This Tiktok Specifically Has Destroyed My Sense Of Humor Because Now I Wake Up Everyday And Think To

Few people realise that England has fragments of a globally rare habitat: temperate rainforest. […] One of their defining characteristics is the presence of epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants, often in such damp and rainy places. […]

You may have heard of England’s most famous fragment of temperate rainforest: Wistman’s Wood, in the middle of Dartmoor. With its gnarled and stunted oaks, its remote location marooned within a sheep-nibbled moorscape, and attendant tales of spectral hounds that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, it has an outsize reputation for somewhere so tiny in size: eight acres – about four football pitches.

Temperate rainforests, however, once covered a much larger swathe of England, and even larger parts of Wales and Scotland. A map produced by the academic Christopher Ellis in 2016 identified the “bioclimatic zone” suitable for temperate rainforest in Britain – that is, the areas where it’s warm and damp enough for such a habitat to thrive. This zone covers about 1.5m acres of England – around 5% of the country.

For comparison, the entire woodland cover of England today is just 10%, and much of that is conifer plantations.

We have, in other words, lost a lot of our rainforests. […]

Many of England’s rainforests were lost long ago, to the axes of Bronze Age farmers and medieval tin miners. Others were lost more recently to […] profoundly misguided forestry policies, which led to the felling of ancient, shrunken oaks in favour of fast-growing Sitka spruce. And in many places where rainforests would naturally flourish, overgrazing by sheep – whose sharp teeth hungrily eat up every sapling – has prevented their return. […]

It wasn’t just Wistman’s Wood: rainforests cling on, too, along the whole valley of the Dart river ([…] dart is Brythonic Celtic for “oak”), the Bovey and Teign rivers, and far beyond.

Some of this is simply due to the lie of the land. At Holne Chase, a rocky outcrop on the Dart […], the scree-strewn cliffs and piles of boulders are too steep even for sheep. Oak, birch and holly flourish instead, sprouting from nooks and crevices between the rocks, carpeted in verdant mosses and that staple of temperate rainforest, the string-of-sausages lichen. […]

At Lustleigh Cleave, a steep-sided common on the river Bovey that was barren pasture on Ordnance Survey maps a century ago, several hundred acres of rainforest has miraculously regenerated. A painting of the summit of Lustleigh Cleave dated 1820 shows it to be bare rocks, a shepherd grazing his flock at its base.

Mapping what survives is only the first part of this project. The next phase is to attempt to restore our lost rainforests to something approaching their former glory. That process is already under way in Scotland and Wales, where charities and alliances have formed to protect and rejuvenate their diminished rainforest habitats. (England, as ever, seems to be lagging behind.) […] [T]he next time you go for a walk in the woods and spot ferns growing from branches, lichen sprouting like coral and tree trunks bubbling with moss, you may well be walking through one of this country’s forgotten rainforests.

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Headline, images, captions, and text published by: Guy Shrubsole. “Life finds a way: in search of England’s lost, forgotten rainforests.” The Guardian. 29 April 2021.

French senator Claude Malhuret sums up the world made by the current American administration, 5 March 2025

Noticed something a little funky in the world around you and want to figure out what's up? Especially if there might be something you ought to be doing about it? Not sure what information sources to trust these days? If you're in the US, federal agencies like NOAA, USGS, EPA and more collect massive amounts of scientific data every day, much of which is publicly available online - if you know where to look.

A PDF version with clickable links is available for free on my itchio page (quakeandquiver); I'll add a direct link in a reblog.

It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Just in case anyone tries to deploy his words to condemn Ferguson.

(via ninjaruski)

justaholmesboy did this magnificent Irish Elk fawnlock and I couldn’t resist drawing fanart for it. COOL AUs. HORNS. PRETTY MARKINGS. CENTAURS.

Ten Fics!

