#bunche beach preserve

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Reddish Egret

Location: San Carlos Bay – Bunche Beach Preserve, Fort Myers, Florida, USA

by Nathan Arnold

Audubon Photography Awards

[sunchases]

on july 17, harper's most special person was born. taesoo might not find it to be a big deal, but harper definitely does. a look at bin taesoo's birthday weekend. featuring @wcvensouls. happy birthday, taesoo! ♡

[littlebigfandomtrash]

Rachelle Facts

• She has about 4 little siblings. Being the oldest of the bunch she was always in charge of watching them while her parents are busy.

• Her parents clothing store is a long standing local buisness that the building counts as a historical building to be preserved.

• The Shearluck family use to be a very influential family with her ancestors being royal advisors. But along the line as history passed the family influential reputation became nothing but history and forgotten fact.

• She uses her knitted dolls to help her make clothes when there's no one else to help her. She has three special dolls that she calls her main helpers as they are the oldest dolls she has made.

• She's earned a bit of money of doing a few tailoring commissions for people in the academy.

• She's really into animations and cartoons, especially stop motion. She's made alot of mini stop motion films with her knitted dolls for the film contests in harmonia academy.

• She's really good at singing alot of people say she has voice that can put even the most stubborn of people to sleep. She sometimes tag along with Morana to do duets to help students sleep.

• She's really into things like horror games but gets embarrassed about it and hides it. She tends to not really flinch when interacting with any horror media.

• She has a really slow reaction time.

• Rachelle cuts her hair short during the summer like how sheep's need to shear their wool.

• She hides it but she likes eating flowers that are usually not seen as consumable.

• She's like sending her friends sweaters during the winter holidays. Sometimes making friends who bicker often match for the fun of it.

• She's a big fan of swimming but hates summer even though she knows the best time to go to the beach for a swim is summer.

• Trey and her like to trade eachother things constantly. People keep catching her with his sweater.

Divider Link

[your-resident-boat-person]

I left this comment on an Alex the Historian video, but I want to leave it here too.

I live in Pennsylvania. If I ever do get the funds to travel and see the Queen Mary, it may be the only opportunity I ever get to do so.

I know that there are more... "pressing" repairs that need to be done, but I desperately want to see some of the historic rooms that were ripped out in the 70s to be restored to how they looked during her career. Mike Brady just covered a few of these rooms in his video covering the plans of the Queen Mary. I know that a lot of the interior decor would basically need to be recreated from scratch, but still. For example, the Synagogue is such an important and historic room. I'd love to see it restored. It was installed as a show of good faith from Cunard to show their Jewish passengers (especially the ones fleeing from nazi germany) that they would not stand for the rampant antisemitism they faced at home. For anyone who isn't the owner of a ghost hunting youtube channel, the main draw of the Queen Mary is her historic value. I don't want to see a bunch of new restaurants and shops and event spaces. I want the Queen Mary to reflect how she was during her career as closely as possible. The idea of trying to "modernize" the Queen Mary in any aspect seems... almost foolish and counterintuitive to me, aside from obvious things like modern air conditioning and sanitation and things like that. I know some of these post-long beach additions are popular and well loved, but if I'm booking a stay aboard the historic RMS Queen Mary, I dont want to eat in a modern restaurant that was stapled on to the ship in the last couple of decades. I'd want to be served in the first class dining room. I'd want to experience what the passengers experienced.

There aren't many liners left, but I think the Queen Mary is one of the best liners to have been preserved. She was designed in the late 1920's, built in the early 1930's, and despite her extreme modernity, she also features many things that more closely resemble the liners of the 1910s and 1920s than her then modern contemporaries. Like, she visually resembles the Aquitania from 1914 and Lusitania from 1906 much more closely than she resembles, say, the SS Rex or SS Normandie. The SS Rex, despite being nearly 5 years older, looks more like the SS United States of 1952 than any of the ships she succeeded. The Queen Mary is a beautiful collage of liner design spanning from the 1910s to the 1960s. So being on the Queen Mary can give you a great idea of what liners were like across many decades, which makes her invaluable as an educational tool, more so than any other liner that could have been preserved instead. If the Bremen, or the Rex, or even the Olympic had been preserved instead of the Queen Mary, it would have given a lot more narrow of a view of liner history. In the late 60's and early 70s, a lot of these spaces and decoration styles were seen more as outdated rather than historic, so the idea of preserving them didn’t seem extremely important. But now? If it were up to me, my primary objective would be to restore the Queen Mary to be as close as she was during her career as practical/possible. As a huge ocean liner enthusiast, I'd move to long beach in a hearbeat if it meant I could spend my life helping to preserve her, and with the loss of the SS United States, I think preserving and restoring the Queen is more important than ever.

