#barberry bush

[philgennuso]

Barberry Bush #Nature #Haiku/Haiga

Photo by Phil Gennuso Arts japanese barberry bushbright effusivesmiling at passerbys

[beanpandacook]

[:hk]楊梅酒 天然發酵果味濃【一口驚艷】不想做標題黨，但是真的好喝﹗Home Brew Chinese Bayberry Wine[:]

[:hk]https://youtu.be/tOS2BKvU2io Continue reading Untitled

[naturess]

[mazovshanka]

First snow is here. I don't have photos though, I have no time for taking photos and doing anything creative. All I've accomplished recently is a draft of the ending of my story "Tears of the Golden Moon". Yay, it will be full of action and plot twists. OK, so I have the beginning and the ending, but I still lack the middle part. C'est la vie...

PS The photos above were taken few years ago.

[sulumuns-dootah]

Assigning WHB demons plants/flowers based off the vibes: Gehenna

⟡ Masterlist ⟡

A/N: Finally putting my botany studies to a good use ^^

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Japanese Barberry - Berberis thunbergii

She is beauty, maybe looks a bit basic? Well, don't let the looks fool you

This bitch has thorns and oh boy...

You prick yourself on one of them and your hand will hurt the whole day, the next day and the day after

And they're loong long

Also the whole bush is super poisonous

      ༺☆༻

Forget-me-not - Myosotis or Baby's breath-Gypsophila 

Both flowers are very soft

Popular in wedding bouquets

They're easy to grow and you can dry them and they still look amazing

      ༺☆༻

Mushrooms - Fungi

Okay, they're not even plants or whatever, but Leraye gives me mushroom vibes for one and single reason:

Mushroom grow like crazy after a thunderstorm

In Japan there was a study made and it confirmed that fungus spreads faster after being exposed to thunder

There's even a roomba for forests that shocks the ground

      ༺☆༻

Hydrangea - Hydrangea

Ooh these guys are beauties

Just like Pai's eyes, you can have multicolored flowers!

The color of flowers is indicative of the pH of the soil they're in

Once you cut them and put them in a vase, you also wanna dip the flowers in water every now and then

Bc they mostly absorb water through them

      ༺☆༻

Black Calla Lily - Arum palaestinum

This is literally how his voice sounds like to me

Also funnily enough, one of the other names this flower goes as is Solomon's lily

They are popular to give to deceased during funerals, but they're also associated with rebirth and new beginnings

      ༺☆༻

Black Dahlia - Dahlia

Our Gothic cutie as if had this flower made for him

Popular flower during Victorian era

I can also imagine Jiyu taking a nap on these bc the texture compare to his size has to be real comfy

      ༺☆༻

Oxeye Daisy - Leucanthemum vulgare

I'll be honest, this is mostly based on the color scheme, but it does somehow fit Zagan either way

Daisies tend to be forgotten and looked over bc they're considered basic, though they are also pretty

They're related to Chamomile and they also make a really good tea

[elucubrare]

Doctor Valeris gave a quick, cool press of the hand, and gestured me to a chair. “Tell me what happened,” she said, with no further preamble. I closed my eyes — on the insides of my eyelids danced scenes of glory and conquest, as they had for the past three weeks - and tilted my head back. “I’d hired out as a guard to an archaeologist up in the steppes. We spent a week riding around barrows, with nothing more than a couple of wolves to bother us. Then he reread a text or something, and pointed us further north. Have you been up there, doctor? Probably not. It’s so big. The sky, sure, but everything. No trees for a hundred miles, just you and the horse and a few mounds where no one alive has walked for three hundred years, and the wind. I remember there was one tree, though, where it shouldn’t be. It was the tallest thing there, and it felt like a mountain. An oak, tall and straight despite the wind that had scoured anything taller than a barberry bush off the face of the world. The archaeologist bent and scraped some earth off a rock between its roots. He pulled a crowbar off his horse’s equipment and pried it up. ‘After you,’ he said, and I went down. That’s when the ghost entered me.” The doctor nodded. “Let me read the statement back to you. ‘I had been entombed under the strength of oak for centuries. I had begun to fear that I would never again feel a horse surge into a gallop under me, or the wind in my hair; that I had failed the ritual; that the promises of the gods were naught but lies.’” She paused. A muscle in my jaw clenched and then relaxed, but I stayed quiet. “���At last there came a breath of fresh air: a wind from the outside, and with it, a bright spirit. Ah, I thought, the gods spoke true. I am fortunate indeed. She is my kin, and she will serve me well. She is thrice bound to me.’” The doctor waited for a response. “That’s not what I said,” I told her, firmly. “No,” Valeris responded. “But it’s what I heard."

[scleroticstatue]

Could I get some fruit knowledge (I don’t mind which kind)

This is a barberry bush

It's called that because it's got these wicked thorns

They can easily get an inch and a half long. Because of that, they're sold in garden centers as "security plants" to put under your windows and stop people getting in, as well as fall color. But! They also have

Oodles of berries!

