amphibious creature

Oak: the Platonic ideal of a tree. This is the tree of which you've drawn 1000 in the margins of your school notebooks. 10/10.

Willow: graceful, dramatic, and so, so thirsty. Will always have a special place in my heart because my childhood home had one in the yard, and I had a swing under its canopy and could hide there and read. 12/10. Unless it's near your sewer line, then -10000/10 because it will wreck your pipes.

Coconut: iconic. For a temperate clime gal like myself, I see one of these and my shoulders drop two inches. I'm on vacation, and this beaut is keeping me cool. 10/10. 11/10 if I'm sipping coconut water straight from the fruit.

Pine: ever walk on a trail in a pine forest on a blanket of fallen needles? Pretty fucking magical, wasn't it? And the smell? Sign me up. 10/10.

Spruce: best Christmas tree. Look at that thicc caboose! You know you want to put some tinsel on that thang. 10/10.

Palm: it wasn't specified, so I chose to interpret this specifically as date palms, because I love dates. 10/10. Nature's candy.

Apple: ever go picking in the early cool days of autumn, when you're still excited about hoody weather? The smell of the orchard? Walking around with a big basket picking different varieties? Eating donuts and drinking hot cider before you go home? 10/10. 11 if it's an Evercrisp.

Sequoia: I mean. Absolute unit. 13/10.

Baobab: the Sequoia of Madagascar. Just look at this thing. It's a certified Creature(TM) of a tree. 13/10.

Magnolia: Iconique. The belle of the garden. 11/10.

Birch: Haunted. Every single one of these is part fae on its mother's side. I'm not convinced they can't follow you through the woods as you hike. 11/10.

The Green Place was around them all along, and it takes this long, cyclical journey to understand that, both for them and for the audience. The circular narrative structure is an absolute work of genius, and the fact that the entire plot can be boiled down to “they leave and come back” is an indication of how well this works as an action movie - that the plot is simple enough so everyone can understand what’s going on while explosions are going off and cars are racing past at 100mph - yet it’s still incredibly rich and wonderfully complex too.

Hannibal (2013-2015)

Hannibal (2013-2015)

I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.

The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.

Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.

A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:

Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.

Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.

Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns

Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.

I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.

It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut: