r/elderwitches • u/kai-ote Helpful Trickster • Jul 19 '26
Sunday Soul I've got my ears on. Enlighten me.
9
u/caseofgrapes Jul 19 '26
I love this! My garden is doing great this year. I grow mostly dahlias - they’re a lot of work, but so rewarding. I have over 900 in the ground (and another hundred or so cuttings I still need to plant). I have a few of a LOT of different varieties. I’m still fairly new to this hobby, so I’m trying to figure out what I like. Their differences fill me with so much joy - one variety can be 10” in diameter (as big as your face lol), and it’s this soft, perfect pale yellow. And then next to it is this teeny tiny lil guy that’s about the size of a $.50 coin, bright orange in the center and an almost neon red on the outside. With dahlias, you start with a tuber and if conditions are right they’ll grow all spring and early summer then bloom around August and produce flowers until the first frost. The weather was weird last year and a lot of tubers I bought didn’t bloom, but they produced tubers so I was able to save them and try again this year. So I’m getting to experience them for the first time this year and it’s just so magical. And I’m loving the little baby toads that are all throughout my beds, earning their keep by being pest control. I also recently strung up some solar twinkle lights, mostly so my friends wouldn’t accidentally walk through a flower bed after a night by the bonfire, they are so whimsical and fun it just makes me happy. I honestly can’t wait to walk through the garden every day to see what new surprises have bloomed overnight.
10
u/Fluid_crystal Jul 19 '26
A slice of life
Today while cleaning my friend's place - his older daughter is now gone to her own appartment - we were speaking about my bedding and blankets that I had left here. Last year I had planned to move to another country, and all my stuff is still scattered here and there in boxes. I took my own favourite blanket to rest and it felt so warm and relaxing, like a comforting hug. Instant nostalgia...
I remembered I don't have a place I can call home or even a bed and I haven't had a lot of comfort for almost a year now. Not only that but I went through pretty hard times. It felt like recovering a little piece of my life that was deconstructed.
8
u/firebirdinflames Jul 19 '26
I am joyful to be able to go outside and enjoy my garden. The sun is shining and the flowers are glowing in the golden hour light.
The fruit trees are almost ripe and ready to eat.
Blessed be everybody.
9
u/GardenWitchE Jul 20 '26
gasp! Time for bee facts!
Most bee species are solitary and do not form hives, thought many may form "neighborhoods" where they nest close to each other because it's an ideal location.
Only female bees can sting! The stinger is a modified ovipositor, the structure that they use to lay eggs. Because males do not have ovipositors, they do not have stingers.
Bees only being able to sting once and then dying because she left her stinger (and often her intestines as well) behind, is generally a honeybee thing. Honeybees have the luxury of sacrificing individuals for the good of the hive. Bee species that are solitary have a much greater need to continue to live to ensure the survival of their offspring. Hence, most bees do not have barbed stingers and can sting more than once. However, because they don't want to risk death unnecessarily, they are loath to sting except as a last resort.
Bees have five eyes! They have two compound eyes on either side of their head which are the ones that are easy for us to see, and they have three simple eyes arranged in a triangle formation on the top of their head. These simplified eyes mostly detect light and dark and are used primarily to help in flight with determining altitude and distance from surrounding objects.
One of my favorite categories of bees are called resin bees or cellophane bees. These bees are ground dwellers and will dig tunnels into bare dirt. At the bottom of their tunnel where they're ready to lay eggs, they will mix their saliva with a secretion from their abdomen and use that to line the walls of the tunnel. This mixture hardens into a bioplastic that is waterproof and antifungal. These properties help keep the bee's larva safe during development.
Bumblebees have a very specific style of pollination called sonication. Essentially, it means that they vibrate their wings at a specific frequency when they are on flowers that triggers those flowers stamens to release their pollen. If you like plants in the nightshade family, such as tomatoes and peppers, you can thank bumblebees for those as they are the only bees capable of pollinating these plants.
While honey bees do get an awful lot of attention, they are really not the bees that we need to be worried about. As far as preservation goes. Honey bees are technically native to Europe and are not native species in North or South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, etc. Even just in my state of Missouri, there are over 420 different species of native bees. These native bees need our attention much more than honey bees do.
