This morning I was moved to re-watch this 2017 Lindsay Ellis video about the history of successfully mocking Nazis. Still good.
CW for the video: lots of clips of dated, transgressive comedy with various slurs (n-word is bleeped, others are not). Clips are discussed from a critical/progressive perspective.
I started reading Doppelganger by Naomi Klein for the discussion of disinformation, but I stayed because it’s secretly a great analysis of horror movies and books.
I would have read this much sooner if I had known it was going to involve exploring doubles and imposters in scary stories all the way back past Freud, to fairy changelings, golems, and theology about the duality of soul and body.
Most horror movie analysis I’ve read picks one theme (racism, feminism, imperialism, or whatever) and looks at all the ways that has been expressed in horror.
It’s a fun change to read a book that picks one image (the double) and looks at all the horrifying themes it can express
I’m busting out last fall’s dried hawthorn berries for a project today, and realizing that I cracked them before drying. Fun!
It’s my first time trying this method. Hopefully they will steep faster than intact berries, so they work better in herbal tea blends.
Posting these linden (Tilia cordata) blossoms mostly to prove that not all of my herbalism projects smell weird. These famously smell like a hug.
One of my apocalypse mental health coping strategies is choosing silly or celebratory versions of emergency supplies. (Some of my emergency water is carbonated.)
Seeing so many happy people at the new Banfield Park public swimming platform during the heat warning today pushed that same button — it’s a party version of a public cooling station. Big fan.
My favourite heatwave / climate change picture book is this one, where one night it is so hot that the moon melts.
It has everything: apartment-dwellers helping each other, a grandma with good ideas, climate refugees (from the moon), environmental restoration, and an ending that is cute and encouraging, or maybe “icy and sweet”.
Gonna go make popsicles and work on my neighbourhood extreme weather prep. Sending courage to my fellow west coasters.
My runner-up favourite heatwave / climate change picture book is this one, where a family is trying to get to the lake but their car keeps breaking down.
A baby is taken seriously as a person with valid ideas, a dad does all the parenting, it’s a solid right-to-repair story, and the car is correctly portrayed as unglamorous and annoying. But the noises it makes are a lot of fun to read.
Every time Fabcycle has a fabric drop I read the listings like a novel.
Like, it’s great that they sell diverted landfill waste and deadstock and it’s great that their fabric descriptions and photos are super accurate, but I am mostly on their mailing list for the fabric names.
I bought this in about 2005 from an artist who I think had been living in Hong Kong during SARS aka SARS-CoV-1. I wish I could remember his name.
This piece is so muted and only postcard-sized. It was insignificant in my home for 15 years, and now it pops out to every (tested or masked or quarantined) visitor.
Shout out to the drummer from Sumac for performing in a mask the other night. And shout out to Vancouver Jazz Fest for having an early show with a bit of seating so this Long Covid / ME/CFS spoonie could attend some nightlife (in a respirator).
(Not perfect– stairs-only access! But I appreciated that they marked that info on the ad at least.)
I heard one of my favourite bird songs in Coquitlam last night (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territory), a loopy upward spiral song belonging to the Swainson’s Thrush.
They were singing in a tree in a friend’s yard where my kiddo had been picking salmonberries.
Just like this:
I realized I hadn’t thought about the Swainson’s Thrush since I learned about the idea of using bird names for birds so I went looking for non-eponym common names.
Some Wikipedia editor loves that bird song as much as I do, because after Olive-Backed Thrush they listed Reverbius Maximus Harmonius.
I realized even harder, that since the last time I heard Swainson’s Thrushes singing I had read the excellent book Held By The Land, by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh herbalist Leigh Joseph.
She mentions a story about the thrushes singing to make the salmonberries ripen, and I remember that reading that made me yelp in delight because even I, who have picked salmonberries maybe three times, associate those bird songs and those berries.
I re-read that page of Held By The Land just now, and she gives another name for the Swainson’s Thrush: Salmonberry Birds. I think I’ll go with that for my #BirdNamesForBirds.
Identifying my yard bumblebees continues with these very fast-moving and hard to photograph garden friends. I think this is Bombus vosnesenkii, the yellow-faced bumblebee.
The usual joke about bumblebees is that they meander slowly and bump into things. You know, bumble it up. But these seem to be what a peak performing bee physique looks like. Fast, precise, extensive pollination going on in my sage plant.
More yard bumblebees … I started noticing them while doing an herbalism practice of visiting the same plants often to see what changed. Turns out different plants have different bumblebees (of course). These ones love the sage.
My best guess is Bombus flavifrons, the yellow-fronted bumblebee, but I’m going to try to hit up the BC Native Bee monthly zoom to get a more solid ID.
