#frost mastodon

[sun-citadel]

Megaman X : Reminiscence | Frost Mastodon

Alt. Below.

[key-to-everything]

My stack of recent-ish CD purchases

Top to bottom: Mastodon - Blood Mountain / Krushhammer - Blood Violence & Blasphemy / Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion / Celtic Frost - Monotheist / Begotten - Nothing Worth Remembering / Anthrax - Only / Slayer - Christ Illusion / Slayer - South Of Heaven / Colour Haze - Colour Haze / Iron Maiden - Powerslave / The Cure - Pornography

[bluecapsicum]

Cold winter skies illustrations for my daily meteorological fiction project, Reports From Unknown Places About Undescribable Events (Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon).

Keep reading for captions.

December 24th - We report: once again, we find ourselves under a murmuration as we walk past a field. We can hear trills and whistles coming from this massive bird cloud waltzing in the winter sky. We think there might be a few hundred of them, all moving together. We stay there for a long time.

January 10th - We report: the sky so dark and low this way, and the horizon so far, the trees bare and tiny in the distance; we wonder whether there might be space enough between the sky and the earth for us to walk. As it is, our face is up in the sky and our feet are down in the frozen earth.

January 13th - We report about this time, late in the afternoon when the humidity starts to saturate the atmosphere. Even through the dense clouds, there are faint hints of sunset colours amidst the grey. Blackbirds and sparrows are getting busy while we wait for the rain.

January 18th - We report Jupiter and Saturn at nightfall today; we expect Venus to follow shortly after, although the sky might be overcast by then. It is still too bright for us to be able to see stars, but we know that the Aquarius constellation is right there, rising over the horizon.

January 21st - We report: a morning removed from the world, fog and frost making even time move sluggishly. Every blade of grass looks brittle, and we wonder if they would snap off immediately, should we touch them. We cannot locate the sun, though we know where it should be.

January 25th - We report: the frothing winter sea during high tides; any colder and it would freeze solid, it would seem. There is an icy blue in the waves that unrelentingly crash against the rocky shore. The day stretches under an opaque sky that remains the same throughout.

January 30th - We report that we lost a glove on this snowy path, and we tried to walk back in our earlier steps. It was easy at first, but the snow and the night kept falling steadily; the footsteps disappeared. When we finally came home, though, our expert told us that they had picked it up.

February 13th - We report a very rare and complex halo display: a 20° halo, a parhelic circle with parhelia, a sun pillar leading up to an upper tangent arc and a parry arc, a 46° halo, and a circumzenithal arc. Very complex indeed, many arcs for a single sun. It is absolutely freezing outside.

February 22nd - We report: in the car, on a parking lot, facing the ocean. The rain is hitting the windscreen hard, in waves. It is an old car; the wind shakes it and whistles through the small cracks where the doors do not close very well. We watch raindrops run down the windows at an angle.

March 14th - We report: it has not stopped being cold here. We walk in the footsteps of someone who was here earlier this morning. It has snowed a little bit again since, and some of the tracks have been filled in. We are following a line of pollarded trees that creak in the cool wind.

[smallgodseries]

[image description: A small dark-haired girl with white butterfly wings and a crown of petals and/or feathers stands in a green tunic against an autumnal ground of gold and red leaves, one cupped hand is outstretched as if to catch one of the huge snowflakes which have begun to fall. Does her expression might suggest ambivalence? Resignation? Wisdom? Text reads, “161, Kore ~ the small god of Seasons’ End”]

• • • • •

In her time, she has been a cruel god and a kind god, a beloved god and a feared god.  She is the god of beans in the bread and blood on the snow, of girls in glass coffins and children abandoned in the midnight wood.  She is also the god of kindness and joy, of warm blankets and warm fires and warm cups held between trembling palms.

Every season ends.  Hers is winter.  She stands and she sings, in her crown of candles and tinsel, and she reminds us that the sun will come again.  She is a bright star in a darkened sky, a memory of warmth, and she never ages, and she never dies, and she will never be forgotten, or forgiven, for what she means to us.

She doesn’t remember when they decided that winter should be the ending of the year.  It makes sense, as humans measure things—we’re born young and bright and innocent, we ripen, we age, and then we die, at the end of our lives.  Winter, the dying of the green world of summer, must thus be the ending of the year.  It makes sense.

