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@kensanthemum-garden
Hello, Barbieland!
Welcome to my garden center. I'm Ken- but I guess you know that!
We keep things simple around here: flowers, pollinator appreciation, and maybe some yearning for quiet landscapes dotted with color...
Click below to see what's in season!
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Fairy Bees: these tiny bees can measure less than 2mm long, which is smaller than a carpenter bee's eye
Above: two different species of fairy bee
Bees of the genus Perdita, also known as fairy bees, are some of the smallest bees in the world. Their tiny bodies can measure as little as 1.6mm long, which is smaller than the eyes of many bumblebees and carpenter bees.
Above: a fairy bee depicted next to a carpenter bee (genus Xylocopa)
The smallest species in this genus is the mini fairy bee, Perdita minima, which is so small that it's often mistaken for an ant.
Above: Perdita minima standing next to a quarter
As this book explains:
With almost 640 species, most restricted to the southwestern USA and adjacent parts of Mexico, this genus forms a species swarm of mostly very small ground-nesting bees. One of its species, the aptly named Perdita minima, shares the record for being the smallest bee in the world at just 1/16th of an inch (1.6 millimeters) in length. Unsurprisingly, it favors similarly tiny flowers, such as those of the whitemargin sandmat (Chamaesyce albomarginata).
Above: close-ups of Perdita perpallida and Perdita heliotropii
Fairy bees are solitary, meaning that they don't form colonies or live together in hives. Each female builds her own nest by creating a small tunnel in the ground and then stocking it with pollen.
Above: a fairy bee standing on a dime and another one standing on a quarter
This article describes the nesting process in greater detail:
Fairy Bees are “mining” bees, referring to the fact that they are ground nesting bees. The females excavate tunnels in the ground somewhere within a short distance of a food source. They then visit flowers, feeding on nectar and collecting pollen on specialized hairs on their legs known as “scopae.”
The females then deliver these pollen bundles to their subterranean nests as a food source for their larva. The larva hatch, consume the pollen bundle, develop through metamorphosis into adult bees and the cycle continues.
Above: Perdita minima on the antenna of a carpenter bee
Most fairy bees are specialist foragers with very short tongues, so they prefer shallow flowers. They typically fly during the summer and autumn, timing their emergence to coincide with their favorite host plant.
Above: Perdita leotola
Sources & More Info:
Minnesota Native Bees: Fairy Bees
Bees of the World: Genus Perdita
Honey Bee Suite: Perdita minima, the Smallest of the Small (PDF)
Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Genus Perdita
Local News Pasadena: Photographing a Nearly Microscopic Bee You've Probably Never Noticed
iNaturalist: Fairy Bees
Facebook: The Bees in Your Backyard
Official bee post 🐝
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
She nodded, raising her eyebrows in invitation. Ken was kind and sweet and all of the other things she had said, and she meant what she said. He was also a deep thinker, and this sounded like something he'd been sitting on for a while. What could it be?
"It's just....." Now that he was here, the words suddenly fled. He sighed, staring into the trees like they could spell it all out. "It's just, you said all those nice things and you seem really confident about them, even though we all know the Kens haven't always been....nice. It wasn't that long ago that we were making you our enemies and being really awful, and I just wanna know.....why did you forgive us? Like, I'm still not past the fact that we did all that, but you seem like you're past it." He fiddled with his fingers, knowing exactly how deprecating he sounded, but he didn't know how to get around that. "With everything I did, how can you be friends with me?"
"Oh wow," she said, trying to give herself a moment to process everything. She stood and stretched. "Hmmm. How to put this into words..." The answer was pretty simple in her mind, but the words to talk about it weren't.
"I guess it's because...I feel like I need forgiving, too. The Barbies in general, I mean. We treated you guys so terribly and never once stopped to question it, until someone made a change. And that someone was the Kens, and that change was patriarchy, and the patriarchy upset everyone whether they were Barbie, Ken, or Other. And then, after that...it was a promise to start over. A promise to change. We undid the patriarchy, but we didn't go back to the way things were. It was all of us, you know? It was me, deciding to change, to be my own person, to try to be a better person and a better friend. And I guess I just figure that if I'm putting in the effort, isn't everyone else? If I want to be seen for who I've become and not who I used to be, shouldn't I be able to give that kind of grace to everyone?" She shrugged helplessly, not because she didn't know the answer but because she couldn't tell if she had explained it well enough. "So, um...that. We all started over and I'm taking it at face value."
