#wayne national forest

[cavett]

my life in appalachia

[middleland]

Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) by Wayne National Forest

Via Flickr:

Come the start of fall, tiny spikes of purple and white flowers begin popping up around the bases of beech trees. These are the flowers of Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana), a parasite that feeds on American Beech trees. There are several types of parasitic plants. The past two plants we shared (Ghost Pipe and Pinesap) were a certain type of parasite that feed on fungi living on plant roots. Other types of parasitic plants can feed on a wide variety of plant species. Beechdrops is an example of yet another type of parasite that only feed on one very specific host. In the case of Beechdrops, they only feed on American Beech trees. Beechdrops have specialized roots that are able to pierce the roots of beech trees to access and steal some of the food and nutrients flowing through the beech’s xylem and phloem. Will Beechdrops kill a beech tree? Nope! A “good” parasite makes sure it doesn’t kill its host, because without a living host the parasite itself won’t be able to survive. Beechdrops are very common throughout the Wayne National Forest. While not every beech tree will have Beechdrops growing around it, many do. Forest Service photo by Kyle Brooks         

[plethoraworldatlas]

A new Bureau of Land Management plan to open 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest to fracking for oil and gas looks almost identical to one a federal judge rejected in 2020. The public can comment on the plan in writing or during online meetings Monday and Tuesday.

Fossil fuel companies have targeted Ohio’s only national forest for years and in 2016 the BLM first attempted to auction off oil and gas leases in the Wayne. The new proposal, released in late March, is nearly identical to the fracking plan blocked in 2020 after conservation groups challenged it in federal court.

“It’s hugely disappointing that federal officials are sticking with this climate-destroying plan to sell off Ohio’s precious public lands to the oil and gas industry, even as flooding, wildfires and heat waves intensify with climate change,” said Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our government needs to prioritize people, wildlife and our climate over corporate profits and block fracking in the Wayne once and for all. Ohio residents have the chance to speak out over the next few weeks, and I hope land managers get an earful about this reckless fracking proposal.”

Fracking threatens the Wayne’s rivers, forests and endangered plants and animals ― the same things Congress intended to protect when it created the national forest in the 1930s.

“Fracking the Wayne National Forest would seriously jeopardize Ohio’s ability to fight climate change. This single oil and gas project threatens to generate enough greenhouse gas pollution to cancel out all of the Wayne’s carbon storage services for the next 30 years,” said Nathan Johnson, senior attorney with the Ohio Environmental Council. “Leasing the Wayne to the fossil fuel industry will scar this public forest and pollute our air with toxic chemicals. We should be doing everything we can to protect the public’s access to safe and beautiful public lands — especially in Ohio, where public land is in relatively short supply compared to so many other states.”

[my-lifes-reward]

ATV Riding the Wayne National Forest Monday Trailhead - Part 2

This video is a visit to the Wayne National Forest in Southeastern Ohio. Specifically, it is an ATV/AVP ride on the Monday Creek Trailhead, the Main Corridor, and the Bowl Trail. The total ride was 14.7 miles.

This video is a visit to the Wayne National Forest in Southeastern Ohio. Specifically, it is an ATV/AVP ride on the Monday Creek Trailhead, the Main Corridor, and the Bowl Trail. The total ride was 14.7 miles. The State of Ohio and volunteer groups have worked hard to develop and maintain 50″ trails for some of the best in the country. These unique elevation changes are literally scaling…

[hawaii-ocean-photography]

Fun photos for today

New post and fun pics! Subscribe on the website for my (infrequent) blogs.

Is anyone else fascinated by buzzards (or vultures, whichever name you use)? These photos were taken in Wayne National Forest at Burr Oak Lake. According to mythology, Zeus was angry with Prometheus for giving fire to humans. As punishment, Zeus chained him on a mountaintop where vultures ate his liver and flesh; each night he would be healed and endure it anew every day. Prometheus was finally…

[reasonsforhope]

"On a freezing cold Wednesday afternoon in eastern Kentucky, Taysha DeVaughan joined a small gathering at the foot of a reclaimed strip mine to celebrate a homecoming. “It’s a return of an ancestor,” DeVaughan said. “It’s a return of a relative.”

