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alexisbush-blog1 · 5 years

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Splurge & Save with POLISHED KITCHEN DESIGNS

We are delighted Amy and Sarah from POLISHED KITCHEN DESIGNS are joining us again as Move Revolution guest bloggers – their style, ideas and enthusiasm is infectious! We hope you love their insider splurge and save top tips…

Living in the generation of internet shopping we are used to doing our research and ensuring we get the best deals. With that, we can be bombarded with so much choice it can be hard to understand the difference in products and prices. The most expensive doesn’t automatically mean the best and equally you don’t want to compromise on quality for the most competitive price either.

When choosing items for your kitchen, think about the overall look that you want to achieve and the functionality of how you will live and work in that space. Ultimately it comes down to personal taste and what’s important to you but here’s some tips on how to shop around and add some unique and stylish touches to your space without breaking the bank…….

Handles:

There is such a huge variety of handles on the market now. Top tip would be to order a single handle first to check you are happy with the quality and overall feel of the handle.

We are loving the industrial look right now but the knob and cup combo is also still hugely popular with our clients….

Splurge: Buster & Punch Starting price £40

Save: Second Nature Knurled £15

Lighting:

Statement pendants in a kitchen whether it be over an island, peninsular or your dining table can really create an impact. Whether it’s a pop of colour or a metallic look you are going for there is a lot of choice out there. Lighting is actually a really important element of any design – think about not only the practical task lighting you will need but also the accent lighting that comes in to play when entertaining or wanting to create a softer mood within your space. For us under cabinet LED lighting is a must and we wouldn’t design a kitchen without it.

Splurge: Tom Dixon Mirror Ball Gold Pendant System £1625

Save: Made.com Boll Diner Pendant £99

Kitchen Worktops

Your kitchen worktop completes your kitchen ‘wow factor’. The marble effect is still hugely popular (but don’t go for actual marble as it’s a very porous material and not suitable for areas such as a kitchen). We are seeing concrete and matt surfaces also becoming popular, there are many different looks you can go for whether it be to compliment or contrast with the rest of your scheme. Quartz worktops are beautiful and can create a stunning look, but they aren’t always suited to a smaller budget. There are some great laminates out there that can look great and are a fraction of the price. Don’t be put off by the laminate worktops which you may associate with the 80’s era – they have improved vastly since then and there are some lovely wood and marble effect laminates these days that can look fabulous.

Splurge: Silestone Quartz – Average starting cost: £3,500 + VAT

Save: Duropal Laminate – available in 50+ effects – Average starting cost: £600 + VAT

Flooring:

We get asked a lot about suitable flooring for kitchens. Luxury Vinyls such as Karndean and Amtico have some beautiful choices whether it be stone effect or the popular herringbone wood effect. They are much warmer on the foot and very durable for heavy use areas such as kitchens rather than tiles which can be colder and not as robust. If your budget doesn’t stretch to the LVT ranges then there are some really reasonable vinyl’s on the market which include popular word effect flooring and heritage style patterns and tile effect – there is a huge range so really there is something for everyone and every style.

Splurge: Amtico Luxury Vinyl Approx £85m2 (including fitting by a Amtico approved and trained fitter)

Save: Tapi Carpets and Floors Tamar- Cooper £13.99m2

Taps:

You can get a wealth of different style taps depending on functions you want such as pull out, spray, instant hot water, filters, sparking water – the list goes on! For a good quality tap consider what your tap is made from (brass is good) – generally the heavier the tap the better quality it is. Increasingly we are being asked about different metallic finishes on taps such as gold and industrial matte black which are very on trend right now…

Splurge: Kohler Purist Single Lever Tap £887

Save: Nivito Matte Black Mixer Tap £ 467

Add Kohler Matte black imageAdd Olif Nivito black tap image

We love this ‘Splurge and Save’ blog from POLISHED KITCHEN DESIGNS. Perhaps you are thinking of moving…looking for your dream kitchen, or looking for a house perfect for you to design your dream kitchen . With 800+ five star reviews across our Move Revolution offices, rest assured you will receive outstanding customer service as we help you to find your dream house!

Call 0330 223 1000 and speak to one of our Move Revolution team today and book a valuation.

source of this post came from Alexis Bush Blog https://www.moverevolution.com/blog/splurge-save-with-polished-kitchen-design/

#Alexis Bush Blog

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saintlaurentproblems · 3 years

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Nina Dobrev left TVD so she wouldn’t be known as just elena and now she’s unemployed and known as just elena // i feel like this always happens on tv shows where people leave to do other stuff but then never get other jobs

Yes, we have also discussed The CW curse on this blog before. Think of all of the stars that came from the CW. How many of them actually have stable careers after leaving the network.

1. Blake Lively

2. Penn (Recently because of You)

3. Sophia Bush

4. Alexis Bledel

5. Chace Crawford (recently because of The Boys)

#answered

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turtle-land · 4 years

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@livebustygirlcams @nathalieokreyes @rhetorical-prick @carterace @electric-dragon @lovelywonderland72 @jessiccaa-rossee @one-of-a-kinddd-blog @oreo-lover22-blog @beyourselfbitches-blog-blog @bobby-blazin-blog @alexis-bush @give-your-life-a-meaning-blog @hi-my-name-is-nick @jaclrath @better-than-jb @prettyflakaah @living-books-stories @verychelly

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thicclaurance · 5 years

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Two Hundred and Twenty Nine Days and Three Quarters.

Yody Yo! This is my piece from the summer Aphmau magazine that was put together by @aphmauzine ! Please check out the zine to see all the lovely work everyone submitted including my friends Char, Al, and Yesani!

This is also my first Aphmau writing piece, and the first of my writing that I’ve shared here on this blog; I hope its well recieved and that I’ll be able to share more work with y’all.

Pairing: Dan-Chan

Series: MCD (original)

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2508

Two Hundred and Twenty Nine Days and Three Quarters.

Rays of golden sun cascaded through the glass of the window and into the bedroom. It heated the room, but instead of providing a comfortable and cozy warm like snuggling up with the one you love in front of the fire, it was a humid and sticky warm. It felt like being trapped in a pot of water that was quickly reaching boiling point. The heat was excruciating, it was so maddening it caused Dante to stir. He lifted his body only to twist before dropping back against the mattress like a sack of potatoes; but he only receive those lovely golden rays right in his eyes. His eyes opened, only a sliver, only to realise it was only another summer day.

To Dante, summer only ever felt like it droned on, It was like a meeting discussing how everyone was fine and the village faced no threats, but still lasted hours. Summer was only filled with sweltering days filled with humidity and annoying swarms of insects that buzzed in his ears and bit at his skin. The days felt like they droned on, lasting like weeks instead of hours as he almost roasted alive in his armor. Most people, especially in Phoenix Drop, felt that it was winter that droned on, and sure the season was a full month longer than the rest; but the days go by at the snap of a finger. You wake up and blink once and it’s already time to sit down for dinner with your lover. But for Dante, summer was the worst.

It took all the willpower he held in him to actually get up; he only got up because he knew he’d never be able to fall back asleep. Dante flipped onto his back and pushed his palms against the aged mattress to gain leverage as he forced himself into a seated position. His hands left the mattress and balled as he brought them to his eyes, a loud yawn escaped his mouth as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He felt the weight of the mattress shift next to him and heard a small and almost inaudible groan.

His gaze met the woman next to him as she shifted into a more comfortable position. Long pink hair laid tangled around her head and over her eyes, something Dante envied was the ability to ignore the sun. Her bare shoulder peaked out from the dull colored blanket as she curled herself back up. A smile spread across his face and his gaze softened as he looked at her, she was beyond compare to anyone nor anything. He leaned over and placed a sweet kiss to her shoulder; he twisted back around and let his feet rest on the upsettingly warm wooden floor. He stood and stretched his arms above his head and arched his back.

