Things this article has taught me:

This same order of adjectives more or less applies to languages around the world.  “It’s possible that these elements of universal grammar clarify our thought in some way,” says Barbara Partee, a professor emeritus of linguistics and philosophy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Yet when the human race tacitly decided that shape words go before color words go before origin words, it left no record of its rationale.

One theory is that the more specific term always falls closer to the noun. But that doesn’t explain everything in adjective order.

Another theory is that as you get closer to the noun, you encounter adjectives that denote more innate properties. In general, nouns pick out the type of thing we’re talking about, and adjectives describe it,” Partee told me. She observes that the modifiers most likely to sit right next to nouns are the ones most inclined to serve as nouns in different contexts: Rubber duck. Stone wall.

Rules are made to be broken. Switching up the order of adjectives allows you to redistribute emphasis. (If you wish to buy the black small purse, not the gray one, for instance, you can communicate your priorities by placing color before size).  Scrambling the order of adjectives also helps authors achieve a sense of spontaneity, of improvising as they go. Wolfe discovers such a rhythm, a feeling-his-way quality, when he discusses his childhood recollection of “brown tired autumn earth” and a “flat moist plug of apple tobacco.”

Brain scans have discovered that your brain has to work harder to read adjectives in the “wrong” order.

Trust is built slowly over time. It's rarely given immediately and instead is revealed in the smallest vulnerabilities, the quietest choices, the moments where a character lets their guard down without realising it.

I've outlined some ways you can prove to your reader the trust your characters build together.

Sharing secrets they don’t tell anyone else.

Letting someone see their vulnerable side: emotional, disheveled, or undone.

Falling asleep around them without worry.

Admitting confusion instead of pretending to know everything.

Asking for help, especially when they never do.

Walking beside them instead of behind or ahead.

Allowing silence without trying to fill it.

Letting them read unfinished drafts, art, or work-in-progress ideas.

Showing up at their door in a moment of panic.

Not hiding their flaws or insecurities.

Giving them the spare key without overthinking it.

Delegating an important task without hesitation.

Relaxing their shoulders when that person arrives.

Sharing food straight from the same plate or drink.

Telling the truth, even when it’s messy or uncomfortable.

Revealing old scars: physical or emotional.

Accepting advice they’d reject from anyone else.

Allowing touch without stiffening.

Letting that character enter their space.

Looking at them like they’re a place, not a person. A safe place.

I eagerly await my full iNaturalist year in review once I finish uploading all of December's photos, but I am finished with all of last year's Hymenoptera, so I've made myself a mini review just for them! Without further ado...

In comparison, in 2024 I had 548 observations of 80 species. It is a shame how few sawflies I saw, I'll have to try and seek some out next year

(Added extra labels since it's not interactive for you guys) Sooo many gall wasps this year! I actually only had one gall wasp observation before this year which is criminal, I have no clue how I didn't notice them earlier. I am the type to photograph and upload pretty much every individual of even common species I see so I end up with one william honeybees and bumblebees despite my waspy affinities

Nothing too suprising here. When it's warm the bugs are active and so am I, with the dip in May probably being because of exam season or something. Once it started getting colder there were galls everywhere so it didn't immediately dip

Along with some of my favourite observations of each from this year. We had a handful of cellophane bees nesting in our garden and they had a mating swarm going there for days. Also my first honeybee drone!

For anyone unfamiliar, lifer means a new taxon you haven't seen before. Presuming the tentative ones are correct, that would bring me up to 33 hymenoptera families overall

And now an unordered dump of some more observations from this year I haven't been able to include thus far

A cute woolly alder sawfly (Eriocampa ovata) and a bit of hym on hym violence with a sawfly larva being carried off by an ant (Formica rufa complex)

The first chalcid I was ever able to use my macro lens on and my first wasp galls of the year (ridiculously red compared to all the later ones too) (Cynips divisa)

A nomad bee (Nomada) emerging from, presumably, a mining bee nest (nomad bees parasitise mining bees) which I had noticed and decided to watch for a bit in case anything happened although I hadn't expected much. And also a very scruffy looking Clark's mining bee (Andrena clarkella) that let me get shockingly close to it

A torymid that had just finished parasitising a silk button gall and an ichneumonid larva parasitising a cucumber spider

