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chophouse22 · 2 years ago

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Japanese Wagyu Beef Frozen Meat

The best sources of K2 are organ meats like liver, especially from poultry . Weston A. Price praised it to the skies, despite the actual fact that he didn’t know its name. He found it in probably the most treasured, sacred foods of those conventional cultures – meals like liver and roe, which people would go out of their way to get.

Tell us what you want to grill and we'll provide the perfect inner temperature, key cooking ideas and myth-busting smarts to take your grilling from good to nice. From fish to crabs to shrimp, we now have your ocean wants. We take delight in our number of seafood to make sure it is of the highest high quality and sustainable for the future.

For cheeseburgers, add cheese slices a few minute earlier than the patties end broiling. Centre-cut beef tenderloin layered with mushrooms and prosciutto, wrapped in flaky pastry - as beautiful as it's delicious. Three simple elements let this sumptuous prime rib roast shine. Try our Salt-Crusted Sterling Silver® Prime Rib Roast recipe whenever you need near-effortless magnificence and a wow-factor main that is certain to please. We're your destination for a various choice of high quality meats and plant-based options that’ll be the star of your plate.

Thaw raw frozen beef within the refrigerator or in chilly water. Thawing by refrigeration requires planning forward and most probably permitting a 24-hour thawing period. After defrosting uncooked beef by this technique, it is going to be safe in the refrigerator for as a lot as 5 days before cooking. Ground beef that's 15% fats by weight is actually wagyu ground beef 55% fats when it comes to energy, and ground beef that's 10% fat by weight gets 44% of its calories from fats. Both types of ground beef exceed the fat content material that we recommend. Please notice that 5% ground beef brings the percent fat from energy all the way down to roughly 25%, and that’s a stage is smart to us.

Grass-fed beef may contain more than twice the amount of beta-carotene and lutein that is current in conventionally fed beef. This relationship seems to carry true even when the cows have been fed silage during the winter months and pasture-feed solely through the summer season. In addition, some researchers have advised that the yellowish shade of fats in grass-fed beef is a good way to determine the extent to which the animals have been pasture-fed. • Recent studies have underscored the big difference in carotenoid content material between grass-fed and conventionally fed beef.

Ages it from days, producing an enhanced flavour, richer odor, and extra tender steak. It’s certainly one of our workers favourites in the store, perfect for a considered one of a form BBQ. Conventionally raised and out there in an enormous number of totally different cuts with a aggressive worth. One of the world’s best red meats, Kobe Classic beef uses Japanese Wagyu sires raised in Alberta. This boneless minimize is most appreciated for its flavour. In Wagyu, the skirt can turn out to be quite marbled, imparting a delicate texture that bursts with flavour.

Higher high quality feeds, top notch rising circumstances and a one hundred pc air-chilling process that produces the most effective tasting and best quality chicken. The Miyazaki Wagyu brand wagyu ground beef name can only be utilized to black-haired Wagyu born and raised in Miyazaki Prefecture. Miyazaki Prefecture is located in southern-eastern Kyushu Island, and area blessed with a temperate local weather all 12 months long.

Livestock Science, Volume a hundred and ten, Issues 1-2, June 2007, Pages 25-32. Over the past 15 years, over 250 million pounds of beef have been recalled for contamination causes by food companies and meat packers across the United States. The largest single recall affected greater than 10,000 supermarkets, eating places, retailers, school districts, and other institutions. Well-known firms like ConAgra have been concerned in a few of the largest recollects. Several hundred cases of sickness and 7 deaths had been documented over this time period in affiliation with contaminated beef.

You mentioned the fact that it's just for a limited time. But it really-- they type of set the bar I assume amongst some of these quick food giants so as to get new people by way of their doors and really expand their business. Making your individual variations of well-liked avenue wagyu ground beef meals like these Lebanese Meat Pies is fun and straightforward. Watching others take pleasure in this piquant and portable BBQ meals is even higher. While the short pickled veggies are resting, swap out one set of cooking grids for a forged iron griddle, or place the griddle instantly onto the cooking grids, and lightweight the grill, setting it to medium.

It has a lower fat content and an earthy wealthy flavour. Despite being leaner its nonetheless a surprisingly tender beef when ready correctly. The Jubenville farm is licensed natural and licensed humane. All the burger awesomeness with none of the burger effort. We’ve shaped our 100% Canadian Wagyu ground beef into good patties, so all you must do is drop them on the grill.

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thenativetank · 2 years ago

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Native Fish Hunting - Interlude!

I’ve been to Sanibel a few times before and one of my favorite parts is the local aquarium they have with fish collected locally. I kind of expected all the fish species to be the same as the last time I went - but nope! New species, new things to report on. Let’s take a look!

Compared to my last trip (back in the 2015-ish timeframe), they added these neat little infographics depicting the species in the tank. What I think is doubly interesting is just how many of this species are found up in Virginia where I live. The Sheepshead Minnow and Grass Shrimp can be found a few miles from the house - and Rainwater Killifish can be found in surrounding states (though oddly enough not here).

In my mind, the Sailfin Molly is the quintessential fish in Florida. When I think of finding fish in this area, I think of them - and there are very few fish as beautiful as an adult male Sailfin Molly in the right conditions. Those teals and oranges... they don’t really translate well to captive specimens a lot of times, but hey, I still like them!

Also in this tank is the.... wait. Ms. Eastern Mosquitofish, you weren’t listed on the billboard for this tank! But they are everywhere along the eastern seaboard, so why not this tank too? I do greatly enjoy this species of livebearer but was hoping to see some of the marbled ones. Still - you do you, ma’am!

THIS one was a nice revelation though! I had a Peppermint Shrimp in my saltwater tank for a while but didn’t even know it was a North American Native species. Really - that was a super cool piece of information I geeked out about for a few minutes. One of my favorite shrimp species for sure.

Not a super great picture of it, but Rainwater Killifish is a first for me. Why is a saltwater species named after a type of water that has zero hardness or salinity? Why do they appear along the southeast coast of the US and then appear up around Massachusetts? Who knows! Okay, you keep your secrets, mister killifish.

(Also - neat urchin and glass anemone!)

Sheepshead Minnows - in a different coloration than last time! Those were orange and a shiny blue, which hard to say why these were a different color. They were more crowded last time, which maybe caused more competition and thus displaying? I dunno, but interesting to consider.

#fishblr #fishcommunity #nanf #native fish #fish hunts

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ultravioletproxy · 2 years ago

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[OC REF] Jack

I've had this character for ages that was originally just a mascot, however he grew to be much more special than that and pretty developed into a partial sona of sorts and is now just a nicely developed character. Always such a comfort OC to draw <3 <3 Name: Jack Gender: Transgender Man (He/Him) Age: 223 Birthdate: April 14th Species: Chimera-Shapeshifter Race/Ethnicity: None Specifically due to his Shapeshifting attributes, but most frequently resembles a mix of a Raven/Owl, Raccoon, Brown Bear, Caribou, Goat, Jack-Rabbit, Eastern Dragon, and Fish. Height: 6'7" at his Forehead (200cm / 2m) is his default, but y'know...shapeshifter...soooo Voice Type: Masculine, but Light Sexuality: Gay Demisexual Relationship Status: Taken by Chester! flannelRaptors's character! Likes: The Woods | Birch Trees | Dandelions, Daffodils and Black Berries, Flowers in General | Mushrooms | Dog and Cat Treats | Honey | Tea in general, but Earl Grey is his favorite | Macaroons | Exploring, Traveling | Fishing | Collecting and Scavenging | Braiding random stuff like...grass, leaves, his hair, etc | Dislikes: SHRIMP | Squished Bread | Loud Noises, Bright Lights | Spoons | Crowds | Really Really Rich Sweet Foods | Hooks | Lukewarm Milk | Ants | Swimming in really cold water | Place of Residence: Travels to new places frequently, but goes back and forth between Oregon and Maine the most ───⋘✦═♜═✦⋙─── ✎-Bio was typed up by my partner flannelRaptors ✎-Character & Concepts© to ConsciousColony