Dante’s next action was to track down his clothing that laid in various places on the floor alongside Kawaii-Chan’s. It was a simple yet tedious task to find specific articles and to dress himself, it only added to the heat. His chainmail, awful. The suit of armor, horrendous. It’d been about nine years since he took over as the head guard, nine and a half years since he began his daily task to watch the gate; nine years and a half since everyone’s disappearance. It was hard for him to think about all the friends he lost; but it was even harder not to seeing as he left his home at the same time every morning just to wait for them, waiting for them at the gate, hoping they’ll all return.

That’s where he found himself after hours, at the gate. The village walls had begun to crack and crumble as the weather took its toll, and ivy and moss grew against the sides. Birds chirped happily to one another, all enjoying the heat. The ground below his feet had worn down a bit and dipped down into the indent of his feet, it’s what happens when you three thousand four hundred and sixty nine days standing in one specific spot. And Dante stood in the same exact spot again today, he stood there for hours, hours spent almost succumbing to heat stroke. He stood there, until the sun had made it to the tree line and the air had cooled, until it was time to go home. He pivoted on one foot and turned away from the entrance. The trip to the gate and back was always nice. Though the houses had begun to suffer the same fate as the wall, they were still filled with kind villagers, well kind villagers that were still left.

“Fancy running into you here Dante!” The chipper country accent of a certain chipper brunette run out. She smiled brightly at him and lifted a hand to give a short wave from the end of the path. Instead of being able to walk down the path, she more waddled, one of her hands laid on her swollen stomach. “You headin’ home for the night?”

“Good evening Donna! My shift just ended so I’m heading home to Kawaii-Chan.” Dante responded as she approached him, a kind smile weaved it’s way into his face as he spoke to Donna.

“I’m sure she whipped up something nice for the two of you! I swear ever since she found out she was pregnant too all she has is baked! I can’t go a day without her springing some muffins or a cake on me!” She laughed.

“Don’t I know it! I don’t think I’ve gone a day without fresh baked goods in eight months!” He returned her laughter, it was a nice change of pace to laugh.

“Logan’s been enjoying it though, he can’t get enough if those cookies she brings over!” She placed a hand on her chest as she threw her head back and laughed. Dante was sure she hadn’t had a good slug in a while either. As their laughter died down, Donna’s gaze softened as she spoke again, “You gonna do what you talked to me about the other day?” She asked.

“I think I am, I plan on finally telling her” He nodded as he talked. “That you for helping me sort it all out!”

“Of course I would dear! Thank god you came along when you did! Logan won’t let me do anything as long as I have these creatures in me!” She motioned towards her stomach as she let out the complaint. “You better get going if you want things to go as planned.” Dante nodded again and said his goodbyes. The green eyes woman waved him off before returning to her evening stroll.

Dante took in the rest of the town’s scenery as he walked. Passing the village square that laid in disarray, the overgrown guard tower, half harvested golden fields, and even the hill the house of old lord, Aphmau, resided on. He passed a few people, Alexis and Kyle looked to be playing in the grass, but they were obviously training to be the next village guards, they swung wooden swords at each other and took turns dodging attacks. Not too far from them stood Molly and Dale, never seen too far from Alexis. They’ve both watched over her like hawks ever since the Zane incident about ten years ago. Dante provided a wave to the long term couple as he passed, they both returned his motions.

Finally, he had made it to his home. It was a standard house alongside the rest of the homes in Phoenix Drop. When him and Kawaii-Chan first decided to start living together she was upset at the lack of originality, she wanted a bright colored home, just like the pink one she lived in. It was a miracle Dante had convinced her otherwise, but he compromised with allowing her to plant whatever type of flowers she wanted in front of the house. He walked slowly up the cobble stone path and up the dark wooden door. He filled his lungs with one large breath and allowed his mind to become a blank slate, free of worry and hurt, before letting it out slowly like he releasing air from a balloon, and opened the door.

“Ah Dante-Kun! Welcome home!” He was greeted with the sweet voice of the woman who loved him. The atmosphere was warm and peaceful, like it always was around her. A few candles had been set out, ready to be lit as soon as it got dark enough, and she stood by the front door, in the kitchen. “How was your day Dante-Kun?” She asked as she waddled towards him and forced herself up to is height before she left a sweet kiss on his cheek.

“We don’t have time to talk about that darling, I need to bring you somewhere.” He spit out as soon as her heels came in contact with the wooden floor.

“What do you mean Dan-”

“I’m not joking Kawaii-Chan, I need you to come with me this instant.” Dante made sure his tone was calm as he spoke, careful not to scare the pregnant woman in front of him. He grabbed Kawaii-Chan’s hand, and barley let her slip into her shoes, before he led her out of the house.

“Where are you taking Kawaii-Chan, Dante-Kun?!” She asked, confused and slightly panicked. Their feet pounded against the cobblestone streets as they passed Molly and Dale who still stood watching the kids, and past the half golden fields.

“You’ll see when we get there!” He continued to remain vague as the two passed the street Dante took to and from the gate every morning and evening.

“Good luck Dante!” Donna yelled and waved as she made her way back up the street.

“We’re almost there” Dante huffed as he led her up the hill to the old lord’s house. Before stopping for a second to let Kawaii-Chan catch her breath.

“Why’re we at Aphmau-Senpai’s house?” She asked, before Dante dragged her to the left. They passed the large tree in the front yard and playset meant for the long gone Levin and Malachi, for they had left along with their caretaker Zoey, long ago. They weaved through the oak and birch trees, swerved past berry bushes, and avoided pesky evening insects.

“Be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Dante said as he slid down a short sandy slope. They had arrived to the yellow sanded beach of the cove. “Take my hand.” He instructed as he reached a hand out to the amber eyed woman. Even though she was hesitant, afraid to fall and hurt herself let alone her unborn child, but yet she obliged. Her slim hand fit in Dante’s calloused one like puzzle pieces as he helped her down from the grassy area of the woods to the sandy shore of the beach.

“Just in time!” Dante mumbled and led Kawaii-Chan to the final destination, the shoreline of the beach.

It was a well known spot to the villagers. But it was rarely used since it was a place Aphmau had spent time and after her disappearance, no one picked up the habit of visiting. Dante and Kawaii-Chan were different though. They visited here on their first date, they didn’t care that it had been covered in snow at the time, instead they built snow maids and men together. That was exactly two hundred, twenty nine days and three quarters ago. He’d kept track of every day, every moment they shared together, and this was the perfect place.

“Dante-Kun, Kawaii-Chan is still confused.” She said her amber eyes trying to meet his deep sea blue ones, but instead of meeting her gaze he stared out at the horizon. The sun had just become halfway submerged into the sea leaving behind a painting of rose gold skies that blended into vibrant purples and deep blues.

“Kawaii-Chan, I need your one hundred percent attention.” Dante said and took both her frail hands into larger ones, finally able to meet her gaze. Unable to know how to respond, Kawaii-Chan simply nodded. “We’re alone so I know you’ll trust me to say this, Nana,” Dante took a deep breath to prepare himself to what he was going to say after this.

Dante felt her stiffen at the use of her real name. Something she’d trusted him enough to tell him just before they moved in together. He squeezed Kawaii-Chan’s hands in reassurance and she allowed herself to relax. It was short lived though, because immediately Dante released her hands and crouched down, kneeling on one knee.

“Nana, I know I’m not much with words. I never have been. But I’m going to speak from the heart.” He started off with, “I have known you for ten wonderful years, though we’ve only been together for eight months, I’ve never felt more connected to anyone before.”

