Kate

Loves books, bands, series, films and other things.

[tiktoks-i-enjoyed]

[withdreamsofhereafter]

Hexagonal growth in a black olive tree

[peppermintsolarpunk]

Let's play: Is it AI or Real?

Red flags: Unbelievable nature you've never seen before!, no external source cited, low image quality could be hiding AI artifacts, lacks scientific name for plant, OP is an aesthetic blog (no offense, I see you credit most of the artists you post, OP <3).

Green flags: Common name of the tree provided (although the leaves don't look like any olive tree I've ever seen).

Reverse image searches and citation trails all seem to lead back to now-deleted Reddit posts. Google Images says it's this one in r/NatureIsFuckingLit, and TinEye says it's this one in r/interestingasfuck. Both were posted back in 2020. This is important because the rise of AI images was in 2022.

People in the comments of places this image is posted throw around botanical terms like "dichotomous branching" [branches split into two at the nodes] and "divaricated" [branches grow far apart from each other], which are cool, but don't tell me what the tree is.

Searching up "Black Olive" on iNaturalist finally got me some answers, and it turns out that YES. This is a real tree! This tree is a Dwarf Black Olive (Terminalia molinetii, Formerly Bucida spinosa). The above photos are some particularly nicely framed shots of a tree with particularly small leaves, which really highlights the branching structure. I really wish we knew the photographer's name. Here are some more photos of the same species:

Terminalia molinetii by jriveracruz50 on iNaturalist, posted under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

This tree is native to Southern Mexico, Belize, the southern tip of Florida, and Cuba. Dwarf Black Olives are completely unrelated to Olive trees in the Olea genus that I'm more familiar with (the former is in Order Myrtales [Myrtles, Evening Primroses, and Allies], and the latter is in Order Lamiales [Mints, Plantains, Olives, and Allies]).

Stay critical, and –more importantly– curious, y'all! The world is a beautiful place, we don't need fictional plants passed off as real ones for that to be true.

[kosmogrl]

[lunarriviera]

[transfemmbeatrice]

thought of this immediately and was delighted to discover it’s the same op

[draconym]

Me: Fuck, the paper towels I want are on the top shelf.

The Sir David Attenborough That Lives In My Brain: Being smaller-than-average presents an added challenge to foraging ... but necessity is the mother of invention. A little creativity turns a baguette into a tool, and voilà--

(paper towel roll falls on my face)

Sir David Attenborough, pleasantly: Success.

[draconym]

Me, 3am: But am I even deserving of love

The Steve Irwin That Lives In My Brain: Crikey, get a look at this art teacher! These are so important to the local area, right, because they create habitat for heaps of vulnerable critters like juvenile nerds, goths, and furries. I love finding these because they often have these great ornamentations that they can use to identify one another. Take a look at the piercings and tattoos, here. Absolutely gorgeous! Let's let this one get back to sleep.

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[ekjohnston]

*weeps uncontrollably at 9 o'clock in the morning*

God, I love randos on the internet who just want to be kind.

[magicratfingers]

[alanaisalive]

The other night husband and I were watching a documentary about the yeti where they were doing DNA analysis of samples of supposed yeti fur, and every one of them came back as bears.

Anyway, the next night we watched a thing about some pig man who is supposed to live in Vermont. People said it had claws and a pig nose but walked upright like a man. Now, I happen to know that sideshows used to shave bears and present them as pig men. So every piece of evidence they gave of this monster sounds to me like a bear with mange.

So now the running joke in our house is that everything is bears. Aliens? Bears. Loch Ness monster? Bear. Every cryptozoological mystery is just a very crafty bear.

Bears. They’re everywhere. Be wary. Anyone or anything could be a bear.

[iguanamouth]

oh shit

[throughshadow-to-the-edgeofnight]

[alanaisalive]

As the OP of this post, I’m going to threaten that if this gets to one million notes by the 10 year anniversary on 1 June 2026, one year from today, I will get a lower back tattoo of the loch ness bear monster.

[docd666]

Y'all know what to do Tumblr.