───⋘✦═♜═✦⋙─── ╔══════════════════════════════════════╗

Art & Characters are © to ConsciousColony

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#fluffy #chimera #secondary sona #original character #drawing #oc #original character art #originalcharacter #orignal character #original art #furrydrawing #furryart #furry #feral character #feral #chimera oc

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novel-ecologist · 3 years ago

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To the untrained eye, salt marshes don't seem like the coolest ecosystem. They smell like a hard-boiled egg that’s been in the fridge for three months, they're flat, and if you don't watch where you're walking, you could end up knee-deep in a muddy hole. Despite being somewhat unappealing to the senses, salt marshes have some incredible qualities that make them important to the climate, animals, and local communities. Since they are often unrecognized for their better qualities, between 25% and 67% of salt marshes have been altered globally. With the impending doom of sea-level rise and climate change, people are starting to realize the importance of salt marshes in fighting these risks. Fortunately, many researchers have begun to reclaim salt marshes. Aulac may be a small community in New Brunswick, but it’s making big waves in salt marsh restoration. Spencer Virgin, his research team, and other partners conducted the first managed realignments in Maritime Canada, which is reversing historical ecosystem alterations.

The origin story of salt marshes is an amazing one. Salt marshes are an ecosystem that are on the border between marine and terrestrial ecosystems and are heavily influenced by tides. A few thousand years ago, when sea levels began to rise, much of the terrestrial ecosystems on the coast were flooded with seawater, destroying all the plants that lived there. When tides flooded these coastal areas, they deposited large amounts of sediment, which created a blank slate for new species to colonize. However, the salty and waterlogged soil isn't an ideal habitat for most plants. Fortunately, Spartina alterniflora, a salt marsh grass, finds these conditions perfect for survival and stays in the marsh zone that’s flooded daily (Fig. 1). S. alterniflora is known as an ecosystem engineer because it can slow the flow of water and increase sediment deposition, which is critical for other species to establish. Think of S. alterniflora like people in a pool and the tides like a whirlpool. When the people in the pool stop moving, the water circulating in the whirlpool slows. Slow-moving water doesn't have enough strength to carry sediment, so it drops it onto the marsh. Accumulation of soil causes the salt marsh to elevate until it escapes the daily flooding in the high marsh zones (Fig.1). Other grasses, such as Spartina patens, who are less tolerant to flooding and salt, can live in the less frequently floored area that S. alterniflora creates (Fig. 1). As the sediments accumulate and increase the elevation of the marsh, it creates areas even less exposed to tides so salt and flood intolerant species can colonize (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Salt marsh structure and tidal influence.

Hypothetically, this process of sediment deposition can go on forever. That is part of the reason why salt marshes are so important in the fight against sea-level rise. If salt marshes have space to move horizontally along the landscape, they can continue to elevate and prevent the ocean from flooding neighboring communities. Salt marshes are also one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. They produce new grass annually that can extract CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their leaves. Finally, salt marshes host many ecologically and economically important marine species, such as striped bass, shrimp, eels, and mussels.

Unfortunately, a huge proportion of salt marshes in eastern North America have been dramatically altered to suit the needs of settlers. How do you alter a salt marsh, and what do you change it to? The sediment the tides bring in from the ocean is chalked full of nutrients and makes a perfect fertilizer. Flat ground and abundant fertilizer create the perfect conditions for growing crops. The only problem is that most agricultural species can’t tolerate salt and flooding. However, farmers found a way around this: in a Trump mentality, they built a wall to keep the ocean out and the nutrients in. These walls are called dikes. But diking causes a problem for salt marshes since tides are one of the driving forces that shape salt marshes. Eventually, salt marshes lose all their carbon sequestration and flood reduction properties.

In New Brunswick (NB), Canada, 30500 hectares (approximately the size of 57000 football fields) of salt marshes have been diked to create farmlands. The Bay of Fundy in NB is known for its nutrient-rich waters, which makes it ideal for salt marsh conversion. The Aulac salt marsh is one of many salt marshes in NB that has been diked. In 2010, sea-level rise and coastal erosion began to wear so heavily at the dike that it broke open. Researchers, local organizations, and the community saw this as an opportunity for restoration. First, they built another dike behind the old one to keep the tides away from the neighboring farms, then removed the old dikes. This process is called a managed realignment and was the first in Maritime Canada. Since the dike was removed, the tides of the Bay of Fundy could reclaim the agricultural fields and turn them back into salt marshes. Virgin et al. saw this as an opportunity to learn about the stages of salt marsh restoration.

After the dike was breached, they did not intervene with any other aspects of the marsh and let the restoration process occur naturally. However, Virgin et al. did conduct an extensive monitoring program to see what steps occurred as the marsh restored itself. Aulac has four salt marshes that are divided from one another, but only two were diked. The remaining two healthy salt marshes are adjacent to the restored ones and were used as a reference for what the final product of the salt marsh restoration should be. Over eight consecutive years, the team monitored changes in plant species, fish and invertebrate communities, and sediment deposition in all four salt marshes. From 2010 to 2018, they noticed a change in the restoration sites from the freshwater grass Spartina pectinata to the salt marsh engineer Spartina alterniflora as sediment increased on the marsh platform. In general, the plant and animal communities became more and more analogous to the reference marshes over time. Although the salt marsh has not yet seen the establishment of Spartina patens and other salt/flood intolerant species, it is firmly in the third stage of salt marsh restoration, where S. alterniflora is abundant and can create the conditions for those species to establish and thrive.

Managed realignment is the perfect compromise to maintain active farmlands while restoring salt marshes that will help combat climate change. For communities like NB, which are at risk for sea-level rise and have lost salt marshes, this research will be an important guideline for future restoration projects.

Cheers,

The Novel Ecologist

Click this link to read the paper

#biol4272 #restoration ecology #ecology #salt marsh #marsh

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agentrouka-blog · 4 years ago

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ASOIAF - Dany and the persimmons of doom

The persimmon is mentioned 13 times, 12 times in Dany chapters.

What’s a Persimmon?

The word Diospyros comes from the ancient Greek words "dios" (δῐος) and "pyron" (πῡρον). A popular etymology construed this as "divine fruit", or as meaning "wheat of Zeus" or "God's pear" and "Jove's fire". The dio-, as shown by the short vowel 'i', has nothing to do with 'divine' (δῑoς ), dio- being an affix attached to plant names, and in classical Greek the compound referred to "the fruit of the nettle tree".

The word persimmon itself is derived from putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, from Powhatan, an Algonquian language of the eastern United States, meaning "a dry fruit".

The name was misconstrued to mean something a lot more elevated, something divine, olympian, fiery and impressive, when it really is a lot more basic than that.

Kind of loving where this is headed already.

(Long, because many quotes.)

The first and only persimmon mention outside of a Dany chapter is in AGOT, Eddard V. It’s contained in a list of offered refreshments by Pycelle, while Ned has gone to him to inquire about Jon Arryn’s death.