That relative was the land they stood on, part of a tract slated for a federal penitentiary that many in the crowd consider another injustice in a region riddled with them. The mine shut down years ago, but the site, near the town of Roxana, still bears the scars of extraction.

DeVaughan, an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, joined some two dozen people on January 22 to celebrate the Appalachian Rekindling Project buying 63 acres within the prison’s footprint.

“What we’re here to do is to protect her and to give her a voice,” DeVaughan said. “She’s been through mountaintop removal. She’s been blown up, she’s been scraped up, she’s been hurt.”

The Appalachian Rekindling Project, which she helped found last year, wants to rewild the site with bison and native flora and fauna, open it to intertribal gatherings, and, it hopes, stop the prison.

The environmental justice organization worked with a coalition of local nonprofits, including Build Community Not Prisons and the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, to raise $160,000 to buy the plot from a family who owned the land generationally.

Retired truck driver Wayne Whitaker, who owns neighboring land and had considered purchasing it as a hunting ground, told Grist he was supportive. “There’s nothing positive we’ll get out of this prison,” he said.

The penitentiary has been a gleam in the eye of state and local officials and the Bureau of Prisons since 2006. It has always sparked sharp divisions in Roxana and beyond and was killed in 2019 after a series of lawsuits, only to be quietly resurrected in 2022. Last fall, the bureau took the final step in its approval process, clearing the way to begin buying land...

In his book Coal, Cages, Crisis, Schept noted that mine sites are considered ideal locations for prisons or a dumping ground for waste, rather than places of ecological value, as some biologists have argued. The Roxana site has been reclaimed, meaning re-vegetated with a forest that now shelters a number of rare species, including endangered bats.

Opponents argue that a prison will bring more environmental problems than jobs. Letcher County was 1 of 13 counties ravaged by catastrophic flooding in 2022, a situation exacerbated by damage strip mining caused to local watersheds. The prison slated for Roxana will exacerbate the problem.

The Bureau of Prisons estimates it will damage 6,290 feet of streams and about 2 acres of wetlands. (The agency has promised to compensate the state.)

DeVaughan said the purchase also is a step toward rectifying the dispossession that began with the forced removal and genocide of Indigenous peoples. The Cherokee, Shawnee, and Yuchi made their homes in the area before, during, and after colonization, and their thriving nations raised crops, ran businesses, and hunted bison that once roamed Appalachia.

In all the time since, coal, timber, gas, and landholding companies have at times owned almost half of the land in 80 counties stretching from West Virginia to Alabama. Several prisons sprang from deals made with coal companies, something many locals consider the continuation of this status quo.

Changing that dynamic is a priority for the Appalachian Rekindling Project, which hoped to buy more land to protect it from extractive industries and return its stewardship to Indigenous and local communities. DeVaughn said Indigenous peoples throughout the region will be welcome to use the land as a gathering place...

DeVaughan sees its work establishing a new vision of economic transition for coalfields, one that relies less on “dollars and numbers” and more on “healing and restoration” of the land and the Indigenous and other communities that live there.

She is working with some personal connections in the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations to acquire a herd of bison and plans to work with local volunteers, scientists, and students to inventory the site’s flora and fauna."

-via GoodGoodGood, February 6, 2025

[purple-goo-writes]

Sooo been listening Mr. Creeps Park Ranger stories on YouTube and welll...

What if Danny became a park ranger in one of the national parks in Illinois near Amity? Could be a real National part or one made up.

After all he can't be an astronaut and maybe Sam dragging him to conservation rallies an other stuff influenced him. Sure he likes Tinkering and has a few patents like his parents do, but he loved the stars more and being able to see the clear stars from the Fire Watch Tower helped.

Plus all the weird and supernatural things that happen there, well Danny is as supernatural as one can get and at least it isn't a squishy human having to deal with something like a wendigo or rapid bear. Some things he can bargain or reason with, though others he had to either detour others from that area or sometimes Deal with himself.

