#helen haven

[puzzlenation]

Women of Letters (and Squares and Boxes and Clues and...)

Puzzles bring joy to so many of us. They’re an escape, a challenge, a satisfying little test of our wits, our dedication, our creativity, and our flexibility of thought. In uncertain times, in times of trouble, people often turn to puzzles. Puzzles were a refuge for many during lockdown when COVID hung over our heads. And now, when so much seems uncertain, if not downright unstable, people will…

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Yale Climate Connections:

Asheville, North Carolina, seemed like a good place to escape the worst of a warming world. The city’s appealing four-season climate includes summers with a typical daily high around 84°F – unusually low for the Southeast U.S. – and winters that aren’t too frigid. There’s typically plenty of moisture throughout the year, but with a mountain rain shadow that keeps Asheville a bit less wet than most of its neighbors. And the city takes climate seriously: findings from a climate resilience assessment have already been incorporated into Asheville’s comprehensive planning document.

In a 2018 Rolling Stone article, Jeff Goodell profiled one climate refugee who had considered the Tampa area before settling on Asheville. “No place is without risk, but in Asheville, the risks seem manageable,” Jeff Kaplan told Goodell. A 2021 Blue Ridge Public Radio segment portrayed Asheville as a climate “winner.”

Then came Hurricane Helene. After striking the Florida Panhandle at Category 4 strength, the storm took a quirky left hook across the southern Appalachians, pushing mammoth amounts of moisture upslope. Making matters worse, a predecessor rain event ahead of Helene had dumped six to 12 inches of rain across the region a day before the storm itself arrived.

The result was one of the most devastating, prolonged, and deadly hurricane-related U.S. flood disasters since the cataclysm of Katrina in 2005. Across the southern Appalachians – including Asheville – Helene destroyed roads, knocked out power and water lines, crippled communications, and took dozens of lives.

Among the things that make Helene different is that it arrived at a time when hurricane behavior is being measurably amped up in multiple ways by human-caused climate change. And it hammered a place now widely viewed to be at least somewhat insulated from the worst impacts of that changing climate.

Many folks seeking out climate-change-protected places in the U.S. have leaned toward small, progressive cities in relatively cool parts of the Midwest and East. Spikes in heat, drought, and wildfire that have plagued the West seem more likely to be tempered in these apparent havens. And in many of them, climate adaptation efforts are already underway.

As it turns out, most of the country east of the Rockies is getting wetter. Especially over the central and southern Appalachians, some locations saw a 5 to 10% rise in official annual precipitation when their 1980-2011 climate averages were replaced by the 1991-2020 figures. In Asheville, a typical year’s precipitation jumped from 37.32 to 40.61 inches.

Along with Asheville, a couple of other often-cited climate-change oases in the U.S. Midwest and East have experienced landmark rains and floods in recent years.

Duluth, Minnesota, referred to in a 2023 New York Times writeup as “climate-proof Duluth” (and the subject of a study on how climate migration might change the city), experienced the worst flooding in its history on June 19-20, 2012, when the city was swamped by a record 7.24 inches of rain in 24 hours. Colossal rains were even more widespread across northeast Minnesota on June 18, 2024, when a number of stations reported 5-7.5 inches of rain – a daily total with an expected recurrence interval of 500 to 1,000 years, according to the National Weather Service.

Vermont has long stood out as a potential U.S. climate refuge, with its environmentally friendly reputation, ample greenery and mountains, and normally mild summers. But when former Hurricane Irene ripped across the state as a tropical storm in August 2011, it brought massive rainfall that triggered one of Vermont’s worst disasters on record, rivaling or exceeding the notorious floods of 1927 in some areas. Then in 2023, weeks of early-summer wildfire smoke filtering south from Canada were followed by the Great Vermont Flood of July 10-11. Triggered by up to 9.61 inches of rain, the floods caused more than $2.2 billion in damage across northern New England and triggered the region’s first-ever flash flood emergency.

[skeletonpandas]

Sitting here, sipping my coffee...thinking, as I often do, about the future.

I live in Michigan. When climate change was something "experts could be lying about" I started noticing the changes. I spend alot of time in nature. With animals and native plants. I am an amateur forager, science nerd. In photography, my favorite subject was mushrooms. I noticed...that my winters began getting snow later, first. I live in the north-north. Where it is traditionally colder for longer and my warm seasons are shorter (zone 3 and 4). Winter wouldn't decide to be here til late December. When it used to come October 31st. Which was it's own eerie kind of spooky. Subtle. Slow rearranging of your known reality.

