This ‘n’ that

I’ve been bumping into miscellaneous facts and words that I want to share.

First
Tafoni
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafoni

I’ve seen this geologic feature. In fact, the exposed stone at the top of my ridgetop has what we called fairy condos.

Chinampa

Raised bed gardens used by the pre-Aztecs as far back as the 1200s. They scooped up the rich River sediments and layered them with other organic matter and corralled them with pilings. These were sited in or near the water source.

https://www.thoughtco.com/chinampa-floating-gardens-170337

>1 2wonderY: Did you mean to post an image? If so, it's broken.

I know. I have a hard time with images using my phone. I’ll fix it later when I get to my laptop. But it’s the Wikipedia photo. Somewhere I posted a picture of my own tafoni and perhaps I’ll find it too.

>1 2wonderY: I've seen honeycomb weathering, a form of tafoni, most often in natural stone sea walls. It reminds me of morel mushrooms, which are also surreal.

Here is my example of tafoni:



giving up on importing the image at >1 2wonderY:

>6 2wonderY: That's lovely! I like learning the names of things so I don't have to always call it "you know those hollow pockmark thingies in rock."

Just found this thread, great idea and I hope to follow along and learn (and very likely promptly forget) new terms and things.

Akrasia - an Ancient Greek word describes the lack of will to do something that you know is good for you.

I’m familiar with this phenomenon, eh.

>9 2wonderY: Oh shit there's a word for that?

It me.

Name it to slay it. My neighbor showed me the exercises I need to practice to balance pelvis and back muscles so that my back can heal. Number of times I’ve done them this week = 0.

Tsundoku - a Japanese word. Refers to buying/acquiring books without reading them; letting books pile up.

**looking away innocently**

>12 2wonderY: I just said yesterday that despite having a HUGE TBR pile, I felt like I didn't have anything to read... it's all in the mood, I think. What do I feel like reading today...

“When we walk like we are rushing, we print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the earth…Be aware of the contact between your feet and the earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

Uitwaaien - a Dutch word for walking in the wind; meant to refresh and relieve tension.

https://dutchreview.com/culture/uitwaaien-is-the-dutch-phenomenon-you-never-knew...

Not in the winter for me, thanks!

> 14 - How beautiful. It reminds me of a tip I once got that if you are dusting your house you should think you are caressing your house.

>15 2wonderY: - "Uitwaaien" is merely "getting a breath of fresh air while taking a brisk walk". Nothing special imo, but I live in Belgium (Flemish part) so I'm used to doing it. It never crossed my mind that other people might think of this as a "phenomenon" :-).

So, if you cut down a 140 year old tree, what do you replace it with?

Activists will tell you :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0ctJG1B97M

From a 2016 garden article in the NYT, Anna Wintour’s 40 acre garden done by Miranda Brooks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr9v9q-1L9Y

Fedor Grigorev, bottle pianist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0pznEnwKZ4

Daisugi: This technique results in a harvest of straight logs without having to cut down the entire tree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisugi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcl4I5EF-do

So that you don’t have to actually contact the forest when you do forest meditation:

https://walden.us/products/forest-meditation-cushion-set

If you only want the cushion, it’s a mere $145.

Allemansrätten/allemannsretten - Every man’s right or the freedom to roam on public and private lands. Mostly a Northern European practice so ancient it’s just now being codified in law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam

>22 2wonderY: Yes. We were taught about this in the mountaineering class we took back in the seventies. (Austria) It is currently endangered because of idiots who take their dogs with them off the line and disturb cattle. The cattle then try to defend themselves from the next group going through. There have been some bad incidents.

petrichor - the earthy scent as rain hits dry soil. Identified as an organic compound called geosmin, which is produced by microbes, including the bacteria genus Streptomyces.

https://www.sciencealert.com/that-rain-smell-turns-out-we-re-smelling-the-circle...

Garden sign I love:

Trespassers will be composted

A new frog species has been identified in Costa Rica. Kermit’s long lost cousins:

https://i.cbc.ca/1.3042180.1429629088!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivat...

Feeding the Worms
by Danusha Laméris

Ever since I found out that earth worms have taste buds
all over the delicate pink strings of their bodies,
I pause dropping apple peels into the compost bin, imagine
the dark, writhing ecstasy, the sweetness of apples
permeating their pores. I offer beets and parsley,
avocado, and melon, the feathery tops of carrots.