But she thinks of herself more as a renewal than an ending.  Every year, she is born when the first frost falls, and she walks with us until the clock chimes midnight at an arbitrary line drawn by arbitrary hands across the calendar, and she fades into silence until the time comes again.  She holds no specific holiday.  She holds all the holidays.  She is deeply annoyed by the ongoing attempts to elevate one winter celebration above the others, by the forays into the territories of other gods, other dominions.  Tinsel and golden balls should belong to her, not crop up in the temples of Amaizing Grace or Goldie Afternoon.  Her power is in her liminality, in the fact that she comes and she goes, reliable as the seasons, dependable as the spring.

One day, she will be invoked when the year is new, and she will hate that day, and she will become a cruel god once again, for a moment is only precious when it is brief.  She represents the temporary and the changeable, and she has moved beyond blood on snow, but she can always go back.

She is sweet and she is kind, and she is still a god for all of that, and we should not try her patience so.

• • • • •

Please join Lee Moyer (Icon) and Seanan McGuire (Story) each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a guide to the many tiny divinities:

WordPress: https://leemoyer.wordpress.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/smallgodseries/

Homepage: http://smallgodseries.com

Mastodon: @SmallGods@mastodon.world

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

All I See Are Ghosts

Hunk of metal, loyal machine Driving through the American dream Fields of nothing, empty grass And all I see are Ghosts

Tufts of scrub and brush and dust Old needless fences turning to rust Shattered food webs like broken glass And all I see are Ghosts

A single bird, hovering over roadkill Eking out a living in rolling hill Where carcasses flow from under tires And all I see are Ghosts No herds of bison wandering past No prancing pronghorns running fast Just simple posts strung up with wires And all I see are Ghosts

I did not find cheetahs lying around No giant sloths touched the ground A Joshua tree waits fro help to come And all I see are Ghosts

Scimitars and sabers long since lost No short faced bears among the frost An empty world slowly becoming numb And all I see are Ghosts

I see herds of cattle, packed in tight No room for smell, or sound, or sight Taking up space, one species alone And all I see are Ghosts

Nothing is grazing upon the grass Nothing is feeding among the mass Nothing is all we've ever known And all I see are Ghosts

An oil rig, pumping up black gold The sight of it makes blood run cold How long must we think we're above it all? And all I see are Ghosts

Empty skylines, no herds or packs No mammoths roaming, leaving tracks I wonder when the last domino will fall And all I see are Ghosts

Did the last Mastodon know As it trudged through the snow That everything was coming apart? Because all I see are Ghosts

I reach my city, twinkling bright Filling the air with polluting light Is it possible for us to restart? All I see are Ghosts.

[hunter-sylvester]

Hunter Sylvester Bands List

An INCOMPLETE list of some of the bands Hunter is canonically implied to listen to.

This includes bands from the spoken list, written list, his posters & more.

(With a few snippets of my opinion bleeding through because I am a dick sometimes lmao)

We’ll start of with some easy ones, the lists.

The bands Hunter verbally lists to Kevin:

Black Sabbath

Iron Maiden

Judas Priest

Metallica

Anthrax

Slayer

Megadeth

Motorhead

Guns N Roses (movie’s wrong)

Rage Against The Machine

Pantera

Emperor

Tool

Dio

Meshuggah

Opeth

Slipknot

Mastodon

Lamb Of God

Additional bands from the written lists he gives to Kevin:

Van Halen

Sepultura

Avenged Sevenfold (ugh)

Gojira

Kvelertak

Additional bands he wears t-shirts of:

Misfits

King Diamond

The stickers in Hunter’s locker:

Napalm Death

Mayhem

Cannibal Corpse (it’s only half a sticker but the font matches up)

Death

Other references:

Celtic Frost (Phone Background)

Gorgoroth (D&D character, ‘Malmsteen Of Gorgoroth’)

Okay, now for some of his posters:

Danzig

Paradise Lost

Ghost

Ozzy Osbourne (kind of included with Sabbath but he has an Ozzy poster so eh)

Blood Incantation

Morbid Angel

Pallbearer

Baroness

Katatonia

Gwar

Bell Witch

The Black Dahlia Murder

In Flames (movie’s wrong, don’t ask)

Testament

Twisted Sister (?????????)

The Sword

August Burns Red

Red Fang

Tomb Mold

Trivium

Amon Amarth

Goblin Cock

Attila

Steve Vai/Whitesnake

Black Label Society

Agalloch

Nile

Goatwhore

Obituary

Manowar (meh)

Poison Idea (random but ok)

I just left the ticket stubs out all together because there was some in there that I’m like...no??? They’re kinda hard to read at times anyway because a lot of them are super faded.