"Lord Arryn's death was a great sadness for all of us, my lord," Grand Maester Pycelle said. "I would be more than happy to tell you what I can of the manner of his passing. Do be seated. Would you care for refreshments? Some dates, perhaps? I have some very fine persimmons as well. Wine no longer agrees with my digestion, I fear, but I can offer you a cup of iced milk, sweetened with honey. I find it most refreshing in this heat."

(AGOT, Eddard V)

Things in a list are, in my opinion, very often symbolically loaded.

Dates. Persimmons. Milk sweetened with honey.

Dates, counting just the actual fruit, are also most heavily associated with Dany (7 mentions) and to a lesser degree Tyrion (3 mentions) and Arys Oakheart and Arianne (1 each). Also, Dorne in general.

Milk with honey, which is what Ned ends up choosing, as a combination is associated with Brienne, Jaime and the Riverland mess, oddly enough, and, sweetened milk in general also with the suppression of Sweetrobin (sweetsleep). I’m sticking to the persimmon for now.

So, what are persimmons about for Dany?

The first mention occurs in Qarth, close to the beginning of Daenerys III.

Descendants of the ancient kings and queens of Qarth, the Pureborn commanded the Civic Guard and the fleet of ornate galleys that ruled the straits between the seas. Daenerys Targaryen had wanted that fleet, or part of it, and some of their soldiers as well. She made the traditional sacrifice in the Temple of Memory, offered the traditional bribe to the Keeper of the Long List, sent the traditional persimmon to the Opener of the Door, and finally received the traditional blue silk slippers summoning her to the Hall of a Thousand Thrones.

(ACOK, Daenerys III)

Another list. Hmm...

A sacrifice in the Temple of Memory... (If I look back, I am lost. What was Hazzea’s name again?)

A bribe to the Keeper of the Long List. (Keeper of lists... Arya keeps a kill list. Other list keepers might be the maesters at the Citadel for marriages births and deaths. There are two specifically mentioned “long lists”, Pycelle’s list of people who should swear fealty to Joffrey, and Hizdahr’s list of Dany’s enemies after smashing the slave trade.)

A persimmon to the Opener of Doors. (The red door likely foreshadows her Burning of King’s Landing, which is what I think this refers to. Elsewise, Jon significantly opened the gates of the Wall for the wildlings to march through. Jon, and Dany both open doors in significant dreams or visions.)

Then she receives the blue silk slippers and is summoned to the Hall of a Thousand Thrones. (Blue silk is heavily associated with Sansa, where it’s associated with catastrophe, violence, betrayal and defeat. To a lesser degree same for Brienne and Cersei. And the blue bard. This is not a happy fabric.)

But anyway, so the persimmon is associated with the Opening Of The Door. And what else?

The Pureborn reject Dany’s offerings and do not give her a fleet. She grumbles. She contemplates returning to Vaes Tolorro and making a home there but rejects the idea. Xaro asks her to marry him. A lot. Quaithe says reaches out to her again and gives her the “To go North you must go south etc” prophecy. She decides to go see the HOTU. (Destruction will follow.)

So, persimmon -> rejecting non-conquering path. And Quaithe egging her on.

Next Mention, still in Qarth. The persimmon opens the chapter.

She was breaking her fast on a bowl of cold shrimp-and-persimmon soup when Irri brought her a Qartheen gown, an airy confection of ivory samite patterned with seed pearls. "Take it away," Dany said. "The docks are no place for lady's finery."

If the Milk Men thought her such a savage, she would dress the part for them. When she went to the stables, she wore faded sandsilk pants and woven grass sandals.

(ACOK, Daenerys V)

She consumes persimmon, and returns to her Dothraki garb, rejects Xaro’s proposal of marriage, finds herself unloved by the smallfolk of Qarth and pressured to leave.

They know who I am, and they do not love me. Dany could tell from the way they looked at her.

Xaro refuses to help her get a fleet. She contemplates the visons in the HOTU. We get a book series title drop.

“I remember,” Dany said sadly. “They murdered Rhaegar’s daughter as well, the Little princess. Rhaenys, she was named, like Aegon’s sister. There was no Visenya, but he said the dragon has three heads. What is the song of ice and fire?”

“It’s no song I’ve ever heard.”

Dany wanders the docks and meets Barristan Selmy and Strong Belwas, who save her from a poison assassination attempt by the Sorrowful Men. Selmy and Belwas were sent by Magister Illyrio along with three ships. She accepts them, and renames them for the three conquering dragons Vhagar, Meraxes, Balerion.

So, all in all we are on theme here with Dany embracing her inner dragon and rejecting alternative options of making a home. Aegon the Conquerer with Teats it is. Thank you, persimmon.

Next up, A Storm of Swords. Dany goes Unsullied-shopping in Astapor. The persimmon is at the beginning of the chapter.

“Your ears heard true,” said Dany. “I want to buy them all. Tell the Good Masters, if you will.”

She had chosen a Qartheen gown today. The deep violet silk brought out the purple of her eyes. The cut of it bared her left breast. While the Good Masters of Astapor conferred among themselves in low voices, Dany sipped tart persimmon wine from a tall silver flute. She could not quite make out all that they were saying, but she could hear the greed.

(...)

Dany let them argue, sipping the tart persimmon wine and trying to keep her face blank and ignorant. I will have them all, no matter the price, she told herself. The city had a hundred slave traders, but the eight before her were the greatest. When selling bed slaves, fieldhands, scribes, craftsmen, and tutors, these men were rivals, but their ancestors had allied one with the other for the purpose of making and selling the Unsullied. Brick and blood built Astapor, and brick and blood her people.

(…)

Two thousand would never serve for what she meant to do. I must have them all. Dany knew what she must do now, though the taste of it was so bitter that even the persimmon wine could not cleanse it from her mouth. She had considered long and hard and found no other way. It is my only choice. "Give me all," she said, "and you may have a dragon."

(…)

“Missandei is no longer a slave. I free you, from this instant. Come ride with me in the litter, I wish to talk.” Rakharo helped them in, and Dany drew the curtains shut against the dust and heat. “If you stay with me you will serve as one of my handmaids,” she said as they set off. “I shall keep you by my side to speak for me as you spoke for Kraznys. But you may leave my service whenever you choose, if you have father or mother you would sooner return to.” “This one will stay,” the girl said. “This one … I … there is no place for me to go. This … I will serve you, gladly.”

(ASOS, Daenerys III)

Persimmon & “buy them all, have them all, give me all” on triple display. Gee, I wonder if we will have another dragon escalation coming up?

Also, Dany’s special brand of slave liberation is in full swing. You are free to leave - with no alternatives provided for you. Or stay and serve as my “handmaid”. Ask Irri what that means.

The night before the transaction, she dreams she is Rhaegar on dragonback, bathing her enemies in dragonfire. A good dream, for Dany. She gets a visit from Quaithe. The next day, she dresses in Dothraki garb again. Fire and Blood.

“Unsullied!” Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. “Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see.” She raised the harpy’s fingers in the air … and then she flung the scourge aside. “Freedom!” she sang out. “Dracarys! Dracarys!” “Dracarys!” they shouted back, the sweetest word she’d ever heard. “Dracarys! Dracarys!” And all around them slavers ran and sobbed and begged and died, and the dusty air was filled with spears and fire.

It would appear that the persimmons signal the proximity of a dragon escalation. Persimmons always appear at the beginning of a chapter where Dany chooses Dothraki garb and dragonfire.