[skullchicken]

Things I wish I had read in "beginner" sewing tutorials/people had told me before I started getting into sewing

You have to hem *everything* eventually. Hemming isn't optional. (If you don't hem your cloth, it will start to fray. There are exceptions to this, like felt, but most cloth will.)

The type of cloth you choose for your project matters very much. Your clothing won't "fall right" if it's not the kind of stretchy/heavy/stiff as the one the tutorial assumes you will use.

Some types of cloth are very chill about fraying, some are very much not. Linen doesn't really give a fuck as long as you don't, like, throw it into the washing machine unhemmed (see below), whereas brocade yearns for entropy so, so much.

On that note: if you get new cloth: 1. hem its borders (or use a ripple stitch) 2. throw it in the washing machine on the setting that you plan to wash it going forward 3. iron it. You'll regret it, if you don't do it. If you don't hem, it'll thread. If you don't wash beforehand, the finished piece might warp in the first wash. If you don't iron it, it won't be nice and flat and all of your measuring and sewing will be off.

Sewing's first virtue is diligence, followed closely by patience. Measure three times before cutting. Check the symmetry every once in a while. If you can't concentrate anymore, stop. Yes, even if you're almost done.

The order in which you sew your garment's parts matters very much. Stick to the plan, but think ahead.

You'll probably be fine if you sew something on wrong - you can undo it with a seam ripper (get a seam ripper, they're cheap!)

You can use chalk to draw and write on the cloth.

Pick something made out of rectangles for your first project.

I recommend making something out of linen as a beginner project. It's nearly indestructible, barely threads and folds very neatly.

Collars are going to suck.

The sewing machine can't hurt you (probably). There is a guard for a reason and while the needle is very scary at first, if you do it right, your hands will be away from it at least 5 cm at any given time. Also the spoils of learning machine sewing are not to be underestimated. You will be SO fast.

I believe that's all - feel free to add unto it.

[virgulesmith]

Things I have learned as an occasional sewer:

Get sharp scissors. They don't need to be expensive, but your fabric scissors should NOT be the ones you cut plastic ties with. Eventually, if you sew enough, you will hear the siren song of better scissors. You don't have to listen.

Thread nippers are so helpful - they spring open so you don't need to expend the hand effort to open the scissors. You don't need them, but they are great for when you need to trim those threads.

Get more bobbins. Fill those bobbins. It sucks to be on a seam and run out of thread in your bobbin. Make sure you get the right bobbin for your machine.

Fabric stores have sales. You can usually get notions (thread, zippers, buttons, etc) much cheaper if you shop sales. Cheaper option? You can find A LOT of notions at garage sales and charity shops.

Patterns are usually marked on skill level. Find things at your level. Very easy usually has minimal fuss.

You can experiment with cheap fabrics. You can find fabrics at consignment shops, garage sales, etc. Also, if you meet someone who sews and mention you are learning, you will probably get given something from their stash. I'm happy to give you something from mine.

You don't need 846 stitches on your machine. BUT don't buy a super cheap brand-new one. You can probably find a good one used for that same super cheap price. A quick service and you've got a machine that will last you until you somehow acquire another machine.

Velvet and chiffon are the devil. Gorgeous, amazing, delicious demons from hell. Wait until you have money to burn on wasted fabric and the patience of a saint before tackling these two.

Zippers piss everyone off. It is known.

Sleeves can be cranky.

If it's a commercially made pattern, check what other folks have done to resolve issues. Sometimes there is a known missed mark or fold line.

Stretch fabrics aren't what I would start anyone off with. They wiggle and move like a sugared up toddler.

You can iron your patterns.

Don't buy your pattern based on your commercial clothing size. Take your measurements and go from there. Patterns live in a different size world. And different pattern-makers have different sizes, and sometimes that varies by age of the pattern.

You will occasionally try to sew something beyond your skill level. THAT's OK. Just give yourself time, and listen to those who have gone before you. And don't try to make a period-appropriate gown the day before your event unless you've done it before. Or you are doing a toga.