Ken's shoulders lowered degree by degree as she spoke and it became clear that she wasn't going to tell him off for asking something so insensitive or tell him he had it all wrong and wasn't worth forgiveness.
Except he did have it all wrong, didn't he? He'd somehow never thought of the Barbies as needing forgiving, only the Kens. Only himself. Even though he'd been holding all of that bitterness towards his Barbie and Barbies in general, he had thought he was the only one who felt that way and that it wasn't a social reform as a whole. He had only been holding the movers and shakers who broke the status quo accountable, not the enforcers of the system except in his own bitterness. But Barbie was holding herself accountable, and this was the moment he realized everyone was.
He was struck with a sudden epiphany: this was never a question of forgiving himself. He hadn't forgiven anybody - at least not all the way. He was making friends again, and he trusted this Barbie, and it was nice talking to some of the Kens again, but he kept waiting for that other shoe to drop, for the mask to slip and them to act like they used to. Trust had to be earned and so did forgiveness.
That wasn't fair to them, and it wasn't fair to him. Barbie said it so frankly, but it felt like she was shining a light on something he'd never been able to illuminate: rather than expecting the worst in people, she trusted that they would do their best. [Even though it was okay to be mediocre now and not be The Best all the time, but this felt different.] If he was trying so hard to reinvent himself, wasn't everyone? Did he think no one else was trying to do better? And even if they weren't done growing yet, did he think they should never be forgiven?
The answer was no, and this was the first time he'd connected those dots together since the fall of the Kenpire. Rather than worrying over old wounds, maybe he could try the Baker Barbie method: taking them at face value. But then.... "Isn't that only skin deep?" Like things always used to be?
It felt like defeat to keep questioning it all when he was so close to closing this chapter, but the realization stung. Things never meant anything deeper before. Wasn't this the same?
"Yeah," she agreed. She smiled, but it was to show she knew what he meant. To be reassuring. "At least, it starts out that way. But people can't prove they've changed for the better unless you let them. And maybe it all starts out plastic just the way it was before, but if they really are trying to change, you'll see it soon enough as long as you give them the chance." She paused for a few moments, before coming to the true point: "And you have to give yourself a chance, too."
Ken breathed in and held it for a long time, then let it out slowly.
Barbie was right of course. But not because she was Barbie. Because she was sensible and genuine and honest, in a way he's pretty sure only she could be. She was proving her own point right from the start, not that it was a particularly complicated one, but.....somehow Ken really needed to hear someone say it so he could see it for himself.
He knew he was ready to try again. He'd send out all those flower bouquets and finally started hanging out with people again.....only to be plagued by guilt and suspicion over past mistakes. It's okay to start out plastic. He rolled that thought around and around in his head. To start out artificial - according to script - and then leaving it for something sincere. Because if you don't know how to start out sincere from the beginning, you can at least start out as friends, even if that 'friendship' is plastic. You can expect the best, and if the best doesn't come, at least you're 'friends.'
Maybe this was what Barbie meant by having a friend for each hobby. Maybe with some people, life wasn't any deeper than your shared interests. Maybe that's okay.
He realized suddenly that he'd just been standing and staring into space for who knew how long, and stirred with a start. "Uh. S-sorry. I guess I really had to think about that one."
"That's okay," she said with an easy smile, not trying to make him feel rushed for needing a minute, or distracting him from his thoughts when they seemed so momentous. "That's something I like about you."
Ken measured out another breath like he was measuring ingredients to bake.
"Wanna keep going? I think we're almost at the top." He needed to start moving or he'd get stuck stewing and brooding. Somehow physical distance helped with emotional distance, and maybe then he'd know what questions to ask and what thoughts to think.
