#a few plants

[dreamcatchr]

.

[sergle]

pink carnations for the floral portrait series + detail (pls do not tag as "me", thank you!!)

[evenlyevi]

After midnight

[ionomycin]

My favorite pieces this year

[hedgehog-moss]

In my neverending quest to keep Pampérigouste from achieving her dreams, I have launched a formal investigation into her last escape, which I had no explanations for at the time.

I figured it out! At the far far end of her pasture, near the road, a few fence posts have become more or less horizontal (the ground is quite wet / muddy there so they've never been very stable, especially with Pirlouit using them to scratch his forehead)—so instead of a high jump + long jump combo to get to the road, Pampe just had to clear the long jump over the ditch. Which is still impressive.

I also suspect that she chose to escape from this place near the road on a snowy morning as a deliberate strategy, knowing the snow plough would erase any traces of her jump, thus preventing me from discovering where the weak spot in the fence was. Well done.

You need 2 people to fix these fence posts so in the meantime I decided to kill two birds with one stone: cut all the broom and thorny bushes in this corner of the pasture and use them to form a discouraging barrier. I set to work earlier this week, and here's the same place as above, mid-process:

When I texted my mum to tell her about my new thorn-based anti-Pampe plan of action, she said "Like the Maasai who make fences with thorny acacia branches to keep out lions!" and it made me feel even more confident. I mean, I have neither acacia nor Maasai fencing techniques but my thorny shrubs are pretty aggressive, they pricked my fingers even through my thick work gloves—which felt satisfying in an anticipatory way. Excellent! prick Pampe's nose exactly like this. How could a llama not be deterred by a fence material that deters apex predators?

Vexingly enough, she seemed quite supportive of my efforts. At one point she breathed some warm air against my shoulder in a gentle, patronising way.

We were engaged in psychological warfare all afternoon—every time I stepped away from my vegetal fence, feeling like it was now good enough, Pampe would immediately come to inspect it, cheerful and impatient, which sapped my confidence so I would go and add a few more shrubs. (Note that I sort of plaited the first / biggest shrubs with the pre-existing fence so they don't go flying on the road, and so Pampe can't just push them aside.)

On the right: Poldine, looking for little fresh leaves to eat amidst the chaos. On the left: Pampérigouste, thinking.

(At this point the barrier was only 20% thorns, and 80% broom—the fact that she waded through it without a care and didn't prick her belly made me go and add more thorny shrubs, and pack them more densely)

It's kind of fun watching Pampe think, honestly. Can I jump over this? Do I have enough visibility? Can I eat my way to freedom (again)? But these shrubs are disgusting. Am I above exploiting my daughter's lack of culinary discernment to achieve my goals? Maybe I should go back to my calculations re: probability of wild boar destruction. I may have pincushions for hands after handling prickly bushes for two hours but I'm helping stimulate my llama's intellect and creativity and that's so important.

I tried to alternate broom and thorny branches so that the non-thorny broom became tangled up with thorns and brambles to form an impenetrable and incomprehensible wall. I will call it this method the salmagundi-fence.

Poldine is in awe of my vegetal installation.

Can I just say, compared to Pampérigouste who constantly has a devilish glint in her eye, Pampelune's face exudes wholesome politeness and moral goodness. It's still hard to believe they're mother and daughter.

I went home once my fence started looking like Maleficent's forest of thorns and Pampe had long stopped trying to wade through it, but I still felt antsy and ended up coming back one hour later to have my apéritif with the llamas so I could keep an eye on Pampe until nightfall.

... where is Pampe?

Oh. Here. No worries!

Still staring at the road. Still thinking.

...

With all that said, please admire my beautifully delirious Forest of Thorns-fence and let me know what you think.

[flumpermergen]

[altogetherx]

last moments of summer

[deoidesign]

Thinking about vampires, death, life, and the space they occupy in between

[phrysic]

hi im back

[jeeklaart]

Feeling lucky! .☘︎ ݁˖

( find me here )

[nikswonderland]

[plantanarchy]

listen i love and grow and appreciate native plants as much as any plant ecology nerd but good god the energy of a lot of native plant discussion on social media continues to be so............ much

[bilbao-song]

secret rocker santa participants needed!! (11/17/24)

oookay after another review of the Spreadsheet™, currently we are most in need of fans of following musicians and bands (or even just people with a passing interest in them):

⁃ the who ⁃ emerson lake and palmer ⁃ the velvet underground ⁃ led zeppelin ⁃ supertramp ⁃ queen

everyone is welcome (the only requirement is that you’re a fan of some kind of music from roughly the 50s-90s) and there’s plenty of time left!! these are just the ones that so far seem like they’ll be the hardest to match, which means more fans signing up would be very helpful :^) if you or your followers fit this criteria, please consider reblogging this post!

remember, sign-ups are open through november 28th and anonymous messaging begins december 1st :-)

➜ more information about secret rocker santa ➜ F.A.Q. page ➜ sign up here! (or here if you’d prefer to stay on tumblr)

[semprvivum]

garden update 🌿

[prettyboykatsuki]

isagi is so insanely sexy and so good at playing the long game. you are never outsmarting him

[raineandsky]

#101

It’s six in the evening. The villain knows this from the telltale sound of plastic scraping against the wooden floor. The sound is accompanied by the undeniably incredible smell of food.

They don’t bother turning their gaze from the window—they can see the hero in the reflection anyway. They nudge the tray into the room as far as they dare, lingering awkwardly on the threshold for a moment.

“Finding everything okay?” they ask after an unbearably thick silence.

“Found everything but my morality,” the villain retorts flatly. “Keeping me in here won’t make me a goody two-shoes like you, y’know.”

The villain had expected worse; concrete floors, metal bars. But here they are, in a plush bed, looking out to the beautiful scenery beyond, a goddamn lasagne sitting on a plate for them. 

“Was compassion not a good enough reason to have you in here the first three times?” the hero asks, their voice halfway between confused and joking. “I get the impression you like it though, seeing as you haven’t… left this room.”

The villain scoffs. “Escaped, you mean.”

“Left,” the hero corrects. “You’re not… locked in here, you know.”

The villain finally snaps their gaze from the window. The hero flinches slightly at the speed of it. “What?”

“You’re not locked in here.” The hero shifts on their feet restlessly. “Did you never even try the door?”

It’s too embarrassing to admit that it was too nice here to bother trying to leave. “I like to get my escapes right first time. I won’t try it until I need to.”

“Right.” The hero shuffles again. “Well, there’s a lot of villains who know you’re here and have been wondering where you are.”

“Villains like who?”

The hero smiles, like they’ve fallen into a trap. “Come outside and find out.”

The villain scowls at that. The hero raises their eyebrows expectantly. “Eat your food,” they say casually. “Then come say hi, okay?”

“No.”

The hero sighs, like this is a conversation they’ve had a thousand times. “The door’s always open,” they say gently. “Come see the others when you feel up to it.”

They linger in the doorway for a moment but the villain offers no response, so they simply sigh defeatedly and carefully shut the door. 

Tsch. Does the hero think they’re stupid? They’d open that door and heroes would descend on them.

The day they leave this room, it’ll be as part of their greatest escape yet.