My Natural Time That My Body Goes To Sleep Is Around 1 To 2 Am And This Affects My Day To Day Life A

IF YOURE EGYPTIAN AND LGBTQ+ GET OFF ANY QUEER DATING SITES, THE POLICE ARE TRACKING AND HUNTING PEOPLE DOWN AGAIN. DELETE YOUR ACCOUNTS.

Recently a couple of the autistic kids I work with have inspired me with openly, unapologetically owning it.

Like one kid saying “if I don’t make eye contact it’s because I find that hard and it’s easier to concentrate on what you’re saying if I’m not looking at you.”

And another one asking for clarification of an ambiguous statement to check understanding instead of just hoping for the best.

And one saying “I’m going to stim now, this conversation is hard”

I have so much respect for them for being able to voice those things! It’s inspired me to try harder to do that instead of masking until I meltdown because I’m so scared of how people will react.

Food AND lawns

Very much in agreement with this post that says that people who don't have time/spoons/resources to turn their lawns into a food garden shouldn't feel obliged to do so, and I didn't want to derail it by making this comment under the post, so I'm here making a new one of my own.

Sometimes you don't want to dig up your lawn and start market gardening because it's a fuckton of work and honestly a second job all in itself.

But what if you don't have time to do all that, but you do still want to grow at least some food?

Perennials are the way to go.

Perennials are plants that you plant once and then they just carry on growing and getting bigger without you having to do much, if anything to them.

Say you've got a small garden with a lawn and a few flower beds. What can you do to grow food without changing the format of the garden at all?

Plant a couple of fruit/nut trees. Your plum/cherry/pear/peach/whatever trees will be covered in pink blossom in the spring. Your neighbours and your local pollinators will love you.

Don't worry about the tree getting too big - plant a dwarf variety and when it reaches a height you like, prune it back to that height every year.

In your flower beds, plant

globe artichokes (very decorative, have lovely flowers and sculptural foliage.)

rhubarb (colourful edible stems.)

wild garlic (edible cloves and leaves, beautiful white star shaped flowers)

walking onions

perennial kale

chard

perennial salad plants such as Salad Burnet, Miner's lettuce etc

Jerusalem artichoke

Mashua (a perennial relative of the nasturtium - you can eat the tubers like potatoes and the leaves in salad. Has lovely red nasturtium like flowers.)

Yakon (small sunflower-like flowers, big tubers that taste faintly of pear.)

Potatoes (honestly, they have lovely white flowers and as long as you don't dig all of them up this year, more will grow next year.)

Fennel (lovely lacy edible foliage and the root is also edible.)

any other perennial plant that might grow well in your area.

Remember that all of these plants will come back every year bigger than they were the year before. You should only need to plant them once and then leave them to get on with it.

There are loads of obscure perennial vegetables and fruits you can discover with a bit of research.

I recommend How to grow Perennial Vegetables by Martin Crawford as a great book to start with. It's a huge list of edible perennials, with details of where they like to grow, what you harvest from them, potential problems, and how to cook them

Also in your flower beds, plant

fruit bushes and fruit vines on pergolas (raspberry, blueberry, goji-berry, kiwi etc)

Now you've got some vegetables, salads, nuts and fruits growing in your flowerbeds, you can think about what to do to improve your lawn.

The lawn

The great thing about getting an eco-friendly lawn is that it all involves inaction - doing less work

Stop weedkilling

Stop watering the lawn. If it survives, great! If it doesn't survive, replace with native grasses that can.

Get some native wildflower plug plants and plant them into the lawn, or

Get some native wildflower seeds and oversow the lawn with them.

This will give you a lawn full of native plants that will support your local pollinators.

Take part in No Mow May to allow your wildflowers to flower, or if you can get away with it, stop mowing altogether except for a single hay cut once a year at the peak of the flowering season.

Result

Now you have a garden where you don't need to do anything except mow once or twice a year, compost/mulch once a year, and pick the produce, and it will still look (more or less) like a normal suburban garden.

Why do i do this ....I'll just randomly sketch stuff in the night hours and it's always just....ugh.....I don't even know here have some ibis paint insanity inspired by shane ackers 9

Bioswales my beloved <3 <3 <3

Reduces stress on the water collection systems, especially during storms!

Stops street flooding!!

Filters contaminants so your groundwater isn't as polluted!

Creates little pockets of life in the city where native flora and fauna can flourish!

Costs almost nothing to build and maintain (bc it's self sustaining)!

LOOKS GORGEOUS!!! TAKE A GANDER AT THESE BAD BOIS!!

PartSelect.com

The Benefits of Gardening with Mulch | Fix.com

Adding mulch to your garden can have a direct influence on yield. Mulching protects your soil from direct sunlight, moderates temperature, a

You can also mulch with unglazed terrcotta pots!

🏳️‍⚧️ What happens if your state won't allow you to access gender-affirming care, like HRT?

Some states are stepping up where others are stepping back. Connecticut is the first state to pass a "safe state" law that will protect people who are seeking gender-affirming care or abortion care if it becomes illegal in their home state. Connecticut's law also means criminalizing states can't use out-of-state warrants to arrest parents or guardians for helping their child get care there, and would restrict other states from subpoenaing the medical records of families who sought gender-affirming care outside of their home states.

