#gardening knowledge

[balkanradfem]

What I learned about growing vegetables in the last 3.5 years of doing it:

Squash: it will grow even in poor soil, summer squash will grow even in the worst conditions, winter squash needs a little more care! If you plant them far apart they will grow huge. Winter squash struggles in heat, but will generally survive it and start growing again once it's not too hot.

Peppers: They have to be watered consistently and periodically after being planted outside. Even if you don't water anything else, you have to water peppers, or they will remain small. They will also cross-pollinate and if you plant hot peppers next to non-hot peppers and try to collect the seeds, next year you will have all hot peppers.

Tomatoes: They're the biggest monster plants and they will grow so vigorously and stubbornly I actually have no clue how to stunt or stop these once they're on the open fields. You're supposed to prune them but they get out of hand so fast. If they survive the 'seedling' stage god himself can't kill them. But blight could so if the lower leaves are looking sick and yellow, cut them off.

Beans: Another thing that will grow in poor soil, the most important thing I learned is that the bush variety will produce earlier, and it's a way safer bet to plant them, because if there's a drought, or slug infestation, or whatever the hell happens, bush variety will give you the produce earlier, and you're very likely to get a harvest. Pole beans, or the climbing variety, is capable of growing so much bigger producing much more beans, but does it slower and is at more risk to be attacked or sun-damaged! So plant both, always.

Carrots: I am still not great at carrots! There are many tricks to germinating them, and I always try to sow them early in the spring, then again in the summer, and it will sometims have better results if you put a big plank over the soil after planting them, to keep them from drying out. They really need soft and well-fertilized soil. Also if you plant them in the fall, harvest before the late spring comes because they will start going to seed.

Onions and garlic: Honestly there's no effort in growing these, bulb stuff grows as long as its underground, it's more of a challenge to stop them from growing really. Even if you cut up the tops they'll regrow like some kind of zombies. Beware of onion fly tho that stuff is evil.

Sunflowers: Do Not Let the seeds fall around your garden, they Will take over your Entire Garden and you will be helpless as these monster plants devour your garden space while You feel too Guilty to tear the pretty flowers away from your space. Do Not be Deceived. That's exactly what they Want you To Think. Will stunt your beans if planted close so be careful. Zero effort in growing, will grow in any dirt.

Cabbage and Kale: They need so much fertilizing, or they will just stay sad and small, you have to give them compost, mulch, and water them with some sort of fertilizer tea (you can make that by mixing nettle with water and letting it sit in the sun for 10 days) or you will not get the gorgeous full plant that you want. Also they are frost hardy but if there's not much sun they won't grow very fast in the cold.

Leek: they do not tolerate being grown inside as seedlings, but if you direct sow them every seed will come out I Swear. Can be grown in a bunch in one place then transplanted around later. Onion fly can also mess them up but I have no idea what to do about that.

Parsley and Celery: seems to do better direct-sown than transplanted, needs a lot of seeds to be thrown in order to germinate. I've never tried the root variety but leaf varieties grow very easy.

Potatoes: They're extremely easy to grow, as long as you put the potato underground you've done it, now if you want them to do amazing, you need to plant them in spring while the soil has a lot of water content in it, and you want to keep adding soil/mulch on top of them as they grow, in oder for them to grow more potatoes. I absolutely love growing them in mulch instead of soil! If you dig a hole, put a potato in it, then cover it in hay, or dry leaves, not only it will grow, but you won't have to dig out the potatoes, you can just feel them thru the mulch! 10/10 Love growing in mulch. They still spread their roots into the soil, but the potatoes itself have a good time growing in mulch because it creates no resistance to potatoes getting bigger underneath. Also they like having decent amount of water, if planted in hot times.

Green beans: You need to put 5-6 seeds in one place in order for them to do well, they like having more of their own kind around to create shade and stability, they get easily damaged by the sun so they appreciate being around each other and protecting each other. Bush varieties do best in my climate, but I'm longing for the evasive pole green bean plants, I want to see them tall one day.

