Now playing: C418 - Blocks

i'm so sick of being the only person who can make simple connections of how doing a thing to the ecosystem has effects. so so so so sick NO ONE knows the ways of the plants

sorry just venting over how i am so so so small and the task is so so so big

This year, I had a balcony garden.

I wanted to last year but I 'never got round to it'. I kill a lot of plants (not on purpose. ADHD and constant watering is hard, and sometimes it's just me confused as fuck about why I suddenly have x thing happening to my leaves) and kind of felt it was hopeless anyway.

Then I was reading your posts, and how you were seeing biodiversity in even small little hopeful changes. And I was like. Hey. Even if I do kill the plants. They will feed insects for a little, while they survive, and after, I can put them in my compost pile and they will feed more insects, and the flowers (if I get any) will feed bees (which are my special children) and so, even if it doesn't give me food, and even if they die, it might be worth it to try.

I never ate the cilantro. Turns out my flatmate has the soap gene. But it flowered like CRAZY and there were SO many happy pollinators.

I ate so many green onion shoots. The bulbs I still haven't pulled because they just keep giving me shoots to eat.

The mint is going HAM and also the insects loved the flowers.

The cucumber plants went absolutely APESHIT and produced flowers ALL SUMMER, and they were BEAUTIFUL, and I couldn't walk outside without a bee or, occasionally, a butterfly dropping by. It's STILL FLOWERING in NOVEMBER in PHILLY and now I have ladybugs and fireflies. FIREFLIES! I didn't see a single one last year and now they love my balcony and I love them so much. I only got two cucumbers but I don't even care.

I had a bunch of nonedibles in a little greenhouse thing, and they flowered too, and I'd find random bugs (a grasshopper. Huge. Massive) in there hanging out. They died when the greenhouse got blown over but they lasted longer than I ever expected to keep a plant alive.

The birds came by my balcony despite the cat avidly watching them by the window. More types of birds, too. And my little compost box is constantly happy with fruit flies and regular flies and things I don't recognize. I never did get around to buying worms, but I haven't had to because the insects are having a blast in there and every time I think "oh, it'll be full" it is, once again, not full because it has been broken down further.

There is a tiny ecosystem on my 6th floor apartment balcony because you get excited about plants, and it was inspiring enough to get me off my ass. Because even if I didn't eat my plants, you reminded me SOMETHING ELSE WOULD.

The task is so so big. But if my fruit flies can eat an entire watermelon (yes. There was an entire watermelon in my compost bin at one point), I think you and I can tackle this watermelon together.

...Oh...Sheds a single tear that contains so much happiness

You make soup by dumping stuff in a pot it’s pretty fun

Here's a website where Palestine GoFundMes are vetted and shared that you can send out to people. The url is gazafunds.com

Easy to use and simple. Just share the site whenever someone asks for GFMs for Palestine.

Very violent severe weather expected tomorrow, may 6, 2024 across the Midwest.

Have tornado and hail action plans. Violent long track tornadoes (EF2 and above) are expected with up to softball sized hail (to quote the NWS: giant hail)

Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita, anyone in the orange and red should be extremely weather aware tomorrow. This could be a possibly historic tornado event, please take it seriously.

These areas have already been hit extremely hard by tornadoes and severe weather over the past week.

May 6 update:

Percentage breakdowns of risk for general severe weather, tornadoes, hail and wind.

A tornado watch has been issued for portions of Kansas and Nebraska.

This is a rare HIGH risk day. Take it seriously.

I know that my posts have been some people’s only warnings for severe weather in the past. Please help boost.

05.05 - Red Blade

Reblog the fundraisers you mfs!!!!! I don't know why you all skip those to reblog some pic of a banner saying "FREE PALESTINE" or of news from Columbia University! Literally these people from Gaza have made an account on Tumblr and is writing in english to communicate what they need and you all are coming onto my blog or on the tag and not reblogging their posts. We have people both Palestinian and non Palestinian vetting the fundraisers! I mean more the reblogs, more the chance of the fundraisers gaining momemtum, the more there would be a chance of a donation. Please donate if you can and reblog!!! and follow them if it is possible.

@/mohammedayesh has posted getting leaflets telling them to evacuate Rafah. They are very low on funds. Go follow them and reblog their posts and donate if possible.

We have @/haneenatya too whose mother is suffering from eye stroke and need to evacuate. Please I have been following them for some days and it doesn't seem their own posts are getting much attention.

Follow them! They are on tumblr. Reblog their posts and donate. The protests in universities are being done on account of them. They should be our focus.

the mountain goats, “psalms 40:2” / hanif abdurraqib, “when we were 13, jeff’s father left the needle down on a journey record before leaving the house one morning and never coming back” / anne carson, “o small sad ecstasy of love”

if you live in the range of the tornadoes tonight, take pictures of your valuables and document everything you can, as specifically as you can. take pictures of every corner of where you live if you can, including pictures of the outside. if there is something expensive that you have documentation for, take pictures of the documentation and try to keep the documentation somewhere safe. walk through video might also be helpful. this is so you can make better insurance claims later.

it is predicted to get BAD tonight.

[Begin ID: "Red and white tabby laying on his side looking up with wide eyes and squished fur" End ID]

mom!!!

A brief intro to stamp making!

These are regular pink erasers from the supermarket. I'm going to make a flower. First, I trace the eraser itself to get a feel for the size.

I trace the design for each color of ink on separate pieces of tracing paper, then tape them onto the erasers and rub the graphite side down to transfer the image. Any paper that holds graphite will work for this.

Since I'm using red, blue, and yellow ink, I'm layering the stamps over top of one another to produce secondary colors like green and purple. I use a V-shaped carving tool most of the time, just a cheap one I got in a kit at Michael's. Almost anything sharp will work.

I got these Ranger ink pads also at Michael's, they're working for me so far. Slightly nicer ink pad brands usually also sell bottles of refill ink, so you don't need to buy a whole new pad when one runs dry.

Most of the time involved is spent carving the rubber and testing the print as you go. Be careful to carve in the direction away from your hands.

I think these worked out pretty well! Thanks for reading, and have fun!

Angels grocery shop too. Monthly print reward for May

A Madagascar comet moth I made earlier this month for one of my wonderful clients💛

Esteem Vargha

Šarplaninac

"Easter Egg" Weevil (Pachyrhynchus cf. erichsoni), family Curculionidae, Mindanao, Philippines

photographs by Bald Guy With a Camera

i actually have no idea how we managed to finish this on time. between the chapter content and the art, though, this might be one of my favorite chapters yet