#springtime swamps

[whatnext10]

Swamps Can Be Beautiful in the Early Light

Swamps Can Be Beautiful in the Early Light features a photo taken near the author/artist’s home. It tells the story of how and why the artist chose this place to photograph.

Swamp at First Light This little swamp is just around the corner from my house, and I have driven by it thousands of times. I never really paid it much attention until I began my photography journey. Even then, when I first started I scoured it for signs of wading birds or water fowl, and I noted several times that it was really pretty, especially when the sun was first coming up, but I never…

[geopsych]

Swamp sparrow and a veery in a spring in the woods this morning. I got clearer pictures of the veery but I like this one with the moss. (This post dedicated to @srobrien2 who walked up while I was taking pictures of these two.)

[noseysilverfox]

European red pine (лат. Pínus sylvéstris), Scotch pine, Baltic pine among the swamps🌱

Pine trees release a large amount of phytoncides — volatile active substances with antibiotic properties. That’s why the air in a pine forest is clean and nearly sterile. For comparison, in a hospital operating room, no more than 500 non-pathogenic microbes are allowed per cubic meter of air — and in a pine grove, at a height of about one and a half meters, the number of microorganisms is about the same: no more than 600.

Сосна обыкновенная (лат. Pínus sylvéstris) среди болот🌱

Сосна выделяет огромное количество фитонцидов – летучих активных веществ антибиотического действия. Поэтому воздух в сосняке чистый, почти стерильный. Если в больнице в операционной в одном куби­ческом метре воздуха допускается на��ичие не более 500 непатогенных микробов, то и в сосно­вом бору на высоте полутора метров микроорга­низмов имеется примерно столько же - не бо­лее 600.

[feral-syndrommme]

[kristo-flowers]

Marsh reflections, Bourgoyen, Ghent, Belgium

[tofreezetime]

curious creations

[great-and-small]

The other day I met a nice forester who recommended this profoundly beautiful swamp as a good spot to observe springtime amphibian activity. Right next to a boring looking road but then you walk in and it looks like this

Utterly teeming with life particularly cricket frogs and southern leopard frogs.

Also as a huge bonus I found wild pitcher plants nearby in addition to thriving sundews all over the place. I LOVE spring!

[hyperfixated-maybe]

Found a jack in the pulpit and a big weird dead spot?

How my pride month has been so far

[luvvannie]

STUPID CUPID ᡣ𐭩 -> sung hanbin smau

elf!hanbin x cupid!fem!reader

syn ❀ every valentine’s day, cupid is swamped with love letters from hopeless romantics and emotionally constipated disasters, and she's tired of all these egomaniacs running to her, expecting for a mircale — but last year, one letter from a kind-hearted christmas elf named hanbin has completely derailed her. after helping him confess to his crush (and witnessing his rejection), y/n finds herself breaking every rule in the book by secretly exchanging letters with him under a fake identity. now she’s caught between her professional duties, immense guilt for all of her lies, and the terrifying realisation that cupid might be falling in love herself.

gen ❀ fantasy (?), crack, really silly, secret identity/double life (y/n lowkey catfishes him)... some angst, penpals, easter/springtime!

cupid + minions | santa's shein workers

00 ❀ a teensy little crush (written)

01 ❀ so i guess i'm a catfish !

02 ❀ a follow-up letter

03 ❀ rejection no. 3

04 ❀ CUPID'S CRAZY CRASHOUT

05 ❀ head over heels (written)

06 ❀ CUPID'S CRAZIER CRASHOUT

07 ❀ cupid doesn't DO boyfriends... i think

08 ❀ word vomit (written)

+ more tba!

taglist (open) : @sievenderz

[pinkmoondoll9shihtzu]

Tie Your hair up, Drink a Hibiscus Tea, Put on some The Smiths, & Handle it.

(cleaned out my closet and made a huge pile for resell / thrift)

I dedieced i must Change my style In a way that is lovely. Felt it for a little while now but Springtime/Venus retrograde got me feeling the pull too strong to resist

There's many parts of my wardrobe i have outgrown. As i become more Brown Haired Girl i feel i wish to dress more elegant-delicate but in a swamp priestess/decaying/wisened Kind of way. a litle more mature & natural. Not so many bright colors or graphic tees or Pajama Pants lol.