Does it hold up?

A newly conquered Meereen has the next persimmon mention right at the top of the chapter:

Dany broke her fast under the persimmon tree that grew in the terrace garden, watching her dragons chase each other about the apex of the Great Pyramid where the huge bronze harpy once stood. Meereen had a score of lesser pyramids, but none stood even half as tall. From here she could see the whole city:

(…)

And beyond the walls was the pewter sea, the winding Skahazadhan, the dry brown hills, burnt orchards, and blackened fields. Up here in her garden Dany sometimes felt like a god, living atop the highest mountain in the world.

(…)

All my victories turn to dross in my hands, she thought. Whatever I do, all I make is death and horror.

(…)

“My city,” said Dany. “I was looking for a house with a red door, but by night all the doors are black.”

“A red door?” Missandei was puzzled. “What house is this?” “No house. It does not matter.” Dany took the younger girl by the hand. “Never lie to me, Missandei. Never betray me.”

"I never would," Missandei promised. "Look, dawn comes."

(…)

On the terrace, a few flies stirred sluggishly. A bird began to chirp in the persimmon tree, and then two more. Dany cocked her head to hear their song, but it was not long before the sounds of the waking city drowned them out.

The sounds of my city.

(…)

“What will you do then, Khaleesi?” asked Rakharo. “Stay,” she said. “Rule. And be a queen.”

(ASOS, Daenerys VI)

After the first persimmon mention, she reflects on the conquest of Meereen in a terrible, savage sack. (Incidentally, using the same kinds of weapons to attack their gate as Jon defends against the Wildling attack on the Wall, specifically the “turtle” and ram. Jon/Dany romantic foreshadowing, surely.)

Persimmon -> Dragon and dothraki. Yes, it holds up.

But there is a second persimmon mention. Persimmons in the middle of a chapter tend to signal a rejection of the dragon path.

After a series of bad news from Astapor and beyond, making her question the success of her actions, she decides to change her plans. The birds draw her attention to the persimmon tree of dragon escalation BUT the sounds of her city drown them out. She turns away from the siren call. She decides to try and responsibly deal with actual ruling.

So far, so on theme. Will the persimmons make a comeback when Dany re-dragons? Yes. Yes, they will.

ADWD gives us more persimmons. Many more.

Daenerys II. Middle-chapter persimmon -> Dragon rejection.

She is unrestful. The Sons of the Harpy killed Missandei’s brother, and many more. She agrees to have a suspect’s young daughter tortured to get answers. She grows very tired of ruling. She struggles to comfort Missandei who asserts Dany’s Mhysa identity. But Dany is lonely and longs to be loved, longs for Daario. She takes a bath and, hello, Quaithe!

A woman stood under the persimmon tree, clad in a hooded robe that brushed the grass. Beneath the hood, her face seemed hard and shiny. She is wearing a mask, Dany knew, a wooden mask finished in dark red lacquer. "Quaithe? Am I dreaming?" She pinched her ear and winced at the pain. "I dreamt of you on Balerion, when first we came to Astapor."

(…)

“Daenerys. Remember the Undying. Remember who you are.” “The blood of the dragon.” But my dragons are roaring in the darkness. “I remember the Undying. Child of three, they called me. Three mounts they promised me, three fires, and three treasons. One for blood and one for gold and one for …”

"Your Grace?" Missandei stood in the door of the queen's bedchamber, a lantern in her hand. "Who are you talking to?"

Dany glanced back toward the persimmon tree. There was no woman there. No hooded robe, no lacquer mask, no Quaithe.

A shadow. A memory. No one. She was the blood of the dragon, but Ser Barristan had warned her that in that blood there was a taint. Could I be going mad? They had called her father mad, once. "I was praying," she told the Naathi girl. "It will be light soon. I had best eat something, before court."

(…)

If I look back, I am doomed, Dany told herself … but how could she not look back? I should have seen it coming. Was I so blind, or did I close my eyes willfully, so I would not have to see the price of power?

(…)

I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I.

(ADWD, Daenerys II)

Dany is chaving under the pressures of ruling, already resorting back to cruelty, and under the persimmon tree, Quaithe beckons and tries to lure her back down the dragon path. Dany hesitates. She considers Hizdahr’s 7th proposal to open the fighting pits and questions Ser Barristan on his escape from Joffrey. She visits her dragons and questions herself, harshly.

This chapter is one big hope spot before it all goes to ashes.

Daenerys III. Closer to the beginning of the chapter, but not quite up there. -> less enthusiastic dragon rejection.

A banquet to honor the visit of Xaro from Qarth. Sensual dancing. Food and trade on the forefront of Dany’s mind, longing for Daaaaario in the background.

Daenerys held out her cup for Irri to refill. The wine was sweet and strong, redolent with the smell of eastern spices, much superior to the thin Ghiscari wines that had filled her cup of late. Xaro perused the fruits on the platter Jhiqui offered him and chose a persimmon. Its orange skin matched the color of the coral in his nose. He took a bite and pursed his lips. "Tart."

"Would my lord prefer something sweeter?"

“Sweetness cloys. Tart fruit and tart women give life its savor.” Xaro took another bite, chewed, swallowed. “Daenerys, sweet queen, I cannot tell you what pleasure it gives me to bask once more in your presence. A child departed Qarth, as lost as she was lovely. I feared she was sailing to her doom, yet now I find her here enthroned, mistress of an ancient city, surrounded by a mighty host that she raised up out of dreams.” No, she thought, out of blood and fire.

(ADWD, Daenerys III)

Tart v. sweet. Right now, a sweet queen? The persimmons beckon. She and Xaro philosophize on the relative merits of slavery. He would buy olives, she has to wait seven years for the newly planted trees to bear fruit. She hears of all the alliances made against her. Then he offers her a fleet to leave Slaver’s Bay and go home. Selmy likes the idea. Dany is sorely tempted, but the swirling rumors cause her court to question her and she lets go of the plans. She rejects Xaro’s tart persimmon-flavored offer of sailing off to conquer elsewhere. Xaro regrets not having killed her in Qarth. They part on bad Terms, she receives declaration of war the next morning.

Daenerys IX. The persimmon’s open the chapter. Uh oh.

The sky was a merciless blue, without a wisp of cloud in sight. The bricks will soon be baking in the sun, thought Dany. Down on the sands, the fighters will feel the heat through the soles of their sandals.

Jhiqui slipped Dany's silk robe from her shoulders and Irri helped her into her bathing pool. The light of the rising sun shimmered on the water, broken by the shadow of the persimmon tree. "Even if the pits must open, must Your Grace go yourself?" asked Missandei as she was washing the queen's hair.

(...)

My handmaids are Dothraki, she told herself. Death rides with every khalasar. The day she wed Khal Drogo, the arakhs had flashed at her wedding feast, and men had died whilst others drank and mated. Life and death went hand in hand amongst the horselords, and a sprinkling of blood was thought to bless a marriage. Her new marriage would soon be drenched in blood. How blessed it would be.

(…)

He is fire made flesh, she thought, and so am I. Daenerys Targaryen vaulted onto the dragon’s back, seized the spear, and ripped it out. The point was half-melted, the iron red-hot, glowing. She flung it aside. Drogon twisted under her, his muscles rippling as he gathered his strength. The air was thick with sand. Dany could not see, she could not breathe, she could not think. The black wings cracked like thunder, and suddenly the scarlet sands were falling away beneath her. Dizzy, Dany closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she glimpsed the Meereenese beneath her through a haze of tears and dust, pouring up the steps and out into the streets. The lash was still in her hand. She flicked it against Drogon’s neck and cried, “Higher!” Her other hand clutched at his scales, her fingers scrabbling for purchase. Drogon’s wide black wings beat the air. Dany could feel the heat of him between her thighs. Her heart felt as if it were about to burst. Yes, she thought, yes, now, now, do it, do it, take me, take me, FLY!