“I very proudly entered the forestry school as an 18-year-old and telling them that the reason that I wanted to study botany was because I wanted to know why asters and goldenrod looked so beautiful together. These are these amazing displays of this bright, chrome yellow and deep purple of New England aster, and they look stunning together. And the two plants so often intermingle rather than living apart from one another, and I wanted to know why that was. I thought that surely in the order and the harmony of the universe, there would be an explanation for why they looked so beautiful together. And I was told that that was not science, that if I was interested in beauty, I should go to art school. Which was really demoralizing as a freshman, but I came to understand that question wasn’t going to be answered by science, that science, as a way of knowing, explicitly sets aside our emotions, our aesthetic reactions to things. We have to analyze them as if they were just pure material, and not matter and spirit together. And, yes, as it turns out, there’s a very good biophysical explanation for why those plants grow together, so it’s a matter of aesthetics and it’s a matter of ecology. Those complimentary colors of purple and gold together, being opposites on the color wheel, they’re so vivid, they actually attract far more pollinators than if those two grew apart from one another. So each of those plants benefits by combining its beauty with the beauty of the other. And that’s a question that science can address, certainly, as well as artists. And I just think that “Why is the world so beautiful?” is a question that we all ought to be embracing.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, “The Intelligence of Plants”, from the podcast On Being with Krista Tippett (via peatbogbodyhasmoved)
Googled it and you know what, it is beautiful:
[ID: a photograph of purple asters growing amidst bright yellow goldenrod flowers. End ID]
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
She nodded, raising her eyebrows in invitation. Ken was kind and sweet and all of the other things she had said, and she meant what she said. He was also a deep thinker, and this sounded like something he'd been sitting on for a while. What could it be?
"It's just....." Now that he was here, the words suddenly fled. He sighed, staring into the trees like they could spell it all out. "It's just, you said all those nice things and you seem really confident about them, even though we all know the Kens haven't always been....nice. It wasn't that long ago that we were making you our enemies and being really awful, and I just wanna know.....why did you forgive us? Like, I'm still not past the fact that we did all that, but you seem like you're past it." He fiddled with his fingers, knowing exactly how deprecating he sounded, but he didn't know how to get around that. "With everything I did, how can you be friends with me?"
"Oh wow," she said, trying to give herself a moment to process everything. She stood and stretched. "Hmmm. How to put this into words..." The answer was pretty simple in her mind, but the words to talk about it weren't.
"I guess it's because...I feel like I need forgiving, too. The Barbies in general, I mean. We treated you guys so terribly and never once stopped to question it, until someone made a change. And that someone was the Kens, and that change was patriarchy, and the patriarchy upset everyone whether they were Barbie, Ken, or Other. And then, after that...it was a promise to start over. A promise to change. We undid the patriarchy, but we didn't go back to the way things were. It was all of us, you know? It was me, deciding to change, to be my own person, to try to be a better person and a better friend. And I guess I just figure that if I'm putting in the effort, isn't everyone else? If I want to be seen for who I've become and not who I used to be, shouldn't I be able to give that kind of grace to everyone?" She shrugged helplessly, not because she didn't know the answer but because she couldn't tell if she had explained it well enough. "So, um...that. We all started over and I'm taking it at face value."
Ken's shoulders lowered degree by degree as she spoke and it became clear that she wasn't going to tell him off for asking something so insensitive or tell him he had it all wrong and wasn't worth forgiveness.
Except he did have it all wrong, didn't he? He'd somehow never thought of the Barbies as needing forgiving, only the Kens. Only himself. Even though he'd been holding all of that bitterness towards his Barbie and Barbies in general, he had thought he was the only one who felt that way and that it wasn't a social reform as a whole. He had only been holding the movers and shakers who broke the status quo accountable, not the enforcers of the system except in his own bitterness. But Barbie was holding herself accountable, and this was the moment he realized everyone was.
He was struck with a sudden epiphany: this was never a question of forgiving himself. He hadn't forgiven anybody - at least not all the way. He was making friends again, and he trusted this Barbie, and it was nice talking to some of the Kens again, but he kept waiting for that other shoe to drop, for the mask to slip and them to act like they used to. Trust had to be earned and so did forgiveness.
