6:48pm August 2, 2015

things about Hufflepuffs #468

Hufflepuffs with animal allergies are quite likely to have a “pet” plant.

This Hufflepuff with a severe cat allergy (as determined any time in my life I’ve ever been tested, as well as by the amount of Benadryl I go through)… still has a cat. And I suspect that may actually be a weirdly Hufflepuff thing as well.

Although I found out that actually unless your allergy is so severe as to be life-threatening, it can be more beneficial to keep the cat around and treat the aI still couldn’t breathe through my nose for the first several months of living around dogs. And I lived around cats all my life, but not indoor cats until I grew up. We found out I was allergic because when we brought the cats indoors, I’d fall asleep, so my mom had me tested. I was furious at the doctor because I loved cats so much and because I was a kid and didn’t know that the doctor not telling me wouldn’t have made it go away.

I had actual reason to be furious at an allergist as an adult who pretty much refused to treat me unless I “got rid of” my pets – and it turned out that the symptoms I had gone to see him for, weren’t even the result of allergies to begin with, but of a really bad lung infection that was mistaken for an asthma exacerbation that was being blamed on my allergies because what else was there to blame? But at any rate, I did some research and the allergist’s recommendation to “get rid of” the cat apparently is not even considered best practice for people with allergies, even severe allergies, as long as they’re not life-threateningly severe allergies.

Which mine aren’t and never have been – both skin and blood tests have consistently shown an allergic response to cat saliva that’s technically well into the severe range, but my actual physiological response to that isn’t to keel over and die or stop breathing, so I’m not in the category of people where “getting rid of” a cat would even make sense. My allergies have actually been improved somewhat by living with a cat, which is one reason it’s not considered good to just avoid the animal you’re allergic to (unless it’s some kind of obscure animal you’re never going to see) – it just means your response will be more severe when you do come into contact with that animal.

So that (and the fact that I love Fey and would probably not mind living with her even if it somehow did shorten my lifespan somewhat, which there’s no evidence that it does at all even a little, mind you) is why I’m a Hufflepuff with a severe cat allergy who lives with a cat. And even sits here typing this with this 16-year-old cat sitting on my chest with her fur right in my face, blocking the fan, on a hot day. She’s lived with me ever since I moved out on my own for the first time, and she’s going to go on living with me until one or both of us dies. She’s one of the closest friends I have in the entire world, and she knows things about me that nobody else knows. I sometimes have a sneaking suspicion, however, that she thinks of me as sort of like a big, none-too-bright kitten who’s never had the decency to move out in her old age, and doesn’t know enough to come in out of the rain and therefore has to be looked after all the time. People always act like the cat is the “baby” in the relationship but I’m pretty sure the reverse is how Fey actually sees it (and I’m not arguing too hard, I call her Grandma Fey a lot of the time).

But I love the idea of pet plants. Although I have plant allergies too, so that’s not necessarily going to work out any better. I guess it depends on the plant – or the animal – and the person.

via root

139 notes

1:04am July 17, 2015

Redwoods

withasmoothroundstone:

A tiny seed of redwood sorrel, slumbering in its soil nest
Stones in its lowest spots say to grow upward
Silent hope for something sorrel can’t explain
Stirrings that see it slip from the soil, seeking sun
Sun on the leaves sweet sugar within
Sorrel is social, surrounded by sorrel-friends
Redwood sorrel seeks solely to live in the light
Supported by soil, the sun in the sky shining down

[Writing prompt - redwoods - provided by binghsien.]

via root

8 notes

1:03am July 17, 2015

flloras:

redwood sorrel = my favorite !!

via root

15 notes

1:01am July 17, 2015

panthaleia:

Oxalis oregana (redwood sorrel)

via root

67 notes

1:01am July 17, 2015

steepravine:

Magical Ten Minutes In Redwood Forest Along Highway 128

My wife and I had an unbelievable 35 hours in mendocino. Our first stop…just a random pullout in the redwoods filled with majestic trees, ferns, mushrooms and creatures! It only got better from there…

(Mendocino, California - 11/2014)

via root

4,555 notes

12:59am July 17, 2015

rivermusic:

After the Rain by Emyan

via root

2,100 notes

10:18am June 18, 2015

By JP Smith (Author) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[Image description: Closeup of a fern with very large sori, which look like big round reddish clumps on the underside of the leaves.]