Cucumbers: I've only grown this once and all I have to report is that it was very stubborn, grew in poor soil and with no care, kept creating cucumbers long after I've expected it to call it quits, sometimes they grow bitter and it takes a Ritual to make them edible, good for canning tho.

Peas: This is one thing I suck at so don't do what I did – don't take out seeds from hybrid varieties of peas and expect them to grow next year, they will germinate at abysmal rates. I finally bought some heirloom seeds so we will see if my luck changes.

Chives: Absolutely immortal, zombie plant, grows always except when frozen, grows like grass, loves being cut, unlimited onion seasoning exists and its chives, not as sweet as green onions sadly, but I appreciate it's properties of being an endless supply, a woman needs that sometimes.

Spinach and Swiss Chard: Idk if it's just me but I Never know when these are randomly going to go to seed and it drives me Insane. Cannot be relied upon because they all just loooove going to seed whenever sun hits them in a Way. Plant in fall to have some to eat in the spring for 2 weeks until they decide they're ditching you because sunlight now exists.

Basil: Oh, oh, don't get me started, I thought, originally, this plant needs lots of sunlight to succeed and it made Sense! I mean why Not! But then for several years they did badly..? And then, then I find out, basil grows better in Shade! I find this via youtube video randomly! Really?!?! I have planted the forsaken herb in the shade and I'm Watching its Every Move. It's doing fine for now we'll see tho. =_=

[headspace-hotel]

What feels so strange about growing plants, and making friends with plants, and generally being aware of my ecosystem, is that it's not a "head" knowledge, it's a "hands" knowledge.

It feels strange for me, at least. My formative years were spent in a homeschool co-op that was roughly 50% anti-vaxxers, so in spirit, I'm the sort that has yelled "just believe science!" until my throat hurt. I've clung to peer-reviewed papers, as an abstract concept, as the sole beacon of truth in a dark world, and found Facebook groups full of people that thought just like me: if it's not proven, if it's not science, it's false, and science is truth.

There are online communities of people who "believe in science," and t-shirts that affirm the wearer to "believe in science." This is not the worst place you can be, in a world where people believe things like "eating lemons makes your blood more alkaline, which cures cancer" and "polio was renamed to ALS in order to hide the fact that polio vaccines don't work."

However, science is not a doctrine. It's a process. It points to truth, but it doesn't produce truth as an end result. There is no end result. The results are endless, actually.

What word do I use to describe what I've been doing? I'm gardening, sure, but that makes it sound like I do things to plants, when mostly, the plants do things to me. I'm learning about the living things already around me. I've learned to identify so many plants, and I know about what role they serve in the ecosystem.

"Gardening" is a difficult word because it means planting things in the ground and tending to them, but plants plant and tend themselves. So since we have to use the word "gardening," we have to think of plants as either belonging to a garden or not, depending on whether a human put them there. Plants either grow on their own or a human, a "grower," "grows" them. Isn't it weird how that verb is transitive?

However, I understand now that even knowing the name of a plant is, in some way, "gardening" it, because it affects my behavior toward that plant, which is the thing that "gardening" is, just in a different amount.

Humans can transport seeds and plants, supplement nutrients and water, but this is just participation. A gardener doesn't create plants, they help them to grow. So it follows that any act of "helping" is also gardening—thinning out a stand of wild plants, moving a wild plant from one spot to another, choosing not to mow a wild plant down.

I have more of something than I used to. The thing that I have more of now is knowledge, but a lot of this knowledge isn't facts. Ecology is a science. Scientists study ecosystems. It is possible to know facts about ecosystems. But ecosystems are not made of facts.

I know that most people desperately need to know more about the ecosystems around them. They need to know about the plants and trees near them. I think this is literally essential to saving the world as we know it. But they don't need to learn facts—not just facts. They need to learn something Else.