[dcangel]

INSTAGRAM POSTS #1

In a world where the teen wolf kids are famous…

Liked by s.stilinski24 and others

yourusername almost tripped on the rocks :/

View all 289 comments

lydia_martinn pretty y/nnn

↳yourusername luv you lyds <33

s.stilinski24 hmm i wonder who took the picture 😐

↳yourusername i have my own photographer 🤷‍♀️

user1 come home the kids miss you

user2 mommy? sorry- mommy? sorry

allison.argent11 marry me?

↳yourusername ofc bby

Liked by lydia_martinn and others

yourusername pretty x pretty

View all 364 comments

user1 holyyy 😍

s.stilinski24 move i can’t see the sunset

itzscotty.m was this at the preserve

↳yourusername duh

↳user1 what preserve yall🤨

↳user2 yall be hanging out together?

user3 mid

↳user4 fr

↳allison.argent11 tell me you’re jealous without telling me you’re jealous

↳user5 i’d be jealous too she be stealing yor man

↳itzscotty.m your* 😊

Liked by allison.argent11 and others

yourusername where i belong obvi

View all 431 comments

lydia_martinn feeling a little left out rn

↳itzscotty.m me too

↳yourusername IMSORRY i didn’t have any pictures with you guys

user1 who’s the guy? asking for a friend

↳yourusername uhh

↳s.stilinski24 idk it’s not like he’s tagged in the pic

user2 kiss marry kill: extreme level

↳user3 fuck* marry kill

↳user4 THEYRE MINORS

↳user5 nah that’s crazy

yodel.lahey.hoo where’s my invite

↳yourusername bro you literally said you didn’t like the beach what

↳user6 STOP IS THIS THAT ISAAC GUY??

↳user7 I THINK SO

↳user6 HIS USER HAS ME CACKLING

so here’s the first little instagram post thingy. i’ve been seeing a bunch of people doing this with their fav characters/shows so i wanted to try my own. lmk if you guys like it and maybe want more??

if you have any questions abt the usernames or how the comments/replies work, feel free to ask <33

[fireflies-owl-city]

Beach Day (ElderLily modern au)

Elder Faerie and White Lily are on their first date since they tied the knot and got married to each other, and it’s your classic day at the beach! Sadly, Elder Faerie isn’t as excited for this as he’s acting, for he has a secret he’s kind of ashamed of

Tags: transmasc elder faerie, body dysmorphia, elder faerie has top surgery scars, a shitload of fluff and cuteness

“I can’t wait to show you the beach! It’s so beautiful.” White Lily excitedly told Elder Faerie.

As a kid, Coconut Beach was one of her favorite places to visit, next to Dragon Hill. It was this beautiful beach, with the softest sand, the clearest water, the cleanest coast, and so, so many different sea shells and little fish, and even some bits of coral from a coral reef near the coastline. That beach, as well as the national park, sparked her love for travel, and as soon as she was old enough to be on her own, she traveled the world, discovering new cultures and figuring out who she truly was.

It’s how she met Elder Faerie, it’s how she fell into that coma, it’s how she discovered all the fear and grief and darkness that plagued the world and sparked yet another passion, one for peace and love and justice and prosperity. But above all else, it’s how she realized just how precious her friends and her lover truly are, and how despite her now fragile form, she must care for them in any and every way possible. Crazy how the butterfly effect works, huh?

That beach changed her life, and now, that beach was going to be hers and Elder Faeries first date since they married and moved in together.

“And I can’t wait to see it, my love.” Elder Faerie replied, glancing at his wife and smiling softly.

Admittedly, Elder Faerie was happy to be going to this beach. He had seen just how happy Lily was to be taking him to this place, and the way her eyes lit up while describing this place to him, and after seeing all the horrible things she had been through recently, he knew he had to do whatever possible in order to preserve that innocent joy. Even if that meant facing a fear that had been looming over his head for years now.

See, Elder Faerie is a transgender Man. He was born a girl, with his cutesie innocence and his love for both cute girl stuff like fashion and makeup along with boyish stuff like video games and fantasy weapons. However, when he hit puberty, he realized something was off about his identity, about the way his soul felt broken when he developed curves and breasts, and his suspicions were confirmed when he discovered the gender spectrum in health class; he realized that he was in fact, a man. Sure, he still liked the classic “girly stuff” like cute dresses and his long, luxurious hair that reached down to his waist, but didn’t mean that he was truly a man.

He was a man stuck in a girls body, and now with a new body build and a bunch of crazy hormones, he was aware of how trapped he was, and he hated it.

Of course, White Lily knew all of this, and it almost made her love him even more. The way he braved such a difficult time, how he discovered such an amazing thing about himself, and how he was willing to share such a personal detail with her made her heart flutter with admiration and love.

However, because of his gender identity, Elder Faerie had gotten top surgery when he was in his early twenties, and while White Lily was fully aware of this too, she had never seen the scars left behind by his procedure.

Despite how wonderful he felt no longer having breasts, he hated those damned scars. It felt like some sort of burden, a dark secret that was harder to own up to than even realizing that he was trans. It made him feel incomplete, disgusting, fake. He had tried overcoming his fear by coming up with some stupid scar story like trying to dry a kitchen knife off with his shirt, but nothing realistic enough came to mind.

He wanted so desperately to believe that White Lily would accept him no matter what kind of scars were on his body, but nothing could calm his fear.

“…sunscreen, umbrella, drinks…” White Lily was mumbling to herself. She then turned to Elder Faerie, who had a wide-eyed blank expression on his face as he tightly clutched the steering wheel. “Are you okay, honey?”

Elder Faerie snapped out of his daze and glanced at White Lily with a confused expression on his face. “Huh? Oh, of course, I’m just thinking of all the wonderful things that might be at this magical beach you love so much. I packed my bathing suit, right?”

“You’re wearing it, silly. Don’t you remember putting on your swim trunks before we left?” White Lily giggled, “Are you… sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” Elder Faerie reassured her, “just tired I guess.”

Just then, they pulled into the beach’s parking lot, and after finding a place to park, they got out and unloaded their stuff. Walking onto the soft sand on the beach, the couple found a spot, laid out their towel, and got to enjoying the beach. They shared snacks and drinks, made cute little sandcastles, and talked about life together.

Then, White Lily wanted to get in the water.

“I’m going to get changed into my bathing suit,” she said, pointing her thumb at the nearby bathroom, “why don’t you take your shirt off so we can go swimming? The water is really nice.”

Elder Faerie nodded. “Go ahead, I’ll be here waiting for you.”

Once she had walked off, Elder Faerie sat down on the towel and wrapped his arms around his knees, burying his head in the space between his knees and his chest. He just felt so… ashamed. He was ashamed of his body, of the scars on his chest, of his fear, of his cowardice, hell, he was ashamed of his shame! Most of all, he was ashamed of his lack of trust in his own wife. He knew White Lily loved him for who he was, and that she would be perfectly fine with the remnants of his top surgery. However, something deep within him was withholding his ability to show her the truth. Would she really be fine with it? Even if she was, how would she react to the way he kept this from her. There were just too many variables to trust that it would go well.

“Fae…?”

Elder Faerie’s head shot up at the sound at his nickname, and he saw White Lily standing before him, looking concerned. “Fae, what’s wrong? You’ve seemed off all day.”

“I’m okay, I promise.” Elder Faerie replied, shaking his head.

“Honey…” White Lily sat in front of Elder Faerie, “I can tell that something’s wrong. I know you want to support me and share my passions and stuff, but I don’t want you do feel like I forced you to come here.”

“No, it’s not that, I wanted to come here! I just-“ his breath hitched, and he could feel the sting of tears in the corners of his eyes, “I just-”

Before he could say anything more, White Lily leaned forward and pulled him into a hug, squeezing him tightly and nuzzling her nose into the crook of his neck. “It’s okay, Fae. You don’t have to worry about anything, i promise. I won’t force you to tell me what’s wrong, but I can’t help you if you don’t communicate with me. Just tell me what you need from me and I’ll do whatever I can to make you feel better.”

Though hesitant at first, Elder Faerie returned the hug, relaxing into White Lily’s grasp. “There’s… something that I need to show you.”

Elder Faerie stood up and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, shrugging it off of his shoulders. There was his bare chest, featuring his top surgery scars.

White Lily stood as well and gazed at the scars, gently reaching out and grazing them with her fingertips. “This is what you wanted to show me?”

“As you know before we met, I got top surgery.” Elder Faerie explained. “The doctors removed the breast tissue, and I didn’t have boobs anymore, and it felt amazing. But these scars, they made me feel ugly and unwanted. I know I could’ve easily trusted you to see them, but I couldn’t bring myself to show you.”

Once he had finished, White Lily immediately pulled him into a loving kiss. “You are not ugly, you are the most beautiful person in the universe, and you have been the most amazing boyfriend ever. Even before we confessed our love for each other, even when I was in that coma, you were the most incredible man that I could have ever encountered in my entire life, and a few scars aren’t going to change my view of you.”

“I’ve just felt so ashamed of them,” Elder Faerie admitted, “I was ashamed of my scars, and ashamed of my own inability to tell you. I mean, I’m supposed to be the brave one in this relationship! I’m supposed to support you, protect you, keep you safe and loved! And I’ve survived so much, and yet I’m afraid of showing you a few little scars.”