As he finished that sentence, tears began to stream down Nana’s face. Tears of happiness, tears of surprise. She didn’t care when the tide had begun to come in and rolled over her feet, ruining her new dress. Dante didn’t care either, he didn’t care if it would leave his armor a sepia colored rust, he could get a new set.

“I never expected to fall in love with such an incredible woman, such an exciting woman, such a unique woman, such a gorgeous woman. Let alone did I expect to be expecting a child with her, to have a bundle of joy that would be a product of our love. I’ve had relationships in the past, good and bad, but none of them hold a candle to you Nana. None of them come close to how you make me feel.” Dante began to choke on his words, a tear began to slide down his cheek as he spoke, but it was no match the rivers flowing from Nana’s eyes.

He fumbled with his side, fingers mismanaging to grasp the box at his side. As he finally grasped it, his hands shook as he held it up to the beautiful pink haired woman in front of him. He opened it to reveal a small, but gorgeous silver ring encrusted with three small pink diamonds.

“I’ve cherished every day you’ve spent with me. All two hundred and twenty nine days and three quarters have been a dream, a blessing. So Nana, will you continue our two hundred and twenty nine days and three quarters streak and spend every day, until the day we die, together with me, and marry me?” He finally asked, a weight lifted from his chest as he finally got the words out, but it was replaced with the anxiety of rejection.

“Of course Kawaii-Chan will marry you Dante-Kun! Kawaii-Chan couldn’t think of anyone else she’d spend the rest of her life with!” She sobbed. She grabbed the sides of his face and bent down, as far as she could without crushing her stomach, and pulled Dante into a passionate kiss.

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ssweeneys · 5 years

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I wanna get more threads going on my writing blog. Soooooo, maybe I’ll post starter calls for select charas. Idk? Or feel free to prod me for one. Here’s a breakdown of what we’re working with.

FEMALES: I CURRENTLY PLAY

Eiza Gonzalez (Queen), Ana de Armas, Zoey Deutch, Danielle Campbell, Victoria Justice, Halston Sage, Nicola Peltz, Camila Mendes, Phoebe Tonkin, Shelley Hennig

FEMALES: I WANT TO PLAY

Dilan Celik Deniz, Melisa Pamuk, Victoria Konefal, Odette Annable, Shay Mitchell, Alexis Ren, Jana Kramer

FEMALES: I WANT TO PLAY AGAINST

Samantha Logan, Sophia Bush, Inbar Lavi, Crystal Reed, Natalee Linez, Margot Robbie, Blake Lively, Nina Dobrev, Summer Bishil, Chelsea Tavares, Meghan Markle, Olivia Holt, Jamie Chung, Alisha Boe, Bianca Santos, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Ayca Aysin Turan, Elizabeth Lail, Willa Fitzgerald, Vanessa Morgan, Scarlett Byrne, Zoe Kravitz, Maia Mitchell, Fahriye Evcen, Nathalie Kelley, Merritt Patterson, Minka Kelly,

MALES: I CURRENTLY PLAY

Ryan Guzman, Bill Skarsgard

MALES: I WANT TO PLAY

Nick Sagar, Alex Roe, Alfonso Herrera, Jamie Dornan, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Dominic Sherwood,

MALES: I WANT TO PLAY AGAINST

Marco Pigossi, Theo James, Charles Michael-Davis, Justin Hartley, Paul Wesley, Manny Montana, Frank Grillo, Joel Kinnaman, Bob Morley, Cam Gigandet, Jon Bernthal, Nick Bateman

*** Not including any opposites my bae already plays <3

#fcs #using this as my own reference

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royalalbertamuseumblog · 5 years

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Barking Up the Right Tree (Part 1)

By Skye Haggerty

This summer, RAM has two Indigenous Student Museum Interns working in various areas of the museum. Each of them has written a blog post about a project they’re creating during their time at RAM. Read the other posts here:

The Basket Tree (Part 2) by Skye Haggerty

Babies Wrapped in Love by Rogan Alexis

For many Indigenous Peoples, the availability of birch and spruce trees made their bark and roots essential materials for the creation of every-day items such as baskets. Not only is this material extremely practical, it also provides a unique medium to showcase artistic talent.

Some of my favourite memories involve going into the bush with my grandmother to collect the papery birch bark for her crafts. In the winter, I’d get to chew on spruce gum while she collected roots from the muskeg in our backyard. Sometimes these trips came with tea and cold bologna sandwiches, sometimes not, but they always included a teaching or two about Grandmother Tree and her gifts to us.

In this two-part blog post, I’ll explore the importance of these materials, the process of harvesting them, and a few of the traditional crafts my grandmother taught me to make from them.

Barking Up the Right Tree

Although there are many plants and trees available to the people of Turtle Island (North America) for basketry, the popularity of waskway (birch) as a material is a result of both the tree’s availability (it grows throughout northern boreal regions) and its unique qualities. In advance of my demonstration at the RAM National Indigenous People’s Day celebration, I recently set out with my grandmother to harvest materials to create my own basket.

The papery, flexible bark is easy to peel and harvest in the spring, May through June, and is perfect for cutting patterns. It keeps its flexibility longer than other natural materials used for traditional basketry such as nîpisîy (willow) and wîhkwaskwa (sweetgrass) with proper storage.

Birch bark is harvested in the spring months when the sap is running and the bark is at its thickest after the winter. These combined factors help the bark curl away from the tree easier and ensure that the tree will recover.

Here I am ready to harvest birch bark. First, we must give an offering to the birch tree for what we are about to take. Once that is done, we get straight to work with surprisingly few tools—just a good pen knife and a strong, steady arm!

After identifying an area of bark with little to no bumps and interruptions, a single straight cut down the side of the tree is sufficient to start the peeling. You do not want to cut too deep and strip the darker “cork” layer which allows the tree to continue circulating sap. If you peel this layer, you not only harm the tree but risk killing it. My grandmother taught me to respect the tree and this involves being a responsible harvester that looks out for its wellbeing.

Once peeled, the bark can be stored in a cool, damp environment until ready for use. It is best used within a few days, as the bark will continue to dry out and curl up.

Another traditional component for piecing the whole basket together is spruce root. Unlike synthetic sinew, once spruce root dries it keeps its shape and reinforces the basket without becoming fragile. As well, the gum of the spruce can be chewed like gum, often by children, while parents or grandparents are busy pulling the tough root from the ground.

To harvest it, you must first find a younger spruce tree. Ideally, somewhere in the six to seven foot range as their roots are less tangled and easier to pull. A spruce tree that is growing on looser soil is the best as you can clean away dirt easier. This means, of course, that muskeg is best (even with the mosquitos).

We dig around the tree to find the taproot which is thicker and will have many other roots branching off from it. From there we uncover and follow the root until we have all of it. Things can get messy and tangled pretty fast! Patience is essential so you don’t break the root off too soon while pulling.

Spruce root is typically split multiple times and can be coloured using both natural and artificial dyes. After being soaked, peeled, and split the spruce root can be used to both stitch and decorate the basket.

Now that we’ve harvested the materials, it’s time to start constructing the basket. Click the link below to read part two to learn how I’m using these pieces to craft a basket, plus learn a bit about the art of Birch Bark Biting.

The Basket Tree (Part 2) by Skye Haggerty

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libertariantaoist · 6 years

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A Las Vegas woman has been exonerated after serving 16 years for a murder she did not commit.

Kansas SWAT kills a man after they were sent to fake crime as a prank.

A Kansas police officer who murdered a fleeing man will not face charges for his crime.

Mike Maharrey explains how state and local activism can help bring justice to those who tortured people.

Facebook will delete the account of people sanctioned by the US.

Rex Tillerson writes a new foreign policy op-ed.

Gareth Porter explains how the Bush Administration created the problem the US now faces with North Korea.

Russia bars Putin critic Alexi Navalny from running for president.

