the apple of my eye

i write things featuring cool ladies. visit me on the ao3.

[pespavlovaa]

Day one of MirandyWeek2026

"Only One Bed"

[jackkdaniels]

look at me. listen to me. this is directed at americans for the record. the reason you think North American animals are boring is because you live here. there are so many cool and beautiful animals here. we have beavers. we have wolves. we have moose. we have sea lions. we have armadillos. we have mountain lions. we have alligators. we have foxes. we have bighorn sheep. we have manatees. we have bears. we have ocelots. we have BISON. and that’s not even touching on the birds! or the turtles! or the snakes! we have amazing beautiful and diverse wildlife right here and it deserves to be appreciated and protected

[matt-the-blind-cinnamon-roll]

Possums are the only North American marsupial, they eat ticks and keep down cases of Lyme, and they can't carry rabies! We only have two native boa constrictors; the rubber boa and the rosy boa! Bison and the American Alligator are LITERAL MEGAFAUNA LEFT OVER FROM PREHISTORY!

[scifigrl47]

When I was a teenager, I was hiking with my family on Cape Cod. I was not a willing participant to these hikes; I would've preferred to be back at our rental cabin with a book.

But my parents were birders, so hiking we did go.

And about a mile up the trail, a woman came rushing up to us, clutching her binoculars to her chest. "Come quickly," she said, with a British accent. "You have to see this!"

This is what birders are like. They are as excited about a life bird as any fan would be spotting their favorite celebrity. You have to see, you have to.

So my parents rushed off with her, and I plodded along behind them.

To find a cluster of Brits huddled in a bird blind, staring at..

A blue jay.

A goddamn blue jay.

And I was a teenager, but I knew better then to mouth off in front of my mom. So I nodded, and smiled, and bit my tongue, until an elderly man looked at me with tears in his eyes, and said, "Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?"

And I stopped. And looked at it. The way they were. As if it were new. And damned if they weren't right.

I think of that, to this day. That sometimes, you need to step back, and see the world as if it were new. Strange, and haunting, and beautiful, so beautiful.

[falconratesbirds]

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?

[halfgap]

underrated gem in montecito is that kelly kilpatrick in the restaurant just assumes ava is deb's cute younger girlfriend (and she was DEFINITELY inviting them to montecito for a swingers weekend) but deb hears that and goes ok Ava you are my secret WIFE and we are in a COMMITTED MONOGAMOUS PARTNERSHIP

[chainofclovers]

#like deborah fully introduced the word Wife into this equation for no fucking reason#and yeah it can't be overstated how funny and insane it is that they both decide yeah ig we're monogamous in our fake relationship#even though ava fucking the hot poly lesbian couple could only help deborah's jumpsuit mission#hacks lb (-- @halfgap)

[dailywomen]

PENÉLOPE CRUZ ph. by Xavi Gordo for PORTER magazine (July 2026)

[mollybeenoel]

Rest in Peace, Sam Neill (1947-2026) 🕊️

[yourgothicheroine]

She moved her tongue. ‘I have a tooth, I think,’ she said, ‘with a point that cuts me.’ ‘Let me see,’ I said. I took her to the window and she stood with her face in my hands and let me feel about her gum. I found the pointed tooth almost at once. [...] She looked at me, then opened her mouth again and I put the thimble on my finger and rubbed at the pointed tooth until the point was taken off. I had seen Mrs Sucksby do it many times, with infants.— Of course, infants rather wriggle about. Maud stood very still, her pink lips parted, her face put back, her eyes at first closed then open and gazing at me, her cheek with a flush upon it. Her throat lifted and sank, as she swallowed. My hand grew wet, from the damp of her breaths. I rubbed, then felt with my thumb. She swallowed again. Her eyelids fluttered, and she caught my eye.

— Fingersmith, Chapter IV

[echofades]

Speaking of big, I have to show you something. HACKS | 5.10

[soggy-wet-cat]

I already miss them ❤️

[ataymasus]

This was so satisfying to watch. I wish I could watch it for the first time again.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

#In The End She Did Want It

[catofthecanalsx]

“She didn’t give Miranda a chance to turn on the lights. She didn’t even give her a chance to take off her coat, or ask her if she wanted a drink, or whatever it was she would have said in a situation like this. The power she had discovered in the backseat of the car ride flared up, blindingly hot.

She lunged.

Andy grabbed the lapels of the coat that had served both as a shroud and a revelation when it parted, her momentum driving Miranda backward until her shoulders hit the wood of the front door with a muffled thud.

Miranda gasped and Andy swallowed it entirely.”

- Anything But Gardenias by whitesheets

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[li-sincarazdaily]

The new spot from idealista for pride 🏳️‍🌈 is probably the sweetest thing I have ever seen

[stovetop00-deactivated20230907]

We’re winning.

[lilnasxvevo]

I found his bio on societyofpresidentialdescendants.org and it was so delightful I had to copy paste the whole thing:

“Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave it to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale (BA, 1977), and was trained to be a museum curator in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture (MA, 1980). A decorative arts curator at the Newark Museum for thirty-seven years before he retired, Ulysses has never stopped writing for the sheer pleasure of it. Aside from books on Victorian furniture, art pottery, studio ceramics, jewelry, and the White House, Ulysses created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel, appeared in 2012. His most recent novel, Cliffhanger, was released by JMS Books in December 2020.

“Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of 45 years. They have two grown children, adopted in 1996.

“Ulysses is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant. His late mother, Julia, was the President’s last living great-grandchild; youngest daughter of Ulysses S. Grant III, and granddaughter of the president’s eldest son, Frederick. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City. He is also on the board of the U.S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum at Mississippi State University.”

[wakingfromthewater]

And frankly, the novels sound like they slap:

Desmond was nominated for a Lambda Award.

[doctorscienceknowsfandom]

“With his husband of 45 years.” You kids don’t know ... they got together before AIDS, at the peak of the Gay Glam Life. They stayed together as their generation died around them, and made through it to the point where they could marry and have a legal family. He looks like a chipper preppie who never had a serious thought or care in the world, but it took *incredible* determination, commitment, and also luck to get here.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

having now read the first of this man's vampire books, you can absolutely tell that he cares a lot about historical furniture because oh my god he really wanted to tell us about all the historical furniture in this vampire's house. material culture as foreplay. seduction via theses about chairs

[chainofclovers]

new fic: the second floor

The Devil Wears Prada 2 | Miranda/Andy | 16.4k | M

Andy comforts Miranda after a loss; after all, they actually like each other now. But what happens when they realize they like each other a LOT?

Read it on AO3!

[nicola-coughlan]

TED LASSO APPRECIATION WEEK ⚽️ day three: favorite quote(s)

+ bonus:

[asmeesh]

1$ flea market score. Tiny glass 1960s perfume bottles. I love them.

[shit-show-no-go]

Can you swap their heads ?

[asmeesh]

omg you can

[asmeesh]

Their meeting was foretold in the ancient texts

[theinvisiblespoon]

[bluebarricious]

NEW TDWP2 BLOOPERS DROPPED!!

[pipshinwhatever]

logging onto tumblr like heyyy i'm thinking about the same character i've spent the past few weeks thinking about. no change here. just wanted to let yall know