“It’s okay to be scared, my love.” Lily replied, “it’s okay to be vulnerable, and you don’t need to protect me. And how I see it, these scars tell a story. One of pain and fear and confusion and doubt, but also one of hope and love and triumph. They tell a story of a challenge you were able to overcome and the way it changed you for the better.”

Elder Faerie looked at his girlfriend lovingly, feeling himself start to tear up again. “I love you so much…”

“I love you more~” White Lily replied in a cheerful, sing-song tone of voice, “now c’mon, once you touch the water you’re going to love it.”

White Lily grabbed her lovers hand and started to pull him towards the water. Elder Faerie happily followed, quickening his pace so that he could walk next to her. Once they reached the water, White Lily dipped her toes in, Elder Faerie following suit. Then White Lily playfully kicked water at him.

“Hey!” Elder Faerie said through giggles. Putting his hands up defensively, he kicked water at White Lily as well, earning a giggle and a similar response from White Lily. Soon, the tension between them had melted away, and it was as if their sad yet intimate moment had never happened. The two were playing like kids, giggling and splashing each other, swimming out into the deeper parts of the water, and even exploring the nearby coral reef, White Lily of course having to wave hello to all the cute little fish that swam past them.

Soon, hours had passed by, and by the time they had dried themselves off and loaded their stuff back into the car, the sun was setting behind them.

“Today was amazing,” Elder Faerie gushed, “you were right, that beach is amazing.”

“I told you, that beach changed my life,” White Lily agreed, “I know it’s just sand and water, but that beach is the reason I decided to explore the world, and we both know what would’ve happened if I had never traveled.”

Elder Faerie chuckled lightly. “Well, you did travel, and we met, and we fell in love, and now we’re married, so it doesn’t matter.” He hesitated for a moment, then added “Maybe we should go there more often. Maybe even invite my little brother and his son when they visit.”

White Lily smiled softly and rested her head on her husband’s shoulder.

“That would be amazing…”

Taglist: @janayuga @katsunemillennium @trustymikh @c00kietin @tartelongan @cedric-my-beloved

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 1 MATCH 13

Chrom propaganda:

“He eats oranges with the peel still on, he's an absolute himbo. Also the writers accidentally made his daughter canonically trans so he definitely supports trans rights. And technically you can only marry him if you play as female Robin but their dynamic is still just as romantic if you play as male Robin (they literally call each other their other half and m!Robin and Chrom have a valentine's day duo unit in the gatcha, and in the anthology manga m!Robin asks Chrom to make polygamy legal so he can also marry Chrom's wife and they can be a family) so most people play the game with the gay mod so they can still marry him as a guy. He's incredibly stupid ("yeah, let's set all our ships on fire then walk through a volcano, you're so smart, Robin" "I know you've had prophetic visions about killing me and our daughter came from the future to warn us it would happen but I'm sure THIS TIME it won't because of the power of our bonds") but also really sweet. In the summer DLC they're fighting on a beach and when he sees Robin get excited over a weird creature they found he immediately forgets about the battle and starts trying to make a bunch of crafts (and failing) and cooking food (and failing again) and writing "Chrom and Robin were here" in the sand so that Robin could have some nice beach memories. I'm obsessed with this man”

Corsac propaganda:

“Huntsman concerned with preserving the ecosystem and obtaining potion ingredients in a sustainable manner. Pro-level survival skills and non-existent social skills. Easily flustered by flirting, but will excitedly teach you how to distinguish animal droppings.”

[elizabeth-mitchells]

last night i had a very detailed dream about watching the first episode of yellowjackets s3. basically winter was over and the girls were making a trip back down to the beach (yes, my brain still has yj mixed up with the wilds what about it). everyone that died was there as ghosts and lottie and laura lee had a beautiful reunion just like i've always imagined it, but laura lee was upset for some reason! i think because lottie continued to have zero self preservation instincts. there were also new characters again, as if we wouldn't notice, again. one of the girls was carrying a venezuelan flag (idk ask my brain about it). and when they reach the beach and start swimming they find a weird floating building and a bunch of people living there?? but they're so sketchy. the girls make a deal with them, leaving one of the new girls with them in exchange for food. but it's yj so the food was a dead man 💀 but he was so nasty looking they refused to eat him lmao so they went back to the beach people to make another deal and this time they were planning to trick them and betray them and i'm pretty sure the season was going to be about them killing these people one by one

[thebluestbluewords]

Tide Pool Adventures

“You cannot eat a raw jellyfish.” Evie says firmly. “We share one bathroom, and I am not skipping my skincare routine just because you decided to eat the ocean and  gave yourself food poisoning.” 

