#‘other’ meaning dry or wet or whatever seasons your region has

[gayvampyr]

#‘other’ meaning dry or wet or whatever seasons your region has #firm believer that summer is the worst season #fall>winter>spring>summer #i like the cooler days of spring #polls

[reijnders]

PLEEEEEAASE give me your pixie hollow headcanons or lore or theories or whatever i am so deep into it right now and i don't know anyone else who likes it :,)

- @pairies-n-fixies

a new hand touches the beacon…

imma put everything below the cut cus this is gonna get /long/, but heres a TL;DR as well :)

blurry boundaries btwn seasons + air currents + common Clank and Bobble forgetfulness L

the Keeper's ice film about Peri and Tink's Arrival isn't beat for beat, its just a summary

oh god idk if i can tl:dr this one but basically both lord milori and minister of winter can exist i promise

starting off with Tinkerbell, Clank, and Bobble flying through the winter woods b4 settling on Tinker's Nook my /personal/ thought is that 1) the boundaries between seasons are only hard and fast across water, like between winter and autumn in Secret of the Wings, 2) the air right above those borders can have a lot more variation due to changing air currents n stuff, so while is was definitely chilly, it was also bordering spring(evidenced purely by the color of the snowless trees in this horrible screenshot), so with a combo of those they could potentially be okay for a few brief seconds of a fly-by, and 3) Clank and Bobble are not always the thinkers when it comes to Anything Except Tinkering. i could fully accept that they were /not/ supposed to do that and forgot until a bit after.

Periwinkle's existence! dull boring-ass answer: camera didnt care about Periwinkle/wishful thinking that they had some level of meta planning ahead and wanted to keep the idea of more than one a secret. less dull answer: the cinematic reenactment that Peri and Tink saw in the Keeper's work zone wasn't as accurate to real life within the world timing-wise. the Keeper's own personal magic(and by that extension, the natural way in which he and any past and future Keepers are able to manipulate dust) is for the retelling of history. So Peri and Tink were from the same laugh, yeah, but not as back-to-back as it was made to seem in the movie. essentially its like the Keeper has OpenShot Video Editor edition pixie dust powers.

my big finale,,,, the one i actually focus a lot on in my fairy worldbuilding Lord Milori vs the Minister of Winter in the first movie I personally choose to believe that they both exist, but lemme break it down for you beat for beat

PART ONE: THE FUNCTION OF A MINISTER

so we know, based on ofc the first movie, that the ministers are for each season, they oversee the organization and prep for bringing that season to the mainland, and also just keeping it tidy within the Hollow.

so naturally, there should be four ministers, one for each season. now here is where i first start deviating a little from canon. so understandable, the pixie hollow seasons are based on the far northern/southern hemisphere experience of them, because going elsewhere would mean a lot less difference between each season all the way until you hit the equator's dry/wet season split. therefore, spring, summer, and autumn aren't the same level of warm. summer is the warmest season, and Warm fairies who do most of their tasks for that season will be biologically more optimized for that region, same for all the others.

The ministers of Spring and Autumn, for instance, would have a somewhat better resistance to the cold than the minister of Summer, though they are still naturally Warm fairies and eventually would reach a point where their wings would grow to cold and snap. The minister of Winter could technically be neither a Warm or Winter fairy by this metric. Because the ministers do a lot of their work with the Queen, and only oversee the production and take down of their seasons, it's understandable that the winter minister would be a Warm fairy biologically, but since Talent is an innate thing, each and every minister of Winter that Arrives could be of this unique class of fairies that can spend a much longer time in the Winter section of the Hollow, and on the flip side, maybe not do so well in the Summer section of the Hollow.

PART TWO: THE FUNCTION OF LORD MILORI

So we have ministers and we have a Queen. i've established that the minister of Winter could feasibly venture into Winter whenever she needs to to check on how things are going, but what about the long term? This is where Milori comes in, not as a minister, but as a stand-in for Queen Clarion. Since she herself cannot go into Winter for very long, he's essentially her, but for Winter. he may occasionally receive correspondence from her with big news and changes to protocol, but for the most part he operates on his own, since i imagine mail between the seasonal boundary would require rigorous scheduling and couldn't be done just on the fly unless you've acquired a bird, or...

...if you have a minister of Winter.

PART THREE: WORKING TOGETHER

Having both a minister and a lord of winter would make sense, mainly because the role of minister is necessary regardless of seasonal conflicts! in the first movie, when Spring is being brought to the world, it is the minister that accompanies the nature talent fairies, not Clarion. Similarly, it shows the minister of Winter returning with her fairies after the onset of her season.

