Lmst

Tried some night illustration again yesterday. Figuring out how to represent the stars in overcast and/or light-polluted night skies is proving to be a bit of a math problem. I fucked up the scaled placement of the stars here as well: ⅔rd of the Summer Triangle looks fairly okay to me, but Ras Algethi and Ras Alhague needed to be spaced out more and aligned better, and Antares way more to the right-side margin.

You can also see where I got tired of plotting out the fine foliar detail and rushed the conclusion 😅 I'm just getting started and I'm focused on having fun and not being mean to myself anymore, so I felt like I could just do that once in a while. Vega and Altair were big on the east-northeast when I was wrapping up for bed, almost up on the celestial meridian. Couldn't find Deneb Adige, but I thought I could see Polaris and Eltanin.

#VoidMoonVibes 🌘
#MastoArt #TraditionalArt #InkDrawing #NightSky

Pen and ink illustration on brown packing paper: of a rather heavily overcast and light polluted night sky. A big light source on the bottom left corner, from the building, is contributing to the disorienting light level here. This is the east-northeast to eastern horizon, with the darker silhouettes of coconut and tal palms, and the lighter foliar mass of banyan and other trees. Amid the cloud cover, some stars are very dimly visible, and have been labelled on the drawing itself: Vega, Altair, Ras Algethi, Ras Alhague, Sabik, and Antares.

Closeup of the centre-top portion of the ink drawing on brown packing paper placed on the ivory white pages of an open book: Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee. Of the drawing, the stars in the clouded sky and the topmost parts of the darker tree silhouettes are in focus. The text in the background reads: "I was a little stung by Babak's dismissiveness, but I later came to understand that it came from the cynicism of experience. The true worth of a ruhker was in long days of hunting and uncelebrated toil. The first manticore kill, [...] holy ashes in the Fire Temple, the royal feast [...] would never hap-".

Baby's first night illustration 🌃 I have a long journey ahead to getting the exact look that I want and can be personally satisfied with; but I can't help but be proud of this thing I made.

I went out in the evening and found Sirius glimmering in the west-southwest, alone in a rather overcast sky ramping up the humidity. Felt like they'd like to be included here, despite my beginner-level drawing skill.

#VoidMoonVibes 🌖
#MastoArt #TraditionalArt #InkDrawing #NightSky

Picture of an ink drawing on brown packing paper, of a flowering branch of jasmine (Jasminium sambac) with one freshly opening flower and four visible buds, against a cloudy light-polluted night sky. There's a dark cloud right behind the flowers, and beyond, an eight-rayed star: Sirius. On the top corners, black plastic and steel drawing clips are partially visible.

As usual for when the Moon is in Scorpio, or magnificently void of course, (tonight: both!!) I've been craving noodles/noodle soups.

And lacking either the core ingredients needed or the money to get takeout (or even the wish for takeout, really: the stuff I want I've just got to make at home, and that's at once a tiring and exciting thought), I just ran through my (few) memories of food I'd had before moving out that I'd enjoyed, which included this incredible soupy garlic chicken noodles I'd had at the Coffee House near College St., Kolkata, and browsed through a number of recipes on Chinese food blogs.

And then went on and had my dinner of leftover roti and my first, very nice attempt at a favourite potato and green papaya vegetable (first fed to me by my BFF#2) -- that I'd spoiled while reheating by adding too much salt 🥲

Anyway, my beloved neem tree flowered today for the first time ever. And for a second first-time-ever, I saw neem flowers live. Have I mentioned that, growing up, I've always adored neem trees and wanted to live so close to one that I'd be able to touch it from my window, and now, by some miracle, I actually live exactly that close to one of those beauties?! I'm declaring March 17 a personal holiday 📆

#RetreatPosting 🌘 #VoidMoonVibes
#BloomScrolling #Spring2025 #NativePlants

Shallow-depth closeup of a spray of neem (Azadirachta indica) flowers and buds + young leaves against a background of fast-maturing neem leaves and mostly-obscured branch. The ovoid buds have grown in size, and the open flowers are tiny and a soft creamy yellow-white (almost the same shade as Jasminium sambac flowers), reminiscent of daffodils in their shape and petal arrangement. The somewhat blurry golden haze of a March morning in West Bengal, India makes for a subtle vintage-y dreamy mood in the picture.