“Maybe the jellyfish should be your new skincare routine,” Mal says thoughtfully. “It looks soft and slimy enough.” 

“Gross. I don’t want to put things you pulled out of the ocean on my face.” 

“Or in your mouth, apparently.” Mal teases. She’s in an unexpectedly good mood. The beach, which she’d expected to be bright and sunny and full of cheery tourists, is instead slightly overcast and full of interesting things that have washed up right by the edge of the water. There’s an intriguing amount of slime in a series of pools that’ve formed under the wooden dock, and she’s got a plastic bucket that was definitely intended for children and a vague plan to gather a bunch of slime to dump on the boys later. 

“I don’t want to put anything you haven’t cleaned with soap in my mouth.” Evie says, wrinkling her nose at the thought. “And that includes you, M. We really need to stay somewhere with a shower soon.” 

“Aww, you don’t love my natural scent?” Mal says brightly. She’s still got the dead jellyfish in one hand. It’s really fun to touch. Maybe if she can put some sort of preservation spell on it, they’ll be able to fit it somewhere in the truck. 

Evie takes a subtle step away from Mal’s jellyfish hand. “I love so many things about you, and the fact that you sweat more than most grown men I know is not one of them.” 

[uninformedartist]

Sorry If I sound mean but you live in cape town right Probably one of the most beautiful places on earth And I barely see any photos The mountains the beach and A bunch of other stuff 😭 If I was living there now , I will post every single day I live in flat ass Texas where the most views you get is trees or hills lol 😆.

Aw don't feel bad. I have a friend from Texas and she showed me some beautiful photos from there. Such amazing nature reserves and the Hamilton Pool Preserve, beyond words how beautiful it is, she showed me photos from her family visit there.

And ty, the only reason I don't post a lot of pics cos I'm personally used to the sea, mountains ect lol. This is just a few pics of the area I live in, coastal, and one picture I took on a drive up the mountain looking down to the valley below and further up winelands. I got better pictures, just all on my old phone ^^

[therainingkiwi]

Percy Jackson and Long Island

TL;DR: The CHB scenes of the new Percy Jackson show were shot near Vancouver, BC. Which is gorgeous but also it's so different from Long Island. You should look at some pretty pictures of Long Island below the cut.

-----------

Percy Jackson trailer came out today and it's GORGEOUS.

In particular, the CHB scenes are beautiful, and the Vancouver-area woods they used for location shooting are breathtaking. I'm very glad they shot on location there.

Also, I need people to know: That's NOT what Long Island looks like. That shoreline doesn't look like Long Island Sound. Those trees are not Long Island trees. That shot of campers crossing a rope bridge? Yeah, I'm willing to bet that shot alone contains more elevation change than all of Long Island.

So, when you picture the scenes in your head, maybe try this: replace the tall conifers with a forest of short maples, oaks, and beeches. The leaves are lime-and-emerald green in the summer, as is all the light that reaches the forest floor. The forest is open and sun-dappled, thinning out towards a shore of grasses and giant sand dunes, rolling towards a body of water that looks like the ocean, but calmer. Less terrifying. More familiar. You can't really see the other side, but you know it's there--you can see it if you go a little further out. There is the occasional Eastern White pine tree, but they're singular tall trees that stick out clearly above the otherwise low-lying and open landscape. Most Long Island trees are not tall--which is why Thalia's pine stands out so much. There are gulls and other seabirds everywhere, and you can hear their calls on the air. In the summer, the air is hot and humid, and the ground is damp. You can tell this land fades to wetland not far from here. There are no mountains, just gently rolling hills and windswept sand dunes.

Like I said, I'm glad they didn't schlep a production team and a bunch of child actors all the way across the country to film on location. Vancouver is beautiful, and I'm excited to see that version of camp.

But, in your mind's eye, at some point, perhaps think of Long Island. Think of low lying forests. Think of dunes and wetlands and gulls and scrub grass. Think of cloudless skies. Below the read more are some photos of Long Island nature reserves, beaches, and Native reservations (there are two of them on Long Island--Shinnecock and Poospatuck/Unkechaug*).

The place is beautiful, and deserves to be appreciated.

This photo of the Jerome A. Ambro memorial wetlands was found on zaubee.com, and was taken by Noelle Casey. The image depicts a tan sandy beach in the foreground, and low-lying grassy wetlands in the mid-ground. At the far left edge of the photo, you can see the first few trees of a forest that presumably continues off to the left. In the background, you can see forested gentle rolling hills. The bright midday sun is visible in the picture, and there's not a cloud in the sky.

