Mulch Landscape

Photo of a large tropical mulch garden path in the summer that is tolerant of drought and some sunlight.

Santa Barbara Landscape Vegetable Garden This is an illustration of a sizable, full-sun, Mediterranean backyard vegetable garden landscape.

Landscape Gravel in San Francisco An example of a large contemporary backyard gravel landscaping.

Santa Barbara Landscape Vegetable Garden This is an illustration of a sizable, full-sun, Mediterranean backyard vegetable garden landscape.

Vegetable Garden - Landscape An example of a large mediterranean drought-tolerant and full sun backyard vegetable garden landscape.

Vegetable Garden - Landscape

Do you have any headcanons of callum being protective/considerate/thoughtful with rayla? I'm so in love with how gentle he was with her this season.

Callum planting flowers from the Silvergrove in the castle gardens as a surprise and then convincing her to take a 'moonlit' stroll with him one night once they're ready so he can show them off

It's non traditional but he knows the main reason she hates the water is because she always feels unsteady on her feet so he gets her a grip mat for the tub so she can feel more centered

Redoing her braid for her whenever it comes undone and stitching up little tears and frayed edges in her clothing/cloaks because he knows how to sew

On that note: getting her a new cloak because her old one is tattered and doing up the clasp for her / tugging her in close by the hood for nose and mouth kisses if he's not smiling too much

Him and Ezran collecting a whole bunch of things during the timeskip to save up to give to her so that the castle can feel like home

So many forehead kisses and just gentle hand squeezes. Three squeezes means "I love you" and he'll trace the words onto her back or side sometimes when they're just laying together

He definitely talked privately to Opeli (and probably the guards) after the 5x01 throne room debacle and gave them a piece of his mind / new protocol to follow when it comes to them being concerned about Rayla's actions (ficlet here)

For that matter: absolute death glares to anyone who gives her a hard time at the castle / any diplomatic function (and probably almost causes a political incident or two over it)

Him murmuring the sappy love poetry he's read in her ear even when she rolls he eyes and can't quite hide her smile, working up his nerve to write personal poems of his own for her

Little things he did this season like being the one to handle the reigns of their mount the bulk of the time as soon as they started sharing because he knows she's not a morning person and is a light sleeper, so she holds onto his middle and he lets her doze for most of the day whenever he can

Requesting mints at inns they stay in that don't have any already / using magic to carve the soap into little shapes if they aren't that way to begin with and leaving them, once again, as little surprises for her to discover

If/when Rayla wants or needs time away from Stella (sparring perhaps) the cuddlemonkey is almost always with Callum and he makes sure she's cared for too. She's fussy about getting brushed and hard to pin down thanks to the six hands, so he'll usually help get her sitting still while Rayla does the actual grooming

Him using cooling spells for her when it's hot on summer nights (like in 4x07) and heating his hands to lay on her tummy when she gets period cramps

Normally he'd never throw his weight around as a prince, but he absolutely will on her behalf, whether it's getting something she wants from a servant tea/food wise or making sure they are treated well / have a nice place to stay while travelling

"It's none of your concern--" "It very much is her concern, and watch your tone."

Giving her his scarf whenever it's cold, of course

Making sure she's not overworking her bad wrist and giving little massages to that and her ankles when she's been doing a lot of jumps/movements that day, especially as they get older

His sketchbook is equally hers (even if she uses it far less often of course) and there's a few pages near the back designated for her to leave notes or doodles or whatever she wants when she's bored and/or he's not using it (he's very proud of how her drawing has improved)

Getting heavy duty enchanted blinds from Lux Aurea for her room so it can keep the sun out so she can sleep in / can give her room more of a twilight light quality so it can remind her of the Silvergrove (if she wants)

There are some meetings he can't get out of as crown prince but they're long and boring so he does his best to convince Rayla to go and spend her afternoon doing something she wants. (She usually stays for at least the first half anyway to support him and Ez)

