Totally agree…

I’ve been using mint for the last 4 years, and while I have had to use the command line for some obscure installs, it also works as an OS without needing to use it (i jumped in at the deep end and installed it in a pc I got from my brother and used it as my everyday OS)

I don’t understand why Mint isn’t the first suggestion for Linux ‘virgins’ switching over from Windows etc, it has everything you need pre installed plus the download manager for anything else

Linux has a flavour for everyone, and after a while when you’re confidence and skills grow there is the fun of using the command line and a bit of tinkering…or not, if you are happy with the ‘basics’

a certain ‘labor of love’ needs to be involved

You are not wrong! I think I must be mental sometimes, but it can be good fun discovering new things and then sharing them…

I really like her work, I posted last week some of her cityscapes of Manchester, which is interesting to see the ordinary and mundane of somewhere you know immortalized in art. I’ve got some others of hers which I’ll probably share next week

Also thanks for the tip regarding the code to expand images, it would be nice if the developers added a nice easy button to click to do it for me, but it’s something I can remember to do, like all the other minor things that help when making a post (it’s a learning process)

Cheers! 😀

edit, I’ve just tried it out on one of my posts on mander, it works really well!

I’m glad there are artists capturing the normal sights of places instead of focusing on the most impressive and amazing parts of the world, you know?

I agree, it’s always nice to see your local places immortalized in art, I think it helps that she’s from Bolton, although I haven’t seen any paintings of that downtrodden place yet…

All that’s missing from the paintings is a couple of spice-heads, and the guy who’s always playing the ‘Harry Potter Theme’ on a recorder near Selfridges

Love back at you, from up the road 🐝 ❤️

She’s won a few awards for her work which doesn’t surprise me!

I’ll be posting some of her other work at some point which is just as good, if not better…even though I do love the fact that she makes Blackpool look pretty fucking amazing 🤣

Guilty as charged

I rather like this one…

wearily she waves

the white flag of surrender

cobwebbed butterfly

—Tracy Davidson from here

Pawprints fade, empty

Silence fills the empty space

Love lives on, always

From here

I sometimes feel that the classic haiku are let down by some translations, and the fact there are Japanese words that don’t translate across very well or at all.

I have a soft spot for this one

The old pond,

A frog jumps in:

Plop!

Translated by Alan Watts from here

It’s interesting to see how each translation differs, and tries to put into English something that is probably untranslatable…also…

pond

frog

plop!

Translated by James Kirkup

‘The sound of water’ ‘kerplunk’ ‘splashing the water’ ‘leap, splash’ ‘water note’ …just don’t capture it for me

Do you know any that are decent?

I discovered The CryptoNaturalist over at the other place, and ending up buying ‘Field Guide to the Haunted Forest’ and ‘Love Notes from the Hollow Tree’ by Jarod K. Anderson…

Which is unusual for me as I detest poetry. I think it’s a pile of long-winded, navel gazing wank…Except for haiku, (because they’re short and sweet, and condense things down to their essence, which I like).

I like The CryptoNaturalist though, probably because they write about nature in a weird, beautiful and wonderous way. I want to use the word ‘magical’ to describe it, but am reluctant, for reasons

Also, thanks to this post I just found out there’s a couple of other books available which I’m going to buy tonight 😀

According to this they announced the closures sometime around April 2022, so it’s they old stock they’re offloading

I really want this thing to exist!

They’ve also put it in a pump bottle rather than the usual glass droppers which will please a few people, no doubt

I generally use tret, but it’s always good to know that if my supply dries up there’s alternatives…

Any idea why NIOD don’t have a retinol product like The Ordinary? I know you can mix and match it’s just struck me as something missing from their lineup especially considering as NIOD is a step up in potency (and price)

Thank you! 👍

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I learnt a lot myself when reading up on it, and as there are lots of different species of insects that are infected by cordyceps there’s the potential for future posts

Thanks for the feedback! There are some really weird things out there, I happened upon a photo of a tropical frog with a little mushroom growing out of its side…I’ll post it this week if I can find it again

Also this link has a time lapse video from the BBC for those who want to see the fungus in action!

I’m really shit at working these sorts of things out, so no answer from me…just wanted to say that’s a really beautiful image!

You’re welcome, and cheers 👍

Some ‘scales’ or marks will be the plants version of a scab, where it’s been damaged and has ‘scabbed’ over, the insect scales do look a bit more ‘stuck on’ and ‘foreign’ as in not created by the plant, if that makes sense? They can also be picked off, and the appearance is different to the plant surface.

I’m currently fighting scale insects on one of my houseplants (I think I’m winning), the adult females form the scale, and the nymphs/larvae are ‘crawlers’ (little white, woolly lines about 1-2 mm long), both can be physically removed by scratching them off, but the scale is tougher and water runs off it

This has some pictures of scale insect pests, and they look very different to plant tissue (and don’t forget, they proliferate very quickly, so tend to show up in large, noticeable groups). Another thing is that the surrounding plant tissue will look yellowy/stressed when under attack instead of it’s usual healthy, normal green

From wikipedia

They’re quite small, the females are often flightless and without limbs, they conceal themselves under domed scales for protection. They like to suck the sap from plants, some ant species will ‘farm’ them for the honey dew they secrete. Some species are pests and can infest and damage the plants they feed on, while others can be used commercially…checkout one of my other posts here The oldest fossils found date to the early cretaceous.

You’re welcome and thanks for the feedback!

I’m going to do a ‘mega post’ or smaller of the cordiceps that infect insects over on awwnverts probably this coming week

They’re fascinating things in a somewhat horrifying way, and lots of lovely photos to be discovered!