For the past several months, I have been learning things that are not facts. I hesitate to call them skills. But they are like skills. Both gardening and plant identification are impossible to fully teach from a book or a written resource, because you have to know not what something is, but what it is like.

I rely on my senses—feeling the suppleness of a twig, the dampness of potting soil. Identifying plants is so hard starting out because the qualities that identify them best have to be experienced.

Back when I was first learning to identify trees, I discovered that there was a black walnut tree at the end of our road. I was just then entering the extremely frustrating reality of how many plants there are and how few photos of them at all growth stages exist on the internet. I didn't know what a fucking "petiole" was. Leaves all just looked like leaves and I wanted to cry.

But I tore a twig from one of the trees down at the end of the road, and I instantly knew it was a black walnut tree! And I couldn't describe to you how. I caught a whiff of the smell of the crushed leaves, and it pulled up a memory of the walnut trees at the farmhouse when I was a child, dropping their heavy green fruits all over the grass. I'm not even sure how to describe the smell. It's very fresh and spicy, but earthier and less "clear" than the word "fresh" would suggest.

And I identify a lot of plants in ways that you can't just...depict. Alianthus altissima, tree-of-heaven, is hard to draw or photograph in a way that lets you see through the picture what makes it distinctively Alianthus altissima. The best way to identify it is by its odor. Tear off a leafy twig and smell it—it smells exactly like peanut butter and the mustiness of a damp basement.

I am learning things that don't exist in books, that are specific to my immediate surroundings. The specific community of organisms found in my backyard, what they're doing. How my plant and animal neighbors are related, and how their relationships change.

I am learning just how little we know. There are so many plants, so many local plant communities. There are more relationships in an ecosystem than there are scientists that could possibly study them. I look up a question about a particular plant and there's just...nothing.

I have to use my own knowledge, my own observations. I have to do tiny science every day, where Big, Capital S Science can't help me. "Is this non-native plant harmful enough that it is better to get rid of it even if I can't replace it yet, or is it providing enough benefits to other organisms that it is better to let it stay?" Sometimes no website or book or article can answer this. Constantly I encounter this kind of question, and I have to observe and decide myself. I have to trust that I can be taught by my ecosystem, and that this knowledge is, in its own way, valid.

It is uncomfortable to be here. I want to convey my knowledge to others, but it sometimes feels almost pseudoscientific, superstitious. I want to be rational and rely on the experts, and teach other people to do so; I know that what "seems" right often isn't, and that personal observations are flawed, even useless, in many areas. But not only are these fuzzy, instinctual observations sometimes all we have, they are an essential skill that is needed to save our world.

There's also the fact that research doesn't happen fast enough to function all alone as a guide. Invasive species lists on state websites are basically decades out of date and not regionally specific enough. The Callery/Bradford pear tree, bane of my existence, is not "officially" designated an invasive species to my knowledge, and there is relatively little research on its role as an invasive species, but it is declared invasive, primarily by common consensus that it's Satan in tree form. Crowding and shading out other mid-succession shrubs and trees, forming thick, almost monoculture masses of ugly glossy foliage replacing whatever else would have grown there.

And the severe threat of the Bradford pear is specific to my region; its particular severity may be specific down to the square mile of land I live on. Some scientists may be studying it, but they're not studying my state, my county, my neighborhood.

It's insane how many TYPES of forests there are. You would think that within a specific biome and climate, a forest is a forest is a forest, but no. There are a bajillion specific associations of trees with specific relationships that form special ecosystems. It's insane how many types of moth there are, too. And it really blows your mind to look up a moth's host plants and read that we're not really sure of the full range of plants its caterpillars can eat.

You'll be reading something and it will say "We don't know this" but you will know, because you've seen it—and then you think to yourself, well, isn't that what people say about Nessie and Bigfoot and little green aliens? Can we trust what we observe for ourselves? Can we trust people to know what they see?

Maybe not—but we have to.