Nowadays, most people leave them for the birds because those wicked thorns are hard to pick around if you like your blood to stay inside your body, but historically, they were an important source of fresh fruit throughout winter, especially in cold climates. They're still used in Persian cuisine, where they're dried (you can find them as zeresh if you're looking for a bag to taste). They taste like if a cranberry and a lemon had a baby.

The reason we no longer use them anymore is because rich people preferred exotic food that showed off their wealth and the poorer people were desperate to emulate them instead of preserving traditional food. It happened to a lot of European spices that have long since been forgotten, and you can track similar behaviors in food throughout Southeast Asia during colonization and Africa currently! But if you are trying some medieval cooking and it calls for orange or lemon, try using barberry instead and see the flavor transform!

(you can also find calafate, or Patagonian barberry items for sale, but they're a different species and are reported to taste like a cross between a huckleberry and a blackberry)

[ahedderick]

The rain stopped during the night, and this morning temps were hovering just above freezing. That, to me, is an excellent temperature for working outside. I pulled on my overalls, boots, and heavy coat and grabbed the big pruning shears. Lady, stuck inside most of the day yesterday, was in a whirl of delight. Attended by both dogs and Baxter and Rocky, I walked out to the field. Nutmeg and Hero were near the lower part of the fence, and I grabbed Nutmeg to take her out with me - there will be many rosehips to nibble. She, assuming I was trying to make her go to the barn, pulled strongly the other direction. It took her about halfway out the far field to realize that she wasn't winning the Battle of Not-Going-To-The-Barn, but in fact cooperating and going where I wanted her to. THEN she start to pull to head back toward the barn - because goats.

Hero waited until all six of the rest of us had gotten to the far end of the pasture before dramatically galloping up to join us. Toss mane, prance, etc. I was a-l-l set to start cutting briars down, treat time for Nutmeg, when Hero's neuron* flipped positions, and he started running as fast as he could back the way we had come. Nutmeg, not sure what the issue was, chose to follow him. Bounding lumpily through the field with her ears flapping, she rapidly vanished.

Well, dang.

I still had two happy dogs, and the cats were hunting each other sneakily through the brush. I started cutting barberry, multiflora rose, and bush honeysuckle. and gREenbRiar uuuuugh. After about half an hour, the sleet started. It was light, though, and I had a hat on - a little extra coolness was not, at that point, a bad thing. Weather can be delightful if you're allowed to go back inside when you want to.

I cut and carefully piled up many thorny bushes. It only took an hour, which is probably all I can spare today, but it was a great start for a Monday. Nutmeg just lost out on a bunch of good eating, that's all. Lady's dirt-covered face and paws indicated that she had had a great time digging holes; Chance focused on trying to herd the cats, and they got all their pounces and clawing done for the day.

Time to . . move along, now.

.* Yeah. Singular.

[flubssesion]

Cressidia’s Concoction

The young witch in her dark robes tended her garden outside her forest cottage. The afternoon sun shone on her long cinnamon red hair and glistening pale skin as she preened her plants. She clipped excess leaves from plain-looking shrubs and cut dead blooms from exotic flowers. Her time to garden was her time to think. When she ran her delicate hands through the narrow, fleshy leaves of her saltwort bush, her esoteric mind was struck. Her eyes widened; a smile appeared. An idea!

The witch took a yellow sprig of saltwort and three barberries. Her hands gripped them tight as she zapped back to her witchy house. She ran with all her haste, as fast as her stockinged legs could carry her. She rushed her door and made for her brewing room. Once there, she put on her witchy hat, immediately gathered her grinders and flasks, and got to work.

"This is finally it," the witch said to herself as she ground up the leaves. Being a hermit left her prone to talking to herself. "The effervescent effect of saltwort was all that was missing. How did I not see it before?"

With a snap of her fingers, the witch created a spark that lit a fire beneath a flask. She put the ground-up leaf in the water, making it bubble vigorously. "Finally I can make my life's work. The one potion I could never perfect,” she said while grinding away a root. “A potion that will change the face of magic forever." She put the resulting yellow paste in the flask, turning the liquid blue. "And then I will be the most famous witch in history! And all will know my name when I name my potion..." she grabbed the flask and held the blue liquid up to her face. "Cressidia's Potion of Endless Levitation!"

For hours and hours, Cressidia grounded and mixed all sorts of plants, powders, pigments, and crystals. Every jar in every cupboard was opened and their contents used. Root of This, Extract of That, and all sorts of strange and exotic ingredients, complicated enough to leave any other sorceress's head spinning. But Cressidia was a bright young witch. This creation was the culmination of the two dozen years of her witch-life. She was sure this was the day she would create her perfect concoction.

The evening came, and Cressidia's toil left her surrounded by bowls and flasks of strange substances of all colors and textures. It was time to finally put all of those elements together. With her magic, she filled her big, dark cauldron with water and lit the fire beneath it. At last she began to put the first of the components into her brew.

Cressidia named off the things she poured into her cauldron. All sorts of names were paired with all manner of colored liquids. "Essence of Quickness..." She poured a purple syrup that made the brew fizz. "Root of Marshmallow..." She plopped in beige flakes that made the brew swirl. "Milk of Dolphin..." She poured a blue cream that made the brew pulsate. Sludge after slop, Cressidia poured and plopped. The cauldron bubbled and glowed new colors with each ingredient. As the mysterious liquids and fluids flowed, Cressidia's excitement grew.

