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@remarkableyoungwomen
This screenshot from a gardening Facebook group has been on my phone for several years and I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to delete it. Apparently it comes from a British gardening book from the 80s. I know we all joke that the English are afraid of flavor, but I assure you, you are not prepared for this.
Me, as i put 2 whole heads off garlic in with my Christmas roast: wtf???
some of my favorite quotes from the beast games ign review
A group of rough looking boys walked past me today and all I heard of their conversation was “he’s got that anxiety disorder bro so I went with him so he’d be more comfortable” and it made me realise the world isn’t all that bad
#this is team skull
The pet store I worked at had a pen with rabbits near the front door. On every side of the pen were huge signs saying “You can pet me, but don’t pick me up!” One day two absolutely huge guys came in and one immediately reaches into the pen to grab a rabbit. Before i could say anything his friend grabbed his arm and asked him “did you see the sign?” He said “yeah! it says that you can pick them up but don’t pet them!” Then he went quiet for a moment and softly said “I didn’t read it right did I?” And his friend just puts his arm on his shoulder and said “its ok, i know you’ve got that thing where words get mixed up. Let just pet these cute lil shits” And I still haven’t gotten over that interaction.
I was walking my dog through Boston bc he likes the likes car rides. He’s a little thing tbh we call him short and long. So this huge scary man with a full beard approaches me like “hey can my buddy and I pet your dog? He gets nervous around dogs but your’s is so small I think it’s a good place to start.” Ofc I was like “yes he’s very friendly!” So this guy brings his equally big friend over and they sit on the floor while this man looks terrified of my tiny dog so big man number one asks “can I pick him up?” And i say yes so he picks him up and puts him on man number two’s lap and man number two is abt to freak out and his friend straight up just goes “hey man, it’s okay just relax I’d never let anything hurt you. He’s a good boy.” I’ll never forget it ever bc I know that man looked at me (5'3 , glasses, probably wearing a sweater vest) and my dog (kinda goofy looking little thing) and was like ‘ah yes the two least intimidating living things I’ve seen in Boston all day he’ll feel relaxed around them’ and went out of his way to help his friend. It makes me so happy
My husband had this Dungeons and Dragons group ages ago, and one of the guys was TERRIFIED of cats. The moment he sees one he freezes up and can barely breathe. Said guy is almost seven feet tall and solid wall of muscle. Whenever he came over I’d put the cats in the bedroom and chill out with a book because my cats don’t like being shut away without one of us.
One of my cats was pawing at the door and meowing loudly, an indication she REALLY needs to use the litter box. I let her out and decide, hey, I’m hungry, and decide to the kitchen. I forgot to shut the bedroom door.
Next thing I hear is the group going completely silent. My husband very calmly asks me to come over and help him gather our two cats up. I go over to where the group is and my black cat, Cacoa, is rubbing up against the guy’s leg, purring, and doing her “let me on your lap” meow. The other cat, Jasper, is sitting at the window, chilling out. I go over and pick up Cacoa and tell the big dude she’s harmless, loves laps, and would be thrilled if he pet her. Very slowly he touches my cat’s face, and she leans right into his hand. He then pets her back and sighs because she’s really soft and purring like mad. After a few minutes he asks how to pick her up and if it’s okay if she sits on his lap.
He spent the next six hours spoiling my cat. The next week he showed up with cat treats and toys because he fell in love with the cats. He told me he was doing some research on house cats, and even talked to a vet about them. A couple months later he adopted two cats and was as thrilled and excited as a new parent.
Oh no a new one!!!
Blessed post.
I used to work at this stable for icelandic horses and every now and then this man would turn up by the field to just watch the horses. One time I walked by him as I was going to get the horses inside, and he went ”I always wanted to learn how to ride but I’m afraid of horses because they’re so huge. If I could ride ponies like this, maybe I’d dare but now I’m too big and heavy for them.” You should have seen his face when I told them that actually they’re not ponies, just small horses and they could totally carry him. His face just lit up. Next thing I’m helping him to get on back. Today he knows how to ride.