(ADWD, Daenerys IX)

Well. I’d say the pattern fits. Persimmon tree shadow breaks the image of a new dawn on the water, dothraki references, FIRE AND BLOOD.

And her final ADWD chapter?

Daenerys X. Persimmon joins us close to the beginning of the chapter, but not quite at the top. But Dany makes up for that with enthusiasm.

Hers had been a lonely sojourn, and for most of it she had been hurt and hungry … yet despite it all she had been strangely happy here. A few aches, an empty belly, chills by night … what does it matter when you can fly? I would do it all again.

Jhiqui and Irri would be waiting atop her pyramid back in Meereen, she told herself. Her sweet scribe Missandei as well, and all her little pages. They would bring her food, and she could bathe in the pool beneath the persimmon tree. It would be good to feel clean again. Dany did not need a glass to know that she was filthy.

She was hungry too. One morning she had found some wild onions growing halfway down the south slope, and later that same day a leafy reddish vegetable that might have been some queer sort of cabbage. Whatever it was, it had not made her sick. Aside from that, and one fish that she had caught in the spring-fed pool outside of Drogon's cave, she had survived as best she could on the dragon's leavings, on burned bones and chunks of smoking meat, half-charred and half-raw. She needed more, she knew. One day she kicked at a cracked sheep's skull with the side of a bare foot and sent it bouncing over the edge of the hill. And as she watched it tumble down the steep slope toward the sea of grass, she realized she must follow.

Dany set off through the tall grass at a brisk pace. The earth felt warm between her toes. The grass was as tall as she was. It never seemed so high when I was mounted on my silver, riding beside my sun-and-stars at the head of his khalasar. As she walked, she tapped her thigh with the pitmaster’s whip. That, and the rags on her back, were all she had taken from Meereen.

(…)

Below, she saw men whirling, wreathed in flame, hands up in the air as if caught in the throes of some mad dance. A woman in a green tokar reached for a weeping child, pulling him down into her arms to shield him from the flames. Dany saw the color vividly, but not the woman’s face. People were stepping on her as they lay tangled on the bricks. Some were on fire. Then all of that had faded, the sounds dwindling, the people shrinking, the spears and arrows falling back beneath them as Drogon clawed his way into the sky. Up and up and up he’d borne her, high above the pyramids and pits, his wings outstretched to catch the warm air rising from the city’s sun baked bricks. If I fall and die, it will still have been worth it, she had thought.

(…)

No, Dany told herself. If I look back I am lost. She might live for years amongst the sunbaked rocks of Dragonstone, riding Drogon by day and gnawing at his leavings every evenfall as the great grass sea turned from gold to orange, but that was not the life she had been born to.

(…)

“Quaithe?” Dany called. “Where are you, Quaithe?” Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight. “Remember who you are, Daenerys,” the stars whispered in a woman’s voice. “The dragons know. Do you?”

(…)

“Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was … her name …” Dany could not recall the child’s name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away.

(…)

Never, said the grass, in the gruff tones of Jorah Mormont. You were warned, Your Grace. Let this city be, I said. Your war is in Westeros, I told you.

(…)

As the western sky turned the color of a blood bruise, she heard the sound of approaching horses. Dany rose, wiped her hands on her ragged undertunic, and went to stand beside her dragon. That was how Khal Jhaqo found her, when half a hundred mounted warriors emerged from the drifting smoke.

(ADWD, Daenerys X)

She WANTS the persimmon tree. There is the Dothraki environment. She WANTS Quaithe. She starts acting like a literal dragon, nesting, eating Drogon’s leavings, wanders the grasslands half-crazed, suffery dysentery, miscarries (Mhysa v. Mother of Dragons) and makes her sacrifice to the Temple of Memory (Hazzea), which was the first step to the Hall of Thousand Thrones in Qarth.

Next up, a bribe to the Keeper of the Long List, persimmon to the Opener of (Red) Doors and then it’s Hello, Blue Silk Slippers of (stabbing) Doom in the Hall of Thousand Thrones.

Considering how consistent the theme of the persimmon is, I’m kind of excited about it seeing how GRRM will use it in TWOW and ADOS.

Next up I think I’ll look at the context of dates, and milk with honey, just to find out why GRRM chose to have Ned reject the persimmons and dates and did let him choose the milk and honey, in that very first mention. Iced milk and honey.

#asoiaf #daenerys targaryen #persimmon #foreshadowing #fruit symbolism

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brynnmck · 4 years ago

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Tagged by @agirlnamedkeith, @pretty--thief, and @samirant, thank you! <333

What is the colour of your hairbrush? Mostly black, with a green ring on it.

Name a food you never eat: I have quite a few foods I can’t eat anymore thanks to some random health issues I developed a few years back (friends, aging is great from a mental/emotional perspective, Not Great from a physical perspective) but in terms of voluntary stuff, green peppers. I’ve outgrown a lot of my childhood food dislikes but that one is in my SOUL.

Are you typically too warm or too cold? Too cold, definitely.

What were you doing 45 minutes ago? I was in a boring meeting!

What’s your favourite candy bar? Probably Snickers? I really like 100 Grand too, though. And Butterfinger. And Twix. And I want Claire Saffitz to make all of them for me.

Have you ever been to a professional sports game? I’ve been going to Major League baseball games since I was a kid (it was my dad’s favorite sport), and the past few years, I’ve been to 20-30 games a season. I usually go for my birthday, too, which is in a couple of weeks, and it’s just kinda sinking in that there will be no birthday baseball for me this year. :(

What was the last thing you said out loud? Just saying hi to my husband.

What is your favourite ice cream? Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. I can’t have caffeine anymore so this summer I’m gonna try to make a decaf version for myself. (WHY IS ALMOST ALL COFFEE ICE CREAM CAFFEINATED. There are so many reasons people can’t have caffeine! Sigh.)

What was the last thing you had to drink? Water!

Do you like your wallet? Sure? It’s a nice blue and it holds my stuff.

What was the last thing you ate? Fruit and Greek yogurt for breakfast.

Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? I didn’t! I actually ordered a couple of soft bras from TomboyX on Monday, but nothing on the weekend.

What’s the last sporting event you watched? A replay of an old Mariners game a couple of nights ago. If we’re talking live sports, I watched about half of a Korean baseball league game a few nights back, which was delightful.

What is your favourite flavour of popcorn? Butter!

Who is the last person you sent a text message to? @ajoblotofjunk

Ever go camping? Not in a long time. My husband has been getting the urge to go lately, though, so maybe we will!

Do you take vitamins? I take supplements due to the aforementioned health issues. And vitamin B.

Do you go to church every Sunday? Lol no. My mother is very Catholic and she brought us to 6 am Mass every weekday when I was a kid. It was well-intentioned (her dad had a pretty volatile temperament and she always felt safe at church, so she subconsciously wanted us to feel the same way) but it did not sell me on the experience! Heh.

Do you have a tan? I live in the Seattle area and it’s May, so... lol no. I’m also pretty pale so I don’t get that tan anyway, but. I usually get a little something going in the summer, enough to have tan lines anyway.

Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza? Tough call, but I’m going with pizza.

Do you drink your soda through a straw? I don’t drink soda anymore (though I drink a LOT of carbonated water), but I’ll drink my drink through a straw if I get it at a fast-food place. Otherwise I don’t usually use one.

What colour socks do you usually wear? Most of my winter socks for work are black. Otherwise it’s a pretty random selection of colors.

Do you ever drive above the speed limit? Sure. Usually 5-10 miles over, rarely more (or less) than that.

What terrifies you? Climate change. Global pandemics. You know. Just generally suffering (both mine and other people’s).

Look to your left. What do you see? Through window of the room I’m sitting in: my neighbors’ house, and a cherry tree in their yard.

What chore do you hate most? Cleaning the bathrooms.

What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? The hot Australian woman who’s been on Gold Rush recently, or a dear fannish friend of mine I haven’t talked to in years who is actually from New Zealand and I KNOW IT’S VERY DIFFERENT but it’s close enough to make me think of her!

What’s your favourite soda? I used to drink a lot of Diet Mountain Dew. I really miss ginger beer, too. I love a good spicy ginger beer. Root beer too.

Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru? Drive-thru all the way. Isn’t that part of the advantage of fast food?

What’s your favourite number? I don’t really have one!

Who’s the last person you talked to? My husband!

Favourite cut of beef? Boneless ribeye. I finally bought a propane grill a couple of years back and I have now learned to make a badass steak, if I say so myself.

Last song you listened to? Eve 6 - Inside Out. A few months ago I suddenly remembered that this song existed and so I bought it and now I have to listen to it at least twice every time it comes up, ha.

Last book you read? An as-yet-unpublished Rose Lerner novel, because I am very lucky! (It’s a wlw Gothic. SUCH A GOOD CONCEPT.)

Favourite day of the week? Saturday

Can you say the alphabet backwards? In this economy??? Idk, I could probably figure it out, but it would definitely be work.

How do you like your coffee? I love a caramel macchiato, especially iced so you get those weird globules of caramel coming up through the straw. But a nonfat decaf double latte with a little bit of some kind of syrup is my go-to these days--hot when it’s cold out, iced when it’s warm out.

Favourite pair of shoes? I have these 40s-ish heels that tie over your instep with a little bow and I love them. I also have some extremely cool red velvet with black cording peep-toe Louboutins that I bought off some discount site years ago, except I can’t wear them for long because they’re about a half size too small. But they’re SO PRETTY.

Time you normally get up? In isolation, I’m discovering that my natural sleep schedule is about 2 am - 10 am. But I have a daily meeting at 9:30, and I try to get my workout done before that, so I get up at 8-8:30ish. I am discovering through this meme that SO MANY of you are morning people! What is that like???

Sunrises or sunsets? I love sunrises but I am not remotely a morning person, so. I see a lot more sunsets, and I love them too!

How many blankets are on your bed? Just one duvet.

Describe your kitchen plates. We have some with blue perimeters and kind of a white/oatmeal middle that we inherited from my in-laws, and the ones we actually bought on purpose are white on top and either sage-y green or charcoal black on the bottom.

Describe your kitchen at the moment. Somewhat messy, or at least there are dishes to do. I made some pretty epic cauliflower mushroom risotto with shrimp last night, though, so it was for a good cause.

Do you have a favourite alcoholic drink? Perfect Manhattans with rye are my go-to, or a Quebecois, which is basically a perfect Manhattan with a little bit of maraschino liqueur added (and ideally a lemon twist, though we’re usually too lazy for those). In the summer, I’m getting really into gin these days: either gin and tonic, gin and some kind of citrus spiked seltzer, or a Last Word. I also really love a good craft beer, and sparkling wine too.

Do you play cards? Not really. We used to play a shit ton of gin rummy in high school, but I haven’t really played cards much since.

What colour is your car? Blue!

Do you know how to change a tire? Theoretically yes, though the one time I actually tried to do it myself, I had a hell of a time getting the lug nuts off. I was fortunately in my driveway at the time (good place for a flat tire!) and my neighbors kept coming by and offering to help, and I was like NO I WANNA DO IT. I think I did need help eventually, though. Stupid pneumatic tools at tire installation places!

Your favourite state? That rare, usually-brief phase of writing where everything seems to fit and flow and you’re a genius and you understand all the secrets of the cosmos. Also Washington.

Favourite job you’ve had? My current one. It’s not my dream job, but it pays well and I like my team and I get to learn new stuff fairly often and I can work from home in the midst of all this, so. I am very lucky!

How did you get your biggest scar? The summer after my freshman year of college, I was part of a summer stock theatre troupe, and we performed half the summer at my college, and half the summer in a very small town in eastern Oregon that had an outdoor stage. One of my entrances involved running over the grass to get to the stage, and one night the grass was wet, and my costume involved ballet slippers, and I slipped and fell onto the stage stairs in front of the whole audience. It hurt SO MUCH that I got very light-headed onstage while I was trying to get through the scene, lol. Anyway, my costume also involved harem pants that had elastic around the calf/ankle area, and I got a friction burn from those, which ended up scarring because the skin over your shins is very thin! (I also got a few massive bruises on my leg that didn’t go away for weeks, so eventually my mom nagged me into going to the doctor, who promptly started gently hinting to see if my boyfriend at the time was responsible for the injuries. Which was actually pretty cool of the doctor! But then I was like, lol no, trust me, a hundred people saw me bite it, this is 100% dumbass mistake.) And that’s my scar story.

Tagging, if you want to do it: @ajoblotofjunk, @snowymary, @halcyon-red, @it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined, @unadulteratedkr, and anyone else who feels like doing this!

#meme me

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majestyrising · 6 years ago

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This is literally two pages long so it’s going under a cut but worldbuilding for Hythveard, the secondary base for Thanatos!

So Hythveard is on an just off the coast of the Southern Icefield, about here:

Here is a very rough map drawn by yours truly:

Pink is population density! Can you tell I’m better at writing than, you know, maps.

Warm water from the north mixes with cold water from the south, creating dense fog and fertile plankton for fish; doubly so thanks to hardy plague plankton. (Possibly an invasive species.) Very cloudy due to moisture in the air. The moisture freezes and falls as snow. The strongest snowfall is just past the eastern mountains, as the wind blows the snow from the peaks.

Lots of fish due to abundance of food and shelter in the natural harbour; including mussels, coldwater crab, jumbo shrimp, octopus, oyster, and trout.

Hardy plants grow but they tend to be tasteless and tough; these include arctic willow, grasses, winterbelle (purple saxifrage), ice variation of aether cherries, seagrass (underwater), amaranth (instead of wheat), ice variation of honeycrisp apples, hearty spinach, broadleaf plantain, cinnamon, roses, and lume/midnight daffoldil. Vodka can be made from amaranth! How fortunate.

There are mostly smaller land locked mammals due to less food, and general low populace of these due to it being an island. These include snowshoe rabbits, arctic foxes, stoat, various domesticated chicken, bats, songbirds, and swan. Some larger animals include snowfall elk, wolves, caribou, and moose. As for aquatic mammals, there’s beluga, narwhal, porpoise, seals, and the odd orca.

Domesticated wolves are used to hunt, guard, guide, transport, and patrol. Magpies/Eagles are used to hunt, guide, and patrol. Cattle are used for meat, milk, leather, and horns. Sheep are used for meat, milk, wool, and horns. Chickens are used for meat, eggs, feathers, and pest control. Horses can be used for transportation (maybe semi aquatic? I’ll work on it.)