(Sometimes he was glad he was already half dead and could heal, after reattached an arm. Looks like he had to add new rules to the book to teach the newbies)

So he has been at this for a few decades now, officially "retired" from hero work but not from dealing with the supernatural. By now he knew how to deal with the fae that made their home in the Grove near by, how to avoid certain entities or bargain with others or thr steps you needed to take to avoid confrontation, knew how to detour hikers and campers from the more blood thirsty residents of the Park and rescue those unlucky enough to lose their way from the trails.

Sadly he couldn't always save those who got lost, especially if they weren't near his tower when they went missing. But he tried his best.

He also had to deal with his fair share of Paranormal/Supernatural/Cryptid Hunters, groups of teens and young adults (sometimes older adults too) eager to find anything strange for clout. But most only found death if not careful. He had to rescue many from the more Ravenous residents. It was never fun for all parties involved and just annoying for Danny.

But his years of experience were going to be put to the test when dealing with this group of amateur hunters all nearly identical with their black hair and blue eyes (though only two didn't share this the youngest and the black teen who looked like he wished his siblings hadn't dragged him with them) who were there with a tired man Danny's age who shared their hair ad eye color. The Waynes (why did that sound familiar? He didn't leave the forest much, so didn't kep up with media) apparently were going on a small vacation/Camping trip and the eldest heard about all the cryptid and supernatural stories and wanted to check it out.

Danny could already tell he was going to have to fish one or two of them out of the golute of one of the beasties in the deeper parts of the Forest.

[fastcardotmp3]

future!steddie; long haul trucker Eddie; firefighter Steve ~1k words

It makes sense to Eddie, an obvious out when his world's gone to shit and he has to get away, that his escape route from Indiana is the same job his uncle left to settle down there and raise a kid with nowhere else to go.

Driving long haul means there's no one looking that close at a face that made it to the national news during his week on the run. It means living on the move, never stopping long enough to get stuck anywhere.

It means freedom.

It means loneliness.

He calls Wayne twice a week, coins in pay phones at rest stops while he's waiting for his hair to dry post-public shower, and that's enough for him.

Wayne has always been enough for him, and it would be hurtful to suggest otherwise; it would be disrespectful to the life Wayne helped him build, keeps helping him build with all that faith that had him never doubting an innocence questioned by everyone else in that God-forsaken town.

Twice a week. It's the only phone number he knows by heart.

Twice a week for weeks and then months and then years, driving cross-country and back again, it's freedom. He keeps telling himself it's freedom, that it's good, that he doesn't need anything more than that.

But driving long haul means there's a lot of time for thinking.

It means a lot of time for collecting thoughts up together and creating new meaning entirely.

It means that by the time he's twenty-one and twenty-five and thirty that he has tape after tape after tape where he's collected those thoughts aloud in the rumbling loud silence of an overnight drive.

Thoughts like who would I be if I'd stuck around? and thoughts like will they understand that this time running saved my life? and thoughts like I miss them, am I allowed to miss them, am I allowed to love them without ever really knowing them?

It means that when he stops for all but the first time in ten years, coming home to Wayne to find that Forest Hills is home to a couple more familiar faces than he expected, there's space for his words. His endless, looping thoughts.

Steve's got his own trailer these days, brings in Wayne's mail for him on the mornings he comes home from the night shift at the fire station and stays for coffee.

Steve's there across the way when Eddie drives up in a new-used flatbed truck he'd bought with his final paycheck on the day he hung up his hat and decided he'd been gone long enough.

Steve's there in stories Wayne only begins telling now that Eddie is home, endless retellings of a brand-new man who became a friend during a time when the name Munson was still a dangerous thing to carry.

Steve's there when Eddie starts transcribing all his dictated notes into something resembling narrative and character and prose and Eddie doesn't know the guy who jumped headfirst into another dimension, hasn't spoken to him since that week that forced Eddie to flee in the first place, but maybe he doesn't need to have those years under his belt.

Maybe it doesn't matter if Eddie knows a nineteen-year-old Steve Harrington, because he knows the twenty-nine-year-old one starting a matter of hours after he comes crawling back home, knows this grown and steady one who looked after Wayne when Eddie had to leave.

This Steve isn't stuck despite still living in the town that tried to kill him. He doesn't seem lost or without purpose.