[tired-fandom-ndn]

I think Haruhi probably has plenty of friends and hobbies outside of the host club, she just doesn't tell any of the guys about it because she knows they completely take over everything and Tamaki gets. Weird about her having "feminine" hobbies.

[allastoredeer]

Have u heard about deers/elk/moose get absolutely fucked up drunk on apples…and the absolutely irony of radioapple being symbolised as🦌🍎…

Radioapple is so canon

I HAVE AND I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS NEW FACT.

I'm stuck between writing something about it, or drawing something about it. It's so so good. The image of Alastor getting drunk on apples, of all things, is too hilarious not to do something with.

[real-odark]

something something marvin's impulsivity to rid of his problems rather than attempt to understand shown in "now whizzer ciao whizzer bend" vs "why marvin try marvin bend"

[akystaracer22]

Free the Bird from its Gilded Cage

Synopsis: Lucifer would tell anyone who asked his greatest regret was letting humanity eat the apple. Better than admitting what he really regretted.

Notes

Golly gee good thing affairs didn’t exist back then huh!

In which Lucifer’s tism hurts his best friend, the fic.

I think I can tag this as Edenpoly considering the conversation between Lucifer and Lilith.

I give my greatest thanks to my good friend Hat who uttered the phrase “I raise a glass to the friend you could have been and drink to the monster you became” (Or something of the sort) which has not left my brain 2 years later.

No shade on other people’s depictions of the ancient archangels. I love good archangels as much as you guys but… this is very much bashing.

I’m so sorry Michael. And Azrael, and every single angel who’s characters I butcher in this AU. It’s not you guys I swear.

God on the other hand fuck you I’m not sorry.

I have been told by many people irl that I have religious trauma. I didn’t think I did but fuck it we ball.

I am so sorry this came out late but I had two assignments and I'm moving houses, I'll try not to have a repeat.

Word count: 1957

Fic under cut!

Lucifer felt Lilith before he saw her, the first woman’s aura screaming frustration and hurt louder than the tears in her eyes.

She was sitting under an aspen tree with her legs tucked to her chest.

Lucifer didn’t need to guess why she was upset; it could really only be one thing these days.

“Adam did something again, didn’t he.”

Lilith huffed and lifted her head to meet Lucifer’s gaze, “We fought, again. He still doesn’t get it.”

Lucifer sighed and sat down next to the first woman, not for the first time the little voice in his head bemoaned Adams chronic inability to listen to anyone other than God. It was really starting to cause problems in Eden.

“He’ll regret it.”

“He always does, but he still does it.”

Lucifer nodded, “He needs to learn that God isn’t right about everything,” His siblings would murder him if they knew he was spreading this kind of blasphemy, “But I do agree, it’s a little irritating.”

“It is!” Lucifer jerked as Lilith stood up abruptly and began to pace, “He’s great most of the time don’t get me wrong, but he’s just increasingly growing more and more insufferable! It’s like every time he gets better he just goes straight back to being worse!”

“Truly the trials and tribulations of the first humans.”

“I just wish he would listen to me! Not some stuck up self-important know it all who thinks I’m worthless.”

Lucifer wisely held back the instinctive defence of the Creator, “Especially when you are so much more than that.”

Lilith seemed to finally run out of steam, falling back into Lucifer’s arms and holding him tightly, “I hate this… I hate him.”

“No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t… I hate the man God wants him to be.”

“I hate that man too,” Lucifer admitted, “I hate how he hurts everyone.”

Because it wasn’t just Lilith that was left hurting. Lucifer hated how he was losing track of the near silent breakdowns of Adam’s.

God created humanity different from the grand design, and every day Lucifer loathed that fact more and more.

“He’s going to win, that man.”

“Neither of us will let him.”

“He’ll let himself,” Lilith hissed right by his ear, the sound sending a shiver down Lucifer’s spine, by the choirs that felt good “Adams an idiot.”

“Yep!” Call Lucifer blasphemous, but he was so tempted to-

Lilith opened her mouth to say something, and Lucifer listened to the little voice in his head once again.