A few years ago my sister and I were in Daytona Beach, and we saw this huge, burly biker. Looked like the stereotypical biker: big black beard, the goggles, leather, and a bandana. He also had a baby carrier, and in that baby carrier was a tiny little orange Pomeranian. We complimented his dog and he said, in one of the deepest voices I’ve ever heard, “thanks, his name’s Little Bear!” And he told us about how he’d take Little Bear out on his motorcycle everyday and how much the dog loved it.
Such a lovely post.
@wholesomepostarchive look!!
12/24/2024
My favorite tweet for the “Game Of Thrones” finale.
life is so good when ur reading a book and taking it w u everywhere like your little child
ok i know this is a joke but genuinely walk around and give them to your neighbors. even if you don't know them. "hey i made too many cookies to eat by myself, will you please take some?" top tier icebreaker 10/10. step 1 of community building is being able to have a chat with the people in your community
Remarkable Young Women: The True Story of Fredegund
Born: 6th century
Died: 597
Country: France
Culture: Merovingian France
As a teenager, Fredegund was a servant in the royal household of the Merovingian monarch King Chilperic I and his wife, Queen Audovera. Fredegund was one of many attendants assigned to assist the queen, and it was in this position that she first crossed paths with King Chilperic. Knowing the value of having the attention of the king, Fredegund began to set her ambitions in motion. She entreated the king to depose his wife Audovera, begging him to banish his wife to a convent and to install Fredegund as queen instead. The king was partially persuaded-- he did divorce his first wife Audovera, but rather than making Fredegund queen, he instead married Galswintha, a Visigoth princess of Spain. King Chilperic knew Galswintha through her sister, Brunhild, who had married his brother Sigebert I, King of Austrasia.
Fredegund was incensed that her plotting had gone awry, and hated Galswintha. However, her ambitions would come to fruition sooner rather than later. Within a year after Galswintha and Chilperic were married, the new bride was found in bed, strangled to death in her sleep. Rumors flew that Fredegund, jealous of the princess, had ordered the assassination, though nothing could be definitively proven. Soon afterwards Fredegund and King Chilperic I were married, and Fredegund finally became queen.
However, her reign would prove to be tumultuous from the beginning. Brunhild, Queen of Austrasia and sister of the murdered Galswintha, promised to avenge her sister’s wrongful death. Brunhild and her husband declared war against Fredegund and Chilperic, in a feud that would last forty years and outlive both queens’ husbands. Throughout it all, evidence shows that Fredegund did indeed put in motion multiple assassinations plots, including at least one against Brunhild herself.
Image credit: @hatteeho
You ever notice how a washing machine 10 minutes is actually about 17 minutes human time
i should get a special treat whenever i successfully “i have food at home” myself. a treat like a special snack i do not have at home.
every time i ask people if they do any new years resolutions its all ooooo i dont like making them bc i fail or ohhhhh no i couldnt keep up wiht that and then when they ask me and i tell them about Pasta Quest (i am eating as many different pasta shapes as possible in the space of a year) or when i did Fruit Adventures (every time i saw a fruit i had never eaten before id get one and eat it and read the wikipedia article about it) theyre like hang on i forgot you can make Fun Ones i want a fun one
while i actually made this post back in May, since New Year’s is approaching here’s some of my fave suggestions from the tags if you’re looking for inspiration!
other favorites from the notes I didn’t get screenshots of at the time:
learn the names/species of local plants, bugs, and birds where you live (iNaturalist or Merlin the bird app help with this)
learn the rules to 10 new card games
steal the colored paint cards from hardware store paint aisles and use them to make art
try out every different apple variety you can find and rank them
similarly LOTS of people in the notes doing soup quests, and a few cheese quests also
similarly lots of people reading/watching certain amounts of media over the year, and tracking/rating it
track the number of cats/dogs/etc you see over the year
there’s plenty more in there too :)
Remarkable Young Women: The True Story of Enheduanna
Born: Before 2285 BCE
Died: c. 2250 BCE
Country: Iraq
Culture: Akkadian Empire
Enheduanna is the first author in history who is known by name. She was a princess, the daughter of King Sargon the Great, the founder of the Akkadian Empire. Ur was a very important city to the former Sumerian Empire, and when Sargon conquered Ur, he sought for a way to tie the old and new empires together.
