#south hemisphere fall

[wearytaco]

Blessed be, y'all

[xo8ball]

i feel so bad because im here cuddly and warm in my bed not going outside in this cold day and patrick stump is probably sweating sneezing coughing feverishly sick and has to play shows and all that💔💔💔

[that-local-punk-kid]

made my blog in theme with the season

kinda funny, it's spring where I live

[turtlesandfrogs]

I made this Pre-pandemic for a "Starting plants from the grocery store" class I was teaching, here it is edited down for anyone interested.

For saving seeds, the fruit should be fully mature for the seeds to be fully mature. Therefore, you can use seeds from a winter squash but not a baby zucchini, and the likelihood that the seeds of a tomato (or red bell pepper) will grow are much higher than for a green bell pepper. Unfortunately, many are either going to be poorly suited for your conditions, or hybrid, which we'll touch on later.

Stem cuttings are a great way to start many common culinary herbs! Especially basil!

Some tubers to consider starting from are sweet potatoes and actual potatoes.

And then of course, the bulbs! Green onions and garlic are your best bets!

These are outdoor plants and thus are Somewhat Fussy if you're going to grow indoors. Do not overwater them (eg, letting them sit in a tray of water for days) nor let them dry out completely. Try to keep them evenly moist, with thorough waterings that then pour out the bottom of the pot unimpeded. 

Given that they are outdoor plants, a south-facing window (assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere) or grow lights are your best bet. If they don’t get enough light, they will turn pale and stretch towards their light source. They won’t grow as quickly or as healthfully as they would with sufficient light.  

Examples:

Tomatoes & peppers! Tomatoes are the one that actually inspired me to make this because I saw this clip on starting plants from kitchen scraps, and they buried the whole dang half of a tomato! Don’t do that! What a waste of a tomato half! EAT your tomato! Take the seeds out! 

If you’re intending to grow these outdoors, start them about 6 weeks before your last frost. If you have not grown plants from seed before, here’s some information from another class I taught: https://tinyurl.com/seedstarting2020

If you’re intending to grow them indoors the whole time, you will likely need grow lights for both tomatoes and peppers, and they like it if you keep your house on the warm side. I would suggest growing them outdoors and buying seeds for a dwarf tomato if you really want to grow indoors.

The down side is that most are hybrid, so when you grow out the seed, it's not necessarily going to grow well, be productive, or taste good. Even if it is open pollinated, it's probably been bred to thrive in conditions unlike those you can provide. If you need a successful crop, I highly suggest buying seed, or swapping with a reputable source. Although if you like and can find yellow pear tomatoes, those are an exception to this entire paragraph.

Basil! Basil is a great one to do stem cuttings of, get it started indoors, and then plant out once night time temperatures stay above 50f (10c). I prefer to start them straight into soil, and seem to have a higher success rate this way. To do this, remove all leaves except the top bud, and bury the stem in soil up to just beneath that bud and firm gently. Keep the soil moist and the pot above 60f, and you should have a good success rate. This method works for mint, lemon balm, rosemary, sage, etc, as well.

Green onions- really easy, put the bottom inch or so in soil and they’ll grow very well for you. I prefer soil over water because a) the water gets stinky, and b) they grow better and stronger in soil.

AND MORE:

Sage, rosemary, and thyme (also any stemmed herb): just like basil

Lettuce, carrots, beets: you get the tops, but usually they’ll try to bolt. Easier just to buy seeds. If you want, I usually start in shallow water and then plant as soon as I see roots growing. Again, keep the soil moist, and for these ones, keep them in a cooler part of your house. But really, they almost always bolt in my experience.

Sweet potatoes: Get them in the fall, it takes months for them to start growing (unless you're somewhere warm apparently? ). They will sprout, grow roots, take slips to plant outdoors once night time temperatures study above 50f (10c)

Garlic, just grab a clove and plant in the fall. Boom. GARLIC.

Squash- you don’t know what you’ll get, because they might be cross pollinated with another variety or hybrids. If you do grow it out and it’s bitter, don’t eat it, it’s poisonous. If you want to know more, search “toxic squash syndrome”

Ginger: Plant the rhizome in summer, harvest before frost, or overwinter indoors with a lot of light.