That wasn't fair to them, and it wasn't fair to him. Barbie said it so frankly, but it felt like she was shining a light on something he'd never been able to illuminate: rather than expecting the worst in people, she trusted that they would do their best. [Even though it was okay to be mediocre now and not be The Best all the time, but this felt different.] If he was trying so hard to reinvent himself, wasn't everyone? Did he think no one else was trying to do better? And even if they weren't done growing yet, did he think they should never be forgiven?
The answer was no, and this was the first time he'd connected those dots together since the fall of the Kenpire. Rather than worrying over old wounds, maybe he could try the Baker Barbie method: taking them at face value. But then.... "Isn't that only skin deep?" Like things always used to be?
It felt like defeat to keep questioning it all when he was so close to closing this chapter, but the realization stung. Things never meant anything deeper before. Wasn't this the same?
"Yeah," she agreed. She smiled, but it was to show she knew what he meant. To be reassuring. "At least, it starts out that way. But people can't prove they've changed for the better unless you let them. And maybe it all starts out plastic just the way it was before, but if they really are trying to change, you'll see it soon enough as long as you give them the chance." She paused for a few moments, before coming to the true point: "And you have to give yourself a chance, too."
Ken breathed in and held it for a long time, then let it out slowly.
Barbie was right of course. But not because she was Barbie. Because she was sensible and genuine and honest, in a way he's pretty sure only she could be. She was proving her own point right from the start, not that it was a particularly complicated one, but.....somehow Ken really needed to hear someone say it so he could see it for himself.
He knew he was ready to try again. He'd send out all those flower bouquets and finally started hanging out with people again.....only to be plagued by guilt and suspicion over past mistakes. It's okay to start out plastic. He rolled that thought around and around in his head. To start out artificial - according to script - and then leaving it for something sincere. Because if you don't know how to start out sincere from the beginning, you can at least start out as friends, even if that 'friendship' is plastic. You can expect the best, and if the best doesn't come, at least you're 'friends.'
Maybe this was what Barbie meant by having a friend for each hobby. Maybe with some people, life wasn't any deeper than your shared interests. Maybe that's okay.
He realized suddenly that he'd just been standing and staring into space for who knew how long, and stirred with a start. "Uh. S-sorry. I guess I really had to think about that one."
Assorted cute bumbles <3
Yellow-faced bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii): upper row and bottom right California bumblebee (Bombus californicus): center row and bottom left
Northern California, US
Official bumblebee post 🐝 🐝 🐝
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
She nodded, raising her eyebrows in invitation. Ken was kind and sweet and all of the other things she had said, and she meant what she said. He was also a deep thinker, and this sounded like something he'd been sitting on for a while. What could it be?
"It's just....." Now that he was here, the words suddenly fled. He sighed, staring into the trees like they could spell it all out. "It's just, you said all those nice things and you seem really confident about them, even though we all know the Kens haven't always been....nice. It wasn't that long ago that we were making you our enemies and being really awful, and I just wanna know.....why did you forgive us? Like, I'm still not past the fact that we did all that, but you seem like you're past it." He fiddled with his fingers, knowing exactly how deprecating he sounded, but he didn't know how to get around that. "With everything I did, how can you be friends with me?"
"Oh wow," she said, trying to give herself a moment to process everything. She stood and stretched. "Hmmm. How to put this into words..." The answer was pretty simple in her mind, but the words to talk about it weren't.
"I guess it's because...I feel like I need forgiving, too. The Barbies in general, I mean. We treated you guys so terribly and never once stopped to question it, until someone made a change. And that someone was the Kens, and that change was patriarchy, and the patriarchy upset everyone whether they were Barbie, Ken, or Other. And then, after that...it was a promise to start over. A promise to change. We undid the patriarchy, but we didn't go back to the way things were. It was all of us, you know? It was me, deciding to change, to be my own person, to try to be a better person and a better friend. And I guess I just figure that if I'm putting in the effort, isn't everyone else? If I want to be seen for who I've become and not who I used to be, shouldn't I be able to give that kind of grace to everyone?" She shrugged helplessly, not because she didn't know the answer but because she couldn't tell if she had explained it well enough. "So, um...that. We all started over and I'm taking it at face value."