Finally, after many pours in careful order, it was time to put in the last ingredient. Grabbing the last flask, Cressidia finally noticed how dark it was outside. Paying no mind to how much time had passed, she tipped the flask all the way onto its side, smiling and laughing. She lit up the room with a flash.

When the glow died down, Cressidia was left with a dark, dark purple slop in her cauldron. That wasn't what it was supposed to look like! She stared in confusion, mouth ajar. "What could I have missed? I poured everything in I needed to!" Cressidia could barely believe it. Another failure. Another mess to clean up. More gunk to scrape off of her old cauldron.

For a moment she stood dejected before her failed creation. Then, the bargaining started. She had to try to salvage the brew. "Maybe... if I try more black pepper?" She went and grabbed the bowl of fine powdered pepper. But while walking back to the cauldron, she tripped and dropped the bowl on the ground. It fell flat and shot up fine particles of pepper into her face.

The powder cloud enveloped Cressidia's face. Her nose twitched. One eye half-closed. She cocked her head back. "Ah, ah, ah..." She shot forward, eyes shut tight:

"ACHOO!"

Out of her control, she sneezed into the cauldron. The moment her sneeze hit the muck, the purple slop bubbled back to life. It whirred. It swirled. It began to glow green. Cressidia knew that that wasn't good.

“Whoops.”

BOOM!!!

With a puffy blast, the concoction in the cauldron exploded, filling the cottage with thick, white, sparkly clouds. Cressidia was blown back onto her fine behind, surrounded by the sound and sight of the blast. If she had neighbors, they certainly would have heard the explosion.

When the air became clear again, Cressidia couldn't believe she was still alive, let alone still be able to hear. "Wow! That was quite the eruption!" She waved her finger at a nearby mirror, beckoning it to float over to her by her magic. It was cracked by the blast, but Cressidia could see her cinnamon hair was blown back, and she was covered in black soot, but she was unscathed.

Seeing she was okay, she looked about her brewing room. A complete mess. Then she looked over to her cauldron. It still emanated a puffy white smoke. She put her mirror down, stood up, and walked over to the failed elixir. She waved away the thick fog cloud over her cauldron. The puffs made her cough. She placed her fingers on the cauldron rim, and peered inside to get a look at the aftermath of her sneezy mistake.

The unsuccessful brew plastered the entire inside of Cressidia's cauldron. Cressidia described it aloud. "Green, thick slime. Quite wet, with a glassy sheen to it. Ooh, transluscent! Shiny bubbles throughout; Effervescent! Must be the effect of the saltwort." While not the appearance she expected, perhaps the potion wasn’t a failure after all. Cressidia took a sniff. "Smell of marshmallow. Suppose I should have a taste?" She fearlessly outstretched her hand into the cauldron, reaching her finger to the cauldron wall to get a lick.

Before Cressidia could get any sludge on her finger, however, the green gunk flowed down the sides of the cauldron hastily. "Ah!" It pooled and globbed at the bottom, gathering and coagulating into a fat bulbous dollop. Cressidia watched in thrilled terror as the green glob began pulsing and filling like a pastry. Her eyes widened. The potion-blob then did something impossible: it jumped!

Cressidia's potion jumped clear out of the cauldron! She had barely enough time to get out of the way the blob was so fast. At the zenith of its leap, the blob hovered there. It shifted and malformed, twisting and spinning. It bubbled. It blubbed. It screamed! Cressidia stood and stared, gawked really, shaking her head in disbelief. What a big mistake!

Then, the blob shot off into the ceiling of the cottage. With a wet slap, it hit the ceiling and shot down to the floor. With a sludgy drum, it hit the floor and shot into a wall. Cressidia witnessed her concoction hit walls tables, knock over jars and flasks. She held her witchy hat as she ducked and jumped when it whizzed close to her. It zigged and zagged. She put a kettle over her witchy hat to protect herself.

Realizing how foolish she must have looked, Cressidia tossed the kettle aside, determined to stop this nonsense. She took a deep breath. The green ooze hit a wall and made for her. She made a sign with her fingers.

“FLEXUS STUPENDOU-!”

The potion corkscrewed around Cressidia's outstretched gesturing hand and flew right into the witch's enchanting mouth. Cressidia's words were muffled by the blob's bubbly body. In a flash it covered her mouth, flowed over her red lips, and slipped inside.

GULP!

Cressidia’s potion forced her to drink itself. The potion entered Cressidia's throat with a swig. Her eyes bulged out of her head. She stood stupefied by the sensation of the swallowing. She focused on its effortless slide down her gullet into her stomach. She couldn't think of a spell to expel animate potions from her insides. She grabbed her throat. "Ohhh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear." She stood, unable to decide what to do.

Then, a motion inside Cressidia's belly. The blob didn't sit well inside her stomach. It spun and squeaked inside her. The sensation tickled her, forcing a laugh out of her. "Haha!" It spun again, forcing involuntary motion from Cressidia. She held her stomach and laughed as she moved. "Hahaha ha!" The blob sloshed and Cressidia smiled as she laughed and gyrated. "Ha haha HA ha!" She moved and grabbed at herself, as if trying to hold herself down. "This is some- Haha!- this is a very quixotic potion!" She said through involuntary laughs.

