chthonic-cassandra

[chthonic-cassandra]

Sensory things, the exquisite and intolerable attunement to them.

Orange fire-gleam of the sunrise catching at the high windows of a building across the river. The softness and weight of my hair, even as I fear that chronic illness may damage it. The bitterness of oversteeped tea. Dry dirt in my sandals. Constant hum of nausea. The joy which is soft hints of other women's perfumes on the train. Memory of other sensations, always there, right below the surface. Love it all and hate it all.

[chthonic-cassandra]

Elena Varilevski

[chthonic-cassandra]

4 August 2025

Tea: Earl grey special blend, then a rose chai, then a glass of iced Ahmad peach and passionfruit black tea.

Perfume: My beloved Datura Blossom during the day, then in the evening Tomie (rose-tinted white sandalwood, ethereal white amber, voluptuous almond blossom, coeur de jasmin, and a gasp of bourbon vanilla).

Reading: haven't been reading much, so still haven't quite finished my reread of Patrica McKillip, The Tower at Stony Wood. It's a beautiful novel but the languid pace (even when at odds with the stakes of the plot) makes for such an odd reading experience.

Watching: rewatched DS9 4.10 "Our Man Bashir." Avery Brooks is so fun in this one.

[chthonic-cassandra]

@kareenvorbarra

Bleeding Heart

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Bronze shot silk dress with bell shaped sleeves

c. 1849-1850

Chertsey Museum

[chthonic-cassandra]

3 August 2025

Tea: Harney and Sons Victorian London Fog.

Perfume: Flower Moon (wisteria, swamp jasmine, honeysuckle, daffodil, rhodedendon, phlox, and a mix of california wildflowers coated in thick, golden honey), which was really lovely.

Reading: still rereading Patrica McKillip, The Tower at Stony Wood.

Watching: got part of the way into Beware of a Holy Whore (1971), but found it unutterably depressing and nihilistic (for a number of reasons, including the lighting) and couldn't manage to finish it.

[chthonic-cassandra]

'Koschei the Deatless', a figure from Russian folklore, hides a soul in a needle inside an egg, inside a duck, inside a hare, inside a chest - buried beneath tree on a distant island. Illustration by Victor Vasnetsov, 1926.

[chthonic-cassandra]

Pericles and Aspasia by Fortunino Matania

[chthonic-cassandra]

The Spirited Garden, one of the major tourist attraction sites on Jeju Island and listed as one of “the most beautiful gardens in the world”.

source

[chthonic-cassandra]

Still can't get over the fact that Dracula's rhetorical strategy towards Vanessa, while he is still pretending to be a mild-mannered zoologist, is to respond to her telling him that she is being hunted by a vampire by showing her a very cute bat and saying, "This bat survives on blood too. You don't want this bat to DIE, so you?"

[chthonic-cassandra]

[chthonic-cassandra]

[chthonic-cassandra]

2 August 2025

Tea: Harney and Sons Paris, then August Uncommon Dark Iris (oolong with peach, pistachio, and rose).

Perfume: Apollo's Chariot (golden neroli and amber with heliotrope, osmanthus absolute, pink pepper, and white myrrh and a triumphant gallop of mallow and honey-tinged sandalwood), which was new to me and really fascinating.

Reading: didn't read much today, but started a reread of Patrica McKillip, The Tower at Stony Wood.

[chthonic-cassandra]

Feeling irrationally irritated that I will probably never know what perfume [ ] wears. Even if [x] does at some point feel inclined to tell me, if seems unlikely that he himself even knows.

[chthonic-cassandra]

Untei Sekine, Anemones, 1830-1835

[chthonic-cassandra]

The Color of Pomegranates (1968) - dir. Sergéi Paradzhánov

[chthonic-cassandra]

Carl-Edouard Keïta — Karima (mixed media on canvas, 2024)