Pineapple: Doable, but it takes three years to get a harvest. Plant in well draining soil, and give it as much heat and light as you can.

Just for fun: (Unless you’re in the tropics or have a lot of patience.)

Mango, avocado, citrus. Take years, and a different climate than I have to fruit. If you’re in the tropics, go for it, but know that avocado pollination can apparently be tricky. I am not in the tropics, so I do not have direct experience with this. Citrus I think I've read also don't come true from seed.

Apples, pears: take years, and don’t come true to type. You do not know what you’ll get, and you’ll probably get something that is not worth eating (but would work for cider). These do need a cold dormancy period in the winter to do well. Of course, you could plant them and then top graft if it does turn out they don’t taste good.

Plums, peaches, apricots: take years, often do come true from seed, but peaches and nectarines are very susceptible to peach leaf curl, so may just die depending on where you are.

[palaeoplushies]

Very important

[actual-changeling]

winter rips him apart.

summer was warm, hot, his skin tacky with sweat and craving distance, revelling in the coldness that aziraphale had left behind. it soothed something inside of him, cooled down his shaking breaths, and took the sting out of his tears. it was easier to forget about him then.

not easy, but easier.

the season passed like it always does, though, and in the first weeks of fall, crowley begins to realise just how hollow his soul is. there is no warmth inside of him anymore, nothing to sustain him through the constant frigid rain and the mantle of death covering the world.

birds fly south, leaving for better lands (just like aziraphale had), trees rid themselves of their unsustainable burdens (just like aziraphale had), and immeasurable amounts of creatures bid the sun goodbye to hibernate, waiting until the world welcomes them again.

he briefly considers doing the same, considers turning his bed into a temporary grave and sleeping through winter, through spring, summer, autumn, and winter again if he must, until aziraphale comes back or the world ends and takes him with it.

he considers, and then he tries, but in the grey twilight of november, his lips burn with memories, his body craves softness and someone's heat to bask in, and it refuses to grant him an illusion of peace.

winter comes, unstoppable, uncaring, rolling out over the northern hemisphere, and crowley wants to claw his skin off.

a year ago, he had spent his days curled up under a blanket in the bookshop, dozing the weeks away, too comfortable to flee in the face of intimacy, and aziraphale had been next to him day after day after day. in the midst of his dreams, gentle touches had reached him now and again, a palm resting on his shoulder, a thigh pressed against his.

a year ago, there had been trashy movies and aziraphale teaching him how to make his signature hot chocolate, and crowley had been happy.

not just content but happy.

his fingertips are blue, his lips numb, yet he refuses to move from where he is leaning against the window, watching the snow fall. under the spell of the cold, his body slows and petrifies, ever yearning, longing for a cup of tea and the person who made it.

winter wraps itself around him like a cloak, and he wishes he could blame the season, but winter is time, and it either freezes or passes; there is no turning back. no, the aching, pale fingers ripping his soul apart like a piece of paper, tearing through it again and again as it becomes small and scattered, are his own.

crowley is heaps of brittle, yellowed leaves, is a fading birdsong left behind as its creators chase the sun, is a lonely being in the snow while everyone else breathes air warmed by others, safe from the hardening frost.

the end of the world could come, and instead of raising sword and shield to stop it, crowley would shatter beneath its force like hot glass dropped in the snow—and if it meant escaping the hold of aziraphale's absence, he would gladly let it happen.

[yoga-onion]

Legends and myths about trees

Celtic beliefs in trees (21)

E for Eadha (Aspen) - September 21st Autumn Equinox

“Whispering tree, also known as Trembling tree  - Autumn Equinox of the Celtic Tree Calendar (Ref), when moving into darkness”

Star: Pluto, Mercury, Saturn: Gemstone: black opal,; Gender: female; Patron deity: Persephone, Hades; Symbol: listening, overcoming fear + courage, shield, light in the darkness

Aspen trees are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the northern hemisphere, extending south at high-altitude areas such as mountains or high plains.