Then, Cressidia's stomach settled. She stood quiet. "Right, time to think. How to get this out of m-." She only got half a moment to begin planning before her stomach began making new sounds. There was audible bubbling and popping inside of her. It gave her a gentle tickle. She moved her hands around her belly, rubbing in circles. "Ooohohooah!" Then, she felt her body lighten. She felt softer, warmer. She hovered. She hovered! She didn't even cast a featherlight spell!

The potion worked! Cressidia's potion wasn't a failure after all! "Haha! Marvelous! Simply Marvelous!" She kicked her legs and pumped her arms in celebration in midair. “Who could have known a witch’s sneeze was the final ingredient! Of course!” Cressidia was over the moon! And at the rate she flew upward, she was really going to be.

Cressidia's stomach began to feel odd once again. It ceased bubbling and began its maniacal movement inside her. She squeaked and squawked as the potion transitioned. "Heehaha Oo-!" It was moving downward into her gut.

Worry built back up in Cressida as her ascent stopped. she froze in the air, feeling the tickle of the potion plumbing her intestines. "Such stra- mmhmhm- such stange effects!" She put her hand over her gurgling gut. The tickling didn't stop, but it was joined by new sensations.

The soft, warm feeling inside Cressidia began to spread and increase. "Oh- Ohhh~." The fuzzy, sensual lightness began to reach, to her surprise, her bosom and her behind. "Wah! Oohoo..." She smiled a confused smile at the feelings. It calmed her. She grabbed her bosom with both hands and squeezed a squish. They were squishier. They felt so light and free. "How pillowy~..." She squeezed hard and it didn't hurt one bit. It only tickled her! She kicked her legs and threw her head back in laughter.

“Oh, and my, my bum…~” Cressidia swung her arms behind her and placed her hands on her butt. Like her breasts, her rump felt warm and light. She rubbed her wide rear in circles. She squished a squeeze. It felt spongy. It felt springy. It felt... bouncy.

Cressidia raised her right hand over her right buttock and smacked it down right in the middle. SMACK! Her hand bounced right off of her behind and swung all the way around and hit her right thigh. She let out an 'eek!' She smiled at the feelings the concoction gave her. "This potion has quite the bevy of applications~," she said as she rubbed her warm, sensually sensitive butt. She began slowly rising again.

Cressidia's elation didn't cease when she was close to the cottage's high ceiling. Nevertheless, she had to think. "Alright, now to figure out how to get down." She crossed her arms and looked up to the slowly approaching ceiling. "Well, I better not use any spells. I don't know how my magic would react to the effects of the potion. Hmmm..." Cressidia crossed her legs and rested her chin on her fist, thinking of what to do next.

Cressidia's head hit the ceiling harmlessly as she floated in thought. The potion bubbled and plopped inside Cressidia's gut as she thought of what to do next. But it seemed the potion was bored of bubbling. Once again, her potion sloshed and jumped inside her. The tickling began again. "OoAHA- Oh dear- Ha!" She held her gut and kicked her legs at the motion. She laughed at her whirling gut. The blob made her body move again. She began throwing her arms in circles. She began shaking her behind. She began to feel it slide through her as it tickled her.

Then, Cressidia felt it reach the end of her gut. She felt it stall itself right before her anal opening.

Cressidia's eyes bulged. She clenched her hole shut. Her fists closed. Her legs crossed. Her buttocks tightened up. She did all that she could to hold in the potion. But she knew it was coming out when it wanted to come out.

No spell could help Cressidia. No apprentice or familiar was there to assist her. There was nothing to be done. She gulped. She then uttered, more like a sound she made, than actual words:

“Moon- goddess-!”

BOOM!

The potion flew out of Cressidia's ass with a puff of smoke and a thunder crack. At once, the concoction began bounding around her house. Without the magical effects of the tickling potion, Cressidia plummeted to the cottage floor. She flew down for a moment in terror. Thinking quickly, she snapped her fingers as the cottage ground fast approached. Cressidia summoned a fluffy cloud to the floor and she landed harmlessly on it onto her front.

Cressidia lay there face down as the potion flew out of a window, shattering it and flying into the night. She winced at the sound of her potion's escape. Then Cressidia's face sunk with realization. Still face down, she reached around to feel her behind. The fuzzy, bouncy feeling was replaced by raw soreness. What's more, there was now a hole through her robe right down to her bare ass!

Cressidia rolled over and at looked to the ceiling. She closed her eyes and put her hand on her sooty forehead. How could she lose her magnum opus? "The work of my two dozen years of my life, lost, because it shot out of my butt." Cressidia moped. But then she realized there was nothing to worry about. Her eyes opened back up as she smiled.

"I can make more of the potion! I know all of the ingredients!" Cressidia took her hand off her forehead and shot up. "I can make all the potion I want!"