The Islamic State claims responsibility for a terror attack in Russia.

Putin tells Assad he will continue to defend Syrian sovereignty.

Health care workers in Rohingya refugee camps lack the medical supplies to combat an outbreak of diphtheria.

The State Department releases a statement supporting anti-government protests in Iran. The Iranian government says four protesters have been killed. Jason Ditz puts the death toll at 13, including one police officer killed. Protesters have targeted some police stations and military bases. Moon of Alabama reacts.

A jihadist group blew up an oil pipeline in Iran.

The Iran deal will face several political challenges in January.

Police in Tehran will no longer enforce the 1979 dress code on women.

The US claims to kill a Taliban leader inside of Pakistan with a drone strike.

Trump threatens to cut aid to Pakistan.

18 people were killed in a bombing at a funeral in Afghanistan.

Patrick Cockburn makes the case that 2018 will bring an end to wars in Iraq and Syria.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia killed at least 68 Yemeni civilians in airstrikes. Saudi Arabia killed 20 by bombing a restaurant in Yemen.

The number of US airstrikes against al-Qaeda and ISIS in Yemen tripled in 2017.

The UN is “deeply disturbed” by recent Saudi airstrikes in Yemen.

[Read More] (https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/blog/news-roundup-1-2-18/)

#kyle anzalone #libertarian institute #news roundup

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ao3feed-crimeboys · 11 months

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Butterflies, makeshift houses, and labs

by Emo_Nico_13

After finding Tommy passed out in a bush, ranboo and tubbo take him to their makeshift home. The three are basically orphans living in a shed. The rest of sbi will come in later and Phil’s gonna get more kids.

Words: 1112, Chapters: 4/26, Language: English

Fandoms: Dream SMP

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Characters: Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Phil Watson | Philza, Toby Smith | Tubbo, Fundy (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot, Alexis | Quackity, Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Sam | Awesamdude

Relationships: Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Ranboo & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Ranboo & Sleepy Bois Inc. & Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Technoblade & Phil Watson | Philza, Floris | Fundy & Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Ranboo & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF)

Additional Tags: Lab Rat AU, Found Family, Sleepy Bois Inc as Found Family, Bench trio, crime boys, emereld duo, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death

#ao3feed #wilbur soot #tommyinnit #crimeboys #crime boys #crimebois #crime bois #mcyt #This is an automated process #If you see any fic that breaks boundaries #or the fic is yours and you don't want it shared send an ask #it will be looked at and removed if need be

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alexisbush-blog1 · 5 years

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The Priory apartments – Don’t miss out!

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How do I book a viewing at The Priory?

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The Priory is currently in the process of being carefully developed into 43 luxury 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments. Packed with unique features, each apartment has been sensitively designed to make the most of the Gothic Priory architecture – it really is ‘must-see’

The Priory Clock Tower

Unique apartment – light and airy

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Mathew Gurr, Haywards Heath Area Sales Manager

Joey Hansen, Haywards Heath Sales Manager

Liam Campbell, Haywards Heath Senior Sales Negotiator.

Find out more about Help to buy

All the apartments at The Priory are available with Help to buy, which is proving very popular! To find out more about Help to Buy, just call our team on 01444 657 657, they have all the facts to help you secure your dream apartment

*As of 8th August 2019

source of this post came from Alexis Bush Blog https://www.moverevolution.com/blog/the-priory-dont-miss-out/

#Alexis Bush Blog

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tipsycad147 · 5 years

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Alexis J. Cunningfolk

You may not have even noticed that you've lost yourself.

You find yourself looking up from your phone realising you've been elsewhere. You feel disjointed. Your heart and mind are disconnected. But you yearn to step out of the busy-ness into something more still. Even if that scares you.

Or maybe the struggle has been long and hard against the forces which seem to tear each of us asunder. The racism, transphobia, religious discrimination, ableism, microaggressions, snotty passive-aggressive antics by people who are hurting but don’t know it and are smearing their pain around. All of it. We think that stillness equals inaction. That if we don’t go to the march or repost the latest meme or write righteous comments that we’re not doing the work.

But the price of not being still with ourselves is heavy.

It means that we lose sight of who we are. The shore of our sovereignty by which we set our compass gets lost in the fog of so much noise.

There are a thousand things you might choose to do when you’re lost. A thousand magicks, a thousand remedies. But if you’re seeking something gentle and a plant ally to work with, the following is my uncomplicated herbal magick for when want to be present with yourself.

For the spell, all you need are three fresh branches of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). It's an herb of the Sun (which represents out inherent vitality and shines light in the shadowy places of our mind) and Aries (the sign of the individual identity and the guardian of the head). Both correspondences align with our modern understandings of its medicinal uses. “Rosemary for remembrance” goes the old adage and we know that Rosemary help us think clearer and improves the function of our mental faculties. The magickal powers of Rosemary as a re-membering herb (or an herb that put things back together) are powerful, too. Rosemary helps us to return to a state of being that aligns with our inner sovereignty by helping us to re-member those things which really matter to us. The herb calls home parts of ourselves that we may have forgotten.

The following spell is simple minimalist magick. Like most herbal magick, I recommend doing it outside, but make adjustments as needed to make it easy for you and where you’re at. Call upon Rosemary help you to expand the possibilities of what may happen for you. For the purpose of magick is not to perform it with clear expectations of what will occur, but to enter into sacred space ready to engage mystery. Magick calls us to bring all parts of ourselves home to the sacred now.

A Rosemary Spell for Being Present

When the Moon is in her dark phase and she has pulled the veil of night tight around her, pick three branches from the Rosemary bush.

Draw two circles in the earth and sit between them, so that one is at your right side and the other to your left. Place a branch of Rosemary in each circle. Hold the third branch in between both of your hands and at your heart.

To your head to the left and say:

This is what was.

Offer what was to the Rosemary in the left circle. You might visualise past projects, relationships, ideas, and visions. The point is not to dwell on any of them but to let them rise up and offer them to the confines of the circle to your left.

Turn your head to the right and say:

This is what may be.

Offer what shall be to the Rosemary in the right circle. You might visualise worries and hopes about the future, upcoming projects and deadlines, visions and dreams. Again, let them pass through you swiftly and into the circle at your right.

Bow your head towards your heart and rub your hands together so that the scent of Rosemary fills the aid. Say:

And here I sit, steady between.

Take a deep breath and pull yourself back home, carried on the scent of Rosemary. Whatever thoughts rise up, observe them and let them flow through to either the right or left of you. Return again and again to your breath and the scent of Rosemary.

At the time you feel is right, when there is a sense of peace and nowness within you, no matter how small or fleeting, or how big and grand, ingest three Rosemary leaves to lovingly ground your spirit to the present.

When the ritual is over, give thanks to the Rosemary and give thanks to yourself. Leave the two branches of Rosemary in their circles and carry the third with you or placed on your altar until it dries. Once it has dried, burn it as sacred incense with the purpose of seeking out and finding any parts of you that still remain out there and not present with who you currently are.

You can continue to carry this ritual with you without having to create the same setup with the circles and Rosemary branches by repeating the physical movements of the spell. Magick is, in part, muscle memory which you can use at your discretion whenever needed.

May you always know the direction of your heart and the peace that stillness brings. Blessed be.

http://www.wortsandcunning.com/blog?offset=1496318400909

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turtle-land · 4 years

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meadowstoneuk · 4 years

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Guess who’s coming to dinner?

If you're looking for a long, relaxing and fascinating weekend read, here are Team AG's top 5 fantasy dinner party guests (bring your own wine and chocolates)

F2AGPW Toasting the host of dinner party (OLVI008_OU064_F)

Wendy Humphries, letters editor

Nigel Slater

I am no perfectionist when it comes to culinary skills, which is why ‘Eat’ by Nigel Slater is my go-to cookery book among my wide collection. As a working mum with three hungry boys to feed, many of the recipes are simple, nutritious and quick to make using fresh ingredients to produce something delicious.