The aspen is referred to as quaking aspen or trembling aspen because the leaves "quake" or tremble in the wind. This is due to their flattened petioles which reduce aerodynamic drag on the trunk and branches, so that they catch any slight breeze, making the leaves tremble, flutter and make a soft, rustling sound each time they do so. In autumn, the leaves turn bright yellow and sometimes red, and when they fade further and turn black, they fall off.

The ancient Celts believed that the wind was a messenger of the word of the gods and therefore considered anything that was in tune with the wind sacred. The same is true of the aspen tree. The aspen, which has the best ears of all trees, always rustled its leaves in response to the voice of the gods.

However, the aspen, with its close connection to death and the underworld, came to be regarded as a tree of misfortune. In earlier times, corpses and graves were counted with a cane made of aspen named fé, and people were terribly afraid of the calamities that would befall them if they were struck with this cane. The connection with the seasons, rest and rebirth was often overlooked, and many people, cowering in fear, heard only the abominable sound of aspen leaves rustling in the wind. However, the teachings of the aspen are about overcoming the fear of death, the fear of the unknown and fear itself. The aspen was called the 'shield tree' by the Irish Celts, and is said to have been their favourite tree for making shields. This was not only because aspens provided a reassuring shield, but also because they protected us from flinching in the face of the unknown, once we had taken their teachings to heart.

Incense made from aspens is burned continuously during Halloween (Celtic festival of Samhain). Halloween is the time of year when the distance between this world and the underworld is at its closest, and the period that ushers in the new year. Samhain is also the festival of the New Year, which takes place on November the 1st, the beginning of the year, but it is also the festival of the dead. It is believed that during nights between the end of the year and the beginning of the new year, the border with the other world disappears, the souls of the dead visit their relatives, and demons and evil spirits cause damage to crops and livestock.

Ancient Celtic cultures were known to carve turnips or potatoes and place embers inside to ward off evil spirits. That's because Ireland didn't have pumpkins. In England, large beets were used. When immigrants brought over their carving tradition, Americans began carving jack-o'-lanterns from pumpkins.

木にまつわる伝説・神話

ケルト人の樹木の信仰 (21)

EはEadha (ﾎﾟﾌﾟﾗ) - 9月21日・秋分の日　

『ささやきの木、震える木 〜 ケルトの木の暦（参照）・秋分、暗闇に移るとき』

星: 冥王星、水星、土星: 宝石: ブラック・オパール、; 性: 女性; 守護神: ベルセポネ、ハデス; シンボル: 聞くこと、恐怖の克服+勇気、楯、暗闇の中の光明

ポプラ (ｾｲﾖｳﾔﾏﾅﾗｼ‘山鳴らし’) の木はすべて、北半球の北部で夏が涼しく寒い地域に自生し、南は山や高原などの標高の高い地域に広がっている。

ポプラは、葉が風で「震える」ことから、山鳴らしと呼ばれている。これは、幹や枝の空気抵抗を減らすために葉柄が平らになっているためで、どんな微風もとらえ、その度に葉は震え、はためき、さらさらと柔らかな音を立てる。秋になると、葉は鮮やかな黄色に色づき、時には赤くなり、さらに色あせて黒くなると落葉する。

古代ケルト人は、風は神の言葉を伝える使者と信じていたため、風と同調するものは何でも神聖視していた。ポプラの木も同様だ。すべての木の中で最も優れた耳を持つポプラは、いつも神の声に応じて葉をそよがせていたのだ。

ところが、死や地下の国とつながりの深いポプラは、不幸を招く木とみなされるようになった。その昔、死体や墓はフェという名前の、ポプラでできた杖で数えられていたし、この杖で打たれると災難がふりかかると人々はひどく恐れていた。四季、安息、再生との関わりはしばしば見過ごしにされ、恐怖に身をすくませた多くの人たちは、風にそよぐポプラの葉音に忌まわしい声だけを聞き取った。しかし、ポプラの教えは、死の恐怖、未知なるものへの恐れ、そして恐怖心そのものを克服することにあるのだ。ポプラは、アイルランドのケルト人に「楯の木」と呼ばれ、彼らが楯をつくるのに最も好んだ木と言われている。それは、ポプラが単に心強い防具になっただけに留まらず、ひとたびポプラの教えを我がものとしたなら、未知なるものを前にしてもたじろがないように守ってくれたからに他ならない。