Drawing memories and stories she tells him about her family and then giving her the pages so she can hold onto / remember them

Rayla still having a hard time articulating how she's feeling sometimes and getting upset/angry/embarrassed when it comes out wrong, so he takes her hand and gets her to take a steadying breath and start over with a gentle "Try again. What are you meaning to say?" if she says something obtuse/that comes out wrong

Ofc taking care of her when she's sick no matter how disgruntled or snotty she gets and reading to her quietly/stroking her hair until she falls asleep

Taking her to his favourite places in the castle/kingdom/Pentarchy for dates and private times to hang out alone, insisting on carrying their picnic basket because he's a Prince, Rayla, and chivalry isn't dead

Callum working very hard to learn traditional Moonshadow elf (no matter how much she teases him for his pronunciation) so he can use it to propose to her

I like the silly Pokemon Parody Ark Ripoff game so here's my two cents if you're interested. Under the cut bc this post is long as fuck lol Also congrats Palworld for the 1.5 Milly player peak on steam, go you crazy ass indie game

After trying to find cute Palworld content on tumblr and seeing nothing but whining, it's surprising how many people hate this random ass indie game that was made on a budget of 10k? Like yeah the designs can be boring parodies with a handful of great original ones but the amount of people who are outright hateful's kinda.. odd? Like lads you can critique a game, it's designs and CEO without sending death threats to the developers right? Tumblr likes to steal from the rich so why is it bad when someone actually does? Anyway it's insane how there's people trying to prove the game stole assets from Nintendo and then compare models which. Are not the same poly and vertices wise? And even if it was, it's hard to take seriously when the poster is someone who admits they hate the game for... Animal abuse? Also insane how many people hate Palworld for the fact it has -human- slavery, Pals can do jobs for you 'so it's cruel' and has a certain Pal number 69 who's description is suggestive so the game's immoral and over all "trying too hard to be edgy" it's like. Since when do we police such topics in games of all things? Have you played games that aren't Baby's First Christian Game before? Scratch that because even shitty bad Christian games have harsher shit than what's in Palworld. Catching and selling ppl [who tried to kill you in the first place] in the game's exactly like catching 'mons and it's nowhere near as fucked up as Rimworld where you have to go out of your way to make prisons for people and, if you wanna be extra evil, you can extract their organs and sell them on the market n' nobody tried to cancel that game. In-game, Palworld discourages you from overworking your lil guys and asks you to make spas and beds and keep them well fed and to make sure they're medically sound and happy! Oh no! How cruel! I am asking my little teapot elephant to water my garden!!! Pokemon's also confirmed that people used to marry Pokemon in-lore and we have games like bg3 and DOS2 where. Um. Halsin is a bear in more ways than one yknow what I'm saying? also spider. Both pretty nasty and def not my cuppa but having a fit over a description in a game's kinda weird? Also for a game promoted on "Pokemon with guns" it is INCREDIBLY tame. Slavery is p-much "oh lol I can catch this guy. Anyway back to petting my fire fox :)" and put him in a box like any other creature bc who cares, videogame + the guy literally tried to Kill You. There's also no blood or gore or anything actually shocking tbh? Yeah there's guns but they're late game and you can literally chose not to deal with guns

Since when did we decide to yell at a game like the satanic panic of the original pokemon where ppl said it promoted cockfighting? Although it is fictional cockfighting gamewise, nobody cares because it's way more than that lol Also why does nobody complain that the game is literally ARK btw? Is it because ARK players don't give a shit or is it because some people will view a game and crit it for purely surface level assumptions with no nuance or understanding? Criticize it for lifting game elements from more than just pokemon, criticize it's CEO for being a regular ol' shitty CEO, criticize it's terrible official servers and buggy 'mon AI, but by all means do NOT spread false information and slander-ish claims against it jfc

WHAT HOBBIES I THINK THE GHOULS HAVE

This is my first time writing head-canons so be nice to me please! Anyway let’s get on with the hobbies!(if you see grammar errors no you don’t:3)

Aether

I think aether bakes but he takes it SO seriously. He has a journal of carefully curated recipes that he has spent YEARS perfecting. Aether has a special spot in his recipe journal for all the ghouls favorite type of cake and he makes them birthday cakes every year. Aethers favorite thing to bake is cookies. He makes big batches of cookies and gives them to his band mates on designated movie nights. He loves decorating cakes with the sisters of sin who work in the kitchen.

