FIA's Mess

A mix of random stuff. I enjoy LOTR/The Hobbit and Spartacus. Particularly FiKi and also firmly in the Nagron camp.

[sluggoonthestreet]

Truth be told, Patrice got stuck in a hedge this morning, but she is nonetheless accepting compliments on her new hat.

[hedgehog-moss]

Peaceful Field Before A Storm is one of my favourite summer landscapes to stroll through... that sense of calm that could unravel at any moment, but the stillness feels even more tangible while it lasts.

[hedgehog-moss]

Just some modern art at the potters' market.

[bonfires-n-hares]

jillian danes

[entheognosis]

Camera Flash on a Spider Web

[you-are-another-me]

[ymutate]

Nadia Lysakowska

Papaver somniferum

[handmaidofvarda]

This is a charcoal drawing that I made a while back. It’s Galadriel’s brother, Aegnor. He is described as having golden hair. The light in his eyes was fiery, especially in anger and war, and this was the reason behind his name. His hair was also described as being “strong and stiff, rising upon his head like flames”.

[evydraws]

Lúthien Tinúviel and Huan defeat Sauron at Tol-in-Gaurhoth

(acrylics on paper - details here)

[emyn-arnens]

In honor of Tolkien Reading Day, I've put together a rec list of some old favorites that center on this year's theme of fellowship and community. Enjoy!

The Courtship of Lady Éowyn by @starry-mantle (T, Merry, Éowyn, and Faramir, 7k):

Merry is happy to see the change that has come over Lady Éowyn. He is happier still to learn of her betrothal. But he simply cannot abide Faramir’s flagrant disregard for proper courtship procedures.

The Last Midwinter by @sallysavestheday (G, Sam, Rosie, Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Gimli, and Faramir, 1.3k):

Frodo is fading. Rosie and Sam assemble a crowd of old friends to help him through the darkest days of the year.

Last Summer by rhymer23 (G, Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry, 5.4k):

It is one year on, and the Shire has never been more glorious. But to the hobbits of the Fellowship, even the sweet taste of summer can stir memories of the winter that has passed.

The Power of Tea by @hobbitwrangler (G, Bilbo, Gilraen, and Elrond, 1.8k):

While waiting for Aragorn and the hobbits to reach Rivendell, Bilbo attempts to ease Gilraen's anxiety by offering her tea.

The Swallow by rhymer23 (G, Merry, Pippin, and Éomer, 4.3k):

Having said his last farewells to the Shire, Merry visits Edoras and its King one final time.

theft and shrubbery by @southfarthing (G, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Fatty, and Ted Sandyman, 2.7k):

Hobbiton's notorious poetry society decides to hold its meeting in Sandyman's front garden. At midnight. Rather loudly. Frodo can't say he's particularly sorry about it.

with every seed you sow, let it wash away, wash away by @rarepairnation (G, Faramir, Éowyn, and Legolas, 4k):

“It is a gift, Master Elf,” says Faramir with a sad, sad smile, “to have the chance to choose the day of your death. Though I can only imagine it is a bitter one.” Legolas opens his mouth, then closes it. In Faramir's smile glitters the barest glint of mirth. “It is death, is it not? Of a kind. A journey to a realm you do not know, and behind your ship, one to which you can never return.” In which an elf and a prince of Gondor speak of grief and death and the sea, and life and song and brothers.

[takereveng3]

French senator Claude Malhuret sums up the world made by the current American administration, 5 March 2025

[hedgehog-moss]

"We were at war with a dictator, we are now fighting a dictator backed by a traitor."

Hearing one of our centre-right Senators matter-of-factly call Elon Musk a buffoon on ketamine and compare Trump to Emperor Nero was satisfying.

[8pxl]

working on more cross stitch patterns !~ check them out on my shop 8pxl.co

[liberalsarecool]

DOGE is an obvious scam to give Elon Musk access to the 32 INVESTIGATIONS.

11 Federal Agencies were working just fine. No fraud, no waste.

Elon Musk is providing zero evidence. He is sharing nothing with oversight committees.

In essence, Trump created an illegal and unconstitutional fourth branch of government.

End Musk. Save America.

[headspace-hotel]

I recently learned that Priodontes maximus, the giant armadillo, can grow to be over 50 kilograms in weight. I don't know what to do with this information.