ハロウィン (ケルトのサウィン祭)の期間中、ポプラから作られたお香が焚かれ続ける。ハロウィンは、現世と冥界の距離が最も近くなる時期であり、新年を迎える期間でもある。サウィンは、1年の始まりである11月1日に行われる新年の祭りでもあるが、同時に死者の祭りでもある。年末から新年が始まるまでの夜は、あの世との境界がなくなり、死者の魂が親族を訪ね、悪魔や悪霊が農作物や家畜に被害を与えると信じられている。

古代ケルト文化圏では、悪霊を追い払うためにカブやジャガイモを刻んで中に燠火を入れていたことが知られている。アイルランドにはカボチャがなかったからだ。イギリスでは大きなビーツが使われた。移民がカボチャを彫る習慣を持ち込むと、アメリカ人はカボチャからジャック・オー・ランタンを彫るようになった。

[determinate-negation]

i know new york being the ancestral homeland of jews is a joke but as a jew from europe it literally feels that way. like i cannot imagine like a whole street written in hebrew. like i want to go there just to see that. i dont think jews inthe united states are aware of how good they have it

i do want to note that america is also a settler colonial state and its only because of specific american aims of the settler project and material realities of the economy and the physical land they were trying to settler that theyve had this “melting pot” ideology where jews were incorporated similarly to italian and irish immigrants, instead of continuing to have deeply ingrained religious and cultural antisemitism like europe. there were in some periods of us history more restrictions on jewish immigration and some institutional barriers for jews, especially before and during ww2, but never to the same degree as europe. although american jews were rarely (if ever, i dont know any examples but there could be some) violent genocidal settlers like the anglos and generally migrated later, we were still settlers searching for economic interests provided by american expansion on native land. that being said were here now and have the status of any other american settler (meaning people who arent indigenous or descended from enslaved people brought here against their will) most indigenous theorists and activists maintain that they want sovereignty, reparations, companies to stop destroying native land, etc, not every american settler to leave. i really believe that the united states also must fall, but i dont think this makes us like not belonging, at least any more than the other settlers.

i just want to say this to explain that my love for new york and the east coast us is complex. objectively the multicultural and cosmopolitan aspects of nyc that make it unique are products of american imperialism– for example nyc is the most linguistically diverse city in the world! over 600 languages are spoken here, including languages that arent spoken anywhere else anymore, but think about why that is. and the flourishing of jewish communities and culture in parts of the us was a product of specific historic processes and policies, and we like any other descendants of settler-immigrants have to grapple with that. i think its possible to oppose and fight against american imperialism and settler colonialism and still deeply appreciate the contradictory aspects of culture in america. (which lbr all the dynamic and interesting and worth preserving things about american culture were not created by anglos, but by outsiders and oppressed people) anyways this is all just to say im really not coming at it from a nationalist perspective but a diaspora perspective but yeah, new york is such a jewish city its genuinely incredible. this is why i especially despise tri state area zionists... youre ignoring that you live in the greatest place in the world for jews. literally the most jewish city in the world. like theres a moving company called schleppers here, yiddish words are part of everyones dialect, you can get the best jewish food everywhere from delis that are like 100 years old, we literally have a truck called the mitzvah tank that chabad drives around and asks people on the street if theyre jewish. the only romaniote synagogue in the western hemisphere is here and they have a greek jewish festival every year (which unfortunately is always covered in israeli flags -_-) the whole foods by one of my work sites had a sign up for yom kippur catering because the neighborhood is so jewish.

jewish culture and history and jews in general are just part of the fabric of life in new york. also whatever street youre talking about was probably written in yiddish since thats what most of the hassidic jews speak here! nyc has the largest concentration of yiddish speakers, which isnt surprising, and its the 8th most spoken language in nyc. theres also a big and still growing bukharian community here too. if you ever can, i really recommend visiting new york. theres so much jewish culture and history here. a lot of american jews live much more isolated, so i cant speak for them, but for many parts of the north east i feel that were lucky. antisemitism exists here but idk ive grown up in pretty jewish areas and never really experienced it. europe sounds legitimately shitty. also... fun fact, netanyahu went to high school in the suburbs outside of philly

^my photos in the lower east side, and heres some photography of hassidic williamsburg too

also williamsburg

[apod]

2023 September 23

Afternoon Analemma Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Griffin (Otago Museum)

Explanation: An analemma is that figure-8 curve you get when you mark the position of the Sun at the same time each day for one year. To make this one, a 4x5 pinhole camera was set up looking north in southern New Zealand skies. The shutter was briefly opened each clear day in the afternoon at 4pm local time exposing the same photosensitized glass plate for the year spanning September 23, 2022 to September 19, 2023. On two days, the winter and summer solstices, the shutter was opened again 15 minutes after the main exposure and remained open until sunset to create the sun trails at the bottom and top of the curve. The equinox dates correspond to positions in the middle of the curve, not the crossover point. Of course, the curve itself is inverted compared to an analemma traced from the northern hemisphere. And while fall begins today at the Autumnal Equinox for the northern hemisphere, it's the Spring Equinox in the south.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230923.html

[talonabraxas]

Spring Equinox 2024: The First Day of Spring Art - Talon Abraxas

It happens every March 20 or 21 (or March 19 if it's a leap year like 2024 and you are in the Eastern Time Zone or farther west). Cue the sunshine, birds, bees, and early spring flowers in the Northern Hemisphere.

Because our planet is tilted on an axis, as it orbits the sun the hemispheres essentially swap periods when they receive solar light and heat most directly. The spring equinox, which takes place this year on March 19 at 11:06 P.M. EDT, marks the moment when the sun sits directly over the Earth’s equator as it heads northward. The Northern and Southern Hemispheres share the sun’s rays equally at the equinox, and night and day are roughly the same length.

Wherever you are on the planet, everyone experiences the equinox at the same instant, even if the date is different—those in earlier time zones, such as Europe and Asia, will have already flipped the calendar to March 20. And for those south of the equator, where the seasons are swapped, the same instant marks the first day of fall.

After the spring equinox, the days grow progressively longer than the nights through the end of the season.

[bandiera--rossa]

While reading the works of the medieval Arab sociologist Ibn Khaldun many years ago, I was surprised by his ideas on geography and climate, which attribute not only physical but also sociological patterns for people living in the same climatic region. In short, these ideas suggest that if someone from the extreme Northern Hemisphere moved to the extreme Southern Hemisphere, their surviving descendants would eventually have the same physical and sociological attributes as the people of the Southern Hemisphere. I was fascinated by this concept and at a loss of how anyone in this world could be a racist, knowing they could have mutated into anyone else.

Holding onto this notion and adding to it years of soul-searching, which for being born a Muslim led me to delve into Sufism, I developed the firm belief that all humans are essentially one and that all evil in the world is the result of our division. I was convinced the principal reason people in the Global North condone their armies murdering innocent civilians or the dying of children from hunger in faraway nations is that they are unable to perceive the victims as similar to them and are accordingly unable to empathize with them and feel their pain. If they did, I told myself, most evil in the world would disappear.

That is why I believe that the main objective of the arts should be to humanize those we perceive as different. Being an aspiring novelist myself, I decided that unity and the oneness of being would be the principal theme of all my work.

I can no longer adopt such beliefs and will no longer vouch for those ideas.

It is clear to me now that calling for love and unity does not fall on the oppressed but on the privileged. In the face of the hate or apathy of those who do not feel their suffering or regard them as equal, the persecuted have no choice but to embrace whatever they are persecuted for, ethnic, religious, or else, and accept the division. To vouch for love and unity is a privilege only people in the Global North can now afford. For the rest of us, it is nothing short of weakness and humiliation.