Sodo

Sodo dose glass work as a job and hobby. he helps make and maintain all of the stain glass around the ministry with a small group of sisters. He hand picked each sister both experienced and inexperienced with glass work. He teaches them everything he knows and enjoys helping them with learning curves and the difficult parts. He’s glass making studio is located directly underneath the abbey. But hobby wise sodo loves making glass sun catchers. Sodo also enjoys makes little glass figures and gives them to the siblings and older children. Since sodo is a fire ghoul when he works on glass he heats up his hands and is able to work without a blow torch. I personally headcanon he can breathe fire so he definitely uses that to help him.

Mountain

Mountain is soo obviously a plant dad but this man also does pottery! No one can tell me otherwise! His favorite things to make are cute pots for all his plants! He also makes vases for all the flowers he collects from the garden. He takes a day off every week and goes into to Forrest surrounding the ministry and forages for clay. He comes back completely covered in mud and grinning like a mad man. He makes everyone mugs for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. The thing he is most proud of is a pomegranate tea set that took him months to make. He very proudly drinks tea out of it every morning before heading out to work in the gardens

Phantom

PHANTOM IS A DND NERD! He and a group of siblings play dnd together every week. He plays as a vampire elf bard and is very proud of his character. He was very nervous when he first started playing dnd but the more he started playing the more confident he got with the siblings encouragement. He totally hasn’t almost tpk his party because he tried to fight a family of yetis by himself. (Totally not based on personal experiences) He loves dice! He is a dice goblin and has hundreds of dice. He is vary superstitious about his dice. His favorite set of dice are a set Swiss got him that are purple with bat on the 20.

rain

Rain obviously does water colors. Rains favorite thing to paint is landscapes he especially loves painting beaches. He also loves painting flowers. he sometimes going to the ministry gardens and painting all the flowers he sees. Rain like to take a day and hike to the middle of the woods and paints what he sees. He doesn’t paint people a lot but when he does he likes to have a live reference so he will ask some of the ghouls to pose for him. He likes when mountain model for him because he doesn’t move around like some (cough cough Aurora and Swiss cough) of the the ghouls. Rain gets very shy and blushes bright blue when anyone compliments is art.

Swiss

this kreecher (affectionately) explores abandon places and grave yards. He sometimes tries and finds cryptids (As if he isn’t one.) and ghosts. Swiss will bring ghost hunting equipment with him when he goes to places he’s already explored to spice things up. Swiss’s favorite tool is the spirit box. He finds the response’s form the ghost so funny. One time swiss took aurora with him to an abandoned hospital to hang out. He challenged aurora to stay in a room by herself for five minutes with the spirit box. She absolutely freaked when it started to talk to her (he didn’t tell her what it was meant for) and booked it back to where Swiss was. Aurora never never went ghost hunting again.

aurora

Speaking of aurora I think aurora embroiders. cirrus originality taught her simple things she aurora ran with it. Aurora has a lot of energy so she sometimes have a hard time focusing when something doesn’t grab her attention or when she doesn’t have anything to do with her fidgeting hands. So when she first started embroidering she was like “this something that takes my focus AND i have something to do with my hands…THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!” She makes the most beautiful beaded plants. She will embroider a plant on every pare of pants she has. Also enjoys making embroidered patches for everyone. Makes all her friends pride flag patches.

