An IRL update~

Back at it again with another real life update! Less intense than the last one, more for funsies!

Today’s topic: Fruit! So much fruit!

So summer’s officially underway here, which means now is the start of fruit season! The blueberries I planted are coming in nicely (though 1 of the 4 looks a bit stressed, likely from the transplant). The strawberries are starting to come in, the wild raspberries are almost ready. The mulberries along the road are very loaded. And our 50+ year old Montmorency cherry decided, after losing half of it’s branches last year to a huge storm, to rip the other half off on the stillest day of the summer so far. RIP. But that meant the upper layer of sour cherries, which were just about ripe, were now on the ground within picking range. So I will be making pies this weekend, and freezing or canning what I can’t! We are going to leave the trunk for now (there are some birds nesting in what’s left, and it still has some branches on it with fruit), and plant a new tree in the now open sunny spot this fall!

For anyone who is curious on how to process sour cherries, the biggest thing is to remove the pits and any bruised sections/rotting fruit. You gotta wash everything in cold water to get the dirt/debris off, then remove the stems. They make cherry pitters to keep the fruit intact, but I find ripping them in half with your fingers works just as well if you don’t care about looks! Put the pits and discarded fruit to the side, as well as any worms/bugs discovered in the process. I typically put these in the compost pile we have out back, though you can also just scatter them in the yard!  We don’t spray, so that can be a lot! Put the “good” cherries in a big bowl or multi-cup measure. It takes ~ 4-6 cups of pitted cherries to make a pie. To freeze what’s left, use a baking sheet that fits your freezer. Line it with parchment or wax paper, then spread the processed cherries over it. Let it freeze overnight, then transfer them to a freezer bag. I also hot water can, but there are so many recipes for that I haven’t settled on one! Also, sweet cherries are more popular, but sour cherries make better pies for sure! And the birds don’t eat them as quickly, so there may even be some left by the time they are ripe!

okay so if im feeling better tomorrow,.itll be sandwhich for lunch, roast pork for dinner... or maybe big breakfast brunch? get some beans so its hashies eggs beans and snags.... regardless, roast pork for dinner. Ill.want to quarter the potatos and cut the carrots, mix them with oil and seasonings, maybe add some halved onions too? While im out getting beans I may as well grab a pumpkin, roast pumpkin never goes awry.

Then the day after if i dont do the brunch tomorrow ill do it then, and japanese cury chciken for dinner.

when am I gobna do my quesadillas though?

click for better quality PLEASE tumblr obliterated this one

Attempting to get the beast used to a dental hygiene routine is… well, it’s going.

(She stayed that way for a solid 8 seconds despite hating being held belly up so I think it’s safe to say that Mim is not beating the ‘tiny speaker playing elevator music instead of a brain’ allegations any time soon.)

SCOURGE SUNDAY 025/???

BLESSING leader of WATERCLAN

raise your hand if you're enjoying the constant jarthur art (i raise my hand, completely alone) ((closeups under the cut))

every day i learn something new about this world <3 something completely false and racist but new nonetheless <3 keeps life fresh and exciting!

mister phil michael lester do i need to remind you that you are on camera, @astrophilip you asked for this

(while everyone else lost it over dan's touches on phil's face i have literally ascended to the heavens because of this incredibly soft look on phil's face it is literally a split SECOND but once you notice it you'll never be the person you were)

Long post incoming!

As a little mental health exercise for myself, I have decided to do some actual blogging about my real, irl life! Everything will be tagged with #personal stuff if you want to tune it out.

This is the first of those posts, we’ll see how long I can keep this up! These are probably going to be pretty long and rambling (I have a tendency to word vomit), so I’ll put a cut in if you want to continue scrolling.