In a show of religious and political unity, King Sargon appointed his daughter Enheduanna as entu, or high priestess. Some scholars believe she was the first woman to ever hold this position. This was an incredible display of trust from the king to Enheduanna, and a position of great responsibility. Enheduanna had her own gesture of goodwill to give. Enheduanna was not her given name. She would have had a Sumerian name as a child, which has now been lost to history, but upon assuming her role as entu she took on a new name, Enheduanna, meaning “En-Priestess, wife of the god Nanna”. This position was one of religious leadership, making her the highest-ranking priestess in the empire, believed to have been personally selected by the moon-god Sin, sometimes called Nanna. This gave her actions divine authority in the eyes of her people.
Enheduanna had many responsibilities as high priestess. She would have worshiped at the top of the ziggurat (similar to a pyramid), praying to the moon god to take care of her people and land. She would have lived in the giparu, a small home near the ziggurat reserved for the high priestess. She would have organized and presided over the city’s temple complex, which was the heart of the city and culture of Ur.
She was also a writer, composing more than forty poems, songs, and hymns to the goddess. Some of these poems have survived history, including Inninsagurra (The Great-Hearted Mistress), Ninmesarra (The Exaltation of Inanna), and Inninmehusa (Goddess of the Fearsome Powers). Her writings were also a tool of unity for her people, as she wrote about bringing Sumerian and Akkadian beliefs together, and she assured the people that the the gods were sympathetic to their prayers, whether Sumerian or Akkadian. Her writings were so powerful that they were copied and recopied for nearly 2,000 years. Modern scholars agree that her compositions influenced and inspired some psalms of the Hebrew bible, Homeric hymns of Greece, and even some early Christian hymns.
Throughout her life Enheduanna was a respected and powerful figure of the Akkadian Empire. This power is easily seen in an event that happened later in her life. During the reign of King Sargon’s grandson, King Narām-Sîn, a man named Lugal-Ane came to power who wanted to overthrow the king. He amassed a significant following and came to Enheduanna. He demanded that she use her divine authority to declare that Lugal-Ane had the right to overthrow the king. Enheduanna absolutely refused. Lugal-Ane then rallied his forces then chased Enheduanna out of the city. With the high priestess out of the way, Lugal-Ane then staged a full-force attack on King Narām-Sîn. The king was able to quell the rebellion, defeating Lugal-Ane. Enheduanna was then able to return to the city. While on the run, Enheduanna composed a hymn to the goddess Inanna, imploring her to intervene and to save the king.
A carving of the high priestess survives on an ivory disc called The Disk of Enheduanna, which has inscriptions written in cuneiform and a carving on Enheduanna in the temple of the moon-god. This tablet was created hundreds of years after her death, which reveals how powerful her legacy was to subsequent generations. The ivory disk is currently held by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Image credit: Waiting on the Persian King by IRCSS
Remarkable Young Women: Artemisia I of Caira
Born: 3rd Century BCE
Died: 3rd Century BCE
Country: Turkey
Culture: Persian Empire
Named after the Greek goddess Artemis, patron of wisdom and military strategy, Artemisia certainly lived up to her namesake. While little is known of her childhood, Artemesia bursts onto the historical record as a young widow whose husband had suddenly passed, leaving her with a very young son. She is known as a fearsome warrior and military leader, most famous for her leadership in an epic naval battle.
Upon the death of her husband, young Artemisia ascended to the throne of Caira as regent, her son being far too young to rule. At the time Caira, in modern-day southwest Turkey, was part of the Persian Empire ruled by the fearsome King Xerxes the Great. A powerful military commander, Xerxes was determined to conquer Greece. He spent four years gathering men, weapons, and supplies before his forces embarked on a series of battles which came to be called the Persian Wars.