Cuffee’s Beach on the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s territory near Southampton on Long Island, New York.

Photo by Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock Indian Nation)

From &lt;https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/Shinnecock-Nation>

This image shows a dry, grassy shore. Presumably, it is winter, since the short trees visible on the left of the landscape don't have any leaves. The viewer is looking out on a deep blue body of water, where the opposite shore is far away but visible. The picture is bathed in a golden, late afternoon light and the sky fades from a pale orange to a cloudless blue.

This is a photograph of Hither Woods Preserve, a park in Montauk. I couldn't find details on the photographer. The image shows a forest. The trees are thin, and the foliage is dense, but you can see sky through the light green leaves. The trees are thin, and straight, and there's broad leaf plants providing ground cover. Through these plants, you can see a brown forest floor that gently slopes upward. In the middle of the path, a brown winding trail is edged with sticks to make it stand out clearly.

This entire blog post about Rocky Point Pine Barrens State Park is worth a read, for the beautiful photography if nothing else.

*Just to clarify, Poospatuck is the name of the reservation itself, and Unkechaug is the name of the tribal community that lives on that reservation. The name of the reservation is taken from the nearby Poospatuck River.

[onlyonewoman]

As a 40+ woman who's a hardcore feminist and is quite good with both the rolling pin, the sewing machine, actual handwashing clothes, drying herbs and shit like that: I HATE the current tradwife trend on social media for three main reasons: 1. It romantisizes a period of time in history where women literally had less choices in every single aspect of her life than now. 2. You NEVER hear women in their 80's gushing about what an amazing life they had as stay-at-home wives - let alone how happy their own mothers were. You only hear those who have the luxuary to choose. 3. These so called tradwives are, based on what the average houswife was capable of between, lets say, 1900-1950~ish, nothing but a bunch of vlogging cosplayers who love to pretend they're not telling other young women how they should live. I'm sorry, Mrs. Cosplay Wife, but unless your hands are sore, strong and sinewy from hours of physical labor, your pantry stuffed with boring jars of boring food you're preserving in various ways and you know how to mend clothes both by hand and on machine, you're nothing but a fraud. A real damn house wife is someone who works hard around the house to provide for her family - however it may look. It means long hours of sometimes really boring labour. It means knowing how to take GOOD care of the households clothes and linen. Not just throwing them in on a whim in the machine. NO! We're talking meticulous care here - and lots of ironing and, if possible, mangling. It means preparing and cooking meals every fucking day, doing the dishes, the basic plumbing, getting your ass out into the fucking woods during berry season when others lay on the beach! Forget about spending quality time with your kids - they're either in school, doing homework, helping with chores or out playing. Your husband is too busy trying to support a family of too fucking many on a salary that was good enough in the 50's, but not now, so how about some goddamn reality check? If you're blogging/vlogging about how much you love the 1950's estethics and how much you love cupcakes and traditional values, you're just a young, privileged snob, rich enough to not know a flying fuck about how the real housewives in the 1850 ruined their hands with laundry before turning 30 or how those who took drugs to keep the depression at bay in the 1950's felt, because without a world of strangers constantly engaging with and making you earn YOUR OWN money instead of forcing you to ask your husband for it (because, you know, traditional wives HAD NO FINANCIAL FREEDOM), all those colorful, expensive brand kitchen stuff you're prancing around, all the sponsorships and your own bank account, you'd be just as stuck as the women you're trying to cosplay as. You're not traditional, you just have a thing for a certain aestethic and that's fine. But remember: as long as you earn more on strutting around in chechered aprons that aren't made to spill on, moving through you sparkling kitchen with 50 gadgets your great grandma couldn't even imagine over her depressing zinc tub with dirty dishes, than the average worker at a laundry, a restaurant, a goddamn sweatshop couldn't even dream of buying despite working as hard as the actual homemakers did back when managing a home meant absolutely vital stuff for a family to survive, you don't get to point that well-manicured finger at those who call you out on your bullshit. You're not traditional. You're influencers with advertisers who're using your homes, looks - and sometimes your kids - to earn money by cosplaying a 1950's look that most families - especially the non-white and the disabled - weren't a part of. And on top of it, you can't even darn a fucking sock without ruining your expensive manecure. My great grandma would've eaten you for breakfast - before heading out to march for voting rights.

[elminx]

Thoughts on my practice, August 2023

Note: As you might imagine, this will not be a full accounting of my practice as there are things that I cannot share for any number of reasons including but not limited to: you wouldn't understand, it's not mine to share, and it's ongoing magic.

I have been slowly coming out of magical hibernation as I get farther away from taking the awful meds (awful FOR ME) that made me so depressed that I was struggling to live, let alone do magic. There was a reckoning that had to be done. Everything was a mess - my altars, my relationships with my spirits, and the cobwebs inside my mind and spirit.