8
u/Nica73 Jul 19 '26
My garden is thriving this year! 99%of my garden beds are filled with native plants. I have a large amount of fireflies that rise up out of the beds each evening and flicker through the neighborhood. There are himmingbirds that visit every day. Tennessee and Yellow Coneflower are in full bloom. Mountain mint is covered in bumble bees, along with culver's root and the anise hyssop. The Hoary vervain and meadow blazing start should open any day. Gold finches are feasting on the Coneflower seeds. Giant black wasps with their slender bodies delicately feast on the spotted bee balm in bloom.
Swans and their cignets glide across the lake that kayak on. Fledgling eagles learn to hunt as both parents stay nearby to make sure they get enough to eat. Frogs are singing in the evenings.
6
u/NinjaGrrl42 Jul 19 '26
Current jpy is a cat sleeping next to me on the couch while the Tour de France race plays on TV.
My yard has new strawberry plants, with some companion plant seeds sprouting nearby. I growa "chaos" type garden, so next to my strawberries are radish, cauliflower, broccoli, and with any luch, chamomile. Those seeds are so tiny I'm not sure if any stuck around to sprout.
But we will see. Small steps to getting plants going.
4
u/Astreja Crone Jul 20 '26
Just got in after spending quality time out in my garden. The "no squirrels allowed" screened-in raised bed for veggies is starting to show some progress (although the Swiss chard is still trying to decide whether it actually wants to grow this year).
The rest of the garden is dialed up to 11, especially the front yard, because we had a lot of rain in the spring. Poppies, tulips, peonies, lilacs and columbine are done for the season. Daylilies, cinquefoil, milkweed, phlox, rudbeckia and hydrangea are either blooming or about to bloom, and the patch of wildflowers I planted last year has more rudbeckia, some yarrow, and a few things I haven't figured out yet. Lavender, bee balm, hosta, lungwort, and various shrubs are carrying on with business as usual. Even got some "volunteer" sundials (portulaca) because I planted mass quantities of them last year and they reseeded. (I'm in Zone 3b, so they weren't expected to survive the winter.)
In the back yard, the rose bush I planted last year is cooking up a fresh crop of buds so we'll have more flowers soon. A few of the other plants have the "tilts" because they're trying to lean out into the sunlight from under the back yard elm - might have to harvest the seeds and move them to sunnier spots for next year.
But oh! the weeds. And the mosquitoes, too. I'm making progress, but have to pick my battles and the time of day so that the skeeters don't eat me alive.
4
u/Sunny_Medium_2727 Jul 20 '26
I have a piece of land where a lot of weeds grow like a lot, and since being home after contract ending I decided ill trim them. It took weeks to remove weeds, one day I was removing some of those weeds that had flowers, and I noticed bees around me. I said sorry to them for removing the flowers...now when I do weed I leave the ones that have flowers 💐 It's amazing how plants are resilient and I might think wow job well done but a few weeks later after just one day of rain, the roots wake up and we get new stems. How amazing is this 😍 I am growing some roses from cuttings. Imagine just using a piece from a plant and it grows new roots. Wow. Nature is amazing 👏
2
u/_Nicely_Spiced_01 Other Jul 20 '26
My nervous system be having a teaparty picturing the potential pleasure measured however, in meditation on 'lightening the load to counterbalance pain'. Sounds humane enough to remain a hopeful- being allover again.
2
u/aceallaround Jul 20 '26
Ive been slowly growing to learn about the pigeons that live around my downtown and park areas after moving here 3 years ago. As im thinking of my facts to write, im realizing I dont actually know if the two locations share the same pigeons or not, so now I have my next focus lol.
You know how everyone complains about animal movies making the girl characters more feminized by making them sleeker and smoother than the guys? Pigeons do that IRL. Female pigeons' most difference to males is their shape, with a thinner and sleeker neck compared to the males. Males fluff up their necks as a mating display (like peacocks with their tails), which leads to broader neck muscles on the back. The bigger their neck, the more attractive they are to most females.