He lives a simple life, working at the Hawkins FD and feeding stray dogs with the bowls he leaves out beside his porch. Robin comes and goes, seemingly dating her way through the Midwest's entire sapphic population and sleeping on Steve's couch in between live-in girlfriends.

There are old friends on the phone at near constant intervals in Steve's home, and there's that phone being pressed to Eddie's ear without giving him the chance to be terrified about what Erica or Dustin or Max might say to the guy who hasn't allowed anyone but Wayne access to him for a decade, what he might say back after so many years without proper human socialization.

Eddie has been moving for so long, stayed moving through the bulk of his acceptance of everything that happened to him, but there's a different sort of quiet here than what he found on the road, stillness, amongst the casual chaos.

There's similarities to life on his rig, sure, a certain routine to the comings and goings, only Eddie isn't hiding anymore and he's not thumbing through the same staticky stations anymore and he's not lonely anymore.

He doesn't know how to sit still yet, not really, but he stays up all night handwriting poetry on paper he once spoke onto tape on the porch of his uncle's trailer and sometimes when Steve gets home after dark, he'll sit with him.

He'll eat his dinner still in uniform and listen to the scratch of Eddie's pen and Eddie doesn't know him, Steve Harrington, but he's getting to know his neighbor Steve.

Ten years down the line and he's becoming solid right there in front of Eddie's eyes, becoming real, becoming something that can't possibly fit onto the tapes filled with nonsense and insights alike.

"You're never what I think you're going to be," Eddie admits to him one morning over coffee before Wayne or Robin have risen, before the phone has begun to ring, before the world wakes up and brings Eddie's life along with it, ready or not.

Steve smiles at him, amused and curious and cocky in the way he responds, "you're exactly who Wayne said you are."

It's an admission all its own, that Steve has thought about Eddie, spoken about him, in the time they've spent apart, even if it was only because he'd dared to keep Wayne Munson's company.

It's still an admission though, that in his absence, in his loneliness out on the road, Eddie wasn't forgotten by the watercolor skies over Hawkins, Indiana.

"Yeah?" Eddie breathes in those very skies, "and what did Wayne say I'd be?"

Ten years down the line and suddenly it makes sense to Eddie.

It makes sense in the morning dew on the lawn; it makes sense in the too-strong Harrington-brewed coffee; it makes sense in the wheels of his truck on a road that does end, eventually, and it makes sense in the collected thoughts and feelings, fears and dreams that he had to go away to decipher.

The freedom was in leaving, sure, but this? The coming home to Wayne and this porch and the man who lives across the way?

"Stick around, Munson," Steve Harrington dares on a morning like any other, "and maybe I'll just tell you."

Well. As it turns out, this might be the thing that saves him.

[glitter-stained]

Some more movies for your consideration:

Countdown

Steph sports movie where a young woman is a boxer making money in illegal fighting rings to support her mother. One day, she hears about a co-ed boxing tournament (regular, not underground) organised by the Wayne foundation with an extraordinary first place cash prize and decides to enter it despite nobody believing in her. Featuring Cass as the undefeated champion (with blatant, infuriating romantic tension), Tim as the cocky rival, Barbara and Dick as their mentors and Dinah as a retired undefeated boxing champion who gives good advice with a romantic tension sideplot with Barbara.

Nobody dies Tonight

Jason & Cass thriller movie where a rough socially stunted PI with supernatural empathy and precognition abilities tracks down a suicidal retired serial killer to stop him from committing his final kill. (Note that due to the flimsy nature of her powers, Cass only knows that he is preparing for a last kill, the "suicide" part is a twist; there is also some dramatic irony because due to the switches between Jason and Cass' POVs, at first the viewer also just knows Jason is preparing something, and there are hints through which you can figure out little by little that he's putting his affairs in order for his own disappearance.)

The Audition

Mia-centric arrowfam mafia movie with the noble gangster archetype. In order to escape her pimp turned would-be murderer and survive the streets, the resourceful and talented fifteen years old Mia Dearden decides to try her luck and attempt to get herself hired as an enforcer for the mysterious Queen Family; however danger reigns in the streets of Star City and Mia's mentor, a homeless amnesiac man with incredible fighting skills, might be hiding more than one secret of his own... (This is a found family adoption story, except nobody bothered to tell this to Mia.)