Sunshine

My girl sunshine rollerblades! She has a pare of bright orange skates with light up wheels. She has gotten told of by sister imperator many times for rolling around the ministry to fast but she never listen. She sets a day off every week to put wd40 on her wheel bearings. She is very serious about taking care of her skates she treats them like they’re her babies. She knows so many tricks and definitely will teaches anyone who asks her how to skate and do tricks. Her favorite trick is skating backwards because is makes sister imperator nervous that she’s gonna bump into someone or something.

Cumulus

Cumulus loves puzzles so much. She challenges her self to start a new puzzle every month. her favorite types of puzzles are ones that have cute animals on them. Her comfort puzzle is a 900 piece puzzle with all kinds of kittens on them. She hosts a puzzle night in the library that everyone is invited to. She brings a 1000 piece puzzle and some snacks and she and everyone there works on the puzzle together. One time for her birthday all the ghouls got together and each got her a puzzle. She cried happy tears because she felt so loved. When she finished all of those puzzles she mogpoged framed them and hung them on her walls. they make her smile every time she sees them.

Cirrus

I think cirrus does photograph. She enjoys more dark and macabre themes so she often goes to the gave yards to take pictures. Cirrus joins Swiss on his explorations to capture the dark beauty of abandoned places. On the rare occasion she will photograph people but cirrus prefers taking pictures of places rather than people. One of her favorite things to photograph is the stained glass windows all over the ministry. Gets up before sunrise to get the best photos of the morning light shining through the glass.

Right-to-buy council houses without specifically only releasing housing that already had a replacement built was of the most notable ways of the *many* that Thatcher et al screwed the UK.

I’d love to have a law put in place that landlords either have to sign contracts to provide housing under council house-type contracts with rent controls to people on housing benefit etc, or sell to the local council at compulsory purchase prices.

Same for all the houses not being lived in - use to house people under contractual controls, or have to sell to the council housing central fund.

Personally I’d start converting all the office units that are no longer needed because so many people are working remotely now into housing too.

Same for the huge city centre shops - I’m not sure if the pattern repeats elsewhere, but I live near Glasgow and the city centre has basically died since Covid. No one is renting the huge retail stores and the place is full of unhoused folk, which is a fucking scandal. So convert them into housing; let the buildings see use, and let those folks get off the streets. Pets and kids specifically allowed too - get families out of one-room shelters and into proper homes of their own.

I’ve heard that there would be issues putting in water infrastructure, but given the place is literally crumbling already and usage in so many areas is so low that having workers digging up the streets to install water lines wouldn’t cause enormous disruption, the time to do this is *now*. Build rainwater catchment and purification systems on roofs too - we get so much rain in the UK it’s kind of ridiculous not to use it! Some of that could go directly to drip irrigation in gardens, but plenty could go right into the houses/flats too. And of course this would provide tons of jobs in construction, architecture, planning etc etc.

Install gardens and green spaces around the place while you are doing this - offer some at low rent, or to buy cheaply, to market gardeners, but specifically put spaces in for communal gardens with the idea of offering allotments and encouraging people to grow their own food.

Put solar panels on every roof and integrate spaces for smaller wind turbines amongst the houses too. Huge storage batteries in basements to make the new blocks as low-footprint and self-sufficient as possible power-wise.

It would be a *fantastic* opportunity to create genuinely accessible housing - office buildings and shops already have lifts and wide corridors ideal for wheelchairs and other mobility devices, so keep that in the design when creating housing. There is a hidden epidemic of houselessness amongst disabled people and older folk with mobility needs, so create low-rent council housing that specifically fits those needs there.

It would regenerate the areas - all the smaller shopfronts not suitable for housing conversion would fill up with people offering the things people in residential neighbourhoods need, with a guaranteed payer base. People on low incomes *use* all of their incomes on necessities, so small businesses selling those necessities will do well. Offer small businesses low rents to provide those necessities. Any that don’t fill up, offer to charities and use for council staff offering the aid and advice people transitioning into housing actually *need*.