High closeup of one of the open neem flowers. The tepals are slim, white, and spread exactly like a five-pointed star. The conical corona is open with a ruffled rim, very ornamental. The flower's reproductive parts are just about visible inside the corona.

I had planted this variety of jasmine (Jasminium sambac) in honour of my Shib Baba. So the first flowers blooming on the plant went dutifully to the deity this morning. This Friday-Saturday is Holi/Dol Pūrṇima; I'm hoping I'll be well enough, and the plant will bloom, to get flowers for Them.

#RetreatPosting 🌘 #VoidMoonVibes
#BloomScrolling #Spring #Spring2025

The same Jasminium sambac plant from the previous post in the thread. There are droplets of water on the big glossy green leaves and bright creamy yellow-white buds and two open flowers. The sun is already a strong golden lustre at 7:30 AM.

Against a black-painted wall and on a red and black cement floor (mostly obscured), a square slab of unpolished pink marble (scrap I'd found locally, and brought home and cleaned up) with Lord Shiva in the form of the Shiva lingam, placed in a copper vessel. An ivory and coppery red-brown conch shell is propped up against the vessel's rim, dedicated to the deity. The deity is decorated with a tilak painted on with sandalwood powder, a band of sacred thread, and the two jasmine flowers in the previous picture. There's a small brass tumbler of fresh water and a small brass plate of American black nightshade (Solanum americanum) fruits, both ripe and unripe, and a handful of nôkuldana (mimosa sugar balls) -- today's offerings to the deity. An incense stick burns slowly to the right side, with wisps of smoke curling loosely around the Shiva lingam.

I get dispirited when I remember that my professional writing has become mostly an effort to make money these days. It's hard to truly enjoy anything with so much pressure on.

But then I think about why I need that dough: sustenance for myself so I live to see another spring as beautiful as this one, if not more so. Shared resources with and gifts for my friends: the humans I laugh and cry and love with, the other-than-human kin that tell me stories and give us strength.

I don't love having my nose to the grindstone. (Who does?!) But I do love building a world together with and for my loves.

#RetreatPosting 🌘 #VoidMoonVibes
#BloomScrolling #Spring2025 #HomeCooking

An attempt at a closeup of a branch of the neem tree (Azadirachta indica) full of young green leaves, delicate budding leaves a broody coppery red in colour with a yellow-green undertone, and minute stems of white flower buds. In the blurry background of partial views, there's a neighbouring house painted brick red with pale pink boundary wall, a parking lot with a corrugated iron roof, and a brightly flowering curry leaf tree (Bergera koenigii) in my garden.

Closeup of the lushly flowering curry leaf tree (Bergera koenigii) in the starkly golden mid-morning sun, ironically mimicking the Hollywood yellow filter (the photo itself has no filter). The leaves are a very bright mid-saturated warm green, almost chartreuse in colour. The big clusters of buds and star-shaped flowers are white, tinted light yellow-green in the sun. Not pictured: the incredible savoury-sweet floral fragrance drawing dozens of pollinators every hour.

Closeup of a young and newly planted jasmine tree (Jasminium sambac), with long stems, big glossy green leaves, and two sprays of creamy yellow-white buds (they remind me of white chocolate). One bud, the centre in the photo, has opened into a rotund and bright white flower. Again, not pictured: the dizzying sweet fragrance of the open flower.

Dinner tonight: a big steel bowl, with a steel spoon, of jhalmuṛi (spicy puffed rice). There's muṛi (puffed rice), chopped tomato + red onion + cucumber + coriander greens + green cayenne chili pepper + boiled potato, lime juice + pickled lime, bhaja môshla and salt, soaked Bengal gram, and Bombay mix.