Plentiful resources are therefore are seafood, traditional ice plant based dishes, and vodka (usually sweet flavoured.)

The cliffs are, in places, made of granite, which contains quartz (usable in glass/optics/jewellery), labradorite (usable in jewellery), gypsum (for chalk/fertiliser), and microcline (glass/ceramics). There are also a few veins of copper (tools) in the area.

There are several freshwater springs and streams and a small, emergency desalination plant if those resources fail.

The buildings are made from bleached white granite, imported obsidian, self-made glass, imported steel, and wood imported from the Tundra to the south.

The main industry is fishing. Then trading, farmers, artisans, academics, travellers, entertainers. Thanatos forces out any mercenary competition back onto the mainland- depending on if you’re good or bad and how much of a fuss you’re kicking up, either they’ll charm you to have you on their side, dump you onto the mainland, or kill you in a back alley.

The inner city is more multicultural, but fiercely protective of their identity as Ice. Any reference to how close they are to Arcane is met with open hostility. They are often call ‘pink snow’ by those who live deeper in Ice territory. Calling someone ‘pink’ means they’re weak, wimpy, or away with the fairies. The trade with fire is begrudging but required. Fire ships are not particularly welcome in harbour. The relationship with arcanite traders is far better, although they are stereotyped as superior intellectuals and the locals don’t appreciate being looked down on. The trade with wind is medium level and are categorised as hagglers. Ice flighters hate haggling.

Hyth locals are more adaptive to change than their deeper brethren, have a close relationship with the sea, stars, and weather. They view themselves as the outer bastion of Ice, a bulwark against invasion. They do not welcome change, but they believe that by giving themselves the best position, their future is more secure. They are seen as principled and determined people by themselves, whom embrace their climate. Here, Ice tradition is upheld by ritual and the calender. Meals, festivals, feasts, entertainment, and the careful recording of everything. To outsiders, they are stoic, stringent people who eat too much fish.

There is no university on the island, but there are a few professors from the academies from the Icefields. Therefore, academics are rare and valued. There are a lot of fishermen, but they are greatly respected as without them the whole city would die. There are several pubs, several bars, boarding houses, residential houses, tailors, tanners, metalworkers, artisans, a few clubs, breweries, coffee shops, training dojos, magical guilds, bookshops, animal suppliers, butchers, produce makers. Primary education is a communal city affair; the people have a rotor of teaching literacy, maths, language, history, war, and magic. The aforementioned academics teach speciality subjects for those who show an interest in them.

The Icewarden is worshipped. Food in the Icefields isn’t plentiful enough for it to be offered wholesale, so food is made to be his in a prayer, and then consumed. Bookbinders and historians are seen as especially religious, as well as any in the justice system/those who punish evildoers. Hence, Thanatos fulfils a semi-religious role in Hyth.

The legal system is codified in a very dense but surprisingly easy to read text, which is enshrined with Thanatos. The laws on drugs and prostitution mean they are legal in certified establishments, and Thanatos holds the reigns on what gets certified. Meaning they get the profits. But, these establishments are well kept, the workers are safe and paid well, so the citizens agree with the law.

Conflicts are primarily dealt with by the individuals in question; if they aren’t, Thanatos steps in to handle it.

Most goods can be obtained in Hyth due to the trade routes in the harbour, however luxury goods include anything from deep inside the Labyrinth (as this is a world away), pelts from animals which are hard to take down, and anything easily damaged by the cold.

Common goods in Hyth include pearls (from local oysters), feathers from the local bird population, furs/hides from local animals, labradorite jewellery, spruce furniture.

The Kingdom of Thanatos is the ruling legal and governmental body in Hythverd. They contribute towards the cities’ welfare, negotiating the trade routes and monitoring the ships which come in, and what their goods are. The citizens are free to do as they wish without restriction- all but try to challenge this rule. They are seen as benevolent overlords. Everyone is aware that they are mercenaries, but the relationship with the non-members is good, as half the mercenaries live in town and are good, honest people.

The city is called Hythveard, often shortened to Hyth. The northern quarter is Chelyu, where the people live, and the southern quarter is Ostr-Zubi. Chelyu is from челюстная кость, meaning jawbone. Ostr-Zubi is from острые зубы, meaning sharp teeth. The island itself is called краеугольный камень замороженных народов, aka keystone of frozen peoples, also known as Keystone Island in the common tongue.

#clan lore #my lore #thanatos syndicate #hythveard #this took me a few hours #inbetween fussing over a dog we had in the house #it was so fun ;w;

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pleistocene-pride · 1 year ago

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Palaemonetes paludosus better known as ghost shrimp, glass shrimp, and eastern grass shrimp, is a species of freshwater shrimp native to the southeastern United States. Here they can be found throughout freshwater ponds, lakes, and streams east of the Appalachian Mountains from Florida all the way up into New Jersey. They have also been introduced throughout California, Mexico, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. They are a primarily nocturnal and some what social species which lives in large groups spending there time amongst beds of various aquatic vegetation where they feed upon algae, plankton, the aquatic plants themselves, detritus, and smaller invertebrates chiefly aquatic insects and there larvae. Ghost shrimp are themselves preyed upon by various fish, crayfish, water birds, turtles, and amphibians. Reaching around 1-2 inches (25 – 50mm) in length, ghost shrimp sport a notably transparent carapace and internal tissues allowing one to see its internal organs through its integument. This clearness provides a high degree of camouflage especially in cloudy or muddy water, and is the reason for there common names. The breeding season of these shrimp varies by location and water temperature, during said time the females ovaries take on a greenish color. After mating the female will lay 8 to 35 eggs, and like many crustaceans the mother will carry her developing eggs on their abdomen until they hatch some 2 months later. Ghost shrimp larval development is short, consisting of three stages, and under ideal conditions a ghost shrimp may live upwards of a year.

#ghost #shrimp #glass #eastern #eastern glass shrimp #ghost shrimp #glass shrimp #crustacean #North America #appaliachia #freshwater #pleistocene #pleistocene pride #palaemonetes paludosus

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likenothingnameable · 6 years ago

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When Last Did You Take Your Tortoise for a Walk?

The art of walking in the 21st century, a lifelong learning

By: Justin Mah

“Balancing yourself with your arms set flawlessly straight like a marching foot soldier in the Canadian Forces, you were walking before any of your cousins,” my mom recalls with a touch of amusement. For reasons remaining muddled by my subconscious, I skipped the intermediate motor-development phase of crawling altogether and, at just eight months, reached out into the world in front of me and discovered an abiding love for walking—one that, many a worn-out and pockmarked soles later, has reverberated to the present.

In his walking reverie, The Walk, Robert Wasler writes, “A pleasant walk most often veritably teems with imageries, living poems, attractive objects, natural beauties, be they ever so small…. without walking, I would be dead.” Tap-tap, tap-tap, tap-tap—the faint thump of my own steps, the sweet sound of my second heartbeat.

With little fuss, at the age of three, with scuffed Velcro sneakers and my fluorescent-blue security blanket in tow, I’d stroll around the 4.9 km circuit trail at Burnaby’s Central Park with my mom, a preternaturally brisk walker. I’ve imagined her often, in some parallel universe, eking out a living in the urban bustle of Singapore, home to the fastest pedestrians on the planet according to studies.