Carers are generally low-paid - so this would be an opportunity to offer them cheap housing close to a huge client base in the new accessible housing. No need for low-paid, mostly-female workers to dash constantly between clients in cars. They could walk to work and walk in between clients, who would also no longer be trapped in inaccessible homes, so people who are not actually bedbound would hopefully be less housebound.

Put rooms in the blocks for communal and co-op activities to reduce isolation - with the lifts and wide corridors, even people who are functionally housebound are likely to be able to make it to a room in their own building, and even quite young children could get to those places safely on their own if their parents are working. Wraparound childcare, paid and informal, near where folks actually live.

City centre areas that are now largely dead other than unhoused people, with limited and decreasing zero economic activity taking place and a decreasing incentive for businesses to set up there rather than in out-of-town retail parks people need to drive to, would become vibrant communities with every incentive for businesses to set up there, particularly for the small businesses that still employ the majority of people.

It wouldn’t take a lot to extend this model to transform those out-of-town business parks that are currently largely empty either; nothing says the businesses that are still there would need to move, and they would have a huge new pool of potential employees living within easily walkable distance, though there would need to be oversight to make sure places like Amazon didn’t attempt to buy them up and turn them into company housing. There would need to be a little more investment to provide green transport links like electric buses and trains so that it would be easier for small businesses to move in to provide services, but given the tax income that would result and the reduction in pollution the investment would probably pay itself back within a decade or so.

Little Flame

Pairing: Melkor/Mairon

Themes: Soft | Fluff | NSFW

Others: Communication via Osanwe (Italicized text)

Warnings: Kissing

Wordcount: 400+words

Summary: Mairon calls on Melkor, to take him on a starlit stroll.

This ficlet was inspired by @thelien-art piece on Melkor and Mairon

Minors DNI

This is also available on AO3

“You call on me still." Melkor was pleasantly amazed when he found Mairon seated on the edge of the little pond inside his receiving hall, trailing his hand along the surface of the water and startling the bright golden fish that swam too close. A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth when the Maia turned to face him, resplendent as always. “Have the others not warned you to stay away, little flame?”

Mairon felt a delicious shiver go down his spine when he heard himself being called thus, and when Melkor leaned down to greet him with a warm and lingering kiss.

“They have my lord, more times than I could care to count.” He replied, rising. He fussed with the sash of his robe, setting it to rights, before offering Melkor his arm and leading him out of his manse. “Cold and cruel and full of dark cunning,” he continued, narrowing his eyes and wagging a bejeweled finger in the air. “Mark my words, Mairon. All those who pledge themselves to him and swear oaths of leal service will come to rue the day they did so. Just wait and see.”

Melkor threw his head back and laughed when he heard Aulë’s voice part his companion’s fair lips. “Pay no mind to the words of those who refuse to see beyond the little spheres they have confined themselves to,” he counseled wordlessly, “for they themselves will come to rue the day that they refused to aid me in my designs for Arda.”

“Indeed, my lord,” Mairon agreed, and he led him down a path that threaded through a vast expanse of gardens bathed in the pale light of a brilliant, starry night. Others who were on the same path made haste to move past them in a desperate attempt to not get too close to them, Melkor in particular. He scoffed haughtily, calling them fools under his breath. “Indeed.”

The Vala studied Mairon keenly, and he approved of what he saw. Garbed in crimson silk and cloth of gold, with more gold glinting on his ears and throat and hands, Mairon was everything he expected of him: brilliant and regal and full of ambitions of his own. And now he was willingly standing by his side, discreetly aiding him in every manner possible to make their visions for Arda real.

Yes, he told himself. I made a wise decision in choosing him as my companion.

“Take me to the maze by the forests, little flame,” Melkor said, thinking a more pleasurable diversion was in order. “I hear it is rarely used by the others.”