Just wanted to let anybody who might need this know: iced black tea brewed with rose petals, fennel seeds, and tulsi leaves, stirred with the juice of a quarter of a lime, and with rock salt and sugar/honey to taste, makes an excellent aid for heartache, tired muscles, stressed gut, and frazzled nerves 🧊☕🧡 Also for roleplaying as the best tea monk in Panga.

Inspired by @irfan 's #MakanApaToday posts featuring iced tea varieties 🙏🏽

#VoidMoonVibes #MarsNightMusings
#KitchenWitch #AstroHerbalism

On a blue glass top table with peacock feather patterns in shades of blue, green, and purple: a tall steel tumbler, it's outside covering with condensation, about 60% full of iced black tea, translucent and dark amber in colour, topped with three hexagonal ice cubes quickly melting down, and with an etched steel spoon in it to stir.

Hardly any high-quality #NightPhotography this, I know, but I'm often in a mood to simp on the Moon these days. I've turned off the art on my stargazing app and without it, the constellation Virgo is basically a person sitting on a floor with their legs sprawled out, maybe after a long day, and having a drink. Spica is their pelvis that's enjoying being at rest so much that it hurts a bit. And my beloved neem tree is guiding the cool breeze through the door. #VoidMoonVibes 🌚 #SilentSunday

Black and white photo of the waxing gibbous moon high up in the eastern sky, viewed from underneath a neem tree. The tree isn't a robust one, but in the darkness looks leafier. The leaves cast delicate shadows on a metal bar that cuts through from the centre to the bottom left of the picture. A bough with a roundish crown of leaves, that looks a bit like a child's hand if you want to see it that way, frames the moon between two finger-like branches.

Black and white closeup of the moon through the finger-like branches of the neem tree. The Moon seems to be resting like a glimmering pearl on the neem branch, held gently.

Lounging in bed in dim light, wearing an old red tshirt & pajamas, eating from a bowl of grapes. Remembering the time when fights broke out over my sister eating whole bunches and not leaving enough for me. I have enough of my favoured foods (for now) that I can share with the people I truly care for, and I don't have to force down leftovers and foods nobody else wants to sustain myself. I didn't get this without a fight, and the fight is only heating up.

#MarsNightMusings 🌶️ #VoidMoonVibes 🌚

Some people: girl dinner 🌸🍽️

My enby ass: low-effort dinner 😓

Managed not to order takeaway. Made musur daler khichuri instead, sans any masala save cumin seeds and extra chili for flavouring. Very nearly added too much turmeric (again) but didn't (barely), and it's not much to look at, but served hot and with a fluffy omelette, it's filling.

I don't seem to be having much luck with making khichuri...

#VoidMoonVibes #ChronicSickDiary

Got yelled at by BFF#1 because these pictures are all I've sent them 😆 I'm just happy this didn't end up a disaster, considering today has been quite a gnarly one 🌚 #VoidMoonVibes

Feeling a bit nitpicky with the ginger chili paste I'd made with what had seemed to be a good number of chilis, because it doesn't have much real heat, just a fair flavour. Still, the other spices and the cooking itself has been a definite W, so, I'm okay with it 😊

#MakanApaToday #HomeCooking #MastIndia

On a blue glass top table with peacock feather patterns in shades of blue, green, and purple: an aluminium bowl of chicken curry, with pieces of meat (including bone) couched in a thick-looking deep orange-red sauce.

A steel platter of steamed rice with the chicken curry piled on top of it, orange-red on white, and a stray glob of sauce pooled on the side. Unintendedly, the pieces of meat and sauce look like a small-ish but fiery octopus squatting on the mound of rice.

When you've got your period and so sick that you can't cook a proper lunch, but you also need something a bit fancy to feel good about 🍀 Incidentally, I heard recently that eating khichuri on Tuesdays and Saturdays helps in remediating the malefics. This is technically a khichuri; not a traditionally spiced and wok-stirred one, but simpler.

Not pictured: a softboiled egg that was unhappy to be peeled and didn't want to be photographed 🌚 #VoidMoonVibes

#MakanApaToday #HomeCooking #MastIndia

#VoidMoonVibes

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