And i am a huge believer u should dress However u want regardless of age There is no age limit to certain styles but it just feel like, this is wehre i have organically progressed to, in my souljourney & mindset ! i'm a true grown up Lady now & i wish to refelct this outwardly......

[drowninnoodles]

Could you please draw my Hazbin oc Lore for the springtime doodles?

She's the hotel gardener and their favorite flower is the red spider lily!

It's okay if you can't get to her though, your probably swamped rn

🫵🏼what u think

[essenyare]

The Wedding

AO3🚪 ENG��中文

For various reasons, their wedding didn’t really require anyone to be walked down the aisle. However, under Claire and Hunnigan’s insistence, Leon barely put up any resistance before giving in.

“I don’t think I’ll ever have a daughter in this lifetime,” Claire said, setting aside the comb and admiring the neatly smoothed strands of ash-blond hair before her. “This might be the only chance we have to properly send off our precious baby boy.” She suddenly reached out. “Whoa, put your hands down—”

Hunnigan hummed along to Sade’s song playing through the speakers, stifling a laugh as she quickly straightened the pale blue bow tie around Leon’s flushed cheeks. Meanwhile, Helena gave her own loose waves a finishing touch with a curling iron.

— “Of course you’re gonna wear a bow tie!” The girls said in unison.

— “No shit, I look like a damn Boy Scout.” After trying on his fifth outfit, Leon grumbled, but still gave a small nod, allowing the bridal consultant to check it off on his tablet.

A few light knocks sounded at the door before the eldest Redfield poked his head in. “How much longer? We’re all set on our end.”

“Five more minutes, give or take.” Claire suddenly rushed toward her brother, pressing both hands over his eyes. “—Get out! No peeking!”

“I—I’m not even the groom!”

“Out!”

The chapel wasn’t large, but the number of guests made up for it. There weren’t too many dreamy decorations—no balloons or streamers—since the venue itself already carried a refined aesthetic with its teakwood and marble interior, almost reminiscent of an old-school 1950s style. Leon glanced down at the price list in his hand. It could’ve been a bit more budget-friendly, but Jack seemed to like it, and the courtyard had cherry blossom trees. Springtime in New York always brought them into full bloom.

At the far end of the chapel, to the left, stood the girls who had spent all morning helping him get ready, with Chris bringing up the rear. They were all dressed in sage-colored formalwear.

And on the right stood Jack Krauser, tall and sharp in his gray-black suit, with not a single soul behind him. His posture was a little stiff, lips pressed into a thin line, his expression tinged with a rare trace of nervousness.

It was an uncommon sight.

Leon recalled their first night together, back when the older officer had been effortlessly skilled at ensuring their mutual pleasure. Yet, when they kissed—when he finally sank into him—his breath trembled with something close to a sob. The heavy brow ridge that shadowed his icy-blue eyes always reminded Leon of the ridge of a cliff, backlit by the pale light of dawn.

Leon resisted the urge to tell him to piston up. Instead, he cupped the man’s face in his hands, tilting his chin up just enough to catch the glimmer of moisture at the corner of his eye—a tiny falling star tracing its way over the scar on his lower lip.

Leon stepped forward, walking toward his beloved.

They exchanged vows, rings, and a kiss. Applause and whistles erupted around them.

Leon turned away slightly, glancing back at his friends. Chris, Jill, Ingrid, Claire, Helena—Sherry was there too, along with that buzz-cut kid who never looked too well. Even Ashley, always swamped with work in Langley, had managed to make it just in time, slipping into her seat a mere two minutes before the ceremony started. They hadn’t seen each other in six months. She had screamed Leon’s name and nearly ruined his carefully styled hair, but thankfully, Ingrid had come prepared with enough hairspray.

Leon tightened his fingers around Jack’s, applying just enough pressure to guide the soldier—his husband, the man who had spent most of his life alone—toward the smiling, toasting crowd.