Cressidia was snapped from her excitement when she noticed the mess her concoction made of her witchy cauldron room. "Well, this won't do." She hopped off of her cloud. It fizzled away as her feet hit the floor. When she stood, her hole shot with soreness. "Oohaa-." The potion’s ‘after-effects’ would be felt for a while. Collecting herself, Cressidia cleared her throat and tapped her heels together. Her arms waved like a conductor as she sang out a spell.

With a singing and a spelling, Cressidia's witchy paraphernalia rocked alive. Flasks uncracked. The window unbroke. Jars went back to their cupboards. Shattered bowls clinked themselves back together again. All her things rocked back to their proper places. After a minute of incantation, the brewing room was set the way it was when she ran in there that afternoon, with the exception of the ingredients used for the now-lost potion.

"Wonderful!” Cressidia put her hands on her hips and looked about her cleaning job well done. She felt a twinge on her behind. It made her buttocks flex, bringing her mind back to the potion. "I could see to making more of that potion. But before I make more..." She put her hand on the hole in her robe. "I should figure a way to keep it from 'expelling…’ and perhaps a little less free will.”

Cressidia's eyes rolled back as she tapped her chin. She combed her mind for possible ingredients. She thought of gecko's paws and opal powder.

“Aha!”

Cressidia went to her cupboard and grabbed some new ingredients. She then walked to her table and grabbed a flask. With another sparky snap, she filled it with water and lit a flame beneath. She rubbed her sore butt as she put the opal powder in the water, making it bubble.

[stiltonbasket]

tell us about the phoenix mountain kiss in the aged up jingyi au omg

When Lan Jingyi asked his parents to bring him to the hunt at Baifengshan, he hadn’t been expecting anything but monsters, ghouls, and other dark creatures to ambush him while the hunt was going on.

He definitely wasn’t expecting to run across Jin Zixuan, who was trying his best to woo Maiden Jiang (Jingyi and Jueying fled from the scene of that disaster as soon as they stumbled upon it—it was just too painful to look at) or an irate Madam Jin, who was either a) avoiding her lout of a husband or b) stalking her would-be daughter-in-law through the forest. But more shocking still was the spectacle that greeted Lan Jingyi further into the forest, after he and Yingying left the rest of the Lan delegation and ventured off to hunt on their own. 

And it happened because Shufu went hunting on that side of the mountain not long before they arrived; and, more importantly, because Shufu followed Wei Wuxian to the grove of trees he was napping in instead of participating in the hunt.

“Tian ah,” Jueying gasps, as Shufu pins Wei-qianbei’s hands to the branch beneath his head and kisses him as if both their lives depended on it. “I knew it! I knew Zhan-shushu liked him! I’m going to go tell Ba.”

Lan Jingyi groans and covers his eyes before taking shelter in a convenient barberry bush. “Jueying, hush,” he says in despair. “It’s bad enough when we see Baba and Fuqin kissing, and Fuqin never kisses Ba like that. Oh, I can’t look.”

“I can,” his sister exclaims, before wincing at whatever their lawless Zhan-shufu had done to poor Wei-qianbei now. “Ge, that tree limb can’t be comfortable for Senior Wei. Should we say something?”

“Of course we should! Promiscuity is forbidden. Undertaking amorous acts without permission is also forbidden!” Jingyi wails. “What is Shufu doing? Senior Wei doesn’t even know who kissed him!”

It is at that moment—when Jingyi’s voice cracks in distress, as if he were still a boy of fourteen—that their uncle freezes, and looks around in sheer dread at the two small figures hiding behind the bushes.

Jueying waves. Jingyi only groans again, sinking further out of his Shufu’s line of sight, and refuses to move until a large hand grabs him by the back of his coat and hauls him out of the clearing.

“Shufu, let go,” Jueying complains, after Senior Wei is out of earshot. “I need to tell Baba that he was right about you and Wei-qianbei. Are you two going to get married now?”

Shufu sighs and puts her down. “You must not say a word to Brother. Or to anyone else,” he says, blinking his red-rimmed eyes until a tear runs down his cheek. “I have erred, and there is no denying it. When we return to the Cloud Recesses, I will confess my misdeeds and submit to punishment.”

Jingyi pales. "No, Shufu! You can’t. Baba changed the rules about physical discipline, but the punishment for breaking the sixty-seventh precept is still the same!”

“As it should be. I have committed a grave offense against Wei Ying and set a poor example for the two of you. Twenty strikes with the bastinado is the least punishment I am owed, for that.”

His hand twitches toward Bichen, as if he had thought of unsheathing the sword and striking something with it. “We should go back to find Brother and xiongfu, for I—I cannot remain here any longer. Wei Ying and the Jiang delegation are not far away, and I fear that I would lose my composure if Wei Ying were to come across me now.”

“You can go wherever you please, but I’m not going anywhere,” Jueying says testily. “Shufu, stop pulling. Aren’t you going to say something to Wei-qianbei?”

Zhan-shufu looks absolutely miserable. “What could I possibly tell him, now that I have disgraced myself and profaned our friendship? If he knew that I was the one who set upon him, he would—”

“You’re supposed to tell him that you care for him!” Lan Jueying snaps. “What else could you say?”

“Oh, no. Does that mean you only want to kiss him?” Jingyi laments, putting his head in his hands. “Wei-qianbei’s going to be heartbroken, Uncle. I thought you wanted to marry him.”

