A spray of pink and white orchids with fuchsia centers and feathering on the largest petals bloom from a banyan tree.
My outdoor orchids normally bloom in May but the cold snaps we've had sped up the timeline a bit. So pretty.
I'm laughing ... no I'm crying .. no I'm ...
I'm dead. 😆🍕🌮🧄
"Are we conflicted about serving patrons who have consumed intelligent species, including our own? Absolutely. But Human culture is based on allowing terrible things, particularly if it involves business and/or compromising with a colonial power."
Was taking out the trash the other night and noticed how amazing the stars looked. Now I know why ...
Note to self to look for this special "planet parade" Saturday just after sunset!
Adore the mix of macabre circus with romance.
"Peeling your epidermis off hurts a lot. It doesn’t have to, but the pain is part of the experience. It makes it feel real, like they paid to touch death for a midnight."
translunartravelerslounge.com/2026/02/15/coat-check-girl-by-adan-jerreat-poole/
If you need a laugh today — a weird, wonderful laugh with a side of giving the middle finger to toxic masculinity — check out @davidanaxagoras.com’s wacky story “'We Require an Engine’ Said the Testicle Collective.”
It’s amazeballs!
translunartravelerslounge.com/2026/02/15/w...
Text on background of a misty green forest reads: "We rushed to embrace but stopped short, each caught on an invisible fishing line, on the hook that was our lives--at once remembering where we were, who we were.
I don’t write much romance but in honor of Valentine's Day here’s a bittersweet love story of mine that asks,
What if you could hop off your spaceship and reconnect with the gorgeous alien lover you left behind?
Would you have regrets? Would she?
www.heartlines-spec.com/the-architec...
South Africa has yielded the oldest direct evidence of poisoned hunting weapons. The find pushes poison-based hunting deep into the Pleistocene and reveals sophisticated chemical knowledge, planning and tool use far earlier than previously documented. Ars Technica buff.ly/3ySienA
#ShareGoodNewsToo
Great list I've been working my way through this week.
reactormag.com/tenish-of-th...
I don't know what to tell you. You can't sit at a piano for the first time ever and play a sonata. You can't pick up a tennis racket for the first time and serve a 110MPH Ace.
You have to fuck up.
You have to be able to handle failing.
You have to love it enough to not get it right and keep on.
Loved the voice of this piece.
www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
I was mostly being silly abt that amazing last moment-- although in Florida, the truth does always seem to find a way to be stranger than fiction ...
Here's good story if you need something uplifting today.
Nine out of ten newly sentient robots agree: Grandmas are the best!
I adored this dark-yet-somehow-kinda-heartwarming tale and its twist on the movie Jennifer’s Body, by @smessenger.bsky.social.
As for its depiction of rural Florida? This native attests 100% accurate. Especially that end scene. 💀🐊
www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/jenn...
Flames leap in the air above a black metal fire pit.
The boys got a little carried away with the fire pit.
We rarely get temperatures down in the 40s here, so there was much excitement this week. I’m happy to report the evening ended safely.
Damn, hadn't read this letter by MLK in a while.
"The ... great stumbling block [is not the ...] Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."
THIS.
"We are fighting and struggling and self-caring our way through the apocalypse, and every day there is something terrible but also something lovely, and we are caught in constant whiplash between the two."
Moment of zen before the holiday craziness begins!
They say the best perfumes are a mix of something alluring with something disgusting. Guess this story proves the same rule for writing. So strange, so problematic, so good!
smallwondersmag.com/piece/tuesday/
Bernedoodle puppy plays with a ball at the beach.
New Puppy's first trip to the beach!
Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)
The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used
> neal.fun/size-of-life/
Eerie, abstract image of what could be a human eye, but in place of the black pupil is a ghostly, blurry face. Text reads: "The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Volume 1," curated by Michael Kelly.
Great anthology with a strong selection of stories that run the wide spectrum of weird. Horror, fantasy and sci-fi are all here, along with just plain odd and eerie tales.
The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Volume 1, curated by Michael Kelly, @undertow.bsky.social.
Cartoon. Girl with long brown hair holds a round, golden vase and says "Look what I made" a woman with curly blonde hair touches her chin and says, "You should..." Over her a thought balloon shows a red, angular vase.
Another old illustrated blog post: on the dangers of taking too much advice.
https://www.marievibbert.com/mud/
The new issue is out! Need a break from the holidays? We've got aging druids, adorable bee-cats, vengeful weather witches & more.
www.lunastationquart...
#ShortStories #WomenWriters #SpeculativeFiction #Fantasy #SciFi #Books #Reading #Writing #Magazines
This short story by @breewernicke.bsky.social is so bizarrely wonderful, especially if you think *stepping* on Legos is painful ... 👀
www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/37/doc...
Photo of the Cuypers Library within the Rijksmuseum. Library shelves filled with books stretch several stories tall below beautiful arched windows.
Look at this dream library within the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
The museum is so huge I didn’t know it was there when we visited. I was so jealous my husband found it and snapped this photo while we were each exploring on our own.
If I ever go back, it'll be near the top of my sight-seeing list.
an old photo of a Nevada goldrush town
Cast of Wonders 664: Blood and Talent by @jamieboyd.bsky.social narrated by Boocho McFly produced by @jeremycarter42.bsky.social hosted by @chesneycat.bsky.social
www.castofwonders.org/2025/11/cast...
content notes: injury, violence, historical racism, domestic violence, death
My takeaway: even an artist as talented as Rembrandt couldn’t perfectly predict or control what his audience found most interesting (or lurid) about a painting. But he could adapt and alter the work to fulfill his vision — a good thing to keep in mind while editing and revising. 4/4
The problem, the employee said, was people looking at the painting didn’t pay attention to anything but that chopped-off hand. The artist Rembrandt and his patron wanted their attention on the lesson, so he painted over the corpse’s stump with a new hand. 3/4
You’ll notice, the staff member said, that the dead man’s right hand is a slightly different color than his body. This is because originally the corpse had no right hand. Back then, autopsies were done on criminals. This man stole something, lost his hand and then was executed. 2/4