So I’d want to cook for Nigel, to thank him for all the shortcuts and for showing me to live by taste!

Audrey Hepburn – so beautiful and stylish (Picture: Alamy)

Audrey Hepburn

So beautiful and stylish, Audrey would make a lovely dinner party companion! I caught up with her documentary Gardens of the World recently and I was really impressed with her enthusiasm and knowledge of roses. Her biography, An Elegant Spirit, written by her son Sean is a brilliant insight to her fascinating but also, on occasion tragic, life.

Her son relates the story that she would refuse to sit first class on a flight, as she felt she was no better than anyone else. Imagine sitting next to her on a long-haul flight.

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Sir David Attenborough

It would be the opportunity of a lifetime to meet him. Attenborough’s ever-popular documentaries have taught us all so much about the natural world, climate change and endangered species, but it was Blue Planet II in 2017 that gave a powerful message about the terrible impact plastic in our seas has on wildlife.

At the table, I would ask him what could we do as individuals to reverse the loss of habitat and biodiversity.

Joan Collins

This glamorous lady has always impressed me with her positive outlook and I’m sure she’d have many wonderful tales to tell over dinner of her experiences in high society. I watched the TV series Dynasty in the 80s, where power dressing was ‘in vogue’ and when the average pair of shoulder pads were no match for Alexis Carrington’s, which were like wings!

I’d tell Joan about a dear friend of mine who has sadly passed, Audrey was so addicted to the show she recorded an episode over her daughter’s wedding video.

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Eric Morecambe

I definitely won’t be alone with this choice, as one of the nation’s best-loved comics, he would certainly bring some sunshine to the proceedings! His natural and sparkling wit would delight my dinner guests and the night would be sure to be full of fun.

Eric was a keen gardener and bird watcher so there’d be plenty to talk about! I grew up in his home-town of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and would occasionally see him out and about. Once, as a child out with my mum, he held the door open for us when entering Woolworths!

Janey Goulding, assistant editor

Michael Palin

Seriously, if nobody else showed up to dinner, I’d still be a happy bunny with Mike. Every party needs at least one national treasure to help break the ice while stuffing down vol-au-vents.

He can captivate my quirky collective with his ripping yarns and tales of far-flung adventures spent nibbling exotic entrails in precarious situations, and it’s guaranteed he’ll tickle the spare ribs with his salty humour. Also, he’s so lovely, he’s bound to help with the washing-up.

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Bette Davis

The ultimate grande dame of dining. I imagine she would insist on smoking, but who wouldn’t make allowances for her singular wit, brittle and dry as a well-kept biscotti, and her pithy recollections of the golden age and all its salacious celebrity scandals?

Badinage in abundance, and a touch of elegance with the cold cuts: Bette Davis, we love you. Suspect she would be a dynamo at after-dinner board games, as well.

Kirsty McColl

If there was just one songbird from the great beyond to get a golden ticket to my soiree of suppertime snarking, it would be this perfectly pitched firecracker, with her crackling gift of the gab, twinkly ripostes and satisfying name-dropping skills.

She’d easily hold her own across and under the table (you can bet she’d bring the perfect bottle of plonk), and she would undoubtedly rally everyone to sing sea shanties over Cuban cigars and chiffon cake. Gourmet gumption, guaranteed!

Tim Curry

I mean, it’s right there in the name. Broadway legend Curry would be the pinnacle of dramaturgical dining, thanks to his mercurial storytelling and mimicry, relish for the ribaldry, and the sauciest laugh this side of Transylvania: damn it, Janet, he’s all that and a bag of chips.

Sure to add theatrical heft, a generous dollop of innuendo and a feast of bawdy banter to the after-dinner mints. Oh, and an utter delight if you crack out the Cluedo.

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Would Prince jump on Janey’s dining table to display his guitar skills? (Picture: Alamy)

Prince

All right, I cheated: I can’t just have one singer – not when there’s a chance of grabbing some funkadelic food time with Mr Nelson. The artist formerly known as Squiggle would be welcome to take a break from Martika’s kitchen to amuse my bouche while we feasted on alphabet street soup and cherry moon pie. Pretty sure he’d jump on the dinner table to impress us all with his virtuoso guitar skills, but that would be just fine. After all, it’s only right to have a bit of royalty to tea.

Extra special guests who could pop in for a cup of sugar: Dorothy Parker, Kate Bush, Alan Rickman, Holly Hunter, Peter Ustinov, David Lynch, Andy Kaufman, Terence Stamp, Aaron Sorkin, David Attenborough, Robert Downey Jr, Ray Davies, Madeline Khan, Peter O’Toole, Neil Gaiman, Christopher Walken, Carrie Fisher, Neil Simon, David Bowie (well, d’uh).

Lesley Upton, features editor

William Shepperdley – Les wishes she could ask her dad about his life

Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a Cambridge University mathematician who was pivotal in helping to break the Enigma Code in 1941. The Enigma was a cipher machine developed by the Germans during the Second World War to enable them to send secure encrypted messages. Turing and his team, comprising British and Polish experts, worked at the top-secret Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire.

Turing should have been hailed a hero – and for a time he was. He was awarded an OBE in 1945, but just seven years later he was arrested for homosexuality, which was then illegal in Britain. He could have been jailed, but chose chemical castration instead. In 1954 he was found dead from cyanide poisoning – the verdict was suicide.

Did Turing still love his country after what they did to him? I don’t think I would have.

amateurgardening.com/blog

Hypatia

Hypatia, who lived from around 370-415, was a female philosopher and mathematician. She was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and was the daughter of Theon, one of the most educated men in Alexandria. Theon taught Hypatia all he knew and she shared his passion in the search for answers to the unknown.

Hypatia was an extraordinary woman of her time and one of the first female mathematicians. Being a prominent member of the society, she was murdered by a mob during religious riots.

Would Hypatia follow the same trailblazing course if she knew what the outcome would be?

Robert Oppenheimer

Theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in the USA, where the first atomic bomb was developed. He became known as the ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’ after two bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during the Second World War.

The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a manufacturing centre about 500 miles from Tokyo, on 6 August 1945, followed by a second more powerful bomb, three days later, on Nagasaki. On 15 August 1945 Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender.

Oppenheimer is later quoted as saying: “I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”

How did he feel about the deaths of more than 185,000 people that died due to the bombs being dropped?

Tim Berners-Lee

The English engineer and computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web – but few people have even heard of his name. Berners-Lee published the name of the first website in 1990 that was available to the internet, which was an explanation about his World Wide Web project, and since then the Web has transformed almost every aspect of our lives. He made his idea freely available, with no patent and no royalties due.

Last year, 30 years after the World Wide Web’s invention, he stated: “While the web has created opportunity, given marginalised groups a voice and made our daily lives easier, it has also created opportunity for scammers, given a voice to those who spread hatred and made all kinds of crime easier to commit.”

We can’t live without the World Wide Web now, but will we be able to live with it as it develops?

My dad

Last, but certainly not least, is my dad, William Shepperdley. There are so many things I wish I’d asked my dad, who was born during the time of the First World War and died in 1991.

I know nothing about his time in the Army during the Second World War when he was a motorcycle despatch rider, or about his younger days when he lived in Essex. I know he loved gardening, as I used to help him with his part-time gardening jobs when I was about 12 or 13.

But now is the time I wish he were here, so I could pick his brains about all the things that didn’t seem important when I was younger – but are very important now.