Sharpshooter

Roy-centric movie where a ranger fresh out of rehab who lost his parents in a forest fire saves a little girl from a bear attack, only to find himself in a time-loop. Mistrustful, and with scars of her own, she refuses to give him her name. He grows attached to the little girl, even nicknaming her "Sharpshooter" as he teaches her how to use his spare tranq gun to protect herself; but every day, before they are able to escape, a bear or a cliff or a fire or some other catastrophe ends up killing the little girl... (The story ends with Roy managing to find a radio and calling his estranged foster family for help, and they find him, ragged and frightened, holding the little girl tight in his arms and lead them back to safety; the final shot is Roy in the back of a car with the little girl asleep on his lap, watching the sun set over the national park.

[wikipediapictures]

Cerioporus squamosus

“The mushroom Polyporus squamosus Huds. ex Fr. Photographed in Kinderhook Trail, Wayne National Forest, Ohio, USA. Notes: ‘On standing dead elm.’” - via Wikimedia Commons

[steviestits]

My God Longs For Me - Part 1.1

Written for an anon prompt, which can be read in its entirety on this fic’s masterpost.

Pairing: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: T (E for later chapters) Summary: When Steve was a child, he was abducted and brought to the cult, the Hellfire Club, as he was prophesied to be the wife of the dark forest god they worshiped. Steve enjoyed his time there, especially the time he spent with the cult leader's nephew, Eddie. This wasn't meant to last however as Steve was eventually returned to his parents. Thanks to the deprogrammer that his parents hired and time, Steve has mostly forgotten the cult that raised him. That is until he goes on a camping trip and his friends start to get murdered one by one with the only connection between the killings being the ritual offerings to the cult's gods and the strange dreams Steve has before each one. Now Steve must piece together his past to discover who is murdering his friends in the present. (Inspired heavily by various horror movies and is a horror story itself.) Trigger Warning: Child Abuse, Feminization, Brainwashing Eventual Trigger Warning: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Ritual Sacrifices, Gore, Mpreg, Body Horror, Monster Fucking

According to his parents, when he was three, Steve had been abducted by a “satanic” cult called the Hellfire Club. If Steve was being honest, he barely remembered being taken. The only bit he did vaguely remember was playing on the swings while his nanny read her book when another little boy approached him. His name was Eddie, and he told Steve that he’d been chosen. Eddie took Steve’s hand then led him to a black sedan, where Eddie’s uncle and adoptive father, Wayne, sat waiting to drive them back to the compound.

The compound was located deep in the forest, forged from the ruins of an abandoned summer camp. They were all nice and welcoming. No one told him to sit up straight or to shut up because the grown-ups were talking. All of them wanted to hear what he had to say and treated him like he was special, almost to the point of reverence. It was different from home where his parents were gone all the time and his nanny ignored him in favor of her own interests. Almost instantly, Steve felt like he never wanted to go back to the Harringtons, that here was his home.

Steve was given new clothes to wear, tons of flowery hair accessories and earthy dresses. They let him grow his hair out, and once he got older, they showed him how to wear make-up. Steve loved it. He felt pretty, and when Eddie saw him, he’d say all sorts of nice things to him, like calling him beautiful. It could’ve been because they were promised to each other, as that’s why they’d taken Steve. He was going to be Eddie’s bride once Eddie took over the compound from Wayne. Still, the words made Steve’s insides flutter all the same.

Being promised to Eddie hadn’t felt like anything at first except the shared excitement that he’d get to be married to his best friend. Eddie created the best games for them to play, and he had such an amazing imagination, that it was hard not to be drawn to Eddie’s charismatic ways. All Steve wanted to do was spend every waking second with the other boy, so it was no surprise that feelings had started to develop once they reached puberty and the time of their marriage would be approaching soon.

It started out small, just holding hands during the summer nights and snuggling in front of the fire in the winter. Then when they were thirteen, they shared their first kiss. They kissed more after that, had even been talking about taking it to the next level, French kissing, but they never got a chance because that’s when the police finally tracked him down, separating him from Eddie to return him to his rightful home where he lived with the Harringtons.