It was about this time last August that they upped my meds and as the months wore on into winter, my practice became virtually untenable. I have to forgive myself for that: both for agreeing to take meds that I knew from experience might be Bad, for continuing to take them as long as I did, and for falling off of my practice. I'm...working on it.

June and July were about playing clean up and catching up.

I had been doing a lot of work around my mindset and changing the way that I notice and experience the world. Though this is strictly "magic" in the sense that I don't normally cast spells toward this goal, it is unquestionably a part of my practice and my current path as a witch. So this month, feeling like I have the bones of my practice righted, I returned to this work.

Our month began with a full moon in Aquarius on the 1st. My intention for the month is: No matter how my day goes, I return to my heart. I tried to solidify this intention by focusing on my gratitude practice for the first eight days of the month - each day I came up with eight unique things that I was grateful for which I recorded in my witch journal. This is a reminder for me to look for the good things in life rather than focusing on the bad.

This is important for me because I have an anxiety disorder and tend to catastrophize - returning to my heart and being present with my body is my best method of alleviation. I was especially worried about this Venus retrograde which squared off with my Sun, Ascendant,y Mercury, and Chiron. Leo season is often a bit of a struggle for me since it activates so much of my chart (and I'm not fond of the summer heat either).

It happened that coincidentally on the 9th day of the month, my partner and I got into the car for the long trek north to visit his Grandmother. This was very path-affirming for me as, on our way, we got to stop and walk on the beach we used to stay at for all of my childhood. I'm deeply in love with the Atlantic Ocean (she is my deepest and truest love) and it was wonderful to return to the place where this affair began so many years ago. We spent the week wandering back and forth from Nana's house in the mountain to varying parts of the coast and it was wonderful and unquestionably heart healing.

Now, back home, I have had a week to return to my craft in earnest. I did some cat magic under the energy of the Leo new moon and then set to work on the harvest. It is August after all!

As a kitchen witch who likes to can and preserve food for the winter months ahead, August is go time. So far I've made and frozen tomato soup and tomato confit, and we've dried a bunch of onion, herbs, and hot peppers. Next on the docket is some salsa verde and then hopefully another batch of tomato soup and some red salsa as well. If I'm extra lucky with tomatoes from the farm, I'll end up with some marinara sauce as well because we really enjoyed ours last year.

This week begins my regularly scheduled work with Mercury Chthonia during their retrograde cycle and I'm actually pretty excited about this. The deeper that I get into self-exploration and shadow work, the more that I have learned to enjoy the deep slowdown of retrograde season. I have a bunch of half-written blog posts to edit, so this seems very Right On Time to me.

My other plan for this week is to clean off and rearrange my Earth Altar (see also: plant stand). The seasons are starting to change rapidly here and I am so ready for many Autumnal harvests. I might do a bit of work with my bestie goldenrod but otherwise, I intend to take it easy and, as I said, return to my heart with every opportunity.

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss

There's obviously no place like Casino Point

CASINO POINT UNDERWATER DIVE PARK, AVALON, CATALINA ISLAND, CA: If there's one place that the Catalina Diving Clowder can't resist for acclimating divers with, it's Casino Point, only the second underwater preserve in the world (with only Florida's John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park being older) and practically close to the, as it were, urbanity of Avalon, Catalina's main community, even allowing for having but 1,600 population.

And such is easily the case with as much the Clowder as yours truly, Huckleberry Hound, the Hair Bear Bunch and Emmy Lou and Jenny Lee, on this somewhat bright and yet simultaneously languid Sunday afterlunch. At any rate, just imagine the Clowder's diver gal felines making the walk between their hillside quarters (and guests, if any) and Casino Point along Crescent Avenue, Avalon's main street, trying not to attract sneering or otherwise half-baked looks from tourists, locals of more conservative taste even, heading to some diving exercises, diving gear in their forepaws (even if it's just mask/snorkel combis and dive fins) ...

When it came to the ursine contingent, Jayne and Lola were assigned to help with fitting their dive gear, especially considering their size vis-a-vis the hindpaws (requiring larger sized fins), not to mention the ursine adroitness of breath hold diving requiring just your basic mask.

Just a wade into the shallows, a final gear check with "spit-and-rinse" mask cleansing ... and away our party, ursine and feline (as well as a canine), sensed ourselves as being in what the Diving Clowder sees as their second home--underwater. As its leader, Bubbles, explained it, "we like seeing the waters off Catalina as a second home of sorts; breathes there anything more uniquely natural, perhaps on the same par as a hot-wave rider out of Malibu or Huntington Beach just feeling the sensation of riding into a curling wave--only for us, we find the sensation in rock reefs, kelp groves, underwater caverns, or even in the company of dolphins and sea lions who can't help but see us as friends of a kind?"