Again, this is not even remotely everything but I wanted to list some of the ones I’ve jotted down over time.

Screen-grab at the top of this post is yet another excellent example of Hunter giving Kevin ‘love me eyes.’

Also look at his stupid little bejeweled skull.

Look at it. This silly fucker.

He’s just like me fr

[fehlerhaftekunst]

Mastodon Raffle Prize for @frost@wolfdo.gg Furaffinity | Telegram | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Deviantart | Ko-fi | Mastodon | Commission Info

[anyoneknowwhatbrexitmeans]

“There have been many faces of Brexit over the years. The gurning anger of Farage. The blustering buffoonery of Johnson. The psychotic glitter of Braverman. The vapid pipsqueakery of Grimes. The blokeish thuggery of Banks. The creepy unctuousness of Gove. The mad narcissism of Cummings. The born-again zealotry of Truss. The porcine truculence of Frost. The smug spitefulness of Rees-Mogg.

They all still exist, but the dominant image, now, is that of a lumpen, sulky, schoolboy dullard. Kept in for an umpteenth detention, tongue-between-teeth, he ponderously repeats the basic textbook exercises that his juniors mastered long ago, and with painful slowness comes to realize that the things his teachers had been trying to drum in to him for years past are, indeed, true.”

[societygrimm]

Society Grimm welcomes you!

Hello! We are Society Grimm, a quoigenic plural collective made up entirely of RWBY intrpio and intrvario Citizens!

We are bodily an adult, so we would prefer if bodily minors did not interact.

We support all system origins, and would prefer if sysmeds/anti-endos did not interact. We also would probably prefer if endo-neutrals didn't either.

We block anyone who gives us bad vibes, so keep that in mind! We do not engage in dis/syscourse.

A link to our carrd that has basic information about each member of Society Grimm: https://societygrimm.drr.ac/ | Listography: https://listography.com/societygrimm | Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@societygrimm | Pronouns.cc: https://pronouns.cc/@SocietyGrimm

Please don't hesitate to reach out! We are very welcoming and love to make friends! There's definitely a few lonely folks who miss people!

Personal blogs under the cut!

We follow from: @society-grimm

Ruby 🍪: @red-like-ruby-rose

Weiss ⛸️: @iceandmirrors

Blake 🐾: @descendfromshadow

Yang 🏍️: @i-burn

Crescent Rose 🌒: @sniperscythe

Penny 🪙: @p3n-3

Cinder 🍂: @scorching-caress

Neo 🍨: @maddest-hatter

Winter ❄️: @perma-frosted

Neon 🪩: @never-miss-a-beat

Ruby 🎸: @discordantnoise

Weiss 🎼: @moog-one

Blake 🥃: @bellagambol

Ruby 🍓: @strawberrymerc

Winter 🧊: @frost-biter

Ruby 🕸️: @rose-spider

Dr. Rose 🫁: @thefallenpetal

Winter 🌡️: @firespit

Coco 🕶️: @the-hype

[all-the-things-2020]

There is a 13,000 year old oak shrub just a few miles from my house. It is threatened by nearby development but the local native people are trying to get title to the surrounding land. This plant started growing when mastodons and saber tooth cats and camels and dire wolves roamed this land. When it sprouted, ancestral horses still lived in North America. There were giant ground sloths and American cheetahs. Humans were newcomers. And it survived. It survived drought and rain and frost and snow and heat. It survived who knows how many fires and floods. It was grazed and nibbled and kept resprouting from the roots. Countless animals sheltered under its limbs and ate its leaves and acorns. All of this just a couple of miles from where I sit. Think about that. Think about the depth of time and how there are living things on the planet right now that live on completely different time scales than we do.

just learned that magnolias are so old that they’re pollinated by beetles because they existed before bees

[danzameccanica]

Hordaland Dødskvad è forse uno dei miei cinque album black metal preferiti. Ha segnato un periodo di grande cambiamento perché è stato parte della colonna sonora del mio primo anno di università quando ancora gran parte della mia vita era rimasta ancorata nella mia regione natale, amicizie, feeling e tutto quanto. I Taake all’epoca erano sicuramente la mia band preferita e questo album ha rappresentato la quintessenza dei Taake. Dødskvad, subito dalla prima traccia, contiene tutta la summa dei Taake che Høst ha creato e che continuerà a replicare negli album successivi: riff taglienti, momenti black’n’roll, stop’n’go, riff dispari, melodie pazzesche e, soprattutto, le parti principali del brano con quella malinconia di fondo davvero unico. Høst ha sempre preso un po’ da Burzum un po’ dai Metallica e un po’ dai Satyricon creando un prodotto raro.