[virgulesmith]

I forgot something.

Buy extra needles for your machine. It’s not uncommon to break a needle and it sucks if you are mid-project at midnight. They are generally inexpensive and they won’t go bad. Buy them. Buy multiple packs.

[so-many-ocs]

[on the verge of having a complete breakdown] i need to make some kind of list or perhaps sort things into categories

[cat-source]

[tinyyellowflowers-blog]

Was talking to a coworker today who explained that her grandfather was like Snow White “but Californian. And an old man.” in that the creatures of the forest would follow him around and presumably duet with him.

“When he died the ravens sat in the trees outside for a week, watching. Taking turns. A horde of raccoons tried to break into the house every night, tearing at the siding. Eventually they gave up, but it was unsettling.”

“Aww. They were checking on him!” I said, like a normal person. Internally, I thought “Maybe you could do the thing you do with dead pets, where you show them to the living pets so the living pet understands they’re gone. But I guess if you did that to a bunch of scavenging species, they’d be like “Well, that’s very sad but he IS food now.” So what you’d need, for human sensibilities, is some sort of transparent corpse barrier. Like a see-through coffin oh that’s what the dwarves were doing! You’ve stopped paying attention to this conversation about the loss of a beloved family member you gotta phase back in.”

[slytherverse]

i say this in all seriousness, a great way to resist the broad cultural shift of devaluing curiosity and critical thinking is to play my favorite game, Hey What Is That Thing

you play it while walking around with friends and if you see something and don't know what it is or wonder why its there, you stop and point and say Hey What Is That Thing. and everyone speculates about it. googling it is allowed but preferably after spending several minutes guessing or asking a passerby about it

weird structures, ambiguous signs, unfamiliar car modifications, anything that you can't immediately understand its function. eight times out of ten, someone in the group actually knows, and now you know!

a few examples from me and my friends the past few weeks: "why is there a piece of plywood sticking out of that pond in a way that looks intentional?" (its a ramp so squirrels that fall in to the pond can climb out) • "my boss keeps insisting i take a vacation of nine days or more, thats so specific" (you work at a bank, banks make employees take vacation in long chunks so if youre stealing or committing fraud, itll be more obvious) • "why does this brick wall have random wooden blocks in it" (theres actually several reasons why this could be but we asked and it was so you could nail stuff to the wall) • "most of these old factories we drive past have tinted windows, was that just for style?" (fun fact the factory owners realized that blue light keeps people awake, much like screen light does now, so they tinted the windows blue to keep workers alert and make them work longer hours)

been playing this game for a long time and ive learned (and taught) a fuckton about zoning laws, local history, utilities (did you know you can just go to your local water treatment plant and ask for a tour and if they have a spare intern theyll just give you a tour!!!) and a whole lot of fun trivia. and now suddenly you're paying more attention when youre walking around, thinking about the reasons behind every design choice in the place you live that used to just be background noise. and it fuckin rules.

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[omtai]

love pickles. a little pickle never killed nobody. Unless you’re in one. Then shit ain’t funny.

[astarsmindd]

Scrolled came back read it again and cried laughing

[omtai]

Thank you for giving me another chance

[a-bright-ray-of-sunshine]

Hey you! Yes, you, the one scrolling right now! Can you please stop for a second?

I just wanted to give you this flower because you are incredible 🌻 :) have fun scrolling!

[hyenabeanz]

My friend sent me this with a "this made me think of you."

I feel so seen.

[wishful-seeker]

I will never understand the hate for grey hairs. Your hair has sliver in it now. You have the color of stars on your hair. You have proof you survived and grew up. You have proof you are living. How is any of this bad?

[bean-enthusiast-29]

People with glasses, how old were you when you first got them?

younger than 4 (how?)

5-7

8-10

11-12

As a teen

Early 20s

Late 20s

30s

40s

I got glasses unrelated to aging eyes older than 50

No corrective lenses for me (lucky)

Voting ended onJan 9, 2025

I didn't really know how to divide the categories but I tried my best.

Please recognize for larger sample size!!