Ken's shoulders lowered degree by degree as she spoke and it became clear that she wasn't going to tell him off for asking something so insensitive or tell him he had it all wrong and wasn't worth forgiveness.
Except he did have it all wrong, didn't he? He'd somehow never thought of the Barbies as needing forgiving, only the Kens. Only himself. Even though he'd been holding all of that bitterness towards his Barbie and Barbies in general, he had thought he was the only one who felt that way and that it wasn't a social reform as a whole. He had only been holding the movers and shakers who broke the status quo accountable, not the enforcers of the system except in his own bitterness. But Barbie was holding herself accountable, and this was the moment he realized everyone was.
He was struck with a sudden epiphany: this was never a question of forgiving himself. He hadn't forgiven anybody - at least not all the way. He was making friends again, and he trusted this Barbie, and it was nice talking to some of the Kens again, but he kept waiting for that other shoe to drop, for the mask to slip and them to act like they used to. Trust had to be earned and so did forgiveness.
That wasn't fair to them, and it wasn't fair to him. Barbie said it so frankly, but it felt like she was shining a light on something he'd never been able to illuminate: rather than expecting the worst in people, she trusted that they would do their best. [Even though it was okay to be mediocre now and not be The Best all the time, but this felt different.] If he was trying so hard to reinvent himself, wasn't everyone? Did he think no one else was trying to do better? And even if they weren't done growing yet, did he think they should never be forgiven?
The answer was no, and this was the first time he'd connected those dots together since the fall of the Kenpire. Rather than worrying over old wounds, maybe he could try the Baker Barbie method: taking them at face value. But then.... "Isn't that only skin deep?" Like things always used to be?
It felt like defeat to keep questioning it all when he was so close to closing this chapter, but the realization stung. Things never meant anything deeper before. Wasn't this the same?
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
She nodded, raising her eyebrows in invitation. Ken was kind and sweet and all of the other things she had said, and she meant what she said. He was also a deep thinker, and this sounded like something he'd been sitting on for a while. What could it be?
"It's just....." Now that he was here, the words suddenly fled. He sighed, staring into the trees like they could spell it all out. "It's just, you said all those nice things and you seem really confident about them, even though we all know the Kens haven't always been....nice. It wasn't that long ago that we were making you our enemies and being really awful, and I just wanna know.....why did you forgive us? Like, I'm still not past the fact that we did all that, but you seem like you're past it." He fiddled with his fingers, knowing exactly how deprecating he sounded, but he didn't know how to get around that. "With everything I did, how can you be friends with me?"
Gyas Jewelmark or Gyas Sarota Metalmark (Sarota gyas), family Riodonidae, Peru
photograph by Nick Volpe
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
It was a lovely moment of appreciation, and just enough of a rest for her to get her breath back. "Okay! I'm ready. Let's keep going! I wonder what we'll find next." Hiking seemed a lot like a friendship bracelet: it had beads or knots that were these tiny moments of joy strung together, but the string itself was so pretty that you enjoyed the space in between, too.
The trail continued uphill. It was steep enough that Ken was out of breath too. "We're almost there," he promised.
"The bees sure like those asters." He pointed at a pinprick of white in the shade of the trees. The ground was speckled with tons and tons of small white daisy-like blooms, some of them bending and bobbing under the weight of a big bee searching for a snack.
Barbie laughed breathlessly. "I don't mind the distance," she assured him. "But I especially don't mind the distance when I get to enjoy the journey!" She stooped by the flowers, just as happy to stop and look at everything that interested her as she was to reach the top. "Wow. They're so busy. Like, all the time."
"They have a lot of flowers to visit," Ken agreed. "I wonder if they have favorites, ones that they visit just because they like to look at them. Did you know they can see stuff that people can't? Flowers look completely different to them."
"Oh wow, that's so... wait, really??" she whipped her head toward him. "Different how??"
"They can see more colors than us, like ultraviolet and stuff. Some flowers have patterns we totally can't even see, and they look like a bull's eye or an arrow showing the bees exactly where the nectar is." Just one more way nature was completely incredible. "I'm kinda jealous that the bees get to see flowers in their full beauty, but I don't."
