I Needed To Find A Relatively Inexpensive Horticulturaly Adjacent Activity For Little Kids. It Needs

Today I visited the Ossuary in Hythe, Kent, UK with my parents. It was absolutely fascinating and well worth the visit if you are interested in local history (£3 adult entry).

You find yourself wondering about the lives they all lead and who they might have been. Hopefully they are all in a better place regardless.

It is no doubt due to angle and lighting but they all look like they have distinctive personalities and expressions if that makes sense.

Just found some old pictures of the wands my mum and I made for a Fantastic Beasts event at the college LRC (library) where I used to work.

We made them out of newspaper, toilet roll, PVA glue, acrylic paint, beads and plastic gems, and a glue gun.

These were hidden around the LRC and students would hunt for them every day for about two weeks until they found them all. Those that found them got to take them home and we also had some other activities to promote some of our Harry Potter audiobooks, ebooks and physical books and movies.

Bonus points to whoever spots the atrocious spelling mistake I made on the promotional material. Had to remember where we hid them all so I could break out the tipex

Edit: I Would like to mention as an afterthought, I am in no way in support of She Who Must Not Be Named (aka JK Rowling's) personal opinions regarding trans people. In my opinion she has turned into a vial and loathsome individual who has thoroughly tarnished my love of the fictional world she created. Her actions are pointlessly decisive, and harmful to cis and trans women alike.

Though the fanfic + fanart and the diverse community which created it and enriched that world is still incredibly dear to me. Even though I was never an active member (beyond, reading, giving kudos where it was due and occasionally commenting) I still felt like I was part of a friendly welcoming community full of talented (& not so talented), inspiring individuals.

If you are trans then please know that I support you. What is going down at the moment is utter bull. It might not feel like it sometimes, but people are on your side.

Some wonderfully vibrant rainbow corn that we grew at work. They are like little gems and almost look photoshopped.

If you can access this on Netflix please, please watch Scavengers Reign. I can't describe how amazing it is. Stunning visuals, immaculate and fun world building with a spectacular array of alien fauna and flora, beautiful character driven storytelling.

I am going to start rewatching it as I can't get it out of my head. I really need a second series. Please watch this.

It can be a bit gory in places (but most of it isn't) and does deal with some heavy topics but these were handled in such a careful way so please don't let it put you off if you think you can handle it.

Scavengers Reign 1.02 "The Storm"

Some wild fungi photos that I have taken this autumn. It always amazes me how quickly the fruiting bodies develop and the immense diversity of forms and colors that they can take.

I will probably be using this account to store photos that I have taken so I can use them later on, for work or in my art. Hopefully others will find them interesting or useful as well. I will avoid posting my art and other unrelated posts here.

The top one is the cap of a fly-agaric (a fairytale toadstool). I don’t know what species the others are but they were all photographed in the southeast of the UK.

A short clip from the safari at Port Lympne zoo as well as some pretty little common twayblade orchids that were growing there

Some of my old photos of orange flowers. They make me feel happy so i thought i would share them.

I wanted to enter an embroidery competition that was run by Domestika. And this is what I ended up coming up with. It is a lichen themed French barrett hair clip.

Prior to planning and making my embroidery I went on some walks and took some photos for inspiration.

I really love lichen it's such a strange thing. The physical structure of lichen is a fungi that clings to tree branches, rocks, and other solid surfaces. The fungi provides a home for a colony of tiny algae or cyanobacteria. The algae or cyanobacteria photosynthesize producing sugars and other molecules that they share with the fungi. These are what give the lichen its colours. So lichen isn't really one thing. It is a living collaboration of two completely unrelated organisms. It can survive desiccation and bounces right back with a little rain.

It looks a bit like coral and can be used to indicate air quality. Overall a fascinating and splendid amalgam.

Some after work Instagram browsing brought up an unexpected gem today as it randomly decided to show me some automatons.

I haven't seen any since childhood, where I vaguely recall them featuring on quirky supernatural or spooky shows as creepy curiosities from time to time.

I hadn't realised that they were still made or indeed that they could be made into such beautiful creations. With serenely swimming whales, cantering horses and fluttering birds & insects.

I decided to see if I could make a basic one using bits and bobs from my room. This ended up including black card, scissors, a bamboo skewer from one of my orchids, wire and wire clippers, a thin cylindrical ice cream stick that I saved from a kulfi, and hot glue and my glue gun.

It took a bit of time to wrap my head around the (admittedly very basic) mechanics and the end result is liable to come apart at the seams if I so much as think about turning the mechanism too vigorously. But I am happy with my first attempt.

If I can figure out how to make a less slap dash mechanism then I might make a realistically painted deaths head hawk moth automaton. I am rearing some caterpillars of this species so I am ever so slightly obsessed with them at the moment. You can see the caterpillars at the top of this post and I don't think I am alone in thinking they are absolutely gorgeous little buggers.

Not sure if you are still on here or still looking for a drawing but I found your post while looking for a prompt to draw and wanted to give it a go.

Drawing people and clothing isn't really something I am any good at, so sorry for the strange outfit and conspicuous lack of feet/hands.

Who wants to draw for me?😳

I have an OC that I want have drawn in a cutesy style--but any other style would work to.

Here is the description:

Born female but ID's as agender

African American

5'9"

Thicc? (I never thought about their body type yet😅)

Any eye color

Pink hair usually styled in double buns

They are a were-cat with black fur and pink pads/nose (transforms into a house cat)