I am finally doing this! :) :) Unfortunately, I can’t find the original post but I was tagged by caitlinispiningforjohnlock​ and cloisteredself​. Here are ten fics that I love to death and that will always stick with me:

The Second Law of Thermodynamics by entanglednow- I wasn’t going to start reading johnlock. And then I read this fic.

The Violet Hour by breathedout- Hands down, one of my favorite fics of all time. 1920s historical AU where Sherlock and John get together while solving a case in the midst of the Bloomsbury crew. The writing is absolutely exquisite and John and Sherlock are unmistakably themselves in the fascinating backdrop of post-WWI England. It’s perfect in every way.

Ein Zimmer Mit Bad by breathedout- I think this fic actually contains my favorite sex scene in all of literature. John and Sherlock have angry, possessive, jealousy-induced sex in a giant copper bathtub in Berlin. Oh my god, it is everything.

What to do When Your Flatmate is Homicidal by hyacinthsky_747- This fic is so funny, and so touching and poetic, and just a delight from beginning to end.

Cooperative Principle by bendingsignpost- This fic ripped my heart out and threw it on the floor and trampled all over it with hob-nailed boots. And I loved every minute of it.

Yet by aderyn- Post-Reichenbach fic full of folklore, poetry, and loveliness. Every word is perfect.

Art and Nature by PoppyAlexander- Gorgeous, gorgeous historical AU where Sherlock is the butler and John is the gardener in a manor house in the 1920s. Sherlock is cold and remote and impeccable until John Watson comes to the house and slowly draws him out. When they are alone together, the way Sherlock comes apart just for John… Oh, it is to die for.

Landscape With The Fall of Icarus by CaitlinFairchild- This is the first story by caitlinispiningforjohnlock that I ever read and it seriously changed my life. This fic fucking knocked me off my feet and left me panting for breath. It was so good I didn’t even know what to do with myself when I finished it. It was a fic I didn’t even know how badly I needed until I read it. It helped me recover from season three. It is devastating in the most eloquent way.

Kings Among Runaways by allonsys_girl- This story is my life. I am obsessed with it. The brilliant anigrrrl2​ is busy working on a myriad of other brilliant fics at the moment, but this one really gets me. Like reaches into my chest and does things with my heart gets me. It is vivid and searing and tender and gorgeous and so full of feeling I ache when I read it. And she’s only written four chapters so far.

All the Best and Brightest Creatures by wordstrings- I will continue to rec this fic until I die. It is on another level of fic-ness. Sometimes, I have to put off reading the updates for months and months because they are too good and I feel them too deeply and coming back to real life is sad and painful. That is how good this fic is. You live in it when you read it.

This is from the 2019 Denver Pow Wow that my dad walked in. I was lucky enough to be one of the photographers on the floor for the event. ❤

Attention all farmers, gardeners, garden dreamers & wanna-be's:

Johnny Select Seeds has a Growers Library on their website that is filled with tons of free information about growing herbs, fruit, veggies, flowers, you name it!

Need to know your hardiness zone? They have maps!

Want to know how many seeds you need to buy to fill your growing space? They got a calculator for that!

Want to find out what it takes to build a (not kidding) gothic cathedral 14 ft growing tunnel? They have a list of parts needed and where to buy 'em!

Ever wondered what the 5 factors affecting cut flowers vase-life are? Well dadgum it if you can't find out there!

For free!

We all seem to agree that Tattooed!Sirius would have Canis Major somewhere on his body but I am also of the opinion that on the side of his chest, usually covered by his arm, he’d have Leo as well. When people asked, he’d say it was because Leo is the lion, for Gryffindor, but closest to his heart, the Regulus star stuck out, because for all his talk, he hadn’t quite given up on his little brother yet.

Writer: There Was Only One Bed…

Smut fans: *gasp!!!!!*

Writer: So They Spooned All Night And The Brooding One Allowed Themselves To Feel Vulnerable For The First Time In Years And The Chirpy One Got Some Quality Snuggles

Fluff fans: *GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*