To Everything, Turn Turn Turn

Me, already vibrating from the dopamine and adrenaline: Let's talk about espaliers

okay, so espaliers are beyond sexy, they are so unbelievably productive

The basics are just... pruning growing trees so they are more 2 dimensional, usually placed against walls. It takes a few years to form/ raise, but they are much easier to maintain than free growing trees in the long run.

(source)

Not only is it more accessible, easier to harvest fruit, but the design has a double purpose; the walls hold and release heat that can keep warm-weathered plants alive during Northen winters!

There are people who use this method to grow avocado, fig, etc trees outdoors without electricity in -20C weather.

🎭🪭💜🎠

Film poster depicting a quiet moment from Zatoichi's Revenge (1965), the tenth entry in the 26-film series.

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

The passage of the seasons - Summer defeating Spring

okay so I'm not complaining about the new WH costumes. I have no interest but I'm GLAD they're so insane- it means nobody could mistake them for real historical clothing, which is the main reason I take issue with historical implausibility in movie costumes

but also like

again with the trend of...I don't know, assuming that historical movie costumes with any visual creativity at all are Boldly Inaccurate (Positive)? like people have been saying about Crimson Peak?

Frankenstein is DEEPLY rooted in the realities of 1850s clothing. the hair, the outfit components, the silhouettes, the hats- it works because it respects the era. it doesn't see historical clothing as a problem to be fixed through modernization. its liberties are liberties I can see someone taking in the era. the biggest diversions from history I saw were Elizabeth's sheer-sleeved day dress and the fact that her day bodices were back-lacing. also the women all wearing veils at the wedding (her hair was down because she was getting ready, so that didn't bother me). her nightgown was pure fantasy, of course, but it's a very intimate garment- she could have commissioned it specially. and I'm willing to give the movie that grace because everything ELSE was so grounded!

same with Crimson Peak. "oh it's not accurate!!!" except it is though? have you ever seen Pingat's opera capes from the 1890s? half the garments were based on museum pieces or paintings anyway! Lucille's red dress had a spine lacing element ripped right from a museum dress of the same era! none of those outfits would be at all out of place in collections storage in any of the museums where I've worked!

this is REAL. this is from the 1890s. you can be crazy and artistic and weird and glorious and still respect the era!