#i just want to be glabrous and smooth

[yourheartinyourmouth]

they should invent a pill that makes all your body hair fall off

[dreamtofswallowingcoins]

I don’t get access to the article itself, so I’m paraphrasing what is free and what I have access to. I’m also using consolidated memory because I’ve been keeping up with these kinds of summaries for A WHILE. (I guess this would count as a hiperfixation of mine. I find it super interesting and I wish I had the social guts to reach out to the researchers to get the actual articles. Actually, I wish I could take a full on class for it. It’s so blasted cool. Anyway). 

This is about CT afferents.

C-tactile afferents are low-threshold nerve receptors sensitive to light, 1-10cm/sec strokes of brushes or fingertips. Until recently, they were thought to only exist in non-glabrous skin--which is to say, hairy or non-smooth skin (so not the palms of your hands or soles of your feet, but rather on your arms, legs, face, stomach, etc)--but that has recently come into question. Once activated, they interact with the insular cortex of the brain (associated with emotions and social behavior/bonding, among other things) to give a pleasant feeling. It’s generally harder to study them in a scientific setting because they’re more easily activated when two people have a bond already, and the space is more relaxed. 

Now I’m going to geek about the article synopsis I just read (The Social Brain Has a Nerve: Insights from Attachment Types and Autistic Phenotypes, Emily E Jackson, Francis P McGlone, and Connor J Haggarty. From ScienceDirect): 

Early infant touch related to CT afferents may have a role in your attachment type!!!!!!! They’re thinking insufficient affective (emotional) touch early on can cause people to reject/avoid similar social touch later on and create avoidant types. This tracks, sure, you weren’t given much affection as a kid so now you’re weary about it, that makes sense. But it’s especially cool because that emotional-based touch is most easily activated with CT fibers and afferents. AND not only do these fibers impact your attachment type, (among other things), but they *are affected* by neurodivergence!!!!!!!! 

It’s cool stuff. I’m stimming it’s so cool. 

Maybe I’ll start talking about it more when something that strikes me comes up. 

Anyway. This is me!! Shouting to the void!!!! If anyone wants to talk about this stuff, I’m so here!!! 

[kevinscottgardens]

24 au 30 janvier 2022

Another week off work. Apologies for the lack of photos this week. I met with M., Mme. and James Monday morning to discuss a few things including the new meadow area. Karen came over for apéros, a nice long chat and dinner. We enjoyed leftovers from Sunday, pork and potatoes-gratin with a fresh green salad, followed by cheese and then dessert and a nice bottle of wine.

Lucien departed Tuesday. I’m chasing up the flowers I tried to send to Stéphane for his 50th at the beginning of the month. My trottinette is on its way back (or perhaps it will be a new one) and is scheduled to be delivered Thursday. I’ve resumed working on Arabella’s database.

I spent all day Wednesday reading. I finished two books: Living Well is the Best Revenge, Alentejo Blue and one journal Hortus no. 139. I still want to finish Jesus-Christ buvait de la bière, before book club on Monday night.

Thursday, my trottinette arrived in the same box I sent it to be fixed, good recycling. I hope they actually fixed the electrical problem.

My doctor visit went as I imagined, I’ll be off work two more weeks. A lot will depend on what the physiotherapist says Monday. I went to see Marc for a massage and he paid special attention to my arms. They felt a lot better afterwards. Then I meandered over to have dinner with Dee and Kim. 

Friday I had ultrasound on my right shoulder and elbow. I received an email stating that my request to swap my UK driving licence for a French permis de conduire is still in process. I’m doing a lot on Duolingo this week. I am feeling quite lethargic and unmotivated, I really need to kick that so I can do a lot of reading and learning French over the next two weeks.

Saturday I didn’t leave the house. No exercise for me at all. I finished binge-watching Sex Education on Netflix. I’m head of the leader board in the diamond league for the first time on Duolingo. I read a bit in French too. I also did a small puzzle.

Sunday I attempted to make crèpes. The batter wasn’t very smooth. I checked on my mutual funds... they are all tanking... I should go up and water the Pelargoniums I have growing in pots in the glasshouse. I discovered one of my two cymbidiums has two buds. I repotted them about a year ago. I sent Bala (RGB Kew) a photo. We’re going to have a catch up next week.

I eventually made my way up to the glasshouse and I’m glad I did, everything really needed a drink. They should be good for another week now.

Sarah-Jane rang and we went out for a drink and to let her vent a bit. I started watching Plan Cœur (Hookup Plan) on Netflix; it’s really helping with my modern spoken French.

Cours de français hebdomadaire

jeux de cartes - card games

paquet de cartes - deck of cards

As - ace

Roi - king

Dame - queen

Valet - jack (knight)

enseignes ( couleurs ) - suits

trèfle - club

carreau - diamond

cœur - heart

pique - spade

Plant of the week

Asteraceae Senecio seminiveus J.M.Wood & M.S.Evans

common name(s) - yellow halfwhite groundsel; Zulu : khotolia-ea-noka synonym(s) - none conservation rating - none native to - South Africa location - Domaine de l’Orangerie leaves - finely divided greyish-hairy foliage; peculiar white-woolly leaf buds contrasting with the glabrous mature foliage flowers - heads radiate, one to three in terminal corymbs; involucral bracts ± 12, ± equalling disc florets, glandular-pilose, base often cobwebby; flowers: ray florets ± 13; ray and disc florets bright canary-yellow fruit - achenes c. 3mm long, cylindric, ribbed, glabrous habit - evergreen perennial, compact, well-branched, to 300mm tall and 500mm wide habitat - mesic grassland, montane, rocky areas; in rounded clumps on cliff faces or sprawled over rock sheets or in the crevices of rock sheets; between c. 2,130m and 3,170m above sea level pests - generally pest-free disease - generally disease-free hardiness - to -5ºC (H3) soil - well-drained sun - full sun propagation - seed, cuttings, layering pruning - just to keep compact nomenclature - Asteraceae - star; Senecio - old man, senex, senis, the name in Pliny refers to the grey hairiness as soon as fruiting commences; seminiveus - no information found

References :

Denver Botanic Gardens [online] http://navigate.botanicgardens.org/weboi/oecgi2.exe/INET_ECM_DispPl?NAMENUM=19220&startpage=1 [23 Jan 22]

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [23 Jan 22]

John Grimshaw’s Garden Diary [online] http://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.com/2010/11/senecio-seminiveus.html [23 Jan 22]

Plants of the World [online] https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:247545-1 [23 Jan 22]

SANBI [online] http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=3152-419 [23 Jan 22]

SARS-CoVid-2 update (incidence rate per 100,000)

[gravityrain886-blog]

The beauty in stone -- Yuhua Stone

Look at these glittering and translucent pebbles! They are the specialties of my hometown, Nanjing in China, called Yuhua Stone. In Chinese, ‘Yuhua’ means raining and flowers. Therefore, It was also translated into ‘Rain Flower Stone’ or ‘riverstone’ in English.

The Yuhua stone (Chinese: 雨花石; pinyin: yuhua shi; literally: "rain flower stone") is a special kind of stone found in Nanjing, China, due to the unique geology of the area. Yuhua stones, or pebbles, are of sedimentary origin and consist of minerals including quartz and other silicates.—From Wikipedia

Appreciating the Yuhua stone, people can not only enjoy the beauty of them, but also can appreciate the interesting culture behind them.

[1] Why so many people love Yuhua stone?

Yuhua stone is an ornamental stone with a long history. In Song Dynasty, its aesthetic value has been found gradually. More and more people enjoy appreciating it because its charming in many ways.

First, the shape. Yuhua stone itself has different shape. Some are smooth globe, some have edges. The patterns on them also different. Some are regular rectangle or triangle, some are irregular shape. Both of them are creating a huge space for people to imagine what scenery or story they see on the stone. Do not forget all of them are forming naturally.

(the regular and irregular)

Second, the color. Yuhua stone is like a beautiful girl, wearing colorful coat, with glabrous skin. One stone usually has more than one color. The combination of different color makes themselves more charming. The more colors one stone has, the more valuable it is. Nowadays, many designers can get inspiration of matching colors from the Yuhua stone.

(the colorful stone)

Amazingly, the color itself is not the only aspect to make it charming. People usually put them into the water(the water can protect them). Therefore, when you appreciate Yuhua stone, the different time, different light, different seasons, the size of vessel, the depth of water…all the aspects can make Yuhua stone become unique treasure.

(Yuhua stone in water)

Last but not least, the patterns.

What can you see on the stone? Someone sees just black irregular lines, someone thinks that represents dancing people, someone thinks they are people who are on the trip. The various patterns provides a good platform where they can imagine freely.

Of course, the professional appreciation has more deep research on the different meaning of different colors or patterns. If you are interested in them, try to find some professional books! They have better explanation about Yuhua stone than mine.

[2] The interesting names of Yuhua stone

According to the different patterns and colors on Yuhua stone, Chinese people give them different beautiful and meaningful names. Using your imagination and giving it a unique name, people can understand the artistic conception of the stone better.

This stone is called ‘the magical words of sun’. Because the orange body with the red rough circle in the middle, people imagine the pattern as a sun surrounded by clouds. ‘The magical words’ added the mysterious color of the stone.

This stone is named ‘fish flying in the river bottom’(Sorry for my immature translation). The word ‘flying’ is used to describe the dynamic condition of fish swimming. The light yellow is like the water under the shining of sunset. The dark brown is thought as the soil in the bottom of the river. Most attracting part in the stone is the red part, which is imagined as an energetic fish swimming freely in the river, kissing the soil happily.

How to name the stone depends on the different understanding of different people. You just need to make the most of your imagination to tell others what you see in the stone. Of course, if you want to be professional, you could do more research about Chinese cultural and learn some methods of giving name(such as named by color, by shape, by borrowing some idioms or poems etc.).

[3] Yuhua stone and literary

Due to the special and natural color and shape, Yuhua stones are active in Chinese ancient literature. Some famous poets wrote poems which speak highly of the pretty stones. One of the Chinese Four Great Classical Novels, The Story of the Stone, has a tight connection with Yuhua stone. For example, the protagonist, Jia Baoyu, is born with a jade(called Tongling jade) in his mouth. Some professor point out that the description of jade is the characteristic of agate(Yuhua stone is one kind of agate). When the author Cao describe how the jade form, in fact he is writing how the Yuhua stone form. There are many evidence that shows the novel has connection with Yuhua stone. Cao indeed use Yuhua stone as an significant image in The Story of the Stone.

I am happy to briefly introduce the charm of Yuhua stone. Sorry for my limited ability, there may be some mistakes in the article. I will be happy and grateful if you can help me point out. I am also glad to communicate everything with you about the Yuhua stone.

Thank you for reading my article and hope you can be interested in the culture of Yuhua stone!