Then, the tornados that I don't usually see in my state hit in early december. Not even two hours away from my house.

My mighty lake, which shields me from the worst storms from Canada and absorbs any that make it this far inland...suddenly feels like a smaller shield. Lake affect doesn't just drop boat loads of snow, that's something alot of people don't know. Sometimes, the difference in temperature creates a dip that attracts storms coming towards it. Like a vacuum. I've watched it happen hundreds of times.

A storm predicted to hit my town will pass right over it and dissipate over the lake. Then my autumns began to come later as well, as if playing catch up with the winter. Wait for meeeee.... My summers began creeping into the fall, getting longer. I suddenly had more of a fighting change with my vegetable garden which was always a challenge with the work grind life. All of this felt very welcome. The cold weather has always had an element of challenge to it. Me and my boots climbing over three and four feet snow banks, living on a hill, trying to dig us out and not slide all the way to the bottom of my driveway. Trying often in vain to start seedlings early inside the house in crazy looking arrangements, with pots and grow lights everywhere, really needing a dehumidifier to fight pests and mold because I live near a swamp.

Then my springs seemingly disappeared. I would go winter to summer. In a kind of wild whiplash. There was no gradual change. It either was or was not. Michigan's notoriously unpredictable winter...became glaringly predictable for a couple years.

Then, these last two winters. I saw almost no snow. My daffodils came up in february. The bears came out, in a kind of confusion, in February. My trees didn't bloom because they woke up too early. It's like all of nature knew something had changed but not everyone was equipped to deal with it. My bug populations BOOMED. Suddenly I had spiders everywhere. I saw less mosquitoes. And less rain, living somewhere where I always have plenty of water.

My swamp wasn't wet. The questionable became undeniable.

I bought portable emergency solar panels. I got an electric bike. I tried to set up a sustainable food situation, stuff that will grow in this kind of bizarro weather without my attention. To some measure of success but also equal failure. Because try as I might, financially to survive the grind tries to keep me in it. Pulling on my sleeves, beckoning me away from my life.

a HURRICANE just hit Tennessee. That's a hop skip and a jump from me.

What the hell is this.

This winter is supposed to be what all our winters look like, going forward. Muddy, cold, and wet.

[demisexualnathanvuornos]

A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride (2008) co-written & directed by Leslie Hope

[misscrazyfangirl321]

helen and jordan: careful!

Everything hurt. She ached down to her bones, head spinning, but above it all was the crushing disappointment. Once again, she’d thought that someone would love and accept her for who she was. And once again, she was left alone and suffering, with just one more reminder that she wasn’t-would never be-good enough.

Well, she wasn’t completely alone. The woman stayed. What did Benjamin call her? Jessica? He’d called her a villain, and maybe she was, but she was pregnant, and Jordan just couldn’t justify using her powers like that. Hurting a soldier was one thing; hurting an innocent child was another. And when the only one Jordan trusted betrayed her, Jessica chose to stay. 

“You’re okay,” Jessica said, not soft and assuring but matter-of-fact. “Help is almost here.”

Who could she have called? Emma? The redhead didn’t really strike Jordan as the type to help an enemy. Maybe her husband? Would that little team even be able to help Jordan? Or-

“Where is she?”

It took several long seconds to place the voice: British accent, clipped and commanding. After all these months, it would seem Helen Magnus got her wish after all; Jordan didn’t know whether to be relieved or afraid. If she ended up in a cage, or dissected on a table somewhere…. All her life, she’d just wanted to be normal. Free. Loved. And now here she was, bleeding out on the pavement, her only allies a pregnant woman who once tried to kill her and a mysterious stranger rumored to lock up the unusual things of the world. 

But what was the alternative? She couldn’t exactly turn away help at the moment. 

“Over here.” 

Footsteps drew close to Jordan, who forced her eyes open. Tears and pain blurred her vision, but she could make out Dr. Magnus’ figure, kneeling softly beside Jordan and reaching for her. “You’ll be alright,” she promised. “Just breathe.” 