How they found him was that the news had done a special on him, the ten-year anniversary of his disappearance. It had shocked the nation that a boy from such a high-income neighborhood could be taken without a trace, so the issue of safety plagued the minds of the upper-class as they worried about their heirs being snatched from the playground. The special went into all of this, showed his parents’ impassioned pleas for the kidnapper to return their son, and the video surveillance from the store across from where Steve had been taken.

As luck would have it, someone recognized the car as the one Wayne drove, and one police raid later, the Hellfire Club had been dismantled while Wayne was arrested. Steve didn’t know what happened to Eddie after that, as he was whisked away from the arms of the only boy he’d loved, only to be deposited into those of the Harringtons. They had been there at the police station with his mother crying when she saw his appearance, hugging him too tight and pressing rough kisses into his cheek while moaning about what they had done to her little boy.

The Harringtons then took away his dresses and makeup while forcing him to cut his hair. They explained to him that boys didn’t wear clothes that were clearly reserved for little girls. It was unnatural and made him a freak. That was how they knew the cult was evil and didn’t care about him, they said, as no self-respecting person would let their son be a freak, which is why they found the best deprogrammer to make Steve their kind of normal again.

Once he was presentable, the Harringtons started bringing him to news stations to do interviews about his kidnapping, so he could share his harrowing tale with the rest of the world. He didn’t tell his story as much as he sat there while his parents talked about satanic rituals and human sacrifices, how they were so lucky Steve didn’t end up as one. No one cared about what Steve actually experienced or about how nice they’d been to him or how he’d been promised to Eddie. They had their narrative, and Steve was supposed to nod along without complaint.

Steve went on every news and talk show that they had on air, paraded out in front of the audience who looked at him with sympathy, as if he’d been tortured for ten years straight. On top of television appearances, his dad met with important business executives and producers. He had sold the rights to Steve’s story, which would make them even richer than they already were, even if none of what they sold was true. Though he supposed no one cared if it was true as long as it made a good story and won them a couple of best drama awards.

All the while, Steve waited for Eddie to show up to save him. Eddie had promised that he’d always be there when Steve needed him, because husbands took care of their wives. He never showed up, however, and Steve started to believe that maybe his parents were right, that Eddie had never cared about him, that like everyone else, Eddie only cared about what Steve could give him instead of about his well-being. It felt like a piece of him had died when he realized that Eddie had abandoned him.

The sensationalism of his abduction did die down eventually, allowing Steve to return to what his life would’ve been like if Wayne had never taken him. Steve dressed as a boy, and he started dating girls, even if he never loved any of them like he loved Eddie. He also started going to school in their small town, and his dad picked out some boys for Steve to be friends with because their fathers were well-connected.

Unlike at the compound, when Steve had trouble learning, they didn’t slow down to explain it to him in more detail until he understood, but the teachers looked at him like he was an idiot who was wasting everyone’s time. And the boys that became his friends weren’t like Eddie. They were mean and cruel, but Steve was trapped. He had to comply or else, and he couldn’t just run away because the police would place him right back where he started.

Time passed, and before Steve knew it, he had barely graduated from college with a degree in finance, so he could work in his dad’s company. He was still friends with the same group of boys that his dad had picked out for him, too. They went to the same university, took the same classes, and were now all going to work together, because like him, their dad expected them to follow in their footsteps like the good sons they were.

Masterpost ~ Part 1.2

[middleland]

Toadshade Trillium at Sunset by Wayne National Forest

Via Flickr:

Forest Service photo by Kyle Brooks.     

[deepfried3aaa]

Ok so here's my headcanon/au for the riddler, I only wrote thos because I was bored and to make it easier to draw some character interactions, this is still a work in progress so if you have any suggestions please comment or dm but yeah here it is.

