December's herbologist reward is the auricula! From the primrose family, the auricula is one of the earliest flowers from western history that became a collectors plant, and hundreds of hybrids have been created over the centuries. This showy little plant has cultivated plant obsessions for generations 🌟
I have some slots free this month, so if you'd like to have these little plant postcards and folklore headed your way, support me on patreon!
Some extra nerdy thoughts, but I’m soo obsessed with how the curiosities print this months, I really enjoyed illustrating the tulip podstakannik, and the 1800s brass kettle. Indulging my magpie habits!
I love how Sarah gives Shelly a whole bouquet of flowers and Eric just one. I'm torn between finding it funny and finding it soul-crushingly sweet. Like, "I always liked her more than you" but it's also "I still love you and remember you, and even though it's not in the same way I love and remember her, that doesn't make it any less, so here's a flower to keep you alive, too."
Also interesting how Shelly gets lots of colors and Eric gets white......
I feel like it's such a reflection on these three characters' relationship before the murders. Shelly was the life, the love, the thing that kept them together. I imagine Sarah and Eric having this unspoken thing of "we're here because of her, aren't we?" Like they just loved her so much it brought them together. I think they would have done anything for her, and they did
Been literally over a decade, but this specific passage from Highway Cloudbusting still sends me into absolute hysterics like 😭
Something something Arthur’s martyrdom, low self-esteem, and love of Alfred butting against each other and stopping him from being happy is so...unghdjsjs. To me. You know? A formative fic, truly.
As the years went by, Caspar. The fishing boats that passed over me slowly became motorized, churning the water. I watched them build a bridge over me. Hammering and digging. In the middle of the day the workers would dangle their feet just above me and talk about the world. They talked about a war and the surprising progress that followed and about how the land they were born in was quickly becoming foreign to them. They would toss pebbles in the river and they would land around my body.
One night they came to the bridge to drink and fight and talk about sports. They tossed their cans in the river and I watched them float away. One of them got very drunk and swore that when he looked in the river, he could see me. They all called him crazy. When they finished their bridge I was alone again. A year of complete silence.
Then one day I saw two yellow eyes peering at me from within the murky water. Something covered in armor that had frightening jaws. They called it a snapping turtle. It hid in the rocks near me. My body reflected light and attracted fish, and it would wait in the darkness and snap at them when they approached. It was obviously there for the fish, but I liked to imagine it was protecting me as I lay there paralyzed. It was my first friend.
While the moss It was my slowly covered my body I began to rebuild my central processor from the beginning. It's difficult for a thing to fix itself, there were many failures. When I finally emerged from the creek, covered in mud and moss, tree roots wrapped around me, it was 1963.
i’m beat , guys. i’m gonna sleep , but i hope everyone had a good day today !!! i didn’t get as much done here today as i wanted to , but i’m off tomorrow. probably gonna binge more true blood and work on things i owe over on @truublood most of the morning then come back and work on things the rest of the day. <3