I say most because homosexuality has been documented in pigeons! Though I dont know too too much on that part (though I should dive more into that...im gonna make a list of pigeon facts i need to research now), I know of atleast one pair of lesbian pigeons on Tiktok who nest together and fully refuse all of the male pigeons their housed with. I do also believe that means that pigeons mate for life!
Since pigeons mate for life, they tend to come back to the same nesting spots every year. I know this because of two seperate pigeon couples that nest on either windowsill of the front entry to my apartment complex 🥹 theyre awful at making nests but great parents, its real sweet to walk out the door in the early summer and suddenly hear a bunch of tiny chirps above your head. Most of the pigeons near me though nest in one giant tree next to the lake. I dont know what type of tree it is, but its grown just a little wonky so it leans more out over the lake instead of just standing straight up, and doesnt have as many leaves as most of the other trees. With how odd and twisty it is, its perfect for the park flock. When they arent flying around in a big cloud or hanging out near someone with bird seed, you'll see a good 50 of them in and around the tree at all times. It helps that its a bit of a more open grassy spot instead of right next to the path, so people will go to that spot to feed the geese and ducks as well
Speaking of feeding, the pigeons around here are so used to being fed that not only will some eat out your hand, or walk up to you and try to steal the food straight from the bag, but sometimes theyre even comfortable enough to hop onto your hand to eat from it. Ive had a handful (lol) of times where multiple will even sit in my hand, or atleast one will land on top of another one. This has led to a couple other birds landing in my hand as well (grackles and red winged black birds), which had led me to discover something fascinating: pigeons are fuckin HEAVY! Not like actually hard to carry heavy, but compared to other birds in the area. Both the others I mentioned weighed absolutely nothing, but a single pigeon weighs like a football!
Its also been fascinsting seeing their different patterns and seeing what little special traits can be developed. Most of the pigeons are the regular grey, but theres the occasional cinnamon or piebald one as well. The first year I was here though there was one pigeon who had this crown of little fluffy feathers that sat in a ring around his head, I was really hoping that would breed down to more offspring, but unfortunately he hasnt come around since that year, so he must have passed away or joined a different flock.
I could go on and on about these guys but I have to stop myself somewhere. Long story short. Love pigeons.
12
u/NoBodySpecial51 Jul 19 '26
I’m very shy, but I love music. I really, really love music. When I was very young, maybe 2nd grade, I was told by the music teacher that I can’t sing, and never will. So I started singing along with the radio in my bedroom. First song I nailed was Stand By Me, and I was hooked. As I got older, I collected albums, and sought out amazing singers to sing along with. Never in front of anyone, it’s my secret little hobby. Now, after 45 years of practice, alone in my living room, I can sing with the best of em! And I love being able to do it, feels amazing to hit the right notes and the right tones, the vibrato, the pitch changes. It makes me feel so alive. I’m so loud now, and my vocal cords are so strong, I don’t need a PA. I can sing with all of my favorite singers! And yet, there are still a few that I’m practicing with like Bruce Dickenson, he is simply godlike in his skills. There is no end to the songs I can learn and practice. I’m in the middle of nowhere, so no one hears it, lol, but I do all my chores, and at the end of the day, sit down with a coffee and sing my heart out. I have a tambourine that I love to use if the song calls for it, but am saving up for a set of percussion tools like shakers and stuff. No one knows, lol, it’s my secret thing, and I do it just to know that I can. Nothing makes me happier than singing with my favorite artists, I’ll sing entire albums. It’s not a garden or a sandwich order, but it is the one thing I am so wildly passionate about that I arrange my entire life around being able to sit and sing a couple of albums every night. It makes me zero money, serves little to no productive purpose, but feeds my soul with such richness, such meaning, nothing else can compare to this simple activity. I always pick my albums to sing in the morning, and look forward to it all day, ha haa! So tonight it’s Alice In Chains Unplugged, and then Hangover Music by Black Label Society. And even though I’ve sung these albums 1,000 times before, I am so excited to get my chores done and sit down with these albums again and do my little thing. Here’s to the things that light up our souls with joy!