“I do want to marry him!” Shufu retorts. “I bound his wrist with my mo’e in Lan Yi’s cave, and every day was like a death to me when he went missing after Lotus Pier was attacked—I would bow three times with him this very day if he returned my feelings, but he does not, and I...”

He lets out a shout and draws Bichen, cutting a nearby tree in half before chopping the fallen branches to shreds. Jueying squeals and leaps out of the way, dragging Lan Jingyi along with her; and a few minutes later, Ba and Father wander onto the scene with the baby twins in their arms, staring at Zhan-shufu in astonishment as he brings another innocent tree to the ground.

“A-Zhan,” Baba coughs at last, for want of anything else to say. “Didi. What in heaven’s name are you doing?”

Zhan-shufu drops his sword and falls to his knees, distraught.

“Xiongzhang, I beg of you not to ask. I have committed a grave sin, and when we return home, I—”

“He kissed Wei-qianbei. Without asking,” Jueying interrupts. “Wei-qianbei was blindfolded, and I don’t think he knew that Shufu was the one who kissed him.”

“Oh. Oh, dear,” Baba murmurs, after a brief pause. “Is this true, Wangji?”

Shufu looks as if he might cry. “It is.”

“And, ah...what are the nature of your feelings towards Young Master Wei? Was it only impulse that drove you to kiss him? Or should I look into a marriage arrangement with Yunmeng Jiang?”

“I would ask, if I thought the proposal would be well received.” Some of the color seems to be coming back to Zhan-shufu’s face. “But, Brother—as my zongzhu, I pray you, do not let my transgression be known to the rest of the clan. I will face discipline, as I should, but no word of the reason should reach Wei Ying. If he knew that I was the one who seized him, it would break his heart.”

“I still think that kissing without confessing would break it even more,” Jueying says mutinously, crossing her arms over her chest. “How would you feel if your sworn zhiji kissed you and then ran away without a word? Wei-qianbei even knows what your incense smells like, so he’s sure to find out it was you.”

“Yingying, one moment.” Father narrows his eyes and turns to Zhan-shushu. “So you would ask for Wei Wuxian’s hand in marriage if you thought he might accept you?”

Shufu bows his head. “En, I would. I have already said so.”

Baba lifts baby Yunhua up to his face to hide his smile. “You love him, then? As one would love a spouse and partner in cultivation?”

“Yes. With all my heart.”

Father makes a strange sound that might have been a shriek of laughter.

“Very good, didi,” he chokes. “Now turn around.”

Zhan-shushu, Jueying, and Jingyi all turn around in unison.

Wei-qianbei is standing behind them, gazing at Zhan-shufu with his whole heart shining in his eyes.

“Lan Zhan,” he whispers, trembling from head to foot. “Lan Zhan, you—did you mean it?”

Luckily, Jingyi does not witness what happens between them next, because Fuqin whisks him up onto Baxia and back to the rest of the Lan juniors before Shufu can say another word. Baba follows with Ying-meimei, laughing softly under his breath; and a little while later, they alight next to Shugong, who takes one glance at the look on Baba’s face and throws up his hands in resignation.

“Well?” he sighs, taking little Yunhai from Father’s arms and kissing his button nose. “Out with it, Xichen. What has Wangji done now?”

“Nothing much,” Baba beams. “But when you see him next, I think Zhanzhan will be bringing back a husband.”

Shugong pinches the bridge of his nose.

“He is your brother, after all,” he mutters. “So be it, then. I don’t know what else I expected.”

Baba’s eyes are sparkling. “Mm, quite. Now let’s catch some yaoguai before the sun sets, or we’ll fall behind in the rankings. Come along, A-Yi.”

Jingyi follows with Jueying at his heels, hoping against hope that the next hours of the hunt will not bring more encounters with couples caught up in ill-advised kisses; but he spends those two shichen trailing after his parents, so his hopes are dashed. Again.

[whumpshaped]

trick or treat

have a snippet of the Big Chapter as a treat

He never fucking heeded any warnings, did he? And he never ever considered that he wasn't invincible, that bad things could happen to him, that maybe his mother was right to worry.

Joey's heart was pounding loudly in his chest as he lay (hopefully) hidden by an overgrown barberry bush, waiting for the vampire to continue walking. Fuck. Fuck. Why weren't they going? Did they spot him? Did all the things he had rubbed into his clothes to cover his scent fail? Please no. Please, he just wanted to see his brother. He couldn't die like this.