Yet how else could words describe such underwater delight and fascination rivalled, in our pantheon, but by Peter Potamus in the company of native Polynesians from its regions yet unmapped, who can't resist wearing but themselves among coral reefs and in the company of especially friendly dolphins? And speaking of Peter Potamus, after the Casino Point session, he had us meeting him at a favourite Avalon seafood grotto of his, sharing as much seafood as the news that his own company of divers is planning to be over again for the Avalon Harbour Underwater Cleanup ("And to make things even more fascinating, Squiddly Diddly 'himself' plans to be doing some underwater filming of our contingent!" added Peter, prompting the Diving Clowder's leader "Bubbles" to add that they might also like to do some filming themselves thereof).

"So what could be more fascinating," the Diving Clowder's Samantha remarked over the after-dinner coffee, "than when we're out diving ... and just feeling the exuberance of wearing ourselves?"

"That likely depends on water temperature," Huck was quick to note, seconded by Peter, who noted that a wetsuit would be more than likely at this time of year ... leading Samantha to add that "even then, cats in wetsuits look rather dashing, wouldn't they?"

[bllsbailey]

Scott Jennings Drives the Final Spike Into the 'Never Trump' Campaign As Only He Can

There's been a lot of talk since Election Day about the winners and losers in the various races, but one group on the losing side that hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the aftermath of what's gone down so far has been the infamous Never Trump grifters.

We've written about them often here, and how for eight years they've betrayed their supposed "principles" every time they've opened their mouths, have cashed another check from their fat cat Democrat donors and/or media overlords, or in one group's instance allegedly looked the other way during a sexual predator scandal.

Among the worst of the lot, of course, are the co-founders of the Lincoln Project, for whom no low is too low to stoop.

SEE ALSO:Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson Can't Escape His Own Stench After Moving on to Latest Grift

With all of that in mind, we turn to more Election Day post-mortem commentary from Republican strategist/CNN political analyst Scott Jennings, who - as we previously - reported - delivered some harsh reality checks to his colleagues and Democrats in the early morning hours about the "we're fed up" message sent by voters during Tuesday's elections. 

A few hours later, Jennings proved that he was not done after a statement issued from anti-Trumper Liz Cheney regarding the president-elect's resounding victory prompted him to drive the final spike into the whole Never/Anti-Trump campaign. 

Here's how the segment started:

KASIE HUNT: Liz Cheney tweeting her reaction to Donald Trump's win just moments ago. Here's what she says, quote, "Our nation's democratic system functioned last night, and we have a new president-elect. All Americans are bound, whether we like the outcome or not, to accept the results of our elections. We now have a special responsibility as citizens of the greatest nation on earth to do everything we can to support and defend our Constitution, preserve the rule of law, and ensure that our institutions hold over these coming four years. Citizens across this country, our courts, members of the press, and those serving in our federal, state, and local governments must now be the guardrails of democracy." So, of course, Liz Cheney had devoted herself to preventing Donald Trump from ever entering the White House again, but the never- Trump movement inside the Republican Party, honestly, not borne out here today.

This was Jennings' response:

SCOTT JENNINGS: A bang-up job. I mean, I -- this never-Trump whole complex that grew over the last several years, nothing has ever failed as hard in politics as this. The Lincoln Project, all these people that built millions upon millions upon millions of dollars from Democratic donors, and all the eggs that was put in this basket. The split was amazing. Trump got like 94 percent of Republicans. I don't think they accomplished anything, except probably build a bunch of beach houses. That's about what they did. Republicans being lectured to, condescended to, browbeaten by all these folks over the last -- look, at some juncture, it's OK if we have different opinions about the election. You don't have to beat people to death over it. And the more you do that, the more it drives people away. Total failure

I don't think there's any room for argument there. 

And while Trump's "NeverTrump" detractors like Rick Wilson and the like would say "Well, we helped kick him out of office in 2020," the net effect of that effort was a) to make Trump get even louder and b) to drive even more people in Trump's direction (including bigtime movers and shakers like Elon Musk and Joe Rogan), which culminated in one of the most (if not the most) spectacular comebacks in American political history.

Something equally delicious about the voter repudiation of these types of tactics on Tuesday will be that five or 10 years down the road and beyond, very few people will remember much about the NeverTrump movement. But they will for sure remember how Trump seemingly rose from the political ashes to get his revenge in the best way possible: by way of the ballot box.

RELATED:House Democrat Drops Truth Bomb on Woke Elites in Aftermath of Party's Election Day Drubbing