"Oh my gosh, that's incredible!" Barbie turned back to the bees, totally impressed and fascinated as they wandered from one flower to the next. "That would be cool...but you fell in love with flowers for how you see them. If you woke up tomorrow and suddenly you had bee-vision, would you even recognize them as flowers? Or would they become something totally different because you have prior experience as comparison?"
Ken though really hard about that, fist to chin in concentration. Would he still recognize them as flowers? Probably, they would still be flower-shaped. But would he recognize them as the species he's come to know and love? Would they still give him the same feelings as before, or would they become something entirely different in spirit if nothing else? This was like that Ship of.....Ship of.....that one Greek guy, that slowly got replaced until it was all new parts.
....Or, "This is like Ken-Is-Me all over again," he grunted.
Barbie's mouth bent quietly upwards. "It's a doozie. But it's nice, isn't it? Knowing that how you see something is the thing that makes it special?"
The bee buzzed away and she straightened up, turning to look at him. "Like, I totally don't need bee vision to know how amazing you are. You're sweet and caring and you pay attention to the things and the people around you. Maybe seeing you with bee-colors would be neat -- but it wouldn't change who I see when I look at you, so I know I'm not missing out on anything."
Something warm settled in Ken's chest when she said such kind and affirming words. It really was nice to hear them out loud when he had had so much uncertainty about himself and who he was as a person......but the warm feeling squirmed down into his tummy when he remembered why he felt that way. He hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth. ".....Can I ask you something?"
Ken walks up to Garden Ken’s greenhouse and calls out, “Ken?” It’s 2:00. Ish. And Ken’s here ready to take Garden Ken out to meet the horses. “Keeeeeen, are you here? Ready to go pet some awesome horses??” @cantevenbeachhere
Ken shouldered through the door to see Beach Ken right on time. "All set, Ken!" He had a straw hat on over his wavy locks, and a bag of apples in one hand. He put out his fist for a friendly knuckle bump. "I've been weirdly excited for this. Plus we get to hang out."
Ken brightly smiled and returned the fist bump. “Dude yay! I’m so glad you’re excited! It’s totally gonna be fun. Nice and chill.”
He pointed to the hat and said, “Loving the hat, my dude. It’s like so fitting. Good choice.”
"Thanks!" Ken angled his hat up a little with one finger, wincing. "Aw man, and I meant to say 'Howdy partner' when I came out too, but I got too excited. Ahem. Howdy partner," he repeated but with his voice lowered half an octave like a tough guy, all smooth and suave. He threw in a Blue Steel just to sell it.
Ken nodded and gave Garden Ken an impressed look. “Hey! Dude, that was pretty good! You totally like nailed it.”
Then Ken seemed to remember himself and quickly straightened and said, “Oh well it’s only polite that I should totally reciprocate!” His expression turned solemn, and he gave Garden Ken a slow, single nod in greeting. “Howdy, partner.”
Ken couldn't keep a straight face, breaking immediately into a warm smile.
"I dunno what the horses favorite apples are, but the honeycrisps are ripe right now in the orchard so I picked a bunch. Think they'll like 'em?" Some people had very strong opinions on apples, and it only made sense that horses also would.
“Oh! My dude,” Ken nodded eagerly at the apple choice. “A lot of the horses like totally love honeycrisps! Like that’s such a good choice. They will like literally…and figuratively eat that up!”
Ken waved for Garden Ken to follow, “C’mon, Ken, let’s go! You’re soooo gonna love this!”
Ken followed Beach Ken eagerly. He didn't have muuuch experience with animals.....like, he liked to look at them and thought they were neat. A cat or a dog was nice now and then, but he didn't always know what to do with them. His hobby horse in the Kendom had been his buddy, but these were horses with legs! The full picture. They would probably act completely different.
"Okay, so what are horses like? Like are they like dogs, or are they like cats, or are they like something else?"
Ken gave Garden Ken a confused look over the question. “They’re like…horses, my dude. Like these horses are totally gentle and chill and they’re hard working. They like people, and they like to play and walk and run, and like they love to just *be*.”