Today’s topic: Touching Grass

For a bit of backstory/reminiscence, I grew up on a pretty sizable chunk of land (~15 acres, 10 of which we let go back to fields) in the Upper Midwest, one of those places that was parceled out of a farm in the 80s. My parents were very clear that my sister and I learn how to do at least a passable job at property maintenance, so I spent a sizable chunk of my youth mowing lawns, pulling weeds, planting gardens, all that jazz. Because the sweeper on the lawn mower broke one year (and dad was too cheap to get a new one and not handy enough to fix it), we raked around 2 acres of dried grass every summer after the first big cut by hand, and threw it all of it in the back field in “the pile” to compost and grow volunteer pumpkins and tomatoes. We had probably 5-6 active gardens at a time, scattered throughout the property.  I even had my own garden over the septic tank that I filled with annuals every year, and I laid the brick borders by hand (as for the positioning, septic tanks need to be pumped every couple of years. The flowers were so we didn’t bend the tank handles with the lawn mower and knew where to dig. I usually did marigolds, petunias, and snapdragons). So tldr, despite being an introverted nerd I did spent a lot of time outside doing manual labor.

Living in dorms and apartments for the past 6 years, I had forgotten how much I enjoy outdoor chores. The closest I could get was some small, unsuccessful window plants. And moving into the house with my fella in the fall meant all the lawn and garden work was already pretty much done. So I haven’t really done what I would consider “touching grass” in almost 7 years. I tried going to parks and nature trails, and while those are better than staying cooped up they didn’t scratch that itch to get my hands dirty. And in those 7 years my mental health has quite frankly circled the drain.

But this week has really been a big turnaround in that. Decided to start doing some outside work because with spring coming on, a lot of the tasks that were neglected before we moved in have come to light. Whenever I’ve been feeling stressed, I’ve been pulling the English Ivy the previous owner decided to plant in the front bushes.  My guy and I have been working to convert the back half of our lot to a native pollinator garden, and as the plants we ordered are starting to come in I’ve been planting them myself. Today I trimmed hedges with snippers for about 2 hours. And to my surprise, I feel great!! Both physically and mentally. I feel like I actually want to do things again!! I signed up for art classes, I have made plans to go traveling, just feeling like a whole new person.

So was it the touching grass? Probably not entirely. I think it probably had more to do with shaking off the winter, exercising, and just generally feeling useful. But now that I know that I really like doing outdoor chores again, I can incorporate those into my routines easier! We even have a little composting bin I can throw the grass clippings in (fun fact: if you dry them first, they count as “browns” instead of greens, so they can be used to offset other garden waste!).

Not a mutual bc I spend more time at the homestuck across the street but you are in fact the mumbo jumbo defender

Mumbos ride or die

Mumbo's silly rabbit

his... ride or die you say

oh to be trapped in the middle backseat of a long car ride and the people on either side of you keep squeezing ur knees and sides because your cute giggles are way more entertaining than ‘i spy’

like i said, truly fascinating people on this app!

Magical girls. They're famously known for being frilly. But which mahou is the frilliest? That's what this tournament is here to find out!

The rules are simple:

Submit your mahou using this form here!

You are welcome to submit power-ups and alternate forms, but be sure it specify you are submitting those forms if you do!

Magical boys are also welcome. They can be frilly too, if they want.

If you are submitting Sakura Kinomoto (or any other mahou that has a wide variety of costumes), please specify which outfit of hers you're submitting her with. Images would be very helpful here!

After the initial submission phase, there will be preliminary polls in case we get multiple submissions for different forms of the same mahou.

Utena is still not a magical girl show, and will not be considered for the tournament. Thank you.

Submissions will be open until HALLOWEEN (October 31st, for those who don't celebrate)!

Have fun and stay frilly!

OP why are you so funny

The heart buried beneath my floorboards beats ceaselessly with intent for my mind to fracture under the guilt of my sins, threatening never to stop until I post disrespectfully about podcast men

spider8itch

09.04.2023 • sunday

my friend and i studied in our dorm's cafeteria together yesterday :].