I’d always thought theirs a menial life, eyeless and hidden,
almost vulgar—though now, it seems, they bear a pleasure
so sublime, so decadent, I want to contribute however I can,
forgetting, a moment, my place on the menu.

Oh, darn! We missed World Naked Gardening Day. (First Saturday in May).

I know I couldn’t wouldn’t do it, as I do real gardening tasks. Appears most of the young males just use it to visually boast and suggest with watering cans that are merely props.
The best image I found was this one:

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ycilsWD7xM4/Vyety9NkkPI/AAAAAAAAXg8/tdmcJEKKacU_9flWX...

Happy World Bee Day!
I hope you see bees today.

World Bee Day seems to have been on Thursday. I am fairly sure I saw some bees then. Won't be a lot of bee activity today in the rain.

Close enough. The only bees in my yard in town are carpenter bees. Going out to the ridgetop today and hope to see many others.

Psithurism - the sound of wind in the trees.

Now that the poppy is in full bloom, we can see the cloud of bees around it from inside. (Even without my glasses on.) We spent some time watching close up. One blossom had a beetle in it. Another had several bees in it, from a tiny one through a few species of 'normal' size ones up to a small bumble bee. All crawling around in the same poppy blossom at the same time.

Don’t know whether this will copy correctly.
Smile of the day:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterEveryLoop/comments/nqz38e/sit_on_the_egg_dummy_cr...

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
- Henry David Thoreau

From a 2012 report:

Young gorillas were seen dismantling poachers’ traps. It was done in a planned, coordinated way. The lookout even warned approaching humans to stop.

https://www.sciencealert.com/young-gorillas-have-learnt-to-dismantle-poachers-tr...

That's a cool story.

Rome’s starlings. Hadn’t thought about all the bird poop they produce. Wasn’t guano a valuable resource at one time?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVko9jyAkQg

Box Wars!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcEQ5N0qGeM

See the cool head bump at the end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w2_D5CjS6c

Cute.

William Phelps Eno is the father of traffic safety. He began devising simple to explain and enforce regulations before motor cars were common. Horse drawn vehicles caused all kinds of problems in cities. As a child, he and his mother were caught in such a traffic jam. Though he never learned to drive, France gave him an honorary drivers license.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phelps_Eno

Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew
Buddhist temple made from beer bottles

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/this-thai-temple-built-using-millions-...

Chinese village built on a modern bridge. Sure would like to know more about the development history of how and why it was built like this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/mykuzy/a_chinese_communit...

The first comment gives a clue:

“Its just a tourist attraction. Its Chongqing...place has 14000 bridges...the houses are real...but its more an art piece. Half the bridge has houses that are "western" (those run down odd color jobs), half chinese style (modern, sleek, stylish). But its mostly shops, not proper homes....but I'm sure people live in the shops just the same.“

Perennial crops

Like fruit crops, other foods can be grown as perennials that don’t need yearly soil disturbances.

https://landinstitute.org/our-work/perennial-crops/

I have sorrel, rhubarb, and horseradish in a perennial bed. Actually, I'm trying to get rid of the horseradish.

>47 2wonderY: ha! I thought it was when you have flats of plants to put in the ground but are too busy to do it!

Thread found and starred.

To avoid strain on your eyes, follow the 20-20-20 rule. After 20 minutes of work, look at something 20 feet away, then spend 20 years in the forest.

>49 2wonderY: ha!

Has anyone tried Weed Tea? No, not pot. Dandelions! Harvest the nutrients pulled out of the ground by their taproots. For fertilizer.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/making-fertilize...

I’m gonna try this. Only I will remove the flowers and buds first.

Ray Archuleta on No-till benefits to soils

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_bm&q=Ray+Arch...

https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory/iris-national-park-battlefield-mark-raze...

In a Louisiana national park, plants have been found where a black community was demolished to create the park.

The biggest joke on mankind is that computers have started asking humans to prove that they aren’t robots.

>54 2wonderY: ha! I saw that somewhere else, very recently. Love it.

Undisturbed, a dandelion plant can live up to 13 years.
Huh.

And make how many seeds?

“Take your age, round to the nearest decade, and divide by 10. That’s the number of pillows you need to support your body for a decent night’s sleep.”