From Wikipedia:

A sorus (pl. sori) is a cluster of sporangia (structures producing and containing spores) in ferns and fungi. This New Latin word is from Ancient Greek σωρός (sōrós ‘stack, pile, heap’).
In fungi and lichens, the sorus is surrounded by an external layer. In some red algae it may take the form of a depression into the thallus.
In ferns, these form a yellowish or brownish mass on the edge or underside of a fertile frond. In some species, they are protected during development by a scale or film of tissue called the indusium, which forms an umbrella-like cover.
Sori occur on the sporophyte generation, the sporangia within producing haploid meiospores. As the sporongia mature, the indusium shrivels so that spore release is unimpeded. The sporangia then burst and release the spores.
The shape, arrangement, and location of the sori are often valuable clues in the identification of fern taxa. Sori may be circular or linear. They may be arranged in rows, either parallel or oblique to the costa, or randomly. Their location may be marginal or set away from the margin on the frond lamina. The presence or absence of indusium is also used to identify fern taxa.

I’ve seen a lot of these, I just never knew what they were or what they were called. The large ones are really impressive. They can grow in all kinds of configurations and sizes, though, even just talking about ferns alone.

14 notes

6:57pm May 8, 2015

Death of Squash (with apologies to Terry Pratchett)

death’s in our garden
picking out which squash will live
and which squash will die

10 notes

6:52pm May 8, 2015

Spring

plants bud and blossom
rain and mud replacing snow
as the sun comes out

dad’s old red backpack
hangs expectant on doorknob
awaiting a hike

15 notes

1:24am November 2, 2014

Redwoods

A tiny seed of redwood sorrel, slumbering in its soil nest
Stones in its lowest spots say to grow upward
Silent hope for something sorrel can’t explain
Stirrings that see it slip from the soil, seeking sun
Sun on the leaves sweet sugar within
Sorrel is social, surrounded by sorrel-friends
Redwood sorrel seeks solely to live in the light
Supported by soil, the sun in the sky shining down

[Writing prompt - redwoods - provided by binghsien.]

8 notes

1:16am October 28, 2014

Awe

Awe is where wonder and fear collide
And we stare out to the stars meeting the sea
And we wonder is there a place in this world for me

Awe is where my heart turns into a stone
A living, pulsating stone of many colors
That move out of the way to make room for each other

Awe is where the stones meet the ocean
In caves that took millions of years to erode
And my body tells me this is your second home

Water and earth can mean so many things
The soil of the redwood rainforests
The stone caves carved by water seeking the sea
The river rocks with holes all through them
The monsoon season in the desert rocks
The rivers carving canyons
The tiny creeks wetting tiny amounts of soil
The springs of water flowing out from in between the rocks
Waterfalls crashing down with caves behind them

And all of these things are sacred to me
And all of these things are part of me
But the one that means the most
Will always be the soil in the redwoods

Awe is where wonder and fear collide
I am where earth and water unite
I am in awe of the collision
I am in awe of you and of me
We are made of the stuff of the earth
We are made of the stuff of the water
I have only to look at you
To see a metallic daughter
With the earth kept tight inside
Like a vessel full to bursting
And I have only to look at myself
To see moistened soil from the forest floor
And I could see even more
The plants that grow, wither, and die
And decay to become part of me
The wind with a sigh brings down
Dead redwood needles and cones

And it doesn’t matter where you go
Or who you are
You have only to look at the ground
Below your feet
Or up at the stars
The clouds roll overhead
A thunderclap hits a little too close
And that beauty and awe is back
But you’d better run home

[Originally posted to my main poetry blog, which has a comments section.]

12 notes

9:09pm September 24, 2014

Visiting Your Grave

I may never see your grave in person
But I will be there every day
That’s a promise I can keep
Every night before I sleep
As I travel to the place where you’ll lay

I will be the rain that falls on your grave
I will be the wind in the trees in the graveyard
I will be the soil that grows the plants
I will be the plants that grow from you
I will be the sky that shelters the earth
I will be the earth lying under the sky
I will be the sun shining down on the trees
I will be the trees growing over the graves
I will be the needles and leaves that fall from the trees
And carpet the ground where you lay

So don’t fear that I will never visit
I will be with you every day
I’ll be the rain and the wind
And the sun and the stars
And the earth made into clay
I will see you from above
I will see you from below
I will see you from without
I will see you from within
And if you want my flowers
Just look for the weeds
Growing at the base of your grave

The graveyard in the woods.

[Also posted at my main poetry blog. The post on the other blog has pictures of the graveyard in question, where my dad has already picked out his grave site and his plain pine coffin. This is not the poem I’ve been working on writing, it just came out rather quickly on its own, almost too fast to write down.]

19 notes

2:15am September 22, 2014

libutron:

Living Stones - Conophytum ricardianum

Conophytum ricardianum (Caryophyllales - Aizoaceae) is a species of succulent native to Namibia, commonly referred to as Living Stones (or Pebbles) because of its rounded shape. It grows in cliff-faces in rock crevices forming large clumps.

Reference: [1]

Photo credit: ©Mike Keeling | Locality: cultivated (2008)