Calm & Words

Photos, plants, writing; an escape from the world

[bowelfly]

Richard Scarry's Monastic Menagerie

[sunshinedrabble]

I miss when storms were gentler.

Where once there were vegetable sprouts, now only dirt and stems. A hail storm absolutely destroyed my garden, shredding everything. I cried over my poor little plants.

The growing season is too short here for me to start from seed again and I don't have the funds for starter plants. I may try for fall seeding a bit later.

[tpwrtrmnky]

humans should be able to do a special Ultra Sleep after major life accomplishments where you're just out for like 32 hours or something and then you wake up fully refreshed in every way

[souperluminal]

05.21 - Fireflies

[marlowe-art]

magnolia garden

[tofupixel]

;-3

[sunshinedrabble]

I love watching peas reach and grasp, like they just want to hold hands!

[sunshinedrabble]

My irises are in bloom and my seedlings are growing!

[sunshinedrabble]

Some absolutely charming little plants at the high desert garden

[geopsych]

It’s my birthday this week so I’m asking anyone who feels like it to look for cool nature stuff to tell me about. Something you see in the next week or two, not the past. Tell me in a comment on this post or tag me in something you post. What is everybody seeing out there?

It can be a plant growing in the pavement in a city, leaves or trees you see out the window, or things you see in woods and parks and lawns and fields. Birds, animals, fungus, lichen, plants, whether it’s spring or autumn where you live or eternal summer. Ask the week for something cool to show me. 💚 Thank you!

[sunshinedrabble]

Happy, happy birthday!!!

My irises are just starting to bloom and here's my favorite yew tree path in Clonegall, Ireland.

[sunshinedrabble]

Little creature shaped pitchers at the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome

[sunshinedrabble]

Piazza della Rotonda, Rome

[tofupixel]

the foliage drawer

[stealingpotatoes]

commission for @misterspockssocks!

(commissions are open!)

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

There are ten trillion pictures of flowering trees to the point where they sometimes seem trite and overdone. But then you see a tree in full flower and go holy shit this rules and I've gotta show this to everyone so they can experience the same magic and wonder and there are ten trillion and one pictures of flowering trees

[unwholesome-gay]

[meeresfem]

learning how to garden and grow plants is so difficult, because if you can’t do it right from the beginning (which we can’t), then you’re going to kill plants and that’s sad and I feel like giving up rather than learning more and risking more accidental plant-killings….

[meeresfem]

I think we need to learn to trust nature’s abundance. Plants produce hundreds, thousands, sometimes millions of seeds. So what if I use some of them to learn how to grow? There’s no waste. Even if the seed didn’t turn into a plant, it turns into compost. The soil and the pots can still be used. Maybe next time… or the time after that! One day it’ll work out. Some seeds may never grow into big plants, but nature has foreseen this and planned for it.

Learning to grow and connect is a worthwile enterprise and worth spending some time and a handful of seeds on. Learning to trust in nature’s abundance, if we are humble and respectful.

Learning to trust in our own abilities. Maybe learning takes time. Time will come. It’s ok.

[inkskinned]

you know what? fuck it, man. the world is held in the fists of people who like to break things. at this point i’m saying who gives a shit. wear that victorian dress you don’t have an excuse for. dress up like a witch, pointed hat and all. who cares anymore. why worry about it when there’s bigger stuff to worry on. i’m saying. yeah, this lipstick is too dark, wanna share? i’m saying go talk to her, tell her that you like her hair. i’m saying she’s out of my league but i’m still swinging, i’m saying yeah i’m in a ballgown and it’s a pta meeting. what about it. eat the extra brownie, tell her your feelings. i’m saying if nothing matters than we might as well give nothing meaning.

[inkskinned]

#i’m saying if existence is a void at least i’m going down screaming.

it’s been 9 years since i wrote this. i was experiencing 24/7 anxiety so badly that i needed serious medication. these days in the back of my car is an “emergency party box.” when people admit they no longer really celebrate their birthday; i tell them to put the sash on and queue up kesha, we’re going bowling or something. these days i can’t spin around without finding something i am enamored with. these days i list 3 things i’m grateful for before i fall asleep. you’re probably one of them, just by virtue of you existing.

at the time i wrote this, i was suffering through a severe panic attack literally every night. i tortured my brother with constant 2 AM calls just to hear someone else breathing, because i couldn’t be alone in the silence.

i rarely wish i was still 23 even though ironically i had more hope back then. what i can tell you is this: i love the same way, but bigger now. i’ve worn the velvet cape to several business meetings. i spent thursday in a crop top without caring what my stomach looked like.

i told her i like her; i often dress as a witch. i still got glass in my foot this morning. i’ve kissed maybe a thousand people since then and met a million more than that; passing like the shadow of a hammerhead in trains and planes and buses.

i saw you, beloved, there, maybe, on platform in south station. you didn’t speak, but you said: i struggle to give the nothing meaning. the nothing fills up everything. it is just loud and yellowed panicked silence. i can’t stop shaking.

on the roof, birds curl together against the chilled spring wind. the sky outside of the craft store was an iridescent pink. the nothing already had meaning; you are giving it meaning by witnessing.

the act of living, beloved: it’s just decoding how to translate it.