He caught her mouth with his own swiftly before pulling back, face flushing as he realised what he just did.

That was something only Adam and Lilith was supposed to do with each other.

Lilith blinked, taking time to process before giving her response, “Do that again.”

Lucifer didn’t need to be told twice.

The bark of the aspen tree was lit up by Lucifer’s wings as he pressed his lips to Lilith’s again.

And again.

And again.

Lucifer had never felt so good. He could see why Lilith and Adam like doing this. This felt so good.

- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -

It was hours until Lucifer disentangled himself from Lilith, still not having quite recovered from the experience. Sadly, he could feel the mental tug attached to his halo signifying his siblings wanting an audience with him. The last thing he wanted was to have them come down and see him with Lilith.

The moment he returned to heaven however, he had the distinct feeling that he might have messed up regardless.

Michael was pacing and muttering angrily under his breath, sharp sounds grating Lucifer’s awareness. When the archangel saw Lucifer, his wings physically bristled as he lunged forward and grabbed the Morningstar by the robe.

“You are so very fortunate that God was already growing tired of Lilith’s rebellion!”

“What?”

“Michael,” Lucifer turned to see Azrael landing nearby, “I highly doubt Lucifer knows what he has done, as impulsive as he is.”

“What? What happened,” Lucifer demanded, mantling his wings to make himself look larger as he stared down the other archangels.

“You don’t know?”

“Know what!”

“God decided to give the first man a new wife,” Michaels words cut through Lucifer’s anger and left only shock, “Made from his rib.”

“… what?”

“Yes, I had to tear it out myself,” Michael huffed, Lucifer noticed the dried red still dusting the angels gloves, “Adam tried to flee.”

“…”

“What Michael means,” Azreal shot the other a look, “Is that Adam didn’t take the information well, and saw it fit to attempt avoiding the situation entirely.”

“He was awake?!” Lucifer screeched “By the choir what is wrong with you two?!”

“It was the Creator’s wishes, none of us knew it would bring pain,” Azrael sighed, “However, it would encourage not repeating the situation…”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Michael scoffed, “The Creator ensured Adam wouldn’t remember.”

“It would taint him.”

“It would motivate him.”

“What?”

“Our Creator has decided to take a more… hands on approach in ensuring the situation does not repeat itself,” Azrael looked uncomfortable, “Xe employed the use of divine power to keep Adam and Eve from straying from the grand design.”

Lucifer took a step back.

Michael opened his mouth to say something, but Lucifer couldn’t hear over the roar of nothing in his ears.

No.

Nononononono.

Lucifer ran.

He broke into a sprint before diving back down to Earth, landing on the soft grass of Eden he looked around desperately.

“Adam!”

“Yes?”

Lucifer turned around as Adam’s figure came into view from behind a tree, “Adam-”

His eyes were gold.

Lucifer stumbled back as he took in the first man’s appearance, Adam’s eyes were no longer the colour of earth. The familiar dark brown orbs that bore the gold of honey and of leaves in the sun were gone. In their place was the brilliant gold of divinity, of heaven, the same gold of the-

The chain attached to his wrist.

Lucifer lunged forward and grabbed his friends arm, pulling him forward and running a hand along the softly glowing cuff on Adams wrist.

It was definitely the Creator’s doing.

“Adam what have they done to you.”

“Ah, apologies, but have we met before?”

Lucifer’s golden ichor froze as he looked back up to meet that accursed golden gaze, “What?”

“It is just that… you seem familiar with me, but I do not recall ever having met you. I apologize.”

Lucifer stepped back from the first man, “What.”

“Were you present for my creation? That day was such a blur I hardly recall all those present.”

“Adam- Adam look at me,” Lucifer grabbed Adam by the shoulder, staring desperately into those too gold, too inhuman, too holy eyes “Adam. You are my best friend. You remember me don’t you?”

Adam’s eyes flickered for a moment, that familiar beautiful earth brown peeking through for a moment before being swamped by heavenly gold.