[scribblurri]

Word-Woven Garden: Complied Flower Meaning List

my platonic hanahaki au fic on ao3 has had a couple of people requesting a compiled list of all flower meanings mentioned in story for convenience, so here it is!

all meanings listed are taken from this spreadsheet, if simplified or interpreted differently just for story purposes

Ch. 1

Poplar / Cottonwood: Black - courage, White/Silver - time

Primrose - childhood, early youth, modest worth

Goldenrod - encouragement, be cautious

Ch. 2

Oleander - beware (highly poisonous)

Anemone / Windflower - anticipation, fragility/frailty, forsaken, abandonment

Scarlet auricula / cowslip / bear's ear - avarice

Ch. 3

Ox-eye daisy - patience

Peony - anger, ostentation, shame

Lilac - first love

Ch.4

Fennel - strength

Coltsfoot - justice shall be done

Coriander - hidden worth, concealed merit

Ch. 5

Anchusa / Bugloss - falsehood

Barberry / Berberis - sourness of temper, sharpness, petulance

Acacia - friendship, platonic love

Ch. 6

Laurel - glory, treachery

Lavender - mistrust

Ch. 7

Moonwort - forgetfulness

Marigold - cruelty, grief, contempt

Chinese aster - I will think of it

Ch. 8

Hortensia / Hydrangea macrophylla - carelessness, coldness, cruelty

Buttercup - ingratitude, childishness

Ch. 9

Honesty - sincerity, honesty, fascination, forgetfulness

Ch. 10

Fraxinella / Dictamnus albus - fire (also known as the gas plant or burning bush, they produce volatile gases that catch fire easily in hot weather!)

Lobelia - arrogance, malevolence

Ch. 11

Hollyhock - ambition

Ch. 12

Borage - rudeness, bluntness, courage

Ch. 13

Rue - disdain

Flos adonis - sorrowful remembrances, painful recollections

Ch. 14

Sea bindweed (a type of morning glory) - uncertainty

Ch. 15

Wormwood - absence, bitter sorrow

Ch. 16

Basil - hatred

Ch. 17

Heath - solitude

Morning glory - unrequited love, extinguished hopes, affection

[mobileleprechaun]

Silly me, thinking I was immune to the siren-like allure of Making a Welcome Home AU™...! Thus, here is my as of yet untitled Watership Down AU. Left-to-right lineup with breeds and lore-appropriate names + tiny info tidbits under the cut.

Left to right: Wally (dwarf plush lop), Barberry (Flemish giant mix), Jewelweed (dwarf lop), Fern (wild European rabbit), "Eddie" Edelweiss (rex), "Thousand-Legs" Holly (continental giant), Salvia "Sally" Star-Sedge (lionhead), Poppy (English/giant angora mix).

Six feral domesticated rabbits (and one wild rabbit) wake up with very foggy memories in a beautiful, grassy warren. The warren is unusual in design, with strange materials in its tunnels, food sources and surrounding barriers, unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. Its sole inhabitant is a very small, very docile lop-eared bunny with big, wide eyes. He seems to be intimately familiar with this warren, which he calls “Home” and speaks of as though it is a person in and of itself. He could not have constructed such a thing himself.

Still, this new warren is idyllic. There’s abundant food, water, shelter, and even a strange structure overhead to protect them from swooping hawks. The little bunny, who calls himself Wally, is glad to let the other rabbits stay here and share this place with him, and they soon establish a stable, friendly social hierarchy. Wally does not seem to understand how the other rabbits behave, but they are all grateful for his generosity and find him endearing, and are happy, as such, to teach him how to be a well-rounded rabbit.

It begins to seem like paradise… Yet something sinister lurks behind the green bushes, something which Wally can sense keenly, something he waits every night for, with eyes wide and heart racing.

[wutbju]

So the October 1967 Greenville News insert had a large article about the landscaping on campus. Here’s the text. What strikes you about this write-up?

Looking out across the beautiful verdant campus of Bob Jones University, one can hardly imagine the time when this ground was nothing but a large plot of red clay hills and dunes. Tall, graceful shade trees, flowering and fruit » smaller trees, and colorful shrubbery flowers of all kinds now dot the grounds. Linking these and the symmetrical modern buildings in panoramic view are vast expanses of lush green lawns.

When one first sees the neat, clean appearance of the campus, he finds it hard to believe that more than 4,000 students and faculty members walk back and forth across it every day. The 15 or 20 students on the grounds crew believe it though, for they are the ones who daily work keep it that way.

Each is assigned a section of the campus,, and everything down to the last little piece of paper or trash is picked up and everything is swept clean. "Cleanliness is next to godliness" is a proverb they live by. And this is a familiar maxim to the students, too.

One student sweeper acquired a special reward for his diligence in cleaning gutters. He found a $100 bill one day which became his - after a reasonable length of time had passed with no claimers.

The grounds crew has been particularly thankful for a new refuse removal system that was installed on the campus recently. This system, called "Gar-bax." features special refuse holders placed in strategic spots around the campus. Containing disposable paper bags, they eliminate the necessity of transferring refuse; for the bags can just be lifted out of the holders, sealed and discarded.

Bob Jones University has been featured in the nationally distributed "Gerbaxnews"--the trade publication of the International Paper Co.--for its effective use of this system.

The lawns at BJU have been greener this summer thanks to a huge new grass cutter, Jacobsen F-10, purchased last March. Mowing in 15-foot swaths, it shears the grass clean and fine.

Dick Murr, manager of grounds at BJU, said that "a section that used to take 3½ hours to cut now only takes 35 minutes.

The grounds crew also has four rotary riding mowers, eight small power mowers for trim-out work, and a six-foot Toro professional mower.