“Of course, my lord,” his companion returned, flushing with a dizzying sense of anticipation.

tags: @cilil @asianbutnotjapanese

actually if i'm gonna make a games rec post.

here are some games i have enjoyed recent-ish.

kenshi. an open-world squad-based rpg with base-building elements. get stronger by getting beaten up. lose a fight and get knocked out, have your weapons and food taken by the bandits that mugged you and left you bleeding to death. get rescued by some slavers that capture you and sell you into slavery. free yourself from slavery and limp away until you roll in hours later with a whole squad of overpowered fighters. then head a little bit too far south and get murdered by skin bandits. they take your skin. this is a completely self-directed game; there's no "main plot", although arguably "figure out the history of the world" is kind of the main 'story' mystery. there's also a bunch of unique recruitable characters with custom-written interactions. i usually recruit exclusively from freeing slaves but you can do w/e.

wildmender. a survival gardening game. this one came out recently and the devs are still releasing bugfixes; it's unclear if they'll make large content patches in the future. apparently multiplayer can still be pretty glitchy, and there's a water flow bug that i've been finding very frustrating. the way biomes work is kind of unsatisfying. kind of slim content-wise, but still, i really enjoyed what's there. out of all of the climate change terraforming anxiety games i've seen, this has been the one i've most enjoyed.

hellpoint. a scifi soulslike made by a team of like 12 people. previously i had thought things like "it would be neat if dark souls was less linear". hellpoint is a great example of why that might be a nightmare. the areas are connected in such a complex way, with one-way routes and branching unlock keys and secret paths and hidden doors behind hidden doors that it gets profoundly disorienting. a hint: almost every single hidden door in the game (there are a lot) is the middle panel of the same exact three-paneled-wall geometry. once you notice what it is you will see it everywhere. also, the enemy designs are hot.

crystal project. remember playing fan translations of final fantasy v? remember wandering around in old mmos? crystal project is kind of a... turn-based rpg mmo-influenced platformer. with a job system. you can sequence break the game from the tutorial level and also at basically every other point in the game too, although until you know what to look for it might seem like there's a linear critical path. but there's a lot out there. hint: play on easy mode. the combat gets tough later on and the game absolutely expects you to be finding and exploiting some class combinations.

astlibra: revision. a sidescrolling rpg. it must have been released episodically originally or some of the chapter pacing makes no sense. also it was originally released with a mess of art sourced from all sorts of places; 'revision' is a re-release with a more unified art style. it gets extremely anime all the time. there's a whole obligatory section where you have to ask all the women in a town about what kind of panties they're wearing. it's rough. i enjoyed how chaotic the systems are and how much Stuff there is to pick up and upgrade and unlock. the plot goes some unexpected places though it doesn't quite stick the landing, i still enjoyed what it did. also karon should be the love interest instead.

silicon zeroes. a cpu-building puzzle game. this straddles the line between the tech/code games that are literally just "learn a new language and code in it" and ones that are more structure-themed like, idk, spacechem. connect modules to assemble solutions to problems. it takes too long to get to chapter 3, which is where they start asking you to make entire cpus.

ashen. another souls-like. i just really like the environments in this one. the initial area looks gorgeous and the way it changes through the game is really neat to see happen. the seat of the matriarch is wonderfully awful to traverse and i wish there had been two or three more dungeons like it in the game. you can't level up; you gain stats mostly by progressing sidequests and the name quest. i eventually ran out of things to spend money on AND inventory space to store items. the late-game tuning is a little rough but until then it's great. a hint: there are three weapon types and within that type nearly all the weapons are identical. you get thrown so many weapons that don't matter; don't worry about collecting all of them. see above re: running out of space and things to use money for.

i guess it would be cheating to recommend minecraft regrowth or morrowind but i have also been playing those.

Ok, so I kind of need a bit of help. I've been trying to come up with a name for an oc superhero character, but I've been struggling. The character is female and themed are roses and fairies, she also has an interest in gardening, medicine, and fashion. Her powers are full nature mainpulation (so controling plants, the earth, water, wind, (maybe fire,) talking to animals, controlling the seasons, controlling the climate, and mainpulation of biological processes). She's very powerful but primarily uses her powers for healing and defense do not to being a pacifist and not liking fighting. I've struggled to come up with names that aren't just completely basic like Rose or Thorn.