“You are an angel; how could I ever be friends with someone of a higher status such as you?”

Lucifer wanted to cry.

The Creator truly was cruel.

“Are you alright, sir?”

Lucifer couldn’t do this.

Lucifer shoved Adam away and ran like a coward, stumbling through the bushes and past trees as he ran away from the puppet wearing his best friends face.

He didn’t even talk like Adam.

The Creator just stripped his best friend of everything that made him… him.

Lucifer collapsed under a willow tree as he sobbed into his arms.

He didn’t move for a long time after that.

- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -

Lilith found him in the dim of night, her eyes sharp and he teeth bared in a rueful grimace even as she took him into his arms.

“We’re not letting them get away with this. Not this time.”

A hot flame of righteous anger sparked in Lucifer’s heart as he held onto Lilith. She was right, this crossed a line.

Lucifer wanted to rush in, to steal Adam away and find a way to break that chain.

Lilith told him to wait, to watch and observe as she would.

“Right now, heaven does not know about our rebellion, if we move too quickly we will both be destroyed.”

She was right, of course she was. Lucifer hated it though.

They had to watch Adam go through the motions of what his life used to be. The way he would no longer wander the garden without reason.

He wouldn’t play with the animals anymore or sit and relax under the sun.

Lucifer almost broke the trunk of a tree when he saw Adam tear out a plant Gabriel considered ‘too imperfect for the garden’ even though Lucifer knew that it was Adams favourite flower.

That flame of anger grew every time that damned shackle glowed and chained Adams will.

It took a little time to figure out, but if there was one thing Lucifer was sure would free Adam and Eve, it was the apples of knowledge.

They had to.

Lucifer and Lilith also watched Eve through everything. She seemed meek through the control of the Creator, but in the few moments the attention of heaven faded and the gold in her eyes let a little bit of reddish brown through, they got to know her.

She was gentle and sweet to the animals but there was a steel in her spine.

She was vibrant and wild as she chased the cheetah’s around the garden or buried her head in a grizzly bears side.

Lucifer grew to love her in a way. As little of her as he could see. But she was the one the Creator paid less attention to, and why would xe? She is supposed to be subservient to Adam.

Lucifer shifted into the form of a snake and curled through the branches of the tree of knowledge as she came into view.

Showtime.

“Eve my dear, may I borrow your attention for but a moment?” Lucifer sing-songed, drawing the girls eye as she stopped at the base of the tree.

“What is it you require of me, snake?” Eve asked, Lucifer watched intently as the telltale hint of red brown filtered into her gaze, this was the shot he needed.

“The fruit of this tree, could you tell me how it tastes to you?”

The woman flinched back as if struck, and Lucifer’s eyes narrowed at her response.

“I couldn’t, God said-”

“And have you not wondered why xe demands such things of you? Have you not questioned why xe forbade this?” Lucifer hissed, snapping off an apple and letting it fall to the ground at Eve’s feet, “I know, and that is why I ask this of you.”

Eve’s will fought with Heaven for a moment as she picked up the apple, but she was not gone yet, “God said that if I ate the fruit, I would die.”

“And the Creator lies to you,” blasphemy dripped off of Lucifers tongue as he all but snarled at Eve, the white-hot flame of fury envenoming his words, “To eat the apple is not to die, but to be freed. To have your eyes opened to the truth around you.”

Eve held the apple in her hands, the reddish brown in her eyes traitorously present.

“How do you know I won’t die?”

“Because my dear, I have had my eyes opened long ago. To open them is a freedom the Creator keeps from you on purpose,” Lucifer hissed, “You will not die, of that I can promise.”

Eve bit into the apple, and the chains snapped under the weight of knowledge granted.

[eternal-gardens]

“A servant will never savour the taste of faith until he knows that which afflicts him would never have missed him, and that which has missed him would never have touched him, and that the only One to induce harm or benefit is Allāh, the Mighty and Exalted.” — Ali ibn Abi Talib (رضي الله عنه)

[wingedlionenjoyer]

Never stop thinking about this

[natjennie]

the inclination we all have to give cap and havers an entirely domestic life in fanworks is really fascinating to me. like, the way we saw their brief story and said, yknow what? they deserve to drink tea in the mornings and read their newspapers and sit out on the porch and maintain a little garden and watch the birds. they deserve warm blankets and kisses on the forehead and holding hands. they deserve to listen to the radio and sway along across the kitchen floor. they deserve to do the crossword together and to smile at each other from across the room and to know each other's breakfast orders. yknow what I mean?

[lightsaberlinguist]

Jedi Headcanon #1

While the Room of a Thousand Fountains and the rooftop gardens are the most well-known green spaces of the Jedi Temple, dozens of other smaller gardens and greenhouses can be found throughout, preserving and recreating the landscapes of some of the hundreds of home worlds of the Jedi. These gardens are used for meditation, education and study in equal parts, preparing young Jedi to survive in a variety of planetary conditions.

[lovelydwyn]

When I was 14 years old and forced to make the Catholic sacrament of Holy Confirmation and to choose a saint after which I would be named… in a covert act of subtle defiance undetected by my teachers, I requested that I be allowed to choose not a saint, but Eve.. to pay homage to the woman given to Adam in the Garden of Eden who failed the test of obedience. I never told anyone, but the more I work with my inner child, the more I love that little girl and wish I could be her friend.

[balkanradfem]

Formation of a zuchinni squash:

Female flower opens on a squash, with tiny zuchinni already started

Flower is pollinated, and closes up and withers, while the zuchinni keeps growing

She keeps growing

She’s done!

If you leave the zuchinni on the plant for longer, she’ll keep growing until she gets huge and her seeds become viable. You can still eat it if she’s big, she’s just a bit more tough and sweet!

Also, if your flower isn’t pollinated, then the zuchinni will rot instead of growing, it might mean you don’t have enough bees in your area and should try pollinating it yourself with a paint brush, in order to get a zuchinni.

[fadedrainbowbookshelves]

Day off gardening with the husband.

[frogofshadyorigin]

Here it is, after waaaaaaaayyyyy too long. The first drawing of Gristleium patricia, commonly known as the Bone Rose.

It took me a bit longer, cut I first needed to find an angle of approach and later had a bit of trouble motivating myself.

Anyway. I decided that instead of the well-known kind of rose, the one with loads of petals, I'd go for the unaltered kind of rose and so took inspiration from a hedge rose. (For those who are interested, there is actually a pretty cool mechanism behind having flowers create more petals)

Sorry for the bad picture quality, btw

[revasserium]

scorpio rising

elbert; 1,087 words; elbert takes you dancing. i blame @aquagirl1978 for showing me his teaser pv. this one's for u.

he has always been hungry.

from the first day he meets you, he has hungered for your touch, for your smile, for a sliver of your forever — it is not promised. but he does not care. and there’s beauty in this madness — he has always known it — beauty in the mortified longing threatening to grind his bones to dust.

i want…

it’s a selfish thing, he knows, to want like this, to want so hard that it threatens to consume his very soul. he wants — he wants.

“stay close,” he says, because the night is dark and full of terrors but to him the darkness has always been kind.

he feels your presence at his back, emanating warmth like a hearthstone pulled from the dancing flames. he wants.

“el…bert? where are you taking me?”

your curiosity is cool and crisp, slicing through the heat of his own internal frenzy. he wills the tension from his shoulders as he tries to cast you a small, reassuring smile.

“you’ll see.”

at this hour, vauxhall is a cynosure of bacchic revelry, with fireworks and masked dancers, jugglers and magicians and drunken vendors hawking their wares to laughing, unwitting attendees. a hundred thousand tiny lamps glitter among the branches of trees like so many fallen stars, and the raucous sound of street musicians plays backdrop to it all — the air itself thrums with life and vitality, the earth beneath your feet soaked with the remnants.