And the meal? It would have to include steak and kidney pudding, as that was my dad’s favourite…

Ruth Hayes, gardening editor

Caravaggio

Every dinner party needs a bad boy and someone to make a record of events, so invite Caravaggio and you get both in the same parcel. He was born Michelangelo Merisi – or Amerighi – in 1571 in Milan, where his father held office in the household of a nobleman from the town of Caravaggio.

He trained as an artist and travelled widely, but wherever he went, murder and mayhem were not far behind. His turbulent, talented life ended at 39, possibly through illness, syphilis or murder – no one is quite sure.

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He left behind an awe-inspiring legacy, paintings of raw, powerful beauty and realism that look lit from within. He painted what he saw, there is no airbrushing, nor politely fading out the physical imperfections of his models. Caravaggio gives us grotesque faces, bloody deaths, Biblical agony and, more prosaically, lute players, gamblers, bowls of fruit lush enough to eat.

Four years ago we went to the Beyond Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery, which explored his art and its influences. It was a banquet for the senses, opulent, exotic, erotic, almost too rich for one sitting but wow, what a feast.

So he’s on the list, as long as he behaves, doesn’t neck all the wine, fight with the other guests or pinch anyone’s bottom. And instead of bringing the hostess a box of chocs as a gift, he can sketch and paint the guests as they revel!

Dame Mary Beard: Classical historian

I’m an unashamed fangirl of the classical historian Mary Beard. I love her easy, accessible intimacy with the past, her flowing silver locks and her glorious collection of baseball boots and trainers. I can’t remember where I first saw her but I was drawn by her towering intellect that could be intimidating were it not tinged – but not diluted – by a glorious twinkle of mischief.

Apart from gardening and wine, history – the more ancient the better – is my greatest love (my greatest regret is not reading it at university, having been corralled into studying English by my teachers). The classical past is a fascinating place but has often been treated with a dusty, tweedy reverence, which is why Mary B is such a force for good, opening it up to wider audiences, making it accessible, alive, real.

amateurgardening.com/blog

I also think she’d be an amazing guest, full of fire and spark, as long as she didn’t bring along any garum, that fermented condiment made from fish guts the Romans so loved. I might even have to wear my ‘when I grow up I want to be Mary Beard T-shirt’…

* It was a toss-up between Dame Mary and Joann Fletcher, the brilliant goth Egyptologist, but Mary clinched it by a whisker

David Niven – a gent and a raconteur (Picture: Alamy)

David Niven

I grew up watching Niven’s films and reading his wonderful autobiographies and his death in 1983 was my first conscious recognition of ‘celebrity bereavement’. Witty, urbane and charming– and one for the ladies if the stories are true – on screen he bought films alive.

I was first introduced to him when my dad took me to the cinema to see the children’s adventure film Candleshoe, in which he played several frenzied roles requiring much rushing about and changing of clothes.

amateurgardening.com/blog

After that, I devoured his performances whenever they were on TV. As the frazzled cleric in The Bishop’s Wife, the ruthless killer in Guns of Navarone, Peter Ustinov’s insouciant sidekick in Death on the Nile and, of course, his appearances on Parkinson and other documentaries.

I also wolfed down his autobiographies The Moon’s a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses, even quoting one I my English A’level (possibly that’s what bagged me my A grade, another reason to adore the man).

I can picture him at my dinner party table, entertaining, flirting, making sure everyone had enough food and drink, basically oiling the wheels and being the perfect guest.

Victoria Wood

‘Yes, I do look rather startled don’t I. (The photo) was taken in a photo booth and somebody had just poked an éclair through the curtains’

The secret to great comedy is making it look effortless (see also the late, much lamented Robin Williams) and Victoria Wood has this effortlessness in spades.

Her skills lay in choosing the perfect word for the right situation and her acute social observations. She skewered us, but always kindly and never with the cruelty that so many comics use as their stock-in-trade.

She was also a generous writer, giving the best lines to co-stars – Julie Walters as Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques (and, mutely, in the ineffable Two Soups), the cast of Dinnerladies, Patricia Routledge as an opinionated housewife from Cheadle in the increasingly drunken Kitty monologues ‘Then she asked ‘what to do think of Marx?’ I said ‘I think their pants have dropped off’.’

Comedy wasn’t her only strength. She was marvelous in the wartime drama Housewife, 49 as the real-life wartime wife and mother Nella Last who went from cowed domestic drudge to community stalwart.

amateurgardening.com/blog

I still laugh to the point of tears during her classic sketches – The Opinion Poll, Step Aerobics (on nicotine and HRT patches: ‘she’s got one arm telling her she can do what she likes and the other saying she can do what she likes but she can’t have a fag after’) and, of course, her sublime songs.

All together now: ‘Be mighty, be flighty, come and melt the buttons on my flame-proof nightie! Let’s do it, let’s do it tonight!’

I still can’t believe she’s gone.

Thomas Cromwell

A bit of historical rehabilitation is a glorious thing and none has been more unexpected than that of Thomas Cromwell, rapacious ruiner of the monasteries, destroyer of Catholics, the man who sent Anne Boleyn to the scaffold.

We have, of course, Hilary Mantel to thank for this, for had she not written Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light, the trilogy’s great hero may have languished unloved forever.

amateurgardening.com/blog

History has not been kind to the son of a Putney farrier. To Catholics he was the great scourge and to everyone else, well, everyone else either seemed to go along with it or really didn’t think too much about him at all.

Yes, Mantel’s novels may smack of propaganda but if you dilute that with a few drops of history and a bit of digging, the man before us is fascinating and wonderfully modern.

From the humblest of beginnings, he rose to become the second most powerful man in the kingdom after Henry VIII – and you can’t do that without being pretty adept and intelligent.

After his ragtag childhood he fled to Europe to fight as a mercenary, before working for the Florentine banker Frescobaldi and travelling to the Low Countries where he set up a web of contact and learned several languages.

amateurgardening.com/blog

Back in England he joined the household of Cardinal Wolsey, surviving his downfall before entering the service of the irascible monarch.

Cromwell was married (happily by all accounts) and widowed, he lost two of his three children to the sweating sickness, but his household was a happy place and he bestowed great kindnesses upon his friends, servants and retainers.

His portrait by Holbein shows a squat, sturdy chap – several sizes larger than Mark Rylance’s peerless characterization in the BBC Mantel adaptation – but not a cruel one. We know he was financially and politically astute (yes, he overplayed his hand and lost his head but by that time Harry 8 was syphilitically bonkers) but he was also loyal, kind and owned a sense of humour.

I can see him at the head of the table, costing out the wine, enjoying the food and bantering with Caravaggio in Italian. Perfect.

Garry Coward-Williams

When I was asked this question I closed my eyes and my guests simply materialised from my subconscious, where they have been awaiting this invitation for many years.

As we go through life we pick up and store all sorts of information, from literature, music and film media, which has a profound influence on who we are, what engages us and what makes us happy or sad. My guests have all had a profound influence on me, shaping my thinking in many ways. It wasn’t until my guests were assembled that I realised they were all ‘outsiders’, people who bucked the system and shunned authority. They all have a philosophic trait and were known to be ‘thinkers’. Having said the aforementioned, they were also known to be quite witty and entertaining. I would start the evening off with one question: I doubt I would have to ask another.

My question is in two parts: Will the human race ever be able to peacefully co-exist without resorting to war? And if so, how? In no particular order, my guests…

TE Lawrence – a national hero and something akin to a pop star

T.E. Laurence

Better known to the public as Lawrence of Arabia, a painfully bright misfit who accidently became a leading light in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during WW1. Post-war, Lawrence became a national hero and something akin to a pop star thanks an American journalist who made him the central figure of his smash-hit lecture tour ‘With Lawrence In Arabia’.

