A college tutor with an interest in astronomical observing and mathematics.
Formerly, a horticulturalist who is still into seed germination, gardening with native plants, meadowmaking, and supporting urban plant communities (and their associated invertebrates) in Minnesota and western Washington.
I joined Mastodon in part to document growth of a meadow in front of my apartment in WA. A few years back, I convinced my landlord to let me replace the patchy lawn with something pollinator friendly.
A staffer for Senator Tina Smith goes viral for sending an email to Senator Mike Lee after he tweeted-and later deleted-about the assassination of a Minnesota state legislator.
"I knew Melissa Hortman. Many people in this office did. She was a longtime friend of Senator Smith’s, who had seen her hours before she was murdered. So you’ll forgive my candor as I speak through enormous grief," the letter begins.
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The little vampire, yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is now in seed. The color is the late spring -- early summer flowers:
Purple: self-heal
Light blue: prairie lupine
Med blue: sickle keel lupine
White: Western yarrow
White: Dutch white clover
Yellow: Oregon sunshine
Orange: California poppy
Rose pink: farewell-to-spring
All these, except prairie lupine, are easy from seed. And, of course, the dutch white clover comes on its own.
French salons of the 17th & 18th originally took place in women's bedrooms.
When some notables felt that men could discuss the issues of the day better without women around and attempted a "men only" salon, it always resulted in fist fights or worse.
Two grown men acting like toddlers and these dudes perform mental gymnastics to make it.... Women's fault.
My cute little vampires.
The prolific yellow flowers are yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), a semi-parasitic plant that feeds primarily on grasses.
That there are so many of them this spring is cool and a little creepy.
I'm glad I'm not a grass in my front yard.
I love Kagi, but I hate to pay for search. So I do the $5/mo and use Kagi when DuckDuckGo fails me, which is a lot more often than it used to be.
On April 27, 1997, Bunny Roger, Scot couturier, dandy, and sometime drag queen, died in London. He served in the British rifle brigades in North Africa & Italy and earned a reputation as a war hero for his courage under fire. (1/5)
One man’s awakening:
Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.
I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.
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My wife and I have gotten into the habit of asking each other at dinner what was the best thing that happened to each other that day. She now likes this tradition so much she's expanded it into three things, which I contend makes the whole thing more of a mental exercise, but I usually manage. I have found though that it makes me take closer note of the good things that happen during the day, so I'm not left with "uh...." when it's my turn. It also helps punctuate the positive at a time when there's a whole lot of the opposite.
@dillyd
The dark blue one (Scilla siberica) is really a good naturalizer. The light blue-white with blue line (Scilla mischtschenkoana) is among my favorite plants. I've planted a bed in Minnesota and one in western Washington -- it reseeds fabulously in both.
The first blooms in the front yard #Meadow are appearing:
Hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)
Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum)
Small flowered blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia parviflora)
Common fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii)
The last one is new this spring.
"If the band kids and the theater kids work together to prevent me from stealing their lunch money, it's only fair that I demand far more lunch money from them next week!
How dare they deny me -- their best friend! -- of my right to take their lunches? Terrible allies! The worst! I insist they stop bullying me immediately!"
This is the most helpfully packaged box of screws I've ever seen, by a large margin. I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate whomever was responsible for such a triumph of utility and empathy.
Former US Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford is angry, see why .
#us #usa #uspol #uspolitics #eu #europe #eupol #dkpol #uk #worldpol #worldpolitics #USNews #USNews #WeThePeople #zeitung #dkmedier #DailyNews
#UkraineWar #ukrainian #nato
I replied to a post re Denny's and the hours spent there in college earlier. That made me think about another restaurant in my college town. A "pay what you can" restaurant.
For decades before I went to college in the 90s, a little old lady had a restaurant that was attached to her home. She was in her 70s by the time I got to college. It was like a large cafeteria style addition to her home that seated around 75 people.
Many moons before, she started cooking meals for hungry and poor college students in Appalachia.
At some point, she made it a "Pay what you can" restaurant. It was home cooked, real food. The only drink was water, coffee and tea.
I remember eating many meals there when I was in college. Sometimes I had very little to pay, sometimes I had more and overpaid the suggested price.
There was no cashier. You went through the line, got your food, ate and on the way out there was a "Pay what you can" wooden box.
Many locals of all ages ate there because the food was so good, not just hungry college kids. It was open from like 11am to 4pm. Many students would step in the back and wash dishes, by hand, for 15 minutes or so after eating.
There was no loitering allowed, it wasn't a study hall, etc. There was no religious angle. It wasn't a "soup kitchen." After you ate and you left.
That always made an impression on me and actually was the first step into having a progressive, compassionate political stance.
Potting soil!
Does anyone know of any resources that talk about DIY potting soil?
Not, "purchase large bags of unsustainable materials created through energy intensive processes and shipped long distances, then mix them in X proportions" DIY potting soil. Which is the ONLY kind I seem to be able to find now that searching is borked.
I mean, are there recipes, methods of composting, techniques to PRODUCE stuff with the proper characteristics?
At the community garden we've been sifting what's small enough out of the compost heap and just kinda using that, but comparing the results to what's happening at the school farm greenhouse with fresh bags of commercial stuff is a pretty stark example of how important it is to have a proper potting mix, if you want cuttings to successfully take, or for seedlings to germinate well.
Peat moss is NOT sustainable yet everyone still seems to be using it, even people who really should know better. Almost all the online tutorials list it first thing. The alternatives most commonly mentioned are coco coir and rice hulls, which are better but if a person doesn't have access to supplies of that type, what's the solution? What do we grow and how do we break it down to the consistency we want?
Then there's the ubiquity of perlite and vermiculite (both of which have to be mined and then baked in industrial ovens, and both of which are not renewable resources). Perlite crumbles to sand so darned fast, too. And you don't want to breathe the powder kicked up when you dig in it.
There's got to be other ways to do this.
#compost
#pottingSoil
#pottingMix
#sustainable
#renewable
#DIY
#gardening
Amtrack has no fucks left to give.
https://www.tumblr.com/assumptionprime/738628025019777024
Edit: No it’s not actually an official amtrack account, it was comedy. This post is a year and a half old, stop showing your ignorance in the replies.
If you use Libby to check out audiobooks or ebooks from your library you should know that Trump is dismantling the agency that funds the app. Actually, you should know that even if you don't use it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/1jfp6w1/federal_agency_that_makes_libby_possible_to_be/
People don't fear technology, they fear what capitalism might do with it.