All’epoca, per quanto Tsjuder e Carpathian Forest erano gli act maggiori che condividevano i palchi principali coi Taake, le influenze più vicine dei nostri provenivano dai concittadini Gorgoroth e Enslaved. Høst è sempre stato un frontman incredibile sul palco mentre il sala di composizione è come se emergesse anche qualche altra personalità fatta davvero di sensibilità musicale e di grandissima attenzione compositiva: basta ascoltare come la chitarra si lega al pianoforte - sempre in "Dødskvad I" – o di come quel riff meraviglioso diventa un assolo sul finale.

La produzione è grezza al punto giusto e c’è sempre quell’attitudine DIY che si può sentire fra un brano e l’altro. "Dødskvad II" è uno dei brani più groove e progressive di tutto l’album e anche se i vari guest che compaiono in giro per le tracce danno l’impressione di salire su una specie di carrozzone nekro-black metal (ricordiamo che sono anche gli stessi anni dei due album di Nattefrost con decine di comparse che facevano capolino dentro la sala prove), l’abilità di Høst sta proprio nel dirigere tutti sapientemente, senza mai far sfociare il suo prodotto in pura caciara fine a sé stessa. Perché quando a 2:20 di "Dødskvad II" parte quel riff lì (che ricorda tanto "Nattestid I" e VII), siamo ben consci di trovarci fra le scure nebbie dei Taake. E la ripartenza groove che subito segue questo riff è stupenda e davvero fuori da ogni schema dell’epoca. Oggi lo fanno i Baroness o i Mastodon ma all’epoca in un disco black metal di questo genere non lo faceva nessuno.

Con "Dødskvad III" iniziamo ad entrare in nebbie diverse, dove bisogna muoversi lentamente, così come i riff principali, di matrice satyriconiana: lenti e lunghi. Il riff che parte al minuto 2:00 è uno dei tipici riff che sembrano stati inventati solo e unicamente nel mondo dei Taake perché solo nei brani dei Taake si sente che l’andamento del riff ad un certo punto cambia tonalità e prende un’altra piega. Non è sempre aperto, puro e semplice come in Burzum o Satyricon ma diventa poco più elaborato e atonale.

Poi il IV capitolo dell’album, uno dei brani più malinconici che i Taake abbiano mai composto pur senza rinunciare alla velocità, all’istinto e alla bestialità: se all’inizio i riff sembrano quasi happy, quello che accade dal minuto 1:30 è disarmante e sorprendente (con l’album successivo proveranno a creare evocazioni simili con "Motpol" ma non riuscendoci perfettamente).

"Dødskvad V" inizia con un riff brutale in 15/4 senza perdere efficienza per poi continuare come un’altra delle migliori tracce mai scritte: continua ad essere morbosa e monumentale per poi cambiare mood come un intermezzo cinematografico (sulla parte finale). Il sesto capitolo dell’album, strumentale, contiene forse i momenti più goliardici dell’album grazie al ritmo e ai riff da taverna. Colpo di coda con "Dødskvad VII" che inizia con un altro fra i migliori riff dei Taake, sporco ed epico, che taglia le urla di Taipan e i colpi di gola in stile Celtic Frost (un must della band). Hordaland Dødskvad è la malinconica colonna sonora di un paesaggio romantico ma fatto anche di amici e concerti; è stata la colonna sonora di un bellissimo viaggio in Norvegia nel 2005 per andare all’Hole in the Sky; è stato sempre presente in macchina e in cuffia ogniqualvolta beccavamo qualche membro storico della scena norvegese. È un album riflessivo ma anche cazzone, è un album che taglia e che fa ballare; è un disco spettacolare che contiene tante piccole contraddizioni che in realtà vanno a completare il complesso e conflittuale ritratto di tutti noi. L’ultimo capitolo del trittico dedicato a Bergen – in qualche modo al black metal di Bergen – si conclude uscendo di qualche anno dagli anni ’90 ma portando con sé tutti gli elementi di una stagione impeccabile e di una generazione di innovatori. Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Helheim, Immortal, Burzum, Ancient e Borknagar; tutti condensati e sintetizzati dal fratello minore Høst. Nattestid Bjorgvin Dødskvad: canti funebri sulla Bergen notturna.