The Riddler

Real name: Edward Nashton

Villain name: The Riddler

Nicknames: (Ivy/Pam) Eddy, (Selina/Catwoman) Edward or Riddle boy, (Harley) Riri, (joker) question boy

Current age: 29

Job: unemployed/villain (this happens after he escapes from arkham)

Nationality: American

Parents: dead/unknown

Villain outfit/costume: forest green dress shirt, purple tie with a black question mark shaped pin, very dark gray pants and vest(very formal), forest green socks, purple shoes with golden laces, golden cane with a 3D question mark on top that he made himself, his normal glasses, gold pocket watch with small pendrive stored inside, forest green bowler hat with a gold question mark (he doesn't always wear the hat) and he also occasionally wears a green suit jacket with gray question marks on it when it's colder

Physical appearance: warm light brown choppy unkempt hair, brown eyes, very expressive brows and mouth, yellowed teeth from drinking coffee during all nighters while working on riddles, very rectangular build and long torso, big feet for his height, round face, skinny limbs, a lot of scars from his time in Arkham and from working on traps and riddles, very short stubby fingernails due to obsessively bitting them

Backstory/Childhood: Edward Nashton was born in August of 1996 in Gotham. In 2001 both of his parents died during a house fire and after that incident in wich he lost all direct family members and that led to him living at an orphanage from that point on, where he became obsessed with the Wayne family and especially Bruce Wayne and in the future he became especially obsessed with the political standing and influence of Thomas Wayne wich led him to become The Riddler

Personality: very obsessive tendancies and methodical planning, strong feelings of revenge/vengeance, amazing at masking emotions, sarcastic attitude, forms very strong bonds but not great at making many of them, often obsesses over his own riddles to an unhealthy point

Time in Arkham: he suffered a lot in Arkham asylum due to the poor conditions, frequent violence and abuse and his own lack of ability to defend himself properly (when it comes to actual physical fights) he was severely injured in his left knee and hip after being attacked by the Joker

Sexualy: bi asexual but hasn't figured himself out to well and is in denial because figuring himself out distracts him from his traps and riddles

relationships: Poison Ivy (roommates), Harley Quinn (work together /she keeps joker aways from him), Scarecrow (have work together before/friends), Bruce Wayne (thinks Bruce and him are friends/Bruce hates him/he breaks into the Wayne manor often), joker (he is scared of joker/joker sees him has dumb, childish and weak do to his smaller scale crimes when compared to joker's), the penguin (work together often/goes to the iceberg lounge often)

Other: shares a room with poison ivy, allways has soil stuck on the soles of his shoes, needs to have bangs independently of the length of his hair, likes collecting pens, doesn't like writing in blue, he's very specific about the lightbulbs in his room, he smells like flowers, coffee and books (yes i said he smells like books, books have a smell)

And here's a drawing of him:

[my-lifes-reward]

ATV Riding the Wayne National Forest Monday Trailhead - Part 1

This video is a visit to the Wayne National Forest in Southeastern Ohio. Specifically, it is an ATV/AVP ride on the Monday Creek Trailhead, the Main Corridor, and the Bowl Trail. The total ride was 14.7 miles.

This video is a visit to the Wayne National Forest in Southeastern Ohio. Specifically, it is an ATV/AVP ride on the Monday Creek Trailhead, the Main Corridor, and the Bowl Trail. The total ride was 14.7 miles. The State of Ohio and volunteer groups have worked hard to develop and maintain 50″ trails for some of the best in the country. These unique elevation changes are literally scaling…

[lotus-flower-writes-history]

The Unofficial Black History Blog

Della Reese (1931-2017)

Della Resse was born Delloresse Patricia Early on July 6th, 1931, in the Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan.

As a side note, Black Bottom was a predominantly Black neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. French settlers named it for its dark, fertile soil. Before World War I, it was home to European immigrants. During the Great Migration, African Americans from the South moved to Black Bottom to work in the auto factories.

 The neighborhood thrived from the 1920s to the 1950s, with many businesses, including restaurants, drugstores, and barbershops. It also had a vibrant entertainment district with jazz bars and nightclubs, including ‘The Forest Club.’ 

The neighborhood had a strong sense of community. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was demolished to make way for redevelopment, and the Lafayette Park residential district and a freeway replaced it. Some historical elements of the neighborhood remain.    

Delloreese was born to Richard Thaddeus Early, an African American steelworker, and Nellie Mitchelle Early, a Cherokee cook. Although her mother had other children before Reese, she was raised as an only child.