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Caught between loving the attention and hating the effect on his privacy and literary pretentions, Lawrence changed his name and joined the RAF as a private soldier. However, he was found out and it caused a national scandal. He wrote about his war experiences in a book called The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and his time in the RAF in a book titled The Mint, but allowed neither to be published in his lifetime. A right-wing intellectual, he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1935 that some believe was a government-sanctioned execution to prevent his recruitment by Sir Oswald Moseley’s fascists.

Tony Hancock

British comedian who, with script writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, changed the face of comedy by creating the first situation comedy series, initially on radio then television. Hancock’s rise to his height of fame in 1961 as Britain’s highest paid entertainer took 7 years.

His fall into alcohol addiction and eventual suicide took another 7 years. In some ways the real Hancock reflected his televisual alter ego —an outsider looking in, never fully accepted in or accepting of society. Constantly searching for the meaning of life, but never finding it. I loved Hancock’s droll and oh so British take on life, as seen by through the eyes of the aspirational lower middle class.

Michael Nesmith

A singer-songwriter from Houston Texas, Nesmith found fame with The Monkees , a TV series about a fictional pop band. Nesmith used his time with The Monkees to develop a new style of music, a fusion of country, Latin American rhythm and pop, thus becoming one of the pioneers of what would be known as Country Rock.

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He left The Monkees to pursue the new genre further and from 1970 to 1973 produced six beautifully-crafted albums, which garnered critical approval, but were considerable commercial failures. In 1974 Nesmith changed tack with The Prison: a book, which was an allegory about the meaning of life, with a soundtrack album. The idea was to read the book whilst listening to the record and both combined would take the listener to a higher state of consciousness. It was another commercial failure, even greater than the others. Nesmith finally gave up making records in 1979 and created (and sold) the concept of Music TV.

Franz Kafka

Kafka was a German-speaking Bohemian who wrote extraordinary stories about alienation and the unyielding and frustrating power of bureaucracy. Like the Irish author Flann O’Brien, Kafka had no success during his lifetime and his major works like The Trial (Der Process) and The Castle (Das Schloss) were only published after his death.

amateurgardening.com/blog

Indeed, he stipulated to the executor of his will, Max Brod, that all his writings be burned, unread. But Brod ignored the this and published them to great eventual acclaim. It is said Kafka had a knack pulling the most profound of statements out of thin air in conversation. He was also known to have a great sense of humour.

I would recommend the book Conversations with Kafka, in which his friend Gustav Janouch records many of their chats including this snippet of profundity: “Life is infinitely great and profound as the immensity of the stars above us. One can only look at it through the narrow keyhole of one’s personal experience. But through it one perceives more than one can see. So above all one must keep the keyhole clean”

George Orwell

Born Eric Arthur Blair in India and educated at Eton, Orwell was a product of the old British Empire. On leaving the school system he headed in the footsteps of many of the upper-middle class decamping to the far reaches of the Empire, as a police inspector in Burma.

This gave him a perspective of what Empire really meant for the wealthy and the poor and after 5 years he left to become a writer. On returning to Britain Orwell gave himself the task of experiencing life among the poor in London, the working class in Wigan and later, abject poverty in Paris.

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He saw socialism as the way forward, but was pragmatic and open enough to see that the soviet form of communism was just as repressive as fascism. He was openly derided by the champagne-left, but his books like The Road to Wigan Pier, Down and Out in Paris and London and essays like England Your England have given us a unique insight on life in the late 1920s, early 1930s.

We are here for you

Although many people are coping well with self-isolation, others are really struggling and feeling completely forgotten and alone.

Here at AG we are doing our best to keep connected to our readers though the magazine, this website and also through social media.

AG’s agony uncle John Negus is still answering your questions and solving your problms

Our gardening ‘agony uncle’ John Negus is also still working hard. Send him your problems and questions, with pictures if you can, and he will get back to you with an answer withing 24 hours, as he has been doing for decades. Contact him using the AG email address at [email protected]

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We already have thriving Facebook page but are also on Twitter and Instagram. These sites are a brilliant way of chatting to people, sharing news, information, pictures and just saying hello – we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Best of all, as gardeners are generally lovely folk, more interested in plants, hedgehogs, tea and cake than political shenanigans and point-scoring, so the chat is friendly and welcoming.

So please drop by, follow us, ‘like’ our posts and say hello – the Instagram feed is in it’s really early days so the quicker we can get that going with your help and support, the better!

You can find us at:

Facebook: Facebook.com/AmateurGardeningMagazine

Twitter: Twitter.com/TheAGTeam

Instagram: instagram.com/amgardening_mag

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royalalbertamuseumblog · 5 years

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The Basket Tree (Part 2)

By Skye Haggerty

Barking Up the Right Tree (Part 1) by Skye Haggerty

Babies Wrapped in Love by Rogan Alexis

In this two-part blog post, I’ll explore the importance of these materials, the process of harvesting them, and a few of the traditional crafts my grandmother taught me to make from them. Read part 1 here.

The Basket Tree

After harvesting the needed materials for a birch bark basket from the forest in my prior post, my grandmother and I set to making the baskets (and a few other items too).

The baskets created from this natural material can be used for anything ranging from berry-picking to water hauling (if sealed with a resin commonly called pitch) to being a decorative container for household knick-knacks. To create a birch-bark basket you’ll need a few more tools:

A good pair of scissors

A pencil or pen knife

Construction paper

Sinew or spruce root

A needle

A dowel for puncturing holes

Clamps or paper clips

Now, you draw your pattern!

Once you have a pattern drawn and cut out, it can be traced with pencil onto the bark or scored with a penknife.

Cutting out the pattern is easy enough, but you want to work with the natural curl of the bark. Utilizing the bark’s natural tendency to curl opposite of its original shape by making the papery exterior the interior of the basket lends additional support to the basket’s structure. The sides can be easily folded and held together by paper clamps while you stitch it together.

Sometimes the bark is thin enough to puncture with a needle, but it’s best to use a dowel to poke the holes and plan how you want the stitching to go. A decorative trim can be made from the scrap of the bark. It adds strength to the basket’s structure and can be attached using either the same stitch or something different.

And here we have the finished products!

My mom also took a moment to make my knife a sheath from two long strips of bark woven together. She also took the time to make a conical tool called a moose-caller out of the remaining birch bark for her nîcimos (sweetheart).

Birch bark biting is another art that utilizes the unique qualities of the bark. Stripped into thinner layers, the bark becomes paper that can be used for both artwork and for transferring patterns. Birch-bark biting was traditionally done by women and served as a kind of friendly competition between them. The individual would bite her pattern into the bark using her incisors and picture the design in her mind. Holding up the bark to the light would reveal if the pattern had transferred all the way through. Once satisfied with the design, it could be transferred onto any item they intended to do bead or quillwork on.

This was done by laying the bitten pattern over the item and using a thin layer of ash or chalk to transfer the image. The ash or chalk would fall through the holes in the bark and recreate the pattern on the other side.

An example of birch bark biting from the RAM Indigenous Studies collection, created by Angelique Merasty from Beaver Lake, Saskatchewan.

With the availability of pencils, paper, and other materials the practice of birch bark biting is not used as frequently but there are still practitioners that produce beautiful pieces of artwork such as Halfmoon Woman (Pat Bruderer). The biting, of course, takes many hours of practice and as Angelique Merasty once said, it takes “wasting a lot of birch bark” to develop the art.

These objects showcase a union of utility and art that is characteristic of many Indigenous creations. Yet they are more than that. Through these we transform the material of the birch bark into a carrier of not just berries or buttons but traditional knowledge to be passed from generation to generation. In this way, waskway is not merely a resource but grandmother tree embodied.