[headspace-hotel]

Every time I learn about an animal, I get stressed out over everyone knowing its value. It seems that people do not find their immediate surroundings extraordinary and valuable, instead fantasizing about the animals that are Interesting and Cool over in some far-away place.

And protecting "nature" in your home, the area immediately around you? Who would think of that? "Nature" is somewhere Else, somewhere Untouched!

It is very worrying. Any animal could be "vermin" just because it seems commonplace, to the people best equipped to protect it, and with the greatest responsibility to value it...

[aspirationallyeldritch]

I think about this a lot. my partner is considered outdoorsy because he drives many hours to go to the Boundary Waters a couple times a year, and deer hunting once or twice. I am not "outdoorsy", but I start every day, no matter the weather, with a half hour outside by a favorite tree, go for a walk midday, then spend more time in my yard depending on the weather.

there's a hierarchy of Nature Experiences:

far away > familiar

big trip > everyday contact

forests > prairies and deserts

trees > other plants

large mammals > birds, bugs, rodents

even among those of us nerds who love our adorable backyard bugs, it's still barely seen as capital-N, morally good Nature. but I need to be part of nature all day every day, not "experience" it. and I hate how that gets dismissed. no amount of gorgeous national parks will keep me going if I don't have nature directly outside my door

[headspace-hotel]

Deer hunting is an important form of ecosystem caretaking in many places (here in USA, the last time deer had no human predators, there were saber toothed cats, dire wolves, and american lions, so stopping hunting would punch a hole in the ecosystem that has never been there before.)

BUT! It is living in everyday relationship with the land that allows you to truly understand, appreciate, and love nature, and learn to be its caretaker.

You can do so much more for the home you know and love, than for a distant wild place you have only experienced in vacations or films.

Being a hobbyist appreciator of picturesque wilderness places is one thing, but to LOVE nature is to live in symbiosis with it

[headspace-hotel]

I don't think colossal biosciences can or should "resurrect" the wooly mammoth, but if they get enough investors to throw money at them, it looks like they could actually use it to do stuff like invigorating the gene pools of existing highly endangered species, which could be great

I want to believe that, anyway...

[sequencer987]

It’s kind of frustrating the narrative of “Oh, but they weren’t wiped out that long ago. Reintroducing them into the ecosystem wouldn’t cause any damage.”

Yeah, no. Mammoths had their own bespoke environment in the Pleistocene called the Mammoth Steppe. That environment is gone.

People will see remnants of the Pleistocene ecosystem in the here and now and assume that they can just plunk one of the largest land mammals to ever live back in there without any ecological ramifications.

[headspace-hotel]

Meanwhile the American bison is very much still here and its ecosystems desperately need it...

[datafags]

it's this reason that's why the concept of unironically bringing back mammoths or dinos or anything like that pisses me off. like, we have real ecosystems that exist now that need our help reintroducing species and preserving populations. most of which are because of ecological disasters that humanity caused. so why aren't we focusing on that? it reeks of playing god, saying "look what i can do", which seems to me like part of how we ended up here in the first place.

[headspace-hotel]

Unfortunately a LOT of nature writing and philosophy is so obsessed with the idea of a long-lost garden of eden that humans ruined in the distant past, that the "nature" that is real and here with us seems less valuable.

Something that was destroyed or lost a long time ago, must be wilder and purer and more vital than something that still coexists in the broken and bedraggled world that we have. The more distant and inaccessible and separate from us something appears, the more important it must be, right...?

But this idea doesn't make it any easier to restore animals that do command that sense of wildness and majesty, because everybody assumes that those animals are supposed to be sequestered away in some remote pristine wilderness where "no one" lives, instead of being actually part of a real ecosystem that humans are also part of.

Wolves?! In MY state?! Those are supposed to be somewhere Far Away! No, Karen, you live where wolves live. The construction of a new suburb does not change the continent and region this land is fundamentally on. You live in a Biome. You are a Life. Mrs. Wolf is also a Life. This is the Planet of Life and you are gonna be coexisting with somebody

[kellysroost]

[hell0-there-lady]

others: “so, how ~southern~ are you?”

me: “The entrance of my hometown has a shrimp boat sitting in the main street. At Christmas theres a shrimper Santa and alligators pulling him instead of reindeer.”

others: “what?!”

me:

[ayellowbirds]

this is  the only xmas content i want to see, fuck everything else. Shrimper Santa and his flying albino alligators