Do you have any ideas? (Only if you want to share tho)

Ah, the struggle of thinking of hero names. I've felt that.

In my experience, the best you can do is work off the powers, the character's own interests, or factor in the design.

Like, Marinette I like to try and keep to her interests. She likes fashion, so doing hero names related to fashion make sense (pavo + vogue = Pavogue, mao + motif = Maotif). She also likes to garden, so plant related names can work too (Marigold, Chelone, Snapdragon, Tiger Lily).

For names related to powers, you can do something related to nature like, Elementia, or she could name herself after iconic mythical figures tied to nature like Gaia. You mentioned Rose, she could be Briar Rose or Thorny Rose. Simplicity can work well with hero names. The most iconic heroes have simple, straight forward names (Superman, Batman, Ironman, Thor, ect.).

For looks, say she wears a largely green costume, she could be Evergreen.

You can also go a simple route of working off her name. Like, Danny just went by Danny Phantom. Just a slight change to his surname and that's it.

At the core, do the name that sounds good to you. That you think is going to be the best fitting for your character. You can be simple and straightforward, you can be punny; and you got options for what to do name wise. Brainstorm away, and do some research if you're struggling. I've looked up different flowers of a certain color, looked up synonyms of words, words in different languages, ect..

This is how I've come up with my hero names.

Sea Bunny Badnik OC!🫧

She doesn't really have a name yet despite being 1 and a half year old. Anyways she's a water themed badnik (her dewlap, belly, tail, and her water gun are just water filled tanks but I was lazy and didn't add the bubbles, sorry it's not that obvious 😭).

Her water gun possesses many settings. She can shoot harsh streams of water that can severely damage skin or cause fractures, boiling hot water, small ice beams, light flows of water similar to a simple garden hose, and mist. She is (obviously) water proof, and can swim at a swift pace.

Personality wise she's very stern and stoic. She's very no nonsense and takes Robotnik's orders very seriously. Despite mistreatment she looks up to Robotnik and is highly loyal. Due to her sheer power she climbed up the badnik ranks a fair bit, on a similar level to Metal Sonic though not nearly as strong as Metal.

Now I haven't decided what exact time era of Sonic she should be from neither. Either somewhere during the mid 2010s era OR the early 90s era. She's more based off aesthetics such as Frutiger Aero, Futuristic Technology, and Cyberpunk. However she has a jerboa counterpart more based around the fun silly vibes of early 1990s-2000s, old art ref here cuz I haven't drawn her in a bit:

Sorry for my rantings on my oc who I've only doodled out of boredom and art block, I might draw a digital piece with her in a bit to really show off her water themed design. And the jerboa too ofc!

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

The lawn is dead. Long live the lawn. Lately this entrenched symbol of American domestic life — verdant, weed-free and crisply mowed — has come under wider scrutiny as a profligate relic, out of sync with an ecologically conscious era.

For many years, environmentalists have deplored conventional turf grass lawns as biodiversity dead zones that require billions of gallons of water every week in the United States, with outdoor irrigation accounting for a third of household water consumption on average nationwide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. To say nothing of the polluting fertilizers and toxic pesticides and all the mowers belching greenhouse gases to keep those lawns lush and manicured.

“Lawns seem to draw as much irrational hate as they do love these days,” said Paul Robbins, dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.”

He added, “Green lawns, as much as brown ones, are now seen as a moral failing.”

But there is room for compromise. Even the most ardent proponents of sustainable, ecologically mindful landscaping argue that a simplistic “lawns are evil” narrative is unhelpful.

Edwina von Gal, a landscape designer in East Hampton, N.Y., who founded the Perfect Earth Project a decade ago to promote toxin-free, biodiverse gardens, emphasizes that lawns are not inherently negative.

“There’s nothing else like lawn for playing with your kids or your dog or a Frisbee,” she said. “But I always ask people to think about how much lawn they need. How far can you throw a Frisbee?”

Her philosophy: “Think of a lawn as more of a function than a fashion, because the fashion is changing.”

A growing number of Americans are scaling back their grass lawns or doing away with them entirely, especially in drought-affected parts of the West, where some states and municipalities have implemented restrictions on new lawns and on irrigation as well as offering financial incentives to replace existing lawns with low-water landscapes.

“Really you have to look at lawns as reservoirs, given the amount of water it takes to care for them,” said Charlie Ray, founder of the Green Room, a landscape architecture firm in Phoenix. “We are trying to reframe the conversation of what is beauty and what is lush-feeling. When you see these huge, incredibly water-intensive lawns, is that really what high-end looks like?”

Even in the desert, it is possible to create seasonal landscapes that feel lush, using native, “water wise” plant material, he said. And a bit of functional lawn can absolutely be a part of that.

Just how much lawn depends on factors that include local climate and ecology. A general rule of thumb suggested by Ms. von Gal is two-thirds for the birds. “The science shows that if you have roughly 70 percent natives, you’re going to be able to support a healthy bird population, and they’re the key indicator species for environmental health,” she said.

Getting Your Hands Dirty: My kinda Beginner's Guide to Starting Gardening

Hi! I wanted to share some information on gardening. This spring I will be getting my hands dirty and start planting some flowers. I hope I have a green dumb.

Getting Started with Gardening

1. Assess Your Space:

Before diving into gardening, evaluate the available space you have. Determine whether you'll be gardening indoors, outdoors, or both. Consider factors like sunlight exposure, soil quality, and available water sources.

2. Choose Your Plants Wisely:

Select plants that are suitable for your climate and space. Beginners might find it easier to start with low-maintenance plants like herbs, succulents, or tomatoes. Research the specific needs of each plant, including watering frequency and sunlight requirements.

3. Gather Essential Gardening Supplies:

Equip yourself with basic gardening tools such as a trowel, pruning shears, watering can, and gloves. Depending on your gardening goals, you may also need pots, potting soil, fertilizer, and stakes for support.

4. Start Small:

Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to create a large garden right away. Begin with a small plot or a few containers, and gradually expand as you gain confidence and experience. Starting small allows you to learn and adapt without feeling overwhelmed.

5. Learn and Experiment:

Gardening is a continuous learning process. Take advantage of resources like gardening books, online forums, and local gardening clubs to expand your knowledge. Don't be afraid to experiment with different plants, techniques, and designs to discover what works best for you.

5. Facts on How Gardening Can Benefit Your Life

1. Stress Relief:

Gardening has been shown to reduce stress levels and promote relaxation. Spending time in nature, tending to plants, and connecting with the earth can have a calming effect on the mind and body.

2. Physical Exercise:

Engaging in gardening activities such as digging, planting, and weeding provides a moderate form of exercise. It helps improve flexibility, strength, and cardiovascular health, contributing to an active lifestyle.

3. Mental Well-being:

Gardening has therapeutic effects on mental health, including reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. The act of nurturing plants and witnessing their growth can instill a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

4. Fresh Food and Nutrition:

Growing your own fruits, vegetables, and herbs allows you to harvest fresh, nutritious produce right from your garden. It promotes a healthy diet rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, while also reducing reliance on store-bought produce.

5. Environmental Impact:

Gardening encourages environmental stewardship by fostering a deeper connection to nature and promoting sustainable practices. It contributes to biodiversity, supports pollinators, and reduces carbon footprint through carbon sequestration in plants and soil.

In conclusion, gardening offers a multitude of benefits beyond just beautifying your surroundings. Whether you're seeking stress relief, physical exercise, mental well-being, or environmental sustainability, starting a garden can enrich your life in numerous ways. So roll up your sleeves, grab your gardening tools, and get ready to embark on an exciting journey of growth and discovery!