He shrugged. “They’re not like dogs or cats or like anything else. They’re like horses. You’ll see what I mean when we get there. I really think you’ll like them.”
Ken's mouth quirked with self-effacing amusement. "I guess I was asking if they're more quiet and aloof, or more enthusiastic and excitable. I know Pepper and Polly best of any of the animals here......I guess I don't know that much about a lot of animals unless they end up in my garden. I could go on about bees for days, but horses......."
Ken walks up to Garden Ken’s greenhouse and calls out, “Ken?” It’s 2:00. Ish. And Ken’s here ready to take Garden Ken out to meet the horses. “Keeeeeen, are you here? Ready to go pet some awesome horses??” @cantevenbeachhere
Ken shouldered through the door to see Beach Ken right on time. "All set, Ken!" He had a straw hat on over his wavy locks, and a bag of apples in one hand. He put out his fist for a friendly knuckle bump. "I've been weirdly excited for this. Plus we get to hang out."
Ken brightly smiled and returned the fist bump. “Dude yay! I’m so glad you’re excited! It’s totally gonna be fun. Nice and chill.”
He pointed to the hat and said, “Loving the hat, my dude. It’s like so fitting. Good choice.”
"Thanks!" Ken angled his hat up a little with one finger, wincing. "Aw man, and I meant to say 'Howdy partner' when I came out too, but I got too excited. Ahem. Howdy partner," he repeated but with his voice lowered half an octave like a tough guy, all smooth and suave. He threw in a Blue Steel just to sell it.
Ken nodded and gave Garden Ken an impressed look. “Hey! Dude, that was pretty good! You totally like nailed it.”
Then Ken seemed to remember himself and quickly straightened and said, “Oh well it’s only polite that I should totally reciprocate!” His expression turned solemn, and he gave Garden Ken a slow, single nod in greeting. “Howdy, partner.”
Ken couldn't keep a straight face, breaking immediately into a warm smile.
"I dunno what the horses favorite apples are, but the honeycrisps are ripe right now in the orchard so I picked a bunch. Think they'll like 'em?" Some people had very strong opinions on apples, and it only made sense that horses also would.
“Oh! My dude,” Ken nodded eagerly at the apple choice. “A lot of the horses like totally love honeycrisps! Like that’s such a good choice. They will like literally…and figuratively eat that up!”
Ken waved for Garden Ken to follow, “C’mon, Ken, let’s go! You’re soooo gonna love this!”
Ken followed Beach Ken eagerly. He didn't have muuuch experience with animals.....like, he liked to look at them and thought they were neat. A cat or a dog was nice now and then, but he didn't always know what to do with them. His hobby horse in the Kendom had been his buddy, but these were horses with legs! The full picture. They would probably act completely different.
"Okay, so what are horses like? Like are they like dogs, or are they like cats, or are they like something else?"
Pacific Giant delphiniums
whistlingprairieflowers
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
It was a lovely moment of appreciation, and just enough of a rest for her to get her breath back. "Okay! I'm ready. Let's keep going! I wonder what we'll find next." Hiking seemed a lot like a friendship bracelet: it had beads or knots that were these tiny moments of joy strung together, but the string itself was so pretty that you enjoyed the space in between, too.
The trail continued uphill. It was steep enough that Ken was out of breath too. "We're almost there," he promised.
"The bees sure like those asters." He pointed at a pinprick of white in the shade of the trees. The ground was speckled with tons and tons of small white daisy-like blooms, some of them bending and bobbing under the weight of a big bee searching for a snack.
Barbie laughed breathlessly. "I don't mind the distance," she assured him. "But I especially don't mind the distance when I get to enjoy the journey!" She stooped by the flowers, just as happy to stop and look at everything that interested her as she was to reach the top. "Wow. They're so busy. Like, all the time."
"They have a lot of flowers to visit," Ken agreed. "I wonder if they have favorites, ones that they visit just because they like to look at them. Did you know they can see stuff that people can't? Flowers look completely different to them."
"Oh wow, that's so... wait, really??" she whipped her head toward him. "Different how??"
