The Moomins Honestly Have Such A Cottagecore/cozycore/naturecore Vibe That I Adore.

One of my fondest memories is from when I was 17. I was going into a small town gas station convenience shop at night to buy an orange soda. I brought it up to checkout and the lovely and awesome transfem working the counter smiled, looked me in the eye, and asked “Do you want to learn how to open a bottle with a lighter?”

Of course I said yes, and then she let me take another orange soda that I could take home. That was the first and last time I ever saw her. I hope she’s out there living a good life <3

Untitled / Expulsion from the Garden (2000). Fred Tomaselli (b.1956, Santa Monica, California). Christie’s • via Bibliothèque Infernale on FB

Next time someone says 'man up', I'm gonna reply with 'queer up'.

Tortula Moss (tortula muralis)

Tortula moss is a soft/fuzzy moss. It likes full to partial sun and likes to live on stone, concrete, and walls. That’s why it’s also called ‘wall screw-moss’.

This is part of one of my little moss patches :)

I once had a dream, right in-between sleep and consciousness, that an angel appeared to me and said "you have 3 years to prepare." Next, I saw images flash before my eyes and then I was sitting at a long table in a big stone Abbey with some Nuns, but they were sitting away from me and had food. Next I looked up and she(myself) was looking at me and we shared the subconscious thought, 'this is a dream.' Then I slowly drifted awake. Funny thing tho, I knew it was a dream the entire time, even when I saw the angel.

AND THIS IS WHY I DONT SLEEP WITH FUCKING LAVENDER OIL ANYMORE

Tincture of Alehoof

Glechoma hederacea, or Ground Ivy (called Alehoof because it was used in beermaking before hops) Is, among many other things, an astringent herb. This is my recipe/experiment for making a toner for the skin using it.

Gathering

Ground ivy grows everywhere as a weed in temperate parts of Europe and America

Preparation

Wash your plants and remove dead, dirty, and damaged parts (right into the compost)

Roughly chop, adding to a jar as you go

Finally, add ethyl alcohol or vodka (70% alcohol or higher is best) to your jar leaving little room, cover, label, and wait a few days. After the jar is very dark in color, strain out your plant matter into another jar, and you should be left with a jar of your tincture!

When you understand that kids and teenagers being salty about literary symbolic analysis comes from a very real place of annoyance and frustration at some teachers for being over-bearing and pretentious in their projecting of symbolism onto every facet of a story but you also understand that literary analysis and critical thinking in regards to symbolism is extremely important and deserves to be not only taught in schools, but actively used by writers when examining their own work to see if they might have used symbolism unintentionally and to make sure that they are using symbolism effectively:

Look at him <3

Bonus hiking trail pic:

It was a good day with lots of wildflowers 😌