“Careful!” Jordan gasped out, drawing back instinctively from the hands, even as her whole body screamed in protest. “You can’t-it’s not-”

“I know.” She caught Jordan by the arms, and it was thick leather, not flesh, resting against Jordan’s skin. Gloves; smart woman. “Just let me help you. Hm?” 

Whatever she wanted with Jordan, whatever her plans, she might have been the only hope Jordan had left.

[elektrarose]

What a shame! 🤭

@apple-pie-xox 🩷 @becky-has-a-girlfriend ❤️ @2inchchelsea 🧡 @emma-thee-bnwo-bitxh 💛 @helen-the-doll 💚 @jade-the-princess 🩵 @jess-wears-the-dress 💙 @kimberly-kash 💜 @lucymay2022 🖤 @mythic-chloe-thicc 🩶 @goodgirlmadison 🤍 @norah-is-not-straight 🤎 @olivia-popstar-slut ❤️‍🔥 @penny-emosiss ❣️ @stacey-xox-bimbo 💕 @svetlana-blonde-doll 💞 @veras-caption-haven 💓 @girlytutusparklefactory 💗 @tiffy-bitch-xox 💖 @elektrarose 💘 @queendestiny6912 💝 @karlie-xox 💟

[potatoesandsunshine]

this run of inquisition is great bc instead of checking out and putting a podcast on i just spend the whole time thinking about how messed up max is. the guy trying to jump up the cliff right now has so many things wrong with him. hope getting up this cliff helps.

[samantha-in-a-pink-bow]

Nothing screams sissy like a matching set. It gets me for a bounce session 🍆

What’s your favourite what colour brings the sissy out in you 🎀

@andrearose96 🌹

@apple-pie-xox 🩷

@becky-has-a-girlfriend ❤️

@2inchchelsea 💛

@emma-thee-bnwo-bitxh 💚

@helen-the-doll 🩵

@jade-the-princess 💙

@jess-wears-the-dress 💜

@kimberly-kash 🖤

@lucymay2022 🩶

@lulu-that-basic-ho 🤍

@goodgirlmadison 🤎

@norah-is-not-straight ❣️

@olivia-popstar-slut 💞

@samantha-in-a-pink-bow 💓

@stacey-xox-bimbo 💗

@svetlana-blonde-doll 💖

@veras-caption-haven 💘

@queendestiny6912 💝

@karlie-xox 💟

[kimberly-kash]

new year’s resolutions with Dua ☺️☺️

@apple-pie-xox 🩷 @becky-has-a-girlfriend ❤️ @2inchchelsea 🧡 @emma-thee-bnwo-bitxh 💛 @helen-the-doll 💚 @jade-the-princess 🩵 @jess-wears-the-dress 💙 @kimberly-kash 💜 @lucymay2022 🖤 @mythic-chloe-thicc 🩶 @goodgirlmadison 🤍 @norah-is-not-straight 🤎 @penny-emosiss ❤️‍🔥 @stacey-xox-bimbo 💕 @svetlana-blonde-doll 💞 @veras-caption-haven 💓 @girlytutusparklefairy 💗 @tiffy-bitch-xox 💖 @elektrarose 💘 @natalie-frills ❣️ @transparent-patrisia 🩷 @queendestiny6912 💝 @karlie-xox 💟

[sissifiedsophia]

Sometimes we have to change for the better 🥰🥰🥰

@apple-pie-xox 🩷

@becky-has-a-girlfriend ❤️

@betty-plastic-dolly 🧡

@2inchchelsea 💛

@emma-thee-bnwo-bitxh 💚

@helen-the-doll 🩵

@jade-the-princess 💙

@jess-wears-the-dress 💜

@kimberly-kash 🖤

@lucymay2022 🩶

@lulu-that-basic-ho 🤍

@goodgirlmadison 🤎

@want-to-be-natalie ❤️‍🔥

@norah-is-not-straight ❣️

@patrisia-pink 💕

@penny-fashionsvictim 💕

@olivia-popstar-slut 💞

@samantha-in-a-pink-bow 💓

@stacey-xox-bimbo 💗

@svetlana-blonde-doll 💖

@veras-caption-haven💘

@queendestiny6912 💝

@karlie-xox 💟

[oooocleo]

theres a couple of books missing from here bc they didnt tile nicely but kicks my legs... reading log so far from the first half of 2024 🫡

i wanted to share my favourites out of the above as well:

carmilla by sheridan le fanu (the og vampire novella, somewhat archaic writing style but Way more lesbian than i was expecting, v evocative of those insane girlhood friendships one has growing up afab)

the goblin emperor by katherine addison (maia… the ultimate good boy truly trying his best to be a good ruler - i felt alternatively so bad for him and rly proud of the sentiment of kindness he embodied + gorg descriptions of the goblin/elf cultures)

empress of salt and fortune by nghi vo (novella; gorgeous poetic writing, like catching glimpses of an epic fantasy story but being Allowed to fill in a ton of it yourself.. rly tactile…also WAMEN and a sprinkle of lesbianism 🤌)

white is for witching by helen oyeyemi (magical realism prose which powerfully serves the unreliable narrator/psychological issues the protagonist has/seems to have + haunted house horror where the house is also in the characters after they leave.. i rly want to reread it already)

the dispossessed by ursula k le guin (anarchist socialist anticapitalist anti-prison anti-police theory beamed straight into my brain. made me want to move to the moon. actually nuanced in its depiction of issues in supposedly utopian societies)

annihilation by jeff vandermeer (delicious bio-horror.. weirdness abounds… really vivid pov/protagonist in the autistic broad shouldered biologist, imo very well crafted mystery but dont go in expecting to have all the answers at the end, thats Not The Point tm)

blood over bright haven by ML wang (sciona.... ur THE power hungry maniac academic ive been waiting for... this is a visceral fantasy that quite skillfully deals w gender & ethnic oppression w.o cheapening those issues for the (lowkey) romance's sake, a common gripe for me)

bride by ali hazelwood (just a freaking good time if uve been traumatized by abusive male leads ur supposed to like.. werewolf x vampire contemporary romance)

[itsjennygirlz]

And do you know what happens when Girls like you get their clothes off... 😏 If you do you need to reblog this post Sissy 💕

Girls I need your help to get in @queendestiny6912 harem ❤

Can you sweethearts help me ? @apple-pie-xox @becky-has-a-girlfriend @2inchchelsea @emma-thee-bnwo-bitxh @helen-the-doll @jade-the-princess @jess-wears-the-dress @kimberly-kash @lucymay2022 @mythic-chloe-thicc @goodgirlmadison @norah-is-not-straight @olivia-popstar-slut @penny-emosiss @stacey-xox-bimbo @svetlana-blonde-doll @veras-caption-haven @girlytutusparklefairy @tiffy-bitch-xox @elektrarose @karlie-xox 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🩶🤎❤️‍🔥❣️💕💞💓💗💖💘💝💟

♡ XoXo Jenny ♡

[elektrarose]

It was a small price to pay...

But its TOTALLY worth it!

@apple-pie-xox 🩷 @becky-has-a-girlfriend ❤️ @2inchchelsea 🧡 @emma-thee-bnwo-bitxh 💛 @helen-the-doll 💚 @jade-the-princess 🩵 @jess-wears-the-dress 💙 @kimberly-kash 💜 @lucymay2022 🖤 @mythic-chloe-thicc 🩶 @goodgirlmadison 🤍 @norah-is-not-straight 🤎 @olivia-popstar-slut ❤️‍🔥 @penny-emosiss ❣️ @stacey-xox-bimbo 💕 @svetlana-blonde-doll 💞 @veras-caption-haven 💓 @girlytutusparklefairy 💗 @tiffy-bitch-xox 💖 @elektrarose 💘 @queendestiny6912 💝 @karlie-xox 💟

[potatoesandsunshine]

this new max trevelyan situation is sooooooooo. it is so. what if you were trapped in amber (stolen away to the circle) and remain a Pure & Good Soul in the eyes of your generation of the family because you weren't involved in the cutthroat succession fight they all had (because, again, you were trapped in the circle dealing with The Situation In There) and when you finally got out like half your cousins were dead and the other half were a little bit too devoted to the idea that a piece of their childhood remains Untainted in you so you kind of fell into this peacemaker role but right as you finally got everyone talking to each other again you became the center of a religious movement that clearly does not have your best interests at heart. so now those same cousins are sat around a table in a secret basement somewhere trying to decide if they can kidnap you out of it. like on one hand: bonding experience successful! on the other hand if you don't fold them into the inquisition somehow they will be crushed under the boot of it.