[botanyone]

Forest Fringes Supercharge Hoverfly Populations in Farmland

Forest Fringes Supercharge Hoverfly Populations in Farmland https://ift.tt/mvsEQD3 Researchers Pizante and colleagues have uncovered a surprising link between treed field borders and hoverfly abundance in canola crops. Their study, conducted in central Alberta, Canada, reveals that small patches of trees along field edges act as powerful exporters of these beneficial insects into crops. The most striking finding was the sheer number of hoverflies moving from treed borders into crops. On average, nearly 85,000 hoverflies per kilometre of treed border entered the crop each week. This was 33 times more than the number exported by grassy field edges. Surprisingly, this massive movement didn’t change during the canola bloom as expected. To uncover these patterns, the team used special bi-directional traps to catch hoverflies moving in both directions between field borders and crops. They also surveyed the plants in each border type to see if specific vegetation features explained hoverfly movement. Interestingly, the study found that treed borders supported a more diverse hoverfly community than grassy ones. However, no single plant feature within treed borders explained the huge export of hoverflies, suggesting that something about treed areas themselves attracts these insects. These findings highlight the importance of keeping tree lines along crop fields. By supporting more hoverflies, which both pollinate crops and eat pests, trees in borders could boost farm yields while promoting biodiversity. Pizante, R., Acorn, J. H., Jiménez, I. P., & Frost, C. M. (2025). Treed field borders net-export over 82,000 more hoverflies per km every week into canola crops than herbaceous field borders, regardless of mass-flowering crop bloom. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 377, 109271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2024.109271 (OA) Cross-posted to Bluesky, Mastodon & Threads. The post Forest Fringes Supercharge Hoverfly Populations in Farmland appeared first on Botany One. via Botany One https://botany.one/ September 04, 2024 at 08:30PM

[simontesla]

I originally posted this to my mastodon account, but does anyone want to hear my (unserious) conspiracy about liquid hand soap dispensers?

No? Too bad.

If you've ever bought a liquid hand soap dispenser (either the 'disposable' pre-filled ones, or empty reusable ones), you'll find they pretty much always come in one of two shapes, either with a flat bottom or a dimple in the bottom, and a straw that extends close, but not quite all the way to the bottom. (I've noticed the straw tends to have more of a gap on pre-filled bottles of hand soap, but that's not the conspiracy.)

In both cases it's pretty much impossible to completely use up all of the soap inside the bottle; there's pretty much always going to be a thin layer of soap that the straw can't get at.

Here's a diagram illustrating the bottle and straw, with the straw in red.

Around a decade ago, without much thought, I bought some cheap hand soap dispensers from Target, and it was only after I started using them that I noticed they had a pretty ingenious design. Instead of a flat bottom, it had a conical one, with the straw reaching right down into the tip of that cone. With this soap dispenser, I can get all but a tiny drop of soap out of it using the hand pump, probably less than 1/8th of a teaspoon left of soap. No wasting almost any soap!

So naturally after I discovered this, I bought dispensers for pretty much anywhere I had a sink, and I still use them. Whoever that underpaid designer that made the Room Essentials store-brand soap dispenser was knew exactly what they were optimizing for and made the perfect soap dispenser.

The conspiracy? As of about 5 years ago, they've been impossible to find, and no one else has dared make such an innovative soap dispenser since. I'm convinced the only explanation is that Unilever got to them.

Of course, as I was researching this to make sure the statement that nobody made them anymore was true, I find that they're still apparently available on Target's website: https://www.target.com/p/soap-pump-frosted-room-essentials-8482/-/A-14326777

But hey, this gives you some insight into what I think about in the shower sometimes.

[evehc]

Songs About Ghostly Spirits

Deep in the misty moors and haunted hills, there are melodies that echo through the night, tales that sing of spirits and songs about ghosts that chill the soul. From the mournful wail of a phantom choir to the haunting whisper of a ghostly lullaby, these spectral tunes beckon to those who dare to listen.

Songs about ghosts and spirits have a certain allure, a pull that draws us in like moths to a flame. They speak of the unknown, the unseen, the unexplainable, stirring something primal within us. Each haunting note, each eerie harmony, carries with it the weight of the unknown, the mysteries of the afterlife, and the whispers of those who have passed beyond the veil.

In the quiet of the night, when the moon is full and the shadows are long, these songs about ghosts and spirits can be heard on the wind. They tell of spectral apparitions, of restless souls seeking redemption, and of the eternal struggle between light and darkness. They remind us of the fragility of life, and the inevitability of death.