Like most people in the Global South, I am watching with horror the ongoing genocide being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and the blind, astonishing backing of the majority of governments and mainstream media outlets in the United States and Europe. Like most people in the Global South, I am opening my eyes to the hypocrisy, racism, and ugly confirmation that our lives and deaths are still not valued or regarded as equal. Like most people in the Global South, I am outraged at the narrative of condemning Hamas solely for the attack on October 7, the impudence of acting as if it were unprovoked, and the moral failure to view it in the context of 75 years of dehumanization, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, land theft, violence, torture, and rape at the hands of Israel.

We, who suffered from colonialism, understand that the only party to blame is Israel, the occupying power, simply because if there had been no occupation, there would have been no Hamas. We, who suffered from colonialism, understand that the Hamas combatants who attacked Israel on October 7 did not choose to be resistance fighters and would have had normal lives if they had not been subjected to occupation and living for almost two decades in a concentration camp where more than half of the population were struggling to afford food just before October 7. We, who suffered from colonialism, are well aware of this narrative of blaming the victims and the failure to apply the same moral principles to us.

So, for the people of conscience in the Global North who are standing with the Palestinians in any way they can, for those marching, writing, and speaking up, thank you for giving us hope in humanity in our darkest hour and not allowing us to turn into complete monsters as our enemies want us to.

And for the other ones, for those who are running this horror show in Gaza or facilitating it, for those who are murdering and collectively punishing the innocent men and women and the children of the earth, for those who know there are children trapped in darkness under the rubble of bombed buildings, who are dying of thirst and hunger and are still against a ceasefire, for those who have revealed the wickedness of their hearts and the darkness of their souls, know that we now see you for who you are. The masks have fallen, and millions of us are opening up our eyes to the realization of how much you hate and dehumanize us. Millions of us are radicalized and ready to adopt the ideas and narratives of any group, only if it will fight or oppose you. Whatever doctrine there is — Islamist, Communist, or Nihilist — millions of us are ready to espouse it only if it will take a stand against you.

Palestine now divides us. 

We have hate in our hearts, and I promise you that it will remain. And I promise you we will live like this and die like this and pass on our rage and our pain. And we will remain prisoners of our hate, and you will remain prisoners of your crimes and fears, and the violence will go on, and none of us will be free, until there is fairness and until there is justice, and until Palestine is free.

Mohamed Seif El Nasr - an Egyptian writer with an academic background in history and international law.

[wandoffire]

Elements

EARTH 🌱

Direction:

North (northern hemisphere)

South (southern hemisphere)

Season: Winter

Colour: Green, Brown, Black

Tarot: Pentacle

Signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

Crystals: Malachite, Tourmaline, Obsidian

AIR ☁️

Direction: East

Season: Autumn/Fall

Colour: Yellow, White

Tarot: Sword

Signs: Aquarius, Gemini, Libra

Crystals: Amethyst, Aventurine, Blue Kyanite

FIRE 🔥

Direction:

South (northern hemisphere)

North (southern hemisphere)

Season: Summer

Colour: Red, Orange

Tarot: Wand

Signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius

Crystals: Jasper, Garnet, Sunstone

WATER 💧

Direction: West

Season: Spring

Colour: Blue, Aqua, Silver

Tarot: Cup

Signs: Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio

Crystals: Aquamarine, Moonstone, Selenite

*There’s five elements if you include spirit! Some people also consider wood and metal their own elements.

Love <3

[ungrateful-cyborg]

Etheirys

The Spring is coming back and with it a lot more energy to people who haven't seen the sun in a while. And if you're in the South Hemisphere, well then, some fun might be good to welcome the Fall :D

Do I have an excuse for any season? Yes, I do.

But what I wanted to post about today is a new poll for Etheirys members (and future members. Come join us!) about whether or not you'd like an art/screenshot/writing challenge on the forum. A chill one, rather than one with one prompt per day.

Come give us your opinion here.

[growwithmeastrology]

Tuesday, March 19th 2024 Sun in Pisces ♓️🌊 and Aries♈️🔥 Moon in Cancer ♋️🌊 and Leo ♌️🔥

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! We leave another astrological year behind today. While it will be nearly midnight here in the Atlantic, 11:06 PM to be exact, most of my audience won’t technically experience the shift until tomorrow.