FRUIT TREES

Trees and shrubbery that bloom and have fruits at various times of the year have been placed in various parts of the campus. Large pine trees, some with seven-foot bolls and 12 feet in diameter, have been moved to more advantageous places where their effect might be more picturesque.

Forsythia, hydrangea and various types of spire dress the campus in the spring. Also, peach, plum, apple, pear, fig, apricot, cherry, wisteria and pink and white dogwood vie with one another to make the campus beautiful and fragrant-a place that students leaving at the end of the school year will never forget. When the peaches and plums mature, they add succulent taste treats to the dining common menu. The apples, harvested in the fall, give the new home economic classes plenty of practical experience in making jelly.

This past March, 1,000 azalea plants that were donated to the university were set out in beds; and all of the plants bloomed. The Greenville Garden Club counts in its beautification of Greenville competition the number of new azaleas and dogwood trees that are added to the BJU campus each year. Mrs. Bob Jones Sr. and Mrs. Bob Jones Jr. are both members of the club.

ROSE GARDEN

The rose garden planted near the dining common last winter and spring provided fragrant beauty during the summer. Red crape myrtle and orange pyracanthra add the bright touch of color to the campus in the late summer, as well as the red apples of the flowering crab trees. The maroon-leaved barberry bushes lining the drive between the Administration Build. ing and highway provide a neat contrast to the green lawns.

In the fall and winter, pyracantha, Mandela and holly trees and bushes of many varieties have their limbs bough gracefully under the weight of their vivid fruit. Holly lines the walkways to the dining common and fills the three large flag basins in front of it.

Boxwood, abelia, wax leaf ligustrum, and various evergreens keep the campus verdant and attractive through all the seasons of the year. Oaks, pines and other shade trees keep it cool and restful appearing. Many of the trees and shrubs have been donated by residents of Greenville.

Of special interest at BJU are the Bible land trees set out in front of the Fine Arts Building. These include thorn, hackberry, salix, acacia, olive, spikenard, and rose of Sharon.

Flower beds are rotated to provide beautiful, colorful effects during the various seasons. In the early spring, pastel-colored crocuses, showy narcissus, and yellow and white daffodils appear, followed later by multi-colored tulips and pansies. These give place in the summer to geraniums, petunias, cockscombs, and cannas of all hues.

WORDS IN FLOWERS

Mums and Joseph's coat take predominance in the fall. Using Joseph's coat with its multi-colored leaves, it has been the custom in the fall to spell out in the beds in front of the alumni building such phrases as "God is Love" and "Jesus Saves."

In the garden area of the university are glads, dahlias, zinnias and asters. John Ludwig, superintendent of buildings and grounds, uses these to form lovely bouquets of flowers for the church services held at BJU, as well as for the Information Desk. He also provides the dining common with some of these flowers to dress up the tables.

A number of cymbidium orchid plants were recently donated to the school, and these are kept in the university's large greenhouse. These will begin producing 7,000 blooms, which will be sold in the school bookstore to young men for their special dates.

The geraniums and Joseph's coat are also kept in the greenhouse when not in use. Azalea plants and camellias are kept there until late March, when they are set out for Bible Conference time in the center divider near the entrance to the campus. If a rather bad frost is predicted at this time, these plants are all dug up and taken in for the night, to be set out again the next morning!

A lake shows forth its mirror-like surface behind the maintenance building. White rocks--rip-rip from the Campbell Limestone Co.--have been placed around the lake. An island in the lake was developed in June; and now crape myrtle, dogwood, Japanese maple and a little white walk of wash river rock grace it. Eventually, a bridge will reach out to the island from the mainland.

Weeping willow trees are going to be planted along one side of the lake near the dam, and also near the dining common.

Where rain drains come into the lake, waterfalls will be built out of white rock. And flower beds will be made in various spots around the lake.

On the far side of the lake are picnic grounds with fire-places, tables, and tall pines. These are used by student and faculty groups for outings.

Dads and boys find the fishing pretty good at the lake. Mr. Murr said that one of his assistants caught in one evening on an artificial worm four lovely 15-inch bass. Bamboo growths are around and near the lake, and these make one think of fishing poles.

The grounds crew feed the lawns twice a year. They also landscape new homes that are built for faculty and staff members, and they take care of the grounds around the homes. All told, they have the care of about 140 acres at BJU. Les Ollila, an ex-logger from Michigan who became a student, has given the trees on the campus some much-needed pruning during the past year. He had gained tree trimming and surgery experience with tree surgeons in his home state before coming to BJU.

That lake? That would become “Omega Lake” back campus. By the time this archivist was a student, it was a campus joke, not this idyllic vision.

[476b]

the evil is defeated

i've been wanting to get rid of this pain in the as japanese barberry bush since i moved in. it's invasive and completely covered in thorns which made this whole process SO ANNOYING

[crzygthumbs]

Plant, Plant, What Is This Plant?

The birds plant these for me. They look like a holly, but they aren’t. This is a wild edible berry that grows down here on the edge of dry forests. What is it? It’s a Mahonia trifoliolata. It’s a type of barberry and is our South Texas version of a currant. One of my Agarita berry bushes. I never pull these. Wherever they come up, I’m happy to have them. In our forested area, around our house,…