One of these battles was the Battle of Artemisium, where Artemisia distinguished herself as a commander and tactician. She supplied a number of ships to the Persian forces, one of which she commanded herself. During the battle she demonstrated a knack for subterfuge and strategy. She had on board both a Persian and a Greek flag. When pursued by a Greek ship she would raise the Greek flag, and the Greeks would halt their pursuit in confusion. When chasing down a Greek ship, she would hoist the Persian flag, so the enemy would know they were being bested. After three days, the Greek fleet retreated and the Persians continued on to take Athens, Greece’s capital city. Xerxes proclaimed himself victor and razed Athens in a symbolic display of power. The remaining Greek forces had gathered off the coast in the Peloponnese, joining near the Greek’s naval fleet anchored at Salamis. Xerxes called a war council of his most trusted leaders to determine their next strategy. Should they engage the Greeks at Salamis or be content with the conquest of Athens?
All of the gathered leaders spoke in favor of a sea battle at Salamis except for one-- Artemisia. She claimed that further combat was unnecessary, having already driven the Greeks out of Athens, and the battle would lose men and supplies unnecessarily. He had already achieved what he wanted-- Athens was his. Why take an unnecessary risk? Artemisia argued instead to lay siege to the Greek forces, surrounding them until supplies ran low and the Greeks were forced to make peace with the Persians. While Xerxes respected Artemisia and thanked her for her counsel, he agreed with the majority, and gave orders to prepare for battle.
Artemisia once again led the naval forces into the Battle of Salamis, commanding the soldiers of Halicarnassus, Cos, Nisyros, and Calyndos. The Greeks had even placed a bounty on her declaring “ten thousand drachmas for the man who should take her alive."
Nevertheless, as Artemisia had predicted, the Battle of Salamis was disastrous for the Persian fleet and cost Xerxes dearly. Despite their losses, Xerxes honored Artemisia for her valor in battle and sent her a suit of Greek armour in recognition. After the disastrous loss at Salamis, Xerxes once again sought Artemisia’s opinion-- should he stay and continue to lead his forces in Greece, or return home and leave a general as head of his armies? Artemisia counseled him to return home, arguing that whether the general won or lost, Xerxes would be safe at home, with no danger to his life and having already accomplished his mission of conquering Athens. This time Xerxes followed her advice, leaving a general to conduct his affairs.
A trusted advisor, fearless military leader, and shrewd strategist, Artemisia was highly respected in her day. The last records of her life record that she was personally entrusted by Xerxes to escort his sons to Ephesus, after which she vanishes from history, as suddenly as she had appeared.
Image credit: Artemisia by Giovanni Antonio Burrini
Remarkable Young Women: Arsinoë IV
Born: Between 68–63 BC
Died: 41 BC
Country: Egypt
Culture: Ptolemaic Egypt
While many know the story of Cleopatra, few know the incredible tale of her younger half-sister, Arsinoë. The battle for Egypt is the story of just three siblings: Cleopatra, Ptolemy, and Arsinoë. All children of King Ptolemy XII Auletes, each one wielded power as a member of the royal family. Cleopatra and Ptolemy had been married, a common practice at the time, At the time, Julius Caesar was expanding the Roman Empire across the Mediterranean. Cleopatra saw this as an opportunity to gain power by allying with Rome. Ptolemy refused the proposition and, nervous of the power that Cleopatra was accumulating as Queen, dethroned his sister-wife and forced her to flee. However, in her exile Cleopatra accumulated forces and declared war on her brother, allying with Julius Caesar and using their combined forces to regain control of Alexandria, the capital city. Arsinoë, the youngest daughter, watched as her two older siblings plunged Egypt into civil war.
Upon taking command of the city of Alexandria, Julius Caesar ordered Arsinoë and the rest of her family to be captured. Arsinoë was the only one who managed to escape, with the help of her tutor Ganymedes. Fifteen-year-old Arsinoë was furious at her older sister, believing her to have sold out Egypt to the powerful Roman Empire. On the run from Caesar and Cleopatra, Arsinoë allied with her brother Ptolemy and joined the rebel Egyptian army, which proclaimed her Queen of Egypt in opposition to Cleopatra. With her brother, Arsinoë organized factions of a rebel army and rallied troops to try to depose Cleopatra and Caesar.