The Moon starts off today in Cancer, her favorite place to be, where we can continue to be caring and nurturing. While here, she’s in a beautiful trine with both the Sun and Neptune in Pisces so our focus and our intuition are working together inviting us to dream big and realize that true knowledge is knowing that everything is possible.

By mid afternoon Luna shifts into the sign of Leo where the energies start to shift quite drastically from emotional water to action oriented fire. The commonality here is we get to stay on the creative side of things, helping us bring those dreams into reality.

The Leo Moon will immediately oppose Pluto in Aquarius where feelings intensify. Any truths you’ve been ignoring lately will be in your face today causing dramatic mood swings. Do your best to control your emotions and watch your behavior for impulse reactions.

Today is a good day to reflect on the past year and see if you’re on track with the goals you set for yourself. Any resolutions set in January also get a second chance today so go out and conquer your desires! Happy New Year to all, Happy Spring Equinox to those in the northern hemisphere and Happy Fall to you down south of the equator!

If you enjoy my daily forecasts please like, comment, share and consider a gratitude tip in support. 🅿️ PayPal, Venmo or CashApp - @NaliniFlor

Learn more about your personal energies and how the daily forecast affects you! Comment below⬇️ get or DM me for a consultation.

[fatehbaz]

Big week for news about “mountain lions wandering back into historic habitat where they were once persecuted to extinction” in February 2023.

---

Central Texas:

Headline and screenshots from: Priscilla Aguirre. “Potential mountain lion sighting in San Antonio area raises awareness.” My San Antonio. 14 February 2023.

Excerpt from this article: Officials at the San Marcos Parks and Recreation Department are asking others and the surrounding areas to be cautious about potential mountain lions in Central Texas. Officials said the message comes after the department received a call about a potential sighting of a mountain lion at Upper Purgatory Creek Natural Area in San Marcos on Sunday, February 12. [...] In Central Texas, it’s extremely rare to see a mountain lion in person, according to a report from the San Antonio Express-News. [...] Only one mountain lion has been confirmed in Bexar County in the past decade, on November 24, 2013, according to TPWD. [End of excerpt.]

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Great Plains and Nebraska:

Headline and screenshot from: Damon Bennett. “Nebraska mountain lion now looking for a name after 700-mile journey.” Lincoln Journal-Star. 16 February 2023.

Excerpt from this article: A Nebraska mountain lion that found itself in a sanctuary in Indiana after a 700-mile journey through four states is now looking for one last souvenir: a name. Back in the fall, the big cat made its way from the scenic Niobrara River valley all the way to suburban Springfield, Illinois, according to the GPS tracker that Nebraska Game and Parks had tagged it with a year prior. "A lot of people were watching him," said [the director of an “exotic feline rescue center”] in Center Point, Indiana, where the mountain lion has been since October. When the lion overstayed its welcome near Springfield, it was sedated by federal wildlife officials, who offered to return it to Nebraska. Nebraska declined.’ [...] "I'm incredibly impressed with this animal; he crossed both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers [...]." [End of excerpt.]

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Ozarks and Missouri:

Headline and screenshot from: Julia Wilson. “Mountain lions in Missouri? We’re seeing more than usual this winter.” Columbia Missourian. 16 February 2023.

Excerpt from this article: Footage from a trail camera taken Jan. 3 confirmed that a roaming mountain lion made a rare appearance in northern Boone County. Since then, the Missouri Department of Conservation documented three additional sightings around the state last month — one in Callaway County, another in Montgomery County and a third that was hit by a vehicle south of St. Louis.  Reports of mountain lions, also known as cougars, pumas and panthers, have increased over the past decade in the state. Between 2013 and 2022, a total of 65 were counted around Missouri. Compare that to the years between 1994 and 2006, when only 12 were spotted. [...] The animals may come from an established colony in the Black Hills, cross Nebraska and wander into Missouri, according to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. Missouri’s extensive forest coverage, which includes 35% of state acreage, then becomes an ideal destination for the animals. Mountain lions have roamed Missouri since pre-settlement times. Their range crosses the western hemisphere from Canada to southern Chile. [...] Although they are seen across the state, over half of all sightings have been documented within 40 miles of Mark Twain National Forest in southeast Missouri. [...] Trophy hunting by early colonists wiped out most of the population east of the Mississippi River. [...] Except for the recent encounter in Franklin County where a lion was hit by a vehicle, the last documented human contact occurred in December 2021 during another vehicle collision. [End of excerpt.]