Update: several bee nerds agree this is more likely Bombus californicus. Related update: the BC Native Bee monthly study group is a lot of fun.
I have an energy impairment so i am always on the lookout for chill, seated projects you can do in brief sessions. Lately I’ve been trying to identify my various yard bumblebees .
I think this one is Bombus mixtus, the fuzzy-horned bumblebee. Their butt stripes go yellow-black-orange, they seem to be passionate about pollinating raspberries, and last year they nested under our compost heap.
These Bee ID Cards from the BC Native Bee Society have been the most helpful bumblebee field guides so far. I *love* focused guides for small regions, rather than wading through an encyclopedia of North American Insects.
I’m also very into these bee bingo cards from the BC Native Bee Society, because they have a separate card for wannabees. Yes! I wish all field guides included lookalike info.
I think I accidentally grew the exact lettuce from The Lady And The Spider?
This has been hanging on my wall since at least 2012… Staying tender under these particular apocalyptic conditions used to be just a cute proposal, but I think it actually was helpful to prepare an emotional stance ahead of time 🤷🏻
Aww yeah it’s time for my favourite part of any [online] experience– using the #WeirdSmells hashtag. I managed to forage some hawthorn (Craetagus crus-galli) flowers to dry for tea, and now my kitchen smells like it is trying to attract flies for pollination…
Because I always like to include an ethical note about foraging– these Eastern hawthorns are invasive here, cultivated as public boulevard trees, and the city has a commitment to avoid spraying them except in a few circumstances. Perfect urban foraging conditions?
Spoonie lifehack: if you have one of those instant read thermometers for cooking, use it to figure out your optimal bath temperature and then flawlessly achieve it forever.
Many people suggest around 105F/40.5C but I aim for 110F/43C when I have joint pain.
Something that helped me to process a divorce and then later to transition into long covid and disability life is a dance theatre performance I saw in 2016. I mention this because it is streaming on Marquee.
It’s about trauma and grief, so use your judgement. But even now i exhale so much tension when I remember that second half, how the giant pillar is still there on stage.
Can someone please put this iconic Jenny Holzer text on an n95 and sell it to me? Thanks
An old practice from AIDS movements that I think we should try out for this pandemic: at the beginning of events, inviting audiences to call out the names of people who aren’t here because of the virus. Covid deaths, long covid, people sick today, immuno-inaccessible events, caregivers, etc. It’s so hidden, people think they don’t know anyone despite the huge numbers.
Welcome back, Few-Flowered Shooting Stars / Primula pauciflora! This one brings all the bumblebees to the yard, for “rumble pollination” 🥵
Unsolicited tea recommendation for goth tea lovers, tarot readers, and people who like whiskey in their tea… This Murchie’s number is smoked black tea with roses and fruit (strawberry and black currant). Tea is usually cosy or maybe herbal– this one is moody and horny. I’m having it while weeding the garden on a Saturday afternoon and it is intensely not the right tea for this despite being very delicious 😂
This touristy English-style tea shop went full Wouldst Thou Like To Live Deliciously?
I don’t want gardening to be a reason I hate other creatures so I am trying to cultivate more positive feelings about squirrels.
Firstly, is there some reason we are so sure that when squirrels plant seeds it is an accident? This person observed that squirrels did a better job of growing trees than humans did 😂
Maybe the squirrels are right and I should convert my asparagus patch to an oak tree surrounded by peanut plants.
Lotta people are suggesting governments should employ open source maintainers and I support that but I need you to know that they will make the open source maintainers use SharePoint
Having successfully sprouted native plants from seed using the very easy method in this podcast episode, I can now recommend a listen. Got me thinking about supporting local genetic diversity of each native plant species, not just a diversity of species.
Heather McCargo from The Wild Seed Project on Cultivating Place
Plus if you start native plants from seed you get to see their tiny baby form ❤️
This is a Nootka Rose / Rosa nutkana that sat outside in its pot all winter and popped up in March.
Sometimes it is hard to guess whether a sprout is your intended plant or a weed, but this one is recognizable even when still tiny. A little Western Red Columbine / Aquilegia formosa that sat unattended outside all winter and started slowly growing itself in February.
Yarrow started coming up in December and hasn’t stopped. It’s one of those plants that really loves life. Hopefully it will stay this happy once i transplant it into my lawn 🌱
Great Camas / Camassia lechtlinii has been making me emotional by self-seeding all over my garden after its first year of blooming, but it did come up really well in outdoor trays as well. It’s like it was meant to grow here or something.
Last baby photo for today: this is a wildflower from the prairies (not my region) that I am growing because it’s so pretty. Prairie Smoke / Geum triflorum. It was described as non-invasive here in the PNW and I would believe it– suuuuper tiny seedlings sprouted outdoors in February, but sparsely and they have been growing very slowly.