Missed part 1? Read it here: Barking Up the Right Tree (Part 1) by Skye Haggerty

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gaybombparadise · 5 years

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notes on what follows

The idea for this speculative archive began with Paul B. Preciado’s, Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era (New York, NY: Feminist Press CUNY, 2011): with a short, paragraph-length story that seemed to catch its barbs on me, in a book replete with the looped and looping history of pharmaceuticals (including their means of production and testing, as well as application), the technologically mediated (often contradictory) productions of gender, and some rather steamy erotica. This speculation begins with a (supposedly) defunct plan of the US military to develop a non lethal chemical weapon, now colloquially known as the “gay bomb,” which would turn its victims—is that the right word?—targets, perhaps, gay. As I understand the intended effect of this proposed weapon, upon exposure to the released pheromone fumes, the enemy army would become so intoxicated with one another—would be so filled with lustiness for their band of brothers—that they would suddenly lay down their weapons and pick up another…

My intent was to start there, with the explosion of this so-called gay bomb, and then to speculate an out-of-control, queer future in the aftermath of its nuclear explosions; and to some extent that is what I wrote—what is below compiled. But, to a significant measure, this blog never arrives at speculating on the potential queer worlds that might cohere in the chaos that follows the destruction of this heterosexist world. In researching the political and social climate in which this bomb was first proposed, I found myself being led here and there, astray from my intended goal—which is perhaps a rather queer deviation, if we follow Sara Ahmed and think queer as an orientation. “People deviate from the paths they are supposed to follow”—even, sometimes, the paths we mark out for ourselves—writes Ahmed, but “deviation leaves its own marks on the ground, which can even help generate alternative lines, which cross the ground in unexpected ways” (Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others [Durham, NC: Duke, 2006], 20).

I found that I was interested in what was going on around the time that the bomb was proposed (including, an emerging feud between military officials and the government executive; the very present crisis of the AIDS epidemic; and a delicious mix of music, literature, and film). And so, instead of speculating on what a queer world might look, smell, feel, taste, and touch—because the world touches back!—like, I found myself stringing together a rather patchy archive. I, as its author, strayed here and there, forwards and backwards in time, gathering (apparently) necessary elements from a decidedly anti-chronological digital and sumptuously perverse—and FUN!—archive. [1]

So, here is what I want to say about this project’s relation to “Dude, where’s my body?”: while Preciado may have been a thorny beginning, Alexis Pauline Gumbs’, M Archive: After the End of the World (Durham, NC: Duke, 2018) gave form and shape to this project. I wanted to think about the archive as a genre with its own specific conventions. Because, what else is an archive other than a collection, a corpus, or a body of things that matter?

In Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), Jacques Derrida charts the etymological connections of “archive” to the Greek arkheion, as the residence of the magistrates, the archons, the ones who commanded:

The citizens who thus held and signified political power were considered to possess the right to make or to represent the law. On account of their publicly recognized authority, it is at their home, in that place which is their house . . . that official documents are filed. The archons are first of all the documents' guardians. They do not only ensure the physical security of what is deposited . . . They [also] have the power to interpret the archives (2).

For Derrida, then, it’s important that the archive is understood as connected to ones who hold power, who command, as well as that the archive is situated in a place. This makes explicit that the archive is not a neutral entity, but is instead shaped by politically-inflected collecting practices, institutional and directorial values, the confines of material spaces, or meagre limits of city budgets (for institutions like libraries, for example) as well as the political, social, and world-making motivations of those who are charged with or take up the responsibility of interpreting. Gumbs’ archive, I think, not only challenges the power given to the interpreters of a history of the West as a history of the world, but says, too, that the gathering together of objects (including histories, violences, intimacies, as well as places, occasions, peoples, and their situated practices and doings) is profoundly political.

As a body of things that matter, I mean to say that an archive hums with the interests, pains, pleasures, thinkings, and laughters of another’s body—the one doing the gathering, doing the weaving (to use Gumbs’ word). And, this is what this speculative archive, “after the gay bomb,” also is: it’s at once a collection of things that I found doing the thing we call “research”—which might simply be another word for that desire (or motivation) which causes each of us to walk down one aisle of books and not the next, or to follow one series of Wikipedia links rather than another. But, it’s also a collection of references (movie clips and quotations from favourite books and poems) that matter to me. In other words, I follow Jack Halberstam’s methodology in The Queer Art of Failure (Durham, NC: Duke, 2011) by grafting “high” to “low” theories, across a range of (maybe silly) references, to create something that doesn’t necessarily succeed in doing what it set out to accomplish. There is no queer utopia at the end of this archive.

But, I take that absence at the end, the “not there,” as another way to read this archive as an unfolding of a (present?) queer utopia already here... What I mean to say is that by not arriving, by deflecting or detouring, I’m left with the possibility of what might already be around in this mess of things. I’m left with the possibilities of turning a page over and upside down, to read the words backwards and in reflection so as to see what’s here, hiding. And, this is the charge (I think) that Gumbs leaves us with: to see things anew and in that fleeting moment, in, what Michelle Murphy calls “alterlife” (“What Can’t a Body Do?,” 2017), to grab hold and imagine other worlds into being. Because those moments are openings into something different.

What I find so energizing about Murphy’s conceptualization of “alterlife” is the way in which the concept catches you up, brings you in. Because definitionally, the alter of altered life (damaged life) shares meaning with the alter of alterity (or difference) and the alter of alternative worlds. One of the most challenging aspects of “imagining otherwise” is doing just that, imagining otherwise. How do we do it? What does it look, feel, taste, smell, touch like? But, when I think about the connections across alter (when I think about everything as already damaged), it becomes less difficult (but maybe that’s the wrong word again). Anyway, I can feel the concept in my body when I think about it as tripping when you’re running. Sometimes, if I’m feeling really good and I come to the top of a hill, I’ll run down and let my legs spin out below me—running faster than my brain wants but letting my legs do the thinking-doing. If suddenly I trip, almost wipe out, but recover I find myself caught up now in a pace that seems impossible: I’m still, to riff off Kate Bush, “running [down] that hill,” I’m still in my body, but everything is different, faster, wilder. And that’s the moment, the chance to grab onto something different (and maybe, if just for a moment) to bring it into being. It’s what Dionne Brand might call, “another place, not here” (Toronto, ON: Vintage, 1996).

Gumbs’ archive weaves new worlds into being in the aftermath of “this” one, repurposing (détourning) the scraps of western intellectual traditions and their systems of ordering into something else, less violent (Brand, again). The periodic table of elements, without archons to give and assign meaning, instead, becomes the strands that might weave together other possible futures. And, by holding on to the table, not for the table itself, but because the table exists, Gumbs’ does two things. Firstly, she insists on, what Donna Haraway calls, “staying with the trouble,” by attending to the artifacts of human life, including their/our legacies of ruin, and their/our agencies of care, while staying attuned to the possibility of somehow getting on together in a multispecies world (Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, [Durham, NC: Duke, 2016]). [2]

Secondly, and here’s what I’m really interested in, Gumbs makes-possible interventions into “the Archive” as a collection of objects, values, practices that can be contested and reworked. This is not dissimilar to what some call “queering the archive,” but I think her aim (and mine in "after the gay bomb”) is to do something slightly different than identify instances of queer life. I want to listen to and tell other stories that unravel the violent frameworks that we’ve inherited. And I want to make interventions into the archive not so that those who were overlooked or excluded suddenly come into focus, but so that the very terms of reference which assigned value within such a genre are, themselves, rewoven. Because, if we can weave the very conventions of this common world into something else, some other kind of basket, then we might find that the things we put into that basket (including “us”) change, too.

Endnotes

1. If there is an ordering to this archive, it is in the speculated months that follow the dropping of the bomb. But, even those are composed of elements from the “real world” that are given new times and thus new meanings.

2. Elsewhere, I have written on compost as a world-making practice of “staying with the trouble,” see Mathew Arthur and Reuben Jentink, “Composting Settler Nationalisms,” Capacious, 2018.

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