“wh-what is going on?”

elbert almost laughs at your clear confusion, but he tugs a pair of masks from the inside of his jacket and offers it to you.

“come… dance with me.”

you slip on the mask, still too bewildered to refuse, and feel elbert slip his fingers between yours, tugging you gently towards him and into a pool of flickering lamplight. the music swells and the world spins around you.

there is beauty in this madness — elbert has always known it — beauty in the way a body might tremble and shake when faced with something it cannot control, but this at least, elbert knows. this at least, he can take into the palms of his own hands and hold it close.

this dance — you.

he watches as a brilliant smile blossoms across your lips, your cheeks flushing high with color. it is beautiful, watching you as you fall into a peel of unexpected laughter as he spins you out and pulls you back in, you chest heaving with the exertion of the song.

he wonders if he’s holding onto your hands too tight and then he knows that he is.

but you’re clutching back at him just as tightly as the music ends and everyone around you cheers. he feels the weight of a million pairs of eyes on him and yet still, he only has eyes for you. when you pull up from your curtsey and meet his eyes, he finds himself transfixed by your gaze so warm and soft and full of an unbridled happiness the likes of which he has never tasted himself.

but with you — he thinks he just might.

the mask affords him the brief veil of anonymity, but even with it, he can feel people’s eyes lingering, their heads turning for a second look, a third. he doesn’t have much time.

“elbert, that was so much fun!”

he allows himself a soft laugh as he pulls you into one of the many shaded promenades, pressing himself back into the thickly cut foliage. you stumble into his chest, letting out a squeak as you pull back but he lifts up a hand to stop you.

“please… let me have one more minute…” he says, and he feels you go still in his arms.

he threads his fingers through your spidersilk hair, letting the tangle carelessly against his skin. like this, he smells the soft, fresh fragrance of your bathing soap, and he leans in ever so slightly to take in another breath. your skin is warm and soft, your lashes a darkened frame to the night sky of your eyes.

“elbert…?”

he purses his lips. he lets you go.

“sorry… i just… wanted a moment…”

you smile, shaking your head. several strands of your hair get caught in his fingers and he has to force himself to let them go.

“i had… a really good time tonight, elbert… thanks for taking me here.”

you walk next to him as the pair of you exit the gardens, you tugging off your mask but he hesitates in taking off his own. he traces the edge with a delicate finger as you watch.

“if… it makes you feel better, you can keep it on while we walk back,” you say, letting your fingers lace behind your back.

elbert smiles as he nods, letting the silence stretch thin and smooth between you. in the distance, big ben tolls in midnight, and the pair of you make your leisurely way back to the castle beneath the full blood-moon. you exchange few words and even fewer glances, but elbert find himself willfully lingering half a step behind you just to watch the way your hair sways, to see the glint of moonlight in your eyes as you turn to grace him with a smile.

“thanks again for taking me out…”

elbert slips off his mask as the castle doors close behind you.

“i thought you might’ve wanted… a chance of pace…”

“yeah, it was really fun!”

you smile up at him, radiant and flushed with joy and he briefly wonders if this might be what ellis is always going on about — the happiest moment in a person’s life. seeing you smile like that, he wonders then if this is his.

at least, it would be a worthy candidate.

“good… we should… do it again sometime.”

you nod, enthusiasm pouring from you like milk from a spilling jug.

elbert licks his lips.

“yes! it’ll be a date!” you say.

he can only nod, letting the sound of your voice ring in his mind like the tolling of bells.

a date.

he wants, he wants, he wants.

“a date… yes, certainly, it will be… if that’s what you wish.”

he feels his heart stuttering his chest as you bob your head once more.

“yep, it’s a date then.”

he feels his lips tug into smile, tastes the familiar greed on this tongue.

he wants. he wants. he wants.

“it’s a date.”

[reality-detective]

Does electroculture work? You decide 🤔