In 48 BC, when Arsinoë was somewhere between 15 and 20 years old, she and Ptolemy went to war against their half-sister, Cleopatra, and Caesar in what would become known as the Siege of Alexandria. Arsinoë and Ptolemy’s forces surrounded the city, attempting to starve out Caesar and Cleopatra’s armies. In a desperate attempt, Caesar launched an attack on the Lighthouse of Alexandria, but Arsinoë’s forces drove him back in a decisive victory. The siege continued until Roman reinforcements arrived, overwhelming the Egyptians and capturing Arsinoë. She was taken to Rome as a prisoner of war, where she was paraded around the streets as a trophy of the Roman’s victory over Egypt. However, her beauty and strength appealed to the crowds, who pressured Caesar not to strangle her, as was tradition, but to instead grant her sanctuary as a priestess at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, Turkey.
Arsinoë lived peacefully in the Temple of Artemis for seven years, but her sister Cleopatra, powerful and paranoid, never forgot the rebellion of her youngest sister. In 41 BC, by order of Cleopatra, Arsinoë was murdered on the steps of the temple, a gross violation of the sanctuary that scandalized Rome and forever stained Cleopatra’s reputation.
Image credit: Unknown (please message me if you know the artist! I cannot find them)
Remarkable Young Women: Cleopatra the Alchemist
Born: 3rd or 4th Century
Died: 3rd or 4th Century
Country: Egypt
Culture: Unknown
Unrelated to the famed female queen of Egypt, Cleopatra the Alchemist is likely a pseudonym given to a mysterious female scientist working in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria was known as a thriving cosmopolitan center for groundbreaking scholars and attracted bright minds across the known world, aided by its famed library said to contain the wealth of the world’s knowledge.
Women at this time in Egypt enjoyed significantly greater freedom than many other nations, commanding the right to own properties, legal rights on equal footing with men, and were allowed to practice elite scholarly disciplines such as alchemy. It is unknown whether Cleopatra was Egyptian or if she left some faraway homeland to study in Alexandria.
The woman known today as Cleopatra the Alchemist was a pioneering chemist, experimenting with materials, tools, and processes and diligently recording her findings. She may have even studied under Maria the Jewess, considered the first female alchemist of the western world, though this is not confirmed by historic record.
The field of alchemy was often draped in secrecy, as alchemists sought to use chemistry and science to create gold from other materials, such as lead. The school of alchemy that Cleopatra attended was known for using complex apparatuses, weights, measures, and experimental processes for distillation and sublimation. Three records of her work survive. Perhaps the most interesting is known as Cleopatra’s Chrysopoeia, or “Cleopatra’s gold-making”, and is one of the first scientific texts written by a woman. Within it are notes on experiments to turn lead into silver, doodles of symbolic shapes and stars, symbols for gold, silver, and mercury, and sketches for chemistry tools including a drawing of an alembic, a system of distillation that chemists still use to this day which may have been Cleopatra’s own invention. She is credited by later historians as one of just four female alchemists who knew the secret to producing the famed philosopher's stone, and some believed that the symbols in her text were a secret code outlining the process.
Cleopatra’s Chrysopoeia is currently kept at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Image credit: Kitty Nessa (?)
Remarkable Young Women: The True Story of Börte Üjin
Born: 1161
Died: 1230
Country: Mongolia
Culture: Mongol Empire
Part of the Onggirat people in ancient Mongolia, Börte was recognized for her intelligence even as a young child. When she was ten years old, her father Dei-Sechen met Yesügei, a powerful Mongol warlord who was travelling with his nine-year-old son, Temüjin. Yesügei informed Dei-Sechen that he was looking for a young girl to become betrothed to his son. Dai-Sechen recounted a dream that he had had the previous night about a warlord arriving with his son, believing it to be a good omen. Dai-Sechen then suggested his own ten-year-old daughter, Börte, as a future wife for Temüjin. Yesügei was intrigued, and agreed to meet Börte in person. Arriving at her family’s home, the warlord was struck by the young girl, who he described as someone “who had light in her face, who had fire in her eyes”. The next morning, Yesügei asked Börte’s father for permission for her hand in marriage for his son. Dai-Sechen agreed, on the condition that Temüjin would remain with Börte’s family until they were old enough to wed.
However, things were about to change quickly for Börte. On his return trip home, the warlord was poisoned. Though he continued on his journey home as quickly as possible, Yesügei knew that he was dying. He insisted that his son be returned home to his family, to take care of his younger siblings. Temüjin left to return home, and the warlord did indeed pass away soon after.