Some other states are on track to pass laws like this, too. While not everyone has the resources to be able to pack up and move, states passing "sanctuary" laws like this want to make it clear that we are welcome. 🏳️‍⚧️

“There are millions of users on tumblr”

No there are only 7 of us and we all agressively rb each other’s posts

Things I would like non-wheelchair people to know

Do not touch my chair. Unless I’ve lost control of my chair and am rolling into traffic, if I have not given you explicit permission, that is a huge violation of my personal space. Think of grabbing my push handles like grabbing someone’s shoulders. That’s not a thing you just do to people.

If I don’t know you, nothing about my chair, my body, my situation, or what I’m doing is any of your gods damned business. Think of commenting on these things to a stranger like catcalling. (If I know you it’s probably fine, as long as you’re respectful. Just like any other personal topic you might ask someone about.)

If I decline an offer of help, do not insist. I know what things I need help with a lot better than you do. (Nothing wrong with offering, help is definitely welcome sometimes, just respect my response.)

Okay, things that should be obvious out of the way, here’s what the post is actually about:

I still prefer the terms “walking” and “running” for the ways I get around. I might say “rolling” or “wheeling” if the distinction is relevant for some reason, since I am ambulatory some of the time, but in general I prefer the same words as you tall people.

I need a much wider space to turn, or especially to turn around, than I do just to pass through a space.

Ask me, rather than assuming you know whether or not I can do something. I would love to go hiking with you, actually, if the trail is light and friendly enough to wheels. No, I can’t ice skate, but I’d still rather you ask if I want to come along than assume I don’t want to be included.

Which activities are notably more difficult is often not obvious. Popping a wheelie to get over a small amount of difficult terrain or even climbing a single step (if I have something to pull myself up with) can actually be pretty easy. A long stretch of ground tilted slightly to the left or right takes a ton of effort. Carrying anything that fits in my lap is trivially easy, but transporting anything that doesn’t fit in my lap is quite hard (though I recently discovered my vacuum fits nicely on my footplate if I wrap my legs around it a little which is cool.) I am constantly surprised by little things that are or aren’t harder than I thought they’d be, or are actually easier than before because I’m sitting.

If you are in my path, you moving suddenly is actually really unpleasant for me. I know you’re there, I’m not going to run you over. If you’re in my way, please do move! But jerking suddenly makes you unpredictable and I might have to stop suddenly to be certain everyone is safe while I process the change, just like if I were driving a car. Also like driving a car, stopping suddenly is unpleasant and a lot of effort, but the small adjustment to my direction I was planning to make is very easy. (Same goes for bikes honestly, or any other vehicle. That’s what the chair is, a vehicle.)

If we’re walking around together and need to get past some stairs, it’s nice if you come with me on the ramp, especially if that ramp is out of the way. It can be really isolating to have to go a different way than everyone else.

If we need to walk close together for whatever reason, you walking directly in front of me is best avoided if possible. Bumping into your heel with my metal footplate is going to be a lot more unpleasant for both of us than it would be if I were on my feet.

In general, you should let me speak for myself. It’s my joints that don’t work, not my brain or my voice. But. If someone else is being disrespectful, your voice is likely much more impactful than mine in that situation. Use it.

I’m not expecting anyone to memorize these things; as long as you’re treating disabled people like people, that’s enough. And if you want to do more than that but don’t know how, respectful questions are generally welcome. I just wanted to share these thoughts, for people who don’t live with them all the time. There are a lot of little differences to being seated all the time that you just don’t think about until you’re there.

Also, while I think most of this is generally true for anyone in a wheelchair, obligatory reminder that I speak only for myself.

Buying seedlings for your garden.

So if March was the time to talk about starting seeds, April is the time to talk about buying transplants (reverse as needed for southern hemisphere obviously but y’all aren’t planting for spring now anyhow). I’ll make a few notes and then open it to others to add.

1. You don’t want blooms on your vegetable starts. If it’s blooming now, it’s reached the limits of its growth in its current pot and decided that this is as good as it gets and started to put its energy into reproducing. If there are blooms, you should pinch them off, but the plant is likely to have limited growth even so. The same kinda applies to flowers but I do recognize the difficulty of knowing what you’re buying without blooms, and also, a lot of modern flowers are bred for long flowering periods.

2. Short and stocky is better than tall. Tall means the plants have been crowded. Spindly means the plant will be less sturdy. The ideal tomato seedling, for example, is relatively short, with a thick stem.

3. Some things are not worth buying starts of. Sellers realize that a lot of people feel more comfortable with transplants–you don’t have to have faith in the magic of the seed that way. But it’s ridiculous to buy cucumber and squash seedlings, for example. Those are plants that can’t be put out until after danger of last frost anyway, which time hasn’t even come where I am, and their roots don’t really like to be disturbed. Tomatoes actually thrive on being replanted, so they make great transplants. Cucumbers not so much. Big seeds like peas, cucumbers, squash, etc. come up fast and will establish roots better in situ. Have faith in the seed.

4. Prefer small local places and actual nurseries to big box stores. The big box store offers varieties based on what will sell, as decided on the national level. They buy the seedlings en masse and take minimal care of them with the expectation of high losses. The little local place is in it because they love plants, and probably knows what varieties are actually good locally.

@ahedderick , @turtlesandfrogs , @not-quite-wild , @kawuli , anyone else wanna add?