"They can see more colors than us, like ultraviolet and stuff. Some flowers have patterns we totally can't even see, and they look like a bull's eye or an arrow showing the bees exactly where the nectar is." Just one more way nature was completely incredible. "I'm kinda jealous that the bees get to see flowers in their full beauty, but I don't."
"Oh my gosh, that's incredible!" Barbie turned back to the bees, totally impressed and fascinated as they wandered from one flower to the next. "That would be cool...but you fell in love with flowers for how you see them. If you woke up tomorrow and suddenly you had bee-vision, would you even recognize them as flowers? Or would they become something totally different because you have prior experience as comparison?"
Ken though really hard about that, fist to chin in concentration. Would he still recognize them as flowers? Probably, they would still be flower-shaped. But would he recognize them as the species he's come to know and love? Would they still give him the same feelings as before, or would they become something entirely different in spirit if nothing else? This was like that Ship of.....Ship of.....that one Greek guy, that slowly got replaced until it was all new parts.
....Or, "This is like Ken-Is-Me all over again," he grunted.
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
It was a lovely moment of appreciation, and just enough of a rest for her to get her breath back. "Okay! I'm ready. Let's keep going! I wonder what we'll find next." Hiking seemed a lot like a friendship bracelet: it had beads or knots that were these tiny moments of joy strung together, but the string itself was so pretty that you enjoyed the space in between, too.
The trail continued uphill. It was steep enough that Ken was out of breath too. "We're almost there," he promised.
"The bees sure like those asters." He pointed at a pinprick of white in the shade of the trees. The ground was speckled with tons and tons of small white daisy-like blooms, some of them bending and bobbing under the weight of a big bee searching for a snack.
Barbie laughed breathlessly. "I don't mind the distance," she assured him. "But I especially don't mind the distance when I get to enjoy the journey!" She stooped by the flowers, just as happy to stop and look at everything that interested her as she was to reach the top. "Wow. They're so busy. Like, all the time."
"They have a lot of flowers to visit," Ken agreed. "I wonder if they have favorites, ones that they visit just because they like to look at them. Did you know they can see stuff that people can't? Flowers look completely different to them."
"Oh wow, that's so... wait, really??" she whipped her head toward him. "Different how??"
"They can see more colors than us, like ultraviolet and stuff. Some flowers have patterns we totally can't even see, and they look like a bull's eye or an arrow showing the bees exactly where the nectar is." Just one more way nature was completely incredible. "I'm kinda jealous that the bees get to see flowers in their full beauty, but I don't."
[[closed starter for @peace-of-cake ]]
Ken fidgeted with the strap of his pack while he waited outside Baker Barbie's dream house. They were going hiking today, which he had been looking forward to....but now that he was actually here, he felt unreasonably nervous. Hiking was great! You got to enjoy the sun and fresh air and move your body, and as a hangout it meant you didn't have to look at each other too much because there was so much else to be looking at. It also usually meant you weren't talking about much besides the hike, and Ken wasn't sure if that was a good thing when he was trying to get to know his friends better. He also wasn't sure whether Baker Barbie was outdoorsy or outsidey - which was an important distinction to make.
It was a lovely moment of appreciation, and just enough of a rest for her to get her breath back. "Okay! I'm ready. Let's keep going! I wonder what we'll find next." Hiking seemed a lot like a friendship bracelet: it had beads or knots that were these tiny moments of joy strung together, but the string itself was so pretty that you enjoyed the space in between, too.
The trail continued uphill. It was steep enough that Ken was out of breath too. "We're almost there," he promised.
"The bees sure like those asters." He pointed at a pinprick of white in the shade of the trees. The ground was speckled with tons and tons of small white daisy-like blooms, some of them bending and bobbing under the weight of a big bee searching for a snack.
Barbie laughed breathlessly. "I don't mind the distance," she assured him. "But I especially don't mind the distance when I get to enjoy the journey!" She stooped by the flowers, just as happy to stop and look at everything that interested her as she was to reach the top. "Wow. They're so busy. Like, all the time."
"They have a lot of flowers to visit," Ken agreed. "I wonder if they have favorites, ones that they visit just because they like to look at them. Did you know they can see stuff that people can't? Flowers look completely different to them."