I think there are variables such as the quality of the pillows. I need 4, sometimes 5. But that last one is because my bed frame tends to swallow a pillow along the top of the mattress.

>58 2wonderY: You know, I find I sleep better sitting up on the sofa (with my legs on a chaise) than I do lying down in bed...

>59 Maddz: I sleep very well in my recliner, usually when either my husband or I think we've got some illness and don't want to share it.

>58 2wonderY: 70 divided by 10 = 7 pillows. 7 PILLOWS! Where would I put my husband!?!

>61 perennialreader: You may subtract one pillow if you spoon. You may subtract another if you sling a leg overtop of said husband.

If I wake up before my husband, I often sneak a pillow where I was for him to put his arm over. He says he doesn't notice the difference and now I wonder just how "fluffly" I am... ;)

>61 perennialreader: time to get a California King bed?

Some Saturday music for you

https://www.google.com/search?q=bolero+on+one+cello&client=safari&channe...

>65 2wonderY: will check that out after my dad watches Jeopardy.

We like watching Song of the Mountains:

https://www.songofthemountains.org/videos

Scratching my head on this advice for growing tomatoes:

“ Netting is also a great way to protect your plants from birds, bugs, and beetles and it attracts beneficial insects like bees, wasps, It also keeps pollinators and bug eaters out.”

>67 2wonderY: who said that?

I didn’t save the link. Because with that amount of confused advice, it wasn’t worth looking at again.

Whoops! Missed celebrating

World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20. On this day Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born in 1734.

I did notice yesterday that my bee hotel is about half full. What I don’t know is if the holes get re-used in the next years, or if I should construct a new hotel next year.
I think I’ll go have some tea with honey. Thank the bees!

Mulch glue?

I saw it on Instagram and had to google it.

After a page of advertisements for the products under various names, I found this comments site:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1892828/are-you-gonna-hairspray-your-mulch

Polyvinyl acetate is the main ingredient.
Decadence and stupidity abound.

>71 2wonderY: what the...?

I saw an ad for “humate” added to gardens. Googling it, I found all sorts of products for sale, but little in the way of knowledge. It sounds healthy, right, something related to humus and humin.

One note from an ag college professor explains it though:

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2...

So it may just be refined coal slurry, and not particularly useful to plants.

Honeybee venom and breast cancer treatment

For the layperson:
https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2020/09/07/Honeybee-venom-kills-aggre...

The original study:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-020-00129-0

And a follow-up study:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35335887/

Dutch scientists left a hamster wheel outside. Then, all the animals started playing with it

https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/dutch-scientists-left-a-hamst...

The Rehbinder Effect

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcn0xzDr9D0

Gotta try this. I’ve been using masonry bits.

>76 2wonderY: wow! Fascinating.

Do male kangaroos have pouches?

https://luckykangaroos.com/en/do-male-kangaroos-have-pouches/

Wow! I’m gonna try vermicomposting. This looks super easy and takes care of kitchen scraps handily. And the cages are $1.25 at Dollar Tree.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0t1bb3LW-C/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

>79 2wonderY: Did she put cigarette butter in first?!

>80 MrsLee: Huh? Did you not have the sound on? Shredded cardboard is what she said.

>81 2wonderY: LOL, I did not have the sound on.

What is cigarette butter??!!!

>79 2wonderY: I've recently seen people do this with 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in the sides.

Nice tree picture!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1CiVtmJodW/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Trees in film. Enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1Kew6QRbkU/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

>86 2wonderY: Ah, the memories.

Stumpery. I have name for it now. I do pick up stumps with roots up and incorporate them in my garden beds. I have a hollow log section as well, and I just picked up some lovely sections of bark.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3Q3yCjuVgc/?igsh=M21zOHYyZHpyaXR2

Seen on the marquee of a Hampton Inn:

“Imaginary friends stay for free”

Unless they cause damage to the room, then whoever signed the agreement at checkin pays the damages. As a former hotel manager, I can tell you that scenario is not as far fetched as you would think. :D

A post collecting earthquake damage photos from NYC:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5Zn37BJUYn/?igsh=emhxenZpenFmc3By

>91 2wonderY: LOL, I was going to say, 4.8 damages? In California those quakes aren't worth a mention. Though we do mention them. ;)