms and insects with far reaching ecological significance. They even host a specific species of berries that literally wont grow anywhere else except on those logs. Having wet undergrowth and swamps in the ground of the forest is an amazing fire retardant. But is that what a commercial forest is like? Hell no. Those are dry as a bone. I've seen them both in person. It's not that our parks aren't managed but if we could stop acting like commercial forests are the only type of management there is

[whisperthatruns]

Reality Demands

Reality demands that we also mention this: Life goes on. It continues at Cannae and Borodino, at Kosovo Polje and Guernica.

There’s a gas station on a little square in Jericho, and wet paint on park benches in Bila Hora. Letters fly back and forth between Pearl Harbor and Hastings, a moving van passes beneath the eye of the lion at Chaeronea, and the blooming orchards near Verdun cannot escape the approaching atmospheric front.

There is so much Everything that Nothing is hidden quite nicely. Music pours from the yachts moored at Actium and couples dance on the sunlit decks.

So much is always going on, that it must be going on all over. Where not a stone still stands, you see the Ice Cream Man besieged by children. Where Hiroshima had been Hiroshima is again, producing many products for everyday use. This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.

The grass is green on Maciejowice’s fields, and it is studded with dew, as is normal grass.

Perhaps all fields are battlefields, those we remember and those that are forgotten: the birch forests and the cedar forests, the snow and the sand, the iridescent swamps and the canyons of black defeat, where now, when the need strikes, you don’t cower under a bush but squat behind it.

What moral flows from this? Probably none. Only that blood flows, drying quickly, and, as always, a few rivers, a few clouds.

On tragic mountain passes the wind rips hats from unwitting heads and we can’t help laughing at that.

Wisława Szymborska, tr. from the Polish by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh (The New Yorker, 1993)

[tacoma-narrows]

Tac Talks Coasters - Masterlist

This will be updated once a week to list all of the coasters I've talked about so far all in one place! Each will be linked for ease of access. The broken up into batches by the weeks they were posted.

170. Nighthawk 169. Corkscrew 168. Swamp Fox 167. Anaconda 166. Vortex 165. Stinger 164. Mean Streak

163. Green Lantern 162. Mantis 161. Twist 'n' Shout 160. Kiddy Hawk 159. Woodstock's Air Rail 158. Whistle Punk Chaser 157. Cocoa Cruiser

156. Woodstock Express (Dorney Park) 155. Lil' Devil Coaster 154. Blue Streak 153. Shockwave 152. Thriller 151. Tumblin' Timbers 150. Wacky Mouse

149: Grizzly (California's Great America) 148: Runaway Mine Train 147: Trailblazer 146: Skull Mountain 145: Wilderness Run (Cedar Point) 144: Tornado 143: Woodstock Express (Cedar Point)

142: Tidal Wave 141. Kōmbo 140. Great Pumpkin Coaster 139. Kozmo's Kurves 138. Wilderness Run (Carowinds) 137. Blazing Fury 136. Black Diamond

135. Flitzer 134. High Speed Thrill Coaster 133. Hurler (Kings Dominion) 132. Woodstock Express (Kings Dominion) 131. Woodstock Express (Carowinds) 130. Woodstock Express (Kings Island) 129. Nickelodeon Slime Streak

128. Harley Quinn Crazy Train 127. SandSerpent 126. Wild Mouse (Hersheypark) 125. Ricochet 124. Wild Mouse (Dorney Park) 123. Apple Zapple 122. Psycho Mouse

121. Goat Coaster 120. Alpine Mountain Coaster 119. Galaxy Spin 118. Exterminator 117. Dark Knight (Six Flags Great Adventure) 116. Dark Knight (Six Flags Great America) 115. Hurler (Carowinds)

114. Racer (Kennywood) 113. Carolina Goldrusher 112. Cedar Creek Mine Ride 111. Pandemonium 110. Hurricane 109. Laff Trakk 108. Boomerang

107. Invertigo 106. Jack Rabbit 105. Flying Cobras 104. Jolly Rancher Remix 103. Wild Mouse (Cedar Point) 102. Demon (Six Flags Great America) 101. Iron Dragon

100. Shredder 99. Disaster Transport 98. Flying Turns 97. Reptilian 96. Dragonflier 95. Carolina Cyclone 94. Backlot Stunt Coaster

93. Queen City Stunt Coaster 92. Wildcat 91. Cobra's Curse 90. Thunderhawk 89. Wicked Twister 88. Possessed 87. Road Runner Express

[0rph3u5]

the good ol' days

I have fond memories of carting cedar shakes and shingles out of the deep woods of the lower mainland of British Columbia, using a similar wheelbarrow, following a path constructed by narrow boards through marshes and swamps to load onto a barge, for further transport to civilisation. I was 12 or 13 at the time. The blisters I had from that experience, turned to callouses, are still with me today. grin