Seven more years passed, and when Börte was about seventeen and Temüjin about eighteen, Temüjin returned to Börte’s village to find her. The two were reunited and quickly wed, finally fulfilling the promise of their fathers. They established a home near the Keuren River, though their tranquility was not to last long. Soon after their marriage, their village was attacked by a rival tribe. In the chaos, Temüjin and Börte were separated. Temüjin managed to escape on horseback, but Börte was not so lucky. A servant tried to hide Börte in an old cart, which he hitched to oxen and drove upstream to escape. In a tragic event, the cart broke and, though the servant tried to pull the cart himself, they were surrounded by soldiers who discovered Börte’s hiding place. They were captured.
Hearing the news of her capture, Temüjin was devastated, mourning the loss of his wife from his bed and declaring that his heart was “torn apart.” Determined to reclaim his wife, Temüjin hatched a plot with his closest advisors. For eight long months Börte remained in captivity while her husband put all of the necessary pieces into place for his attempted rescue. But Temüjin was not the only one looking for an opportunity.
Amassing a group of soldiers, Temüjin attacked the village where Börte was held captive, pillaging and plundering as he sought out his wife. Börte recognized her opportunity to escape and, in the confusion of the chaos, had broken out and boarded a cart, frantically searching for a way back to her husband.As the legend goes, Temüjin quickly moved through the throngs of people desperately calling out his wife’s name. In the midst of her own escape, Börte distantly heard a voice calling her name over the din of the crowd. Immediately recognizing her husbands voice, she was overjoyed. As the history books record, “She heard the voice of Temüjin and, recognizing it, she got off the cart and came running towards him. Although it was still night, Lady Börte… recognized Temüjin's reins and tether and grabbed them. It was moonlight; he looked at them, recognized Lady Börte, and they fell into each other's arms."
Börte returned home and reclaimed her place as co-ruler by her husband’s side. Shrewd and intellectual, Börte took on many responsibilities as ruler, including managing pan-Asian trade routes, advising officials and merchants, managing military alliances, and interceding on religious affairs. Temüjin both respected his wife’s insight and appreciated her penchant for politics. In turn, Börte encouraged her husband’s ambitions for expanding the Mongol empire. Temüjin would later become the greatest Mongol emperor in history, known now by his later title, Genghis Khan.
Artist credit: Suhyeon Hwang
Remarkable Young Women: The True Story of Æthelflæd
Born: c. 870 or 871
Died: June 12, 918
Country: England
Culture: Anglo-Saxon
Æthelflæd (Aethelflaed) was the eldest daughter of King Alfred the Great of Wessex and Queen Ealhswith of Mercia. At the time, vikings from Denmark were terrorizing the various kingdoms of the British Isles, pillaging villages and killing inhabitants. Æthelflæd’s parents were dedicated to the education of their five children, who were all raised in an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity and scholarship.
As a child Æthelflæd’s father was often away fending off Viking invasions, and successfully drove the Vikings out of London in 886. To strengthen forces against the invaders, King Alfred arranged for his daughter to marry Æthelred, the powerful warlord of the nearby kingdom of Mercia, further uniting England against the Vikings. They were married when Æthelflæd was about fifteen or sixteen, and she became Queen of Mercia.
Æthelflæd, educated and devoted to her family, learned much from her father in terms of military and political strategy. After her marriage, Æthelflæd quickly set out to fortify towns in a brilliant system of reinforcement: townships were re-organized so that each could be defended by another within one day’s march. She also invited scholars from foreign lands to Mercia to further education and learning in the Mercian court. Together, Æthelflæd and Æthelred continued to rebuff Viking attacks. When Æthelflæd was about twenty, a new host of Viking raiders arrived, led by Hastien. Æthelflæd and her husband fought back repeatedly against Hastien, until they decisively defeated him in 896. Shortly after, in 902 CE, Æthelred was stricken with an incapacitating disease, and from then on Æthelflæd effectively ruled alone. Her rule is recognized as a time of unique peace in England during the Viking age, due to her political savvy and earned support of her people.
Image credit: @char-portraits