She spent most of her childhood at Olivet Baptist church and began singing in the choir at six. Along with gospel, she also loved Jazz and Blues music. When she was 12, she joined the interracial Church of Our Faith. 

At 13, she was hired by gospel legend Mahalia Jackson to sing in her gospel group. Later, she toured nationally while attending Cass Technical High School, where she was the first in her family to graduate high school at 16.

While attending Wayne State University, she formed her own gospel group, ‘The Meditation Singers’. But in 1949, when Reese’s mother suddenly died, she had to quit school to support her sick father. She then later moved out at the same time when he took in a new girlfriend. 

She went on to take on various odd jobs, including truck driving, working as an elevator operator, and performing at jazz clubs. It was during this time that she changed her name to Della Reese. 

Della’s big break came in the 1950s when she entered and won a contest to sing at Detroit’s famed ‘Flame Show Bar.’ The prize was a week-long gig at the club. While performing, the original week turned into two months as Della became one of Motor City’s top jazz singers and was exposed to the styles of outstanding performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, and others. 

A manager scouted her during her time at the Flame Show Bar. In 1953, she moved to New York City, became a vocalist with the Hawkins Orchestra, and signed a recording deal with Jubilee Records.

During that time, she recorded six albums with Jubilee Records, including her first big single, “And That Reminds Me.” The song broke into the Pop Top Twenty and sold over a million copies. She was voted “Most Promising Singer” by Billboard and several other music publications, including Crashbox and Variety, as well as the Disk Jockeys of America and the Jukebox Operators Association. 

In 1969, Della signed a new recording contract with RCA and had her biggest hit with “Don’t You Know?”, which reached #2 on the pop charts and topped the R&B charts. This was followed by three more singles that made it to the Top 100: “Not one minute more,” “And Now,” and “Someday (you'll want me to want you).”

In 1960, she earned her first Grammy nomination for Best Female Vocalist for her album Della. During the 60s, Della continued to record music, do tours, and perform on the Las Vegas circuit for over nine years and launched a successful television career. She made appearances on The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall, Pat Boone in Hollywood, and The Joey Bishop Show.

In 1968, she made her first debut acting on the series The Mob Squad, and she would sometimes fill in for The Tonight Show Host, Johnny Carson, making her the first black woman to host a national television variety talk show. 

In 1969, she was given an opportunity to have her very own talk show, Della ( also called The Della Reese Show), which aired every weekday as a variety/talk show that allowed Della to showcase her singing and her engaging conversational style. 

Along with her co-host, Jewish-American comedian Sandy Baron, Della introduced her audience to two or sometimes three guests every show, such as Muhammad Ali, Eric Burdon, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Linda Ronstadt, and Soupy Sales. She also invited up-and-coming new talent at the time, such as Steve Martin. 

During the show’s airing, Della would always make sure her guests were the center of attention. On occasion, she would perform musical numbers with her gusts, keeping the spotlight on them and not herself.

The Della Reese Show runtime only lasted one season (200 episodes) from June 1969 to March 1970. Although the show had good ratings and was successful during its runtime, it was because of Reese’s skin color, that the show met its unfortunate end.

The market in the Deep South and its unexpected willingness to promote a show starring an African-American woman. 

In 2008, in an interview with the Archive of American Television, Della stated: “The man who was selling our show said he couldn’t sell our show because my gums were black. That was his rationale – that my gums were not pink. Every time I smiled, I turned people off.”

Since the show’s cancellation, all 200 episodes have been lost to time, and only fragments are available today. Even after this setback, Della’s career continued to be successful over the years, as she made numerous appearances in shows and movies – Harlem Nights (1984), A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996), but she’s most notably known for starring in the CBS series, Touched by an Angel (1994-2003), and in 1994, she was honored for her talents with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

On June 12th, 2017, Della was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame.

On November 19th, 2017, Della Reese passed away at the age of 86 due to Type 2 Diabetes. 

Della Reese was a remarkable talent whose impact on music and television remains profound. She overcame challenges to become a famous jazz singer and innovative TV host. Della's soulful voice and warm personality endeared her to many, making her a beloved figure in American culture. Her legacy as a trailblazer continues to inspire generations of artists.

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