Today, with thirty-five years of walking now behind me, that we have felt inclined to study walking speeds at all, says to me every bit about our attempts to outpace those around us. Evading the immediacy of the present in search of fugitive alleviation from the reality of our own flesh-and-bones mortality, we readily employ our lower limbs exclusively for the purpose of getting from A to B.

Pushing against the trapping of an A-to-B mentality emptied of vitality is easier said than done in a culture that lionizes “efficiency” and “productivity.” The earth and its natural ecosystems has beared its most injurious consequences, but for how much longer will it be able to withstand our recklessness? In The Rings of Saturn, a novel borne out of a walking tour of the eastern coast of England, German writer and indefatigable walker W. G. Sebald offers an alternative that calls for the cultivation of a more present, naked form of attention. “It was as if I had been walking for hours before the tiled roofs of houses and the crest of a wooded hill gradually became defined,” he writes of his sojourn to the town of Dunwich. Here, between A and B, is an in-between full of sensorial possibility that Sebald experiences and brings to life with exquisite detail, roof tiles and all.

In my adulthood, I’ve cultivated my own practice of trying to be more purposeful in my walking—slowing down enough to see a familiar spot anew; relishing in the quiet offered by an early Sunday morning walk, wherein I fall into awareness of my in-breath and the pitter-patter of my own footsteps—tap-tap, tap-tap, tap-tap; weaving with the faint voices of the CBC wafting out into the balmy air through a window ajar, the rhythmic swooshing of branches of fir cast penumbral across the sidewalk, painterly. And—out-breath.

As a kid, well before I heard of Paris’ French flaneurs—the eminent saunterers, strollers, idlers—of the 19th century who would amble purposelessly through the city’s famous shopping arcades, my father ushered in what he coined a “city walkabout.” My little brother and I fell so in love with the concept that it would win out over such other favourite activities as scouring the ‘Action’ and ‘Comedy’ shelves at Blockbuster, combing through the collection trove at the neighbourhood comic shop, or visiting our much beloved arcade, Circuit Circus. Relegating these alluring options aside, we’d plead, as children so do best, for our dad to take us out on a walkabout, an adventure that, above all, held the possibility of the unexpected. We’d walk and walk in winding, circuitous fashion through Vancouver’s cityscape, stopping for a bite when our stomachs could no longer be ignored, strolling till our feet throbbed, pulsed. Afterward, our feet still buzzing, drunk on kinetic motion, we’d proudly tumble horizontal, toss our feet up to rest. And, if we were really truly lucky, we’d have either a root beer-flavoured Popsicle, or creamy vanilla Dixie Cup, in hand to savour.

It is little remembered, but in the days of the French flaneurs, for a brief moment in 1839, it was considered elegant to take a tortoise out for a walk. The gesture was not completely out of left field, though, merely an eccentric embellishment or a desperate call for attention. Rather, it was, in part, a tongue-in-cheek political display, a sort of poetic middle finger to a rampantly industrializing Paris. Bring the tortoise-walk back into the 21st century I say, and be free from the smart phone, even if just for a smidge! But not before searching “People trying to walk their cat” on YouTube, for a humourous, ‘who-walks-who’ preview of what’s to come of this human-tortoise pairing. Yet what a beautiful thing to surrender, to give up brief control, loosen our proclivity toward A-to-B trajectories. All thanks to a turtle holding reign, relish in your surroundings, all 360 degrees of it, and have the world transformed into a place of meditation! Let us follow by example sixty-five-year-old Japanese funeral parlour owner, Hisao Mitani, who goes out on daily walks with his African spurred tortoise through the streets of Tokyo. He became an Internet sensation in 2015 for doing so.

The popular notion of “walking as discovery” has been braided into our collective psyche, and while it speaks to our curiosity-driven nature and, at our worst, to histories of colonialism, over the years I’ve drifted to the view of “walking as recovery.” I discovered walking’s restorative potential as a Simon Fraser University undergrad when, amid the evening calm, I’d take a post-dinner walk to Burnaby Height’s oval track at Confederation Park. Approaching the russet-coloured track set in stark relief by the manicured grass filling its centre, I’d come upon an altogether heart-warming convening, a neighbourly microcosm of walkers looping the track, with the humbling outline of the North Shore Mountains to the north. From the vantage of a wooden bench, absorbing this mellifluous, arcing swirl of motion was enough to lull me into a state of clairvoyance. Sometimes, deciding to join the walking procession, time would seem to slacken, anxieties would unclasp, cascading from the self, outward, dissolving into the unending infinity of the circular track; overhead, a fluttering of crows, dotting the clear blue sky iridescent black, the sun making its beguiling decent over poplar trees, to the west.

Younger still, during the 1990s, in East Vancouver where I grew up, I have memories spent after school at my Italian grandparents’ home, who would care for my siblings and I on many a weekdays while my parents were at work. After dinner, I’d join my Nono for a walk with my brother and, after the house slipped out of sight, he’d pull out and light a cigarette, and in that moment made us complicit in his little secret, with the cemented story back at the house being that he had dispensed of the habit long ago. Walking along with him—the world at our fingertips—we’d dance in circles around my grandfather like electrons around a nucleus, racing ahead, hopping over the sidewalk creases imagining them as perilous pits, sometimes trailing behind, mesmerized by some insect or betwixt by a scattering of shed, dried out Maple whirlybird seeds. We’d split them down their brittle centre, toss them to the sky and, transfixed, watch them pirouette back down to the sidewalk. My grandfather would be continuing along, all the while, at his steady, measured pace, lost in rumination, the kind not yet of our knowing. The trip would end at the corner store, to address our sugary cravings with, ironically, Pop-Eye candy cigarettes. Puffing away on our candied sticks, oblivious to the adult world that lay ahead of us, we’d make our way back to the house, often in time for Wheel of Fortune, Vanna White and her infectious glow of a smile.

Years later, my Nono’s secret would get the better of him when cancer took hold, and after his passing, with my Nona now alone in her house, I’d pay frequent visits, getting her, this time, out of the confines of her home for walks. Delighting in conversation with neighbours along the way, debating the merits of various grades of gardening manure, sharing tricks of the trade for growing flavourful tomatoes, as well as getting caught up on the latest neighbourhood gossip, I could sense her spirit lift and her racing mind being put at ease. Hippocrates grasped this over 2,000 years ago when he declared, “walking is man’s best medicine.” Modern studies today now suggest that walking for even twenty minutes a day can cut one’s risk of premature death by almost a third. During my many memorable walks with my Nona, we’d usually find ourselves at a nearby Chinese restaurant for dim sum, where we’d enjoy an array of steamy goodness from sticky rice, spicy fried squid, to crispy wasabi shrimp spring rolls. “Mmm, my favourite,” she’d exalt, a smile breaking across her face, as a container of steamed chicken feet was placed onto our table. Her diving hands would disperse the tantalizing steam rising out from the wooden container; warmed by her enthusiasm, I’d top up her half-empty glass of green tea.

That we have even been endowed with an upright gait has much, of course, to do with a lengthy evolutionary battle between big brains and narrow pelvises. But it is also simply a wonderful gift and a constant teacher, if we let it. Pulled by the primacy of bipedalism, with valorous if haphazard spirit, most newborns attempt their first steps around nine to twelve months. It’s easy to forget, less remember, the novelty of walking for the first time. Though, I’d like to think we are always learning how to walk through this life in the play of the open air.

While I do not own a tortoise, I have occasionally imagined myself tethered to an invisible one, noble and seemingly with all the time in the world, when out on a leisure jaunt. Time after time, she has guided me to marvelous, wonderful places I never would have expected.

#walking

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