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For reference:

[hussyknee]

Please note that who gets to be "white" is contextual to the center of ethnic power in each region.

Dark-skinned people of Asian, African and Indigenous descent will never be white in any part of the world and will always be vulnerable to white skinned people of European descent. (Excepting the times Japanese and some East Asian peoples with an adequate lack of melanin have been granted conditional whiteness.)

However, Slavs, white Jews, white Latinos, white Roma (white skinned and associated with European origins) are fully white in places where they hold ethnosupremacy and achieve/are granted conditional whiteness of varying levels and privileges in the US, Canada, South Africa and other white settler colonies, and some parts of Europe (Jewish South African settlers had no idea what side of the apartheid fence they would fall until the white Afrikaners made clear they were accepted).

Whiteness in the Western world is also entirely in the purview of the imperial core's narrative. In the Western lens, Eastern Europeans eternally hover between the fact of being white-skinned Europeans and being Orientalised due to their histories as colonies of Russia and Ottoman empire and their shared heritage with Asia Minor. Even the narratives of the Holocaust erase the genocide of Soviet Jewry. (That's right, in Soviet Russia the Holocaust had nothing to do with Jews, which is why Putin keeps accusing Zelensky of being a Nazi). The US and Western Europe's manufacturing of consent for NATO's military alliance with Ukraine at the outbreak of its war with Russia involved efforts to elevate them to full whiteness that were routinely hilarious because demystifying and de-exoticising them (is that a word?) revealed the extent to which they had been Othered, paternalised and exotified (lots of "omg they're humans just like us even though they live in a shitty second world country" stories especially from the UK, ntm journalists parachuting in and seemingly being surprised they had McDonald's and internet access. You could not make this stuff up). You can contrast this directly with how much of a shit they don't give about Armenians because they're Russian allies, even though Armenians are literally white in the US. It's why I have to roll my eyes at the "they care about Ukrainians because they're white" discourse. That's entirely backwards— Ukrainians are white because NATO is invested in them. Otherwise they'd just be another former Soviet Republic up to their usual "savage shenanigans" like the rest of the Eastern Bloc.

You'd think you couldn't pull this same trick with non-Europeans, except that Apartheid South Africa deemed Japanese "honorary whites" (much like Nazi Germany proclaimed them honorary Aryans), and then, hilariously, the rest of the East Asians because they were so pissed off about it. White Australia otoh kept them stubbornly out.

Otoh, Islam is fully and irrevocably racialized (associated with the Middle East even though like...nevermind), which is why Bosniaks and Turks will never be given even conditional whiteness, European or not.

Whatever the geo-political hemisphere, under the global influence of white supremacy, the capacity for the casual public to empathize with a person recedes with the rise of melanin in their appearance. This is why abolitionists used white passing Black Americans to drum up support for their cause among Europeans, why more people will always empathize with white Eastern Europeans, why anti-blackness is its own creature and Black people are so universally dehumanized that even people that care about atrocities in the Middle East pay scant attention to the horrors in Africa where the West and Israel are equally implicated. In the landscapes of our imaginations, the Western cultural hegemony has created the image of dark bodies into a faceless, uncontainable, seething hoarde born to suffer and die; lives stripped bare of names, personalities, agency, intelligence, homelands and dreams.

(Please note this blog is anti-genocide no matter the colour of their skin, by which I mean that what's happening in Ukraine is also one, and no amount of Zionists with their flag in their bios makes it any more acceptable for them to be colonized and slaughtered than it is for any of the several Black and brown people being subjected to the same right now. Human rights are not predicated on good behaviour, or else we'd all be dead.)