The melodies are haunting, the lyrics steeped in mystery, and the voices of the singers seem to echo from beyond the grave. The music takes on a life of its own, each note a fleeting reminder of what once was, and what may yet be. And in the end, we are left with a sense of wonder, of awe, and of the unknown, forever searching for the answers to the mysteries that lie beyond.

So let us listen, dear friends, to the songs about ghosts and spirits that fill the air. Let us embrace the unknown, the unexplainable, and the supernatural. For in these spectral melodies, we may find a glimpse of the eternal, a hint of the divine, and the promise of a world beyond our own.

Tags:ghost ghosts country music rock american guitar pop love father mother white michael jackson devil black sabbath sing advertising phantom satan ghost town grotto kid cudi kanye west ghostbusters blood hip hop edm lead belly bruce springsteen supernatural ghost dance the doors thriller taylor swift halsey cape horn evil alan jackson hell the ghost of tom joad radiohead paramore riders in the sky red hot chili peppers simple minds ray parker jr mumford and sons iron maiden gordon lightfoot ella henderson stevie nicks my chemical romance regina spektor reaper johnny cash ghost towns blue oyster cult manfred mann ramones pet sematary phantom of the opera kate bush daughtry jay hawkins evanescence madonna misfits james vincent mcmorrow earth the psychedelic furs justin bieber ghost ghost ghost songs ghosts songs songs about ghosts songs about spirits spirits story tori amos horror movies i put a spell on you ozzy osbourne death cab for cutie edmund fitzgerald taking back sunday ghosttown shinedown jethro tull andrew lloyd webber the rolling stones harry styles woodkid the sandman kingdom of dreams carrie underwood eels celtic frost night terror danse macabre throbbing gristle bat for lashes litanies ozzy osborne bones table of contents blink 182 jake owen blink-182 pop song holy ghost florence and the machine screamin jay hawkins bela lugosi drum machine menomena children of the corn abuhaus craig morgan ariana grande piano bar mastodon alice cooper oingo boingo flowers band of horses laura marling stripper feminist alan walker adam lambert 5 seconds of summer mercyme meme despacito tegan and sara acoustic guitars scary haunted songs about about ghosts songs about ghosts about town this dance track them ghostly could released ghost town party many this song history spirit specials that supernatural through horror want springsteen bruce spirits best still lyrics house popular its rock world riders eerie halloween feel pop sky never classic inspired ghosts best songs haunting story joad ghost song such furs along ghostbusters skip psychedelic old whether guitar long singing how band eyes past dead most his sound ghost ghost songs ghosts songs songs about ghosts songs about spirits spirits songs about ghosts songs of ghosts songs for ghosts songs with ghosts in the title songs about ghosts songs of ghosts songs for ghosts songs with ghosts in the title songs about ghosts songs of ghosts songs for ghosts songs with ghosts in the title songs about ghosts songs of ghosts songs for ghosts songs with ghosts in the title songs about ghosts songs of ghosts songs for ghosts songs with ghosts in the title songs about ghosts songs of ghosts songs for ghosts songs with ghosts in the title songs about ghosts songs of ghosts songs for ghosts songs with ghosts in the title

[firstofficerrose]

I went out and picked persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) yesterday.

I did a lot of reading first about persimmons (I was trying to figure out how to preserve them (I found a recipe for jam)), and what struck me was that as far as we can tell, they were originally evolved to be spread by ancient elephant-relatives.

North America hasn't had elephants of any kind for 10,000 years. Our mammoths and mastodons went extinct in the Quaternary extinction event.

If you feed persimmons to modern elephants, the seeds germinate more successfully than they do when planted directly. The trees grow up to 20 meters tall. The most complete mammoth skeleton we have, the Burning Tree mammoth, is 10 feet (3 meters) tall at the shoulder. A modern elephant, two-thirds the size of a mammoth, can reach 5.7 meters with its trunk if it stands on it's hind legs. How high could a mammoth reach?

Not the full 20 meters. I haven't been able to find any paleontology papers on how high a Mammoth could reach. And the persimmon feeds other animals, too, songbirds love its fruit, deer go crazy for them. After the first frost comes and the fruits legendary astringency fades, humans find them delicious (it's like spiced honeyed apricot, it somehow tastes like November), although we do not raise them commercially.

But there is something lovely and melancholy about ghost partnerships of mammoths and persimmons. Life shapes life, and then leaves it behind.

[thebeardlyben]

This is week 2 of my #inktober2018 heavy metal kitties.

I have the originals of these up for sale RIGHT HERE ON ETSY