Another note: This is in reference to the Filipino legend from Albay called “Daragang Magayon” [literally translated into “beautiful maiden”, with “daraga” meaning “maiden” and “magayon” meaning “beautiful”]
She’s a folk heroine, whose love story can be read here
It is said that her lover, Panganoron, is the clouds that surround Mt. Mayon’s peak, while she is herself the volcano, which has always been seen as remarkably beautiful in shape
It’s said that the volcano grew where they were buried together
Which is why the shape of two lovers seen in the smoke of its most recent eruption is so culturally significant.
One of my favorite things to see is random people trying to interact with unfamiliar outdoor cats. Just standing there with a hand out, making kissy noises, maybe meowing at the cat while it ignores them. Mankind at its best and least dignified
if you want to interact with a cat that doesn’t know you, sit down not facing it. glance at it occasionally and make an inviting noise, but mostly just play with your phone or whatever.
the cat will almost certainly come over to check you out sooner or later. it’ll stay out of arm’s reach because it doesn’t know if you’re a jerk. offer your hand and let the cat sniff. wait. if the cat wants pettins, it will indicate that by noofing your hand, flopping on its side, or coming in close.
the cat may want to be bros but not get pettins. in that case, it will sit or lie near you but out of reach. this is friendly! the cat is saying, you’re a person in my neighborhood! hi neighbor!
of course, it’s possible that the cat is a great big cuddleslut and will come love all over you. that happens too. but if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean it’s an unfriendly cat. be chill and let the cat choose how close to get, and you’ll find most cats are pretty friendly.
The librarian sharing the stories of our medieval past
Alexander Devine is captivated by all things medieval. He’s a librarian at the Parker Library, a stunning collection of early manuscripts at Corpus Christi College. The stories they tell are still being discovered.
Wonderful things happen when you engage with the public. Last autumn a visitor identified a decorative motif on an oak chest as likely to be moonwort. He’d come to see the Library during Open Cambridge and was looking intently at the Billingford Hutch — a massive chest that’s been in the possession of the College since around 1420.
And what’s even worse is I know kids who still support them. This is another case of them being uneducated about it and basically being brainwashed into following bad people. EVERYONE DESERVES TO KNOW HOW BAD THEY ARE. HOW SICK THEY ARE. SIGNAL BOOST!!!!
they also don’t need MORE money. they are two of the highest grossing youtubers!! they each made 12 million dollars last year JUST FROM YOUTUBE!! they don’t need to do this!!! this is a scam and for children too?! pure evil!
First of all, it’s not nice to take pictures without sourcing them to the photographer. Which is doubly important because if you had you would have found the rest of Paul Wiggin’s photos of this sumatran tiger cub from the Chester Zoo and and used this one instead, which is objectively 10x better in every way
So today started out dumb, but this afternoon was AWESOME.
I’m on the porch attempting to construct a railing for the stairs when I notice a weird noise. Like, a kind of droning or buzzing? And it’s getting loud. So I investigate. It’s coming from the neighbor’s yard.
It is a metric fuckton of bees. I have never seen so many bees in my life. It is a fucking swarm of bees, and I have been reading about bees because I got a wild hair a few weeks back about wanting a hive of my own, but haven’t yet convinced Husbandthing, and there is suddenly a SWARMING HERD OF WILD HONEYBEES IN THE NEIGHBOR’S YARD.
I see postings on the neighborhood page all the time for feral swarm collection, but I also know the guy in the house across the alley just set up a hive. “Hey I think your hive escaped,” I text him.
He calls me back about three minutes later. Turns out, the swarm he was supposed to get never came; the company went out of business and his order got cancelled, and he’d found out HALF AN HOUR AGO. And he says he’s got a friend who is a professional beekeeper, and he’s going to go pick her up and would it be okay if they came and got this swarm please please please?
So Bee Neighbor and Professional Beekeeper show up and immediately don bee suits. Apparently there is fierce competition for feral swarms, and the swarm in the neighbor’s tree is HUGE, and also twenty feet off the ground, and Bee Neighbor wants them very badly.
The tree the bees are in is in a yard belonging to neither of us, so we go knock on the door, but there’s no answer. I knock on the house adjacent to it, but that guy’s not home either. Finally, I text the neighbor on the other side of me to see if he’s got contact info for the property owner, who is incredibly shy and in three years has never made eye contact. No luck.
So…we trespass. We get my extension ladder, and Bee Neighbor climbs the tree while Professional Beekeeper stands on the ladder and walks him through the swarm collection. Turns out, you just shake the swarm into a box, and as long as the queen makes it into the box, the rest of the swarm will eventually follow. Bee Neighbor has never collected a swarm before (this is, in fact, his very first swarm of bees ever) and it takes the two of them the better part of an hour in the tree trying to shake the swarm into the box.
Bees eventually get into the box. Bee Neighbor gets out of the tree without dying, and Professional Beekeeper examines the swarm and makes pleased noises. At this point, the box is the neighbor’s driveway, and about two thirds of the swarm is still milling around the box all confused. Since the neighbor isn’t home and we can’t contact him, he risks coming and parking right in the middle of a huge cloud of bees. Professional Beekeeper doesn’t want to move the box too far away, because we risk the milling bees losing the queen’s scent and never going into the box. An equidistant point between the current location and Bee Neighbor’s yard is the top of my recycling bin.
So they put the box of bees on my recycling bin, and I text Husbandthing.
Now I have a box of bees that I am babysitting. They’re being all lazy and dopey and bumbling around. I think I might be in love. Bee Neighbor will pick the box up later tonight and put them in his hive, and then the bees will be MY neighbors too!!
THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST DAY EVER
#beekeeping #also we left a note on the absent neighbor’s door #hi sorry we trespassed #but as you can see from your security cam footage #there was a giant cloud of bees #and we came and got them #we figured you did not want a yard full of bees #and we will love them #yours very sincerely #the friendly neighborhood bee team [Tags by @sacrificethemtothesquid]
A true story about adventure, bravery, perseverance, but most of all, love 🙂 ❤
@gallusrostromegalus I hope I’m not already reblogging this from you without noticing because it really seems like your type of thing
I’ve seen it before but this story always makes me happy.
theclumsiestninja 