An ichneumonid visitor to the picnic I had on my birthday, I love her subtle red patterns, and a crabronid I have to include because they're such deeply ridiculous looking animals. They weren't kidding that head can square

Andricus grossulariae and Andricus glandulae galls

My first (and so far only) beewolf (Philanthus triangulum), which are one of my favourite wasps to talk about, they have some really wacky adaptations, and Rhyssella approximator

Sycophila snooping around the oak galls, probably looking for one to parasitise, and a sleepy little nomad bee I spent a while photographing before it started properly waking up

One of my favourite photos ever hands down. I caught this little gall wasp cleaning itself and for a moment it looked like it was standing upright on two legs. Behold a man! And a gorgeous potter wasp (Delta unguiculatum)

A ladybird parasitoid wasp cocoon (Dinocampus coccinellae) and its brainwashed ladybird guard (Harmonia axyridis). Last but certainly not least, two more from this same patch of fennel that was overrun by so many species of wasps, bees and flies – Sphex pruinosus and an emerald cuckoo wasp (Stilbum cyanurum) I just barely caught, which is my profile picture here

Gets into: A Fight ⚜ ...Another Fight ⚜ ...Yet Another Fight

Hates Someone ⚜ Kisses Someone ⚜ Falls in Love

Calls Someone they Love ⚜ Dies / Cheats Death ⚜ Drowns

is...

A Ballerina ⚜ A Child ⚜ Interacting with a Child ⚜ A Cheerleader

A Cowboy ⚜ A Genius ⚜ A Lawyer ⚜ A Pirate ⚜ A Spy

A Wheelchair User ⚜ A Zombie ⚜ Beautiful ⚜ Dangerous ⚜ Drunk

Funny ⚜ In a Coma ⚜ In a Secret Society ⚜ Injured ⚜ Shy

needs...

A Magical Item ⚜ An Aphrodisiac ⚜ A Fictional Poison

A Coping Strategy ⚜ A Drink ⚜ A Medicinal Herb ⚜ A Mentor

Money ⚜ A Persuasion Tactic ⚜ A Quirk ⚜ To be Killed Off

To Become Likable ⚜ To Clean a Wound ⚜ To Self-Reflect

To Find the Right Word, but Can't ⚜ To Say No ⚜ To Swear

loves...

Astronomy ⚜ Baking ⚜ Cooking ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Food ⚜ Oils

Dancing ⚜ Fashion ⚜ Gems ⚜ Herbal Remedies ⚜ Honey

Mushrooms ⚜ Mythology ⚜ Numbers ⚜ Perfumes

Roses ⚜ Sweets ⚜ To Argue ⚜ To Insult ⚜ To Kiss

To Make False Claims ⚜ Wine ⚜ Wine-Tasting ⚜ Yoga

has/experiences...

Allergies ⚜ Amnesia ⚜ Bereavement ⚜ Bites & Stings

Bruises ⚜ Caffeine ⚜ CO Poisoning ⚜ Color Blindness

Facial Hair ⚜ Fainting ⚜ Fevers ⚜ Food Allergies

Food Poisoning ⚜ Fractures ⚜ Frostbite ⚜ Hypothermia

Injuries ⚜ Jet Lag ⚜ Kidnapping ⚜ Manipulation ⚜ Mutism

Pain ⚜ Paranoia ⚜ Poisoning ⚜ More Pain & Violence

Scars ⚜ Trauma ⚜ Viruses ⚜ Wounds

[these are just quick references. more research may be needed to write your story...]

You literally have to collect rare stones from remote locations, put them into specific formations to work. All of this gets written down in symbols which don't make sense to the uninformed. It gets powered by energy which can not be seen in most cases.

A person grieving for their recently deceased lover reads the iliad and they watch as Achilles rages and rages and god how righteous anger fueld by love is so devastating that it’s ramifications still affect the world several thousand years later.

We might one day settle down and read the epic of gilgamesh and watch as a king has to accept the death of the person he loved the most. One of the very first stories ever written and it was about coping with death, and how to grieve.

The adorable (but sadly critically endangered) wild European hamster

"È non è cosa più necessaria a parere d’avere, che quest’ultima qualità; perchè gli uomini in universale giudicano più agli occhi che alle mani, perchè tocca a vedere a ciascuno, a sentire a’ pochi"

Il Principe, capitolo XVII, Macchiavelli.