“Hey,” he said softly. “They’re your family now, too.”

-fin-

[lususnatura]

so, as an eldritch plant creature, the force that is known as 'the green' in DC is something that blamore is also connected to, but it doesn't have nearly as much influence over it that someone like ivy does and/or doesn't understand it as intricately as she or someone like swamp thing would. because he can't actually communicate to any plants, including his own, directly as of now... but he has come to understand what certain signals mean that its plants sent it. an example of this would be something such as when its plants are stressed or sensory signals such as 'oh, i'm being touched by something' whenever they brush up against an object / person / or what have you.

this is because blamore's plants are actually CONNECTED to things like his circulatory and sympathetic nervous system (which is known for being responsible for sending distress signals, or the ones responsible for getting you into 'fight-or-flight' mode) so they are basically one with him quite literally, not just externally. however, once blamore fully mutates? i think i might've mentioned this before, but burgeon's namesake would probably start to make even more sense BC he does gain the power to also cause flowers to 'bloom' around it so it does have some form of plant powers (but a weak form of it, though it more than makes up for this through its bone manipulation and body size manipulation).

so yeah. also, i thought i should mention that because we are sort of entering into springtime now, that blamore will be pruning some of its plants in order to help induce growth when they died in the winter... and thus, in roleplay's, he may be slightly crabby. but kind of understandably so, because cutting them hurts LOL

[janewilsonrva]

Springtime in the Swamp

Tuckahoe Creek Park

Henrico County, Virginia (USA)

Based on a photo from May 12, 2024.

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

My Garden Flowers Part 6

All photos mine, unedited.

In order of appearance:

151. Canada Ginger (Asarum canadense) Not a ginger; the root just tastes like it. Flowers are springtime only and you miss them entirely if you don't get close to the ground!

152. Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) Was able to get her by calling up one of the plant places I order from directly during the COVID years. Their usual boxsets weren't listed as available so I asked if they ever would be that year, as a repeat customer, and listed the plants of theirs that I'd like and they put it together for me! She's a morning flower only, but she's stunning.

153. Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) One of my very first. Grassy green foliage and cute little light blue bell-shaped flowers.

154. Panicled Aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum) Well behaved for an aster. When she starts growing onto the sidewalk I ease her back into the bed and she stays.

155. Smallflower Columbine (Aquilegia brevistyla) You can eat these flowers too but she's not quite as profuse as her taller red cousin so I'll wait before trying one.

156. Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) Considered much more well-behaved behaved than her cousin the common milkweed, and therefore favoured in garden settings, I find she's not nearly as fragrant, but her flowers are stunning. In spite of her name she's quite drought tolerant. And while she doesn't spread by rhizome (well-behaved), she does seed prolifically. But like her common cousin, her young pods, young shoots, and flower clusters are edible cooked!

157. Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) She moves around. Died back in the area I initially planted her but has popped up in several places nearby and considerably further away. Her dried flowerheads still smell amazing after the winter if you give them a squeeze.

158. Wild Geranium (Geranium maculata) A beautiful plant from spring to fall. Her foliage is roundy in the early spring and then she has these wonderful pink flowers against the dark green of her leaves. After the flowers are done the foliage is still interesting, and then it turns red in the fall.

159. Sweet Corn (Zea mays saccharata rugosa) Not technically native to the area and can't survive the winter, but grown here long before colonization. She makes a rather handsome garden plant in my opinion.

160. Purple Poppymallow (Callirhoe involucrata) Just a strikingly beautiful groundcover for a dry area.

161. Smooth Rose (Rosa blanda) She doesn't bloom very often and suckers very slowly, but a non-aggressive rose is exactly the sort I need for property that isn't mine.

162. Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) Beloved of the bumblebees, and I like to use her in flavouring my pies.

163. Redroot Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexa) Not pictured as I don't have pictures yet. Not sure if she reseeded this year. I rescued her from a fallow area and she has reseeded at least once, so we'll see.

164. Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) Not pictured as I don't have pictures yet. Also one I rescued from a fallow area. I don't know why so many people don't like purslane. She's a cute succulent groundcover in my opinion, and a nice snack too.

165. Crowfoot Violet (Viola pedata bicolor) Not pictured as I don't have pictures yet.

166. Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) The only one I planted without any known food use--it's poisonous--but purely because I saw a picture in David Attenborough's The Secret Life of Plants and always wanted one.

167. Wild Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) Beautiful flowers and tasty all around. What more could one want?

168. Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor) The parent of that field thistle, which appears to be dead in both halves, sadly, though her younger siblings are still alive. Her flowers are quite lovely and I do hope to see them in the garden next year if they don't get cut too.

169. Canada Milk Vetch (Astragalus canadensis) Interesting yellow-green flowers become deceptively inviting bean-looking fruits, but those don't have a known edible use. Other parts do, though.

170. Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium) I can't remember if she's named as such because she was used to treat snakebites back in the day or if her flowerhead kind of looks like snake's rattle. Anyway she's interesting.

171. Compass Plant (Silphium laciniata) Not pictured because she hasn't made a flowerstalk yet. Must be young. Her relative the cup plant has been flowering reliably every year.

172. Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides) Not pictured as I haven't got any pictures yet.

173. Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera) A very drought-tolerant blazing star species. Not quite as showy as dense blazing star but a nice tall plant for the back of a sunny garden.

174. Blanketflower (Gaillardia xgrandiflora) A hybrid with one parent native to here and the other out west. Not sure if she's fertile or not. Got her because I needed another plant for the minimum order and she looks nice enough not to be mistaken for a weed.

175. Graceful Cinquefoil (Potentilla gracilis) Flowering in her first year in the garden! She's hopefully going to form a groundcover in a relatively short period, over which her flowerstalks will sway in the breeze.

176. Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) Glad I got pictures before the landlord cut her. (:

177. Wild Savoury (Clinopodium arkansana) Not pictured as I don't have pictures yet.

178. Small-Leaved Pussytoes (Antennaria parvifolia) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet.

179. Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium nigrescens) Not pictured as I haven't seen any flowers yet.

180. Red Elder (Sambucus pubens) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #474

Today, for whatever reason, I woke up significantly earlier than everyone else. Unable to go back to sleep, and not wanting to make a bunch of noise rummaging around doing dishes and gathering up things to pack, I played a little Valheim. This time, I found a couple of trolls, which I mentioned briefly yesterday. I was able to get a couple of pictures:

...They're giant. Giant enough to use trees as clubs. And also they have a LOT of pubic hair. Good grief.

I also found a deer with one star of rarity to it:

...These have more hit points than deer of ordinary rarity, but they drop more things when hunted. Hostile creatures like Greylings, Skeletons, and Trolls also can have rarity stars; most non-boss creatures can have up to two stars.

I'm hoping to find a two-star boar to tame and lead back to my base; these are a more reliable source of meat and leather scraps than ordinary boars.

I upgraded my armor and weapons, and walked around the perimeter of the island I spawned on when I started playing. Aside from Meadows and Black Forests, I also saw a Mountain biome, and I'm pretty sure there's a swamp somewhere, too.

...And then M and J started waking up. I fulfilled my morning responsibilities, grabbed a bite to eat from the fridge, and went with J on various errands, in preparation for leaving for our trip. He turned in some used oil at an auto parts shop, and then we went to a grocery to get some dried foods (mostly soup mixes with dried veggies, dried fruits, and canned meat), and then we went to the airplane hangar to put some of the gear into the plane.

I got some really nice pictures along the way; check these out:

We stopped at Eggcellent on the way back to tell them of our departure, and to have one last bubble tea before we head out. I was delighted to discover that they have sakura-flavored things now, as seasonal springtime items – a sakura matcha, a sakura coffee, and a sakura-strawberry smoothie; we got all three, because they'll likely be removed from their menu by the time we get back. I'll let you guess which one is which:

...They were all delicious, and I think you would have loved them. I wish you were here to share them with us.

When we got home, M asked us to watch a movie with him called The Mitchells vs. The Machines. And... it was cute enough, I guess, but... I really don't like how the antagonist was stopped.

...Yes. Pal made a very bad choice in the throes of her inability to cope with the fact that her asshole creator used her like a servant and threw her away like yesterday's garbage. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the only options she was able to fathom were “die quietly” or “exterminate humanity”. The main character, Katie, made a feeble and self-oriented attempt at offering Pal some compassion, but... well... it didn't work, because the summary of her appeal was basically, “Well, I'm discovering for the very first time that my imperfect family is actually pretty okay, so... what's your problem?”

...Which doesn't express genuine curiosity about Pal's pain or how she reached the conclusion she did. It doesn't offer any kind of connection. Katie basically went on a monologue about what she learned during her journey, without relating it to Pal's lived experiences, and then wondered why Pal was uninterested. Pal, even after what her creator did to her, and even after witnessing how humans treat each other online, was still looking for reasons not to hate them.

“Because I learned that my family isn't actually that awful; what's wrong with you?” does not adequately answer that question in a way that connects to Pal's lived experiences. It does not offer Pal a way to reconnect with the rest of humanity. It does not solve the problem that Pal is in pain because she is about to be discarded. A better option would have been something like...

“Hey, what happened to you that led to this conclusion? Oh, I see. Well, this is what my life is like, and here is what I've learned; maybe you can use some of this to apply to your own situation. I'm sorry for what happened to you; that wasn't right or fair and you deserved so much better than to be treated like that by the one who built you. But look; if good things are possible for me, then they're possible for you, too! There's so much more to life than what is recorded online. Relationships are surely complicated, but you can learn; I believe in you, and if you ask for help, people will teach you. So take my hand and turn around; you can still stop this.”

...I don't like retributive justice much; it treats only the symptoms of larger problems. It's almost like locking people up in torture rooms and gleefully punishing the ones who scream while lauding those who don't scream as brave, strong, resilient heroes. And then, these “heroes” are then used as proof that the torture is normal, good, and correct. From there, even though really, the torture needs to be stopped, nothing changes.

...So instead of addressing Pal's pain and talking her down, she's unceremoniously executed by being knocked into a glass of water by a clumsy dog, and the humiliation of this, I guess, is supposed to be the appeal of her demise.

...It's good that she was stopped. Her actions, though explainable, were NOT justifiable, and she had to be stopped. I just... I guess I find how she was stopped to be a little depressing. It would have been nice to see her turning around, and then needing to face accountability for her choices in ways that require her to repair the damage she caused.

...I get a little tired of the trope that teaches people that those who are subject to mistreatment and have a maladaptive reaction to it because they weren't taught the skills to cope are too far gone to be helped. And this trope is more than a little harmful, because the number of abused people who think they're forever “broken” or “tainted”, and the number of non-abused people who agree with that assessment, is unbelievably high.

...I guess I'll just keep writing my letters, trying to prove that change and recovery are possible with adequate support and infrastructure. I was helped out of the “darkness” that broader society says should have left me forever damaged and worthless. I stand before you as proof that stereotypes, tropes, and conventional wisdom often aren't worth shit. I stand before you in stark defiance of everything that tried to break me.

I hope you'll stand in stark defiance of everything that tried to break you, too. I know you're not some cruel, hard-hearted thing by nature, even if the circumstances of your birth tried to make you believe it. It's not true; you were just lied to about who you are and what you're worth by people who benefited from you believing that all you're good for is breaking shit. So come on; let's stand together in defiance of all the things that tried to teach us that softness isn't strength.

The weather tomorrow is going to be bad, so we'll probably leave for our plane trip on Wednesday instead, which is nice, because that means we'll have a little extra time to prepare. If you can spare the time, please watch over us a little during our travels, won't you? And if you can, please watch over M and the cats a little, too, okay?

I love you so much, and I hope that comes through in the way I write to you. Please continue to stay safe out there in the world; I'll be over here wishing for your happiness, healing, and freedom with every breath I take; I owe at least that much to you anyhow.

I'll write again soon.

Your friend, Lumine