If Milori were to overwrite the minister entirely, and take over all her duties, it would conflict more with his own lore, because he would have to be able to join in meetings conducted in the Tree on the regular with no issue, which we know he can't do. And on top of that, he would have to travel to the mainland on the regular, which would leave the Winter Woods without a leader for a good chunk of each year, which would not be a good combination in an emergency situation.

PART FOUR: LITERALLY JUST SHARING SOME FUN STUFF I CAME UP WITH

I like to think that things like queens, ministers, and lords comes in rough cycles. Now some of this delves into things that i truly dont have time to get into(regarding mother dove, the age of the Hollow, fairies interactions with humans, the power of flight, how fairies interact with dust) but im gonna try with what i have.

So imagine, for a moment, that Clarion is not the first queen, and on top of that, the Hollow is not the first location on Neverland that fairies have lived. I headcanon Clarion as a "young" queen, but she is still a little over a thousand years old, with a lot more to go.

Ministers and Lords also follow a cycle, with the one of Lord/Ladies of winter being shorter than that of a Queen, but still pretty long(minimum half of a Queen's expected lifespan), and ministers being less than that(minimum a third of a Queen's lifespan). The average fairy lives a while, but not forever, so it is rare for the average joe to see the changing of Queens, lords, and ministers. There can be exceptions, of course, when someone passes away due to outside causes, or if someone is exiled, but those situations are rare, especially now that fairies live in The Hollow.

With the exception of Spring, i headcanon the current ministers as having Arrived in the last few years of the previous Queen's life, and Milori showing up <10 years after Clarion Arrived as queen. Any fairy alive today(with today being late 18whatever the hell in the movies to the 1940s) would not remember this stuff, but its fun to think about!

#pixie hollow #disney fairies #fairies #my canon #lord milori #queen clarion #apologies for answering so late! college got a hold of me #which i should be used to by now but alas

[floodtech]

Flooded Basements Home and Buildings Safety Precautions

April showers mean spring blossoms. It might likewise mean overwhelmed cellars. The water may yet to have hit its peak yet using any and all means. Still you can depend on more downpour storms, weighty tempests and generally unpleasant weather conditions come this spring and summer.

What might you at any point do you to get ready for a flood and overflowed storm cellars in your home or office? What wellbeing precautionary measures would it be advisable for you to take while tidying up that overflowed storm cellar? Clean your Flooded basement in a risky way and you could cause harm not exclusively to your property yet to your wellbeing to your own and to your family also,

Many have previously experienced cellar flooding. It truly doesn't make any difference what region of the nation or topography you are situated in. It's overall a similar outcome. Water, a storm and overflowed cellars. Throughout the spring defrost particularly as well as all through the mid year avoid potential risk to remain safe in the event that water compromises your abodes lower level.

It is ideal, on the off chance that not fundamental, that prior to flooding happens to switch off the principal power change to your home, office or working while at the same time remaining entirely clear of whatever can direct power. Recall this can incorporate metal lines and stepping stools and, surprisingly, clammy wood, floor coverings and, surprisingly, wet news papers. The subsequent stage in this home security arrangement is to move any enormous machines that you can to the following more significant level of your home. For all that remain raise all you can off the floor utilizing saw ponies and tables.

Heater fan engines, oil consuming engines also as tension frameworks can as a rule be taken out and put away. Too play it safe to forestall sewer reinforcement. This can mean reinforcement valves, a sump with sump siphon pit chamber is frequently suggested. Simply test the siphon to ensure that it works. Also check that the power source hose isn't blocked. More than one property holder has been given the shock of a startling flood when they get back - unforeseen as they had naturally suspected themselves very much safeguarded exclusively to track down that for basic tests quite a bit early would of shown them that either the power source hose was blocked or over the colder time of year time the siphon had been turned off and was absolutely non useful. Frequently these siphons are turned off at different seasons of the either to stop them drying up. The plug is utilized for one more reason or some individual from the family protested the clamor of the sump siphon and accordingly turned off it. Just do these basic checks early. It's certainly worth the blemish on your yearly spring check up list.

In conclusion if your storm cellar floods by all means don't attempt to switch off the primary power switch in your electrical board. It's out and out excessively hazardous. Serious dangers exist when water and electrical frameworks blend in with one another. On the off chance that such a circumstance happens avoid your power switch. Calling proficient as of now is ideal.

You can consider your neighborhood power organization's administration division. Assuming they are too bustling taking care of the host of issues of other property holder's likewise being overwhelmed you might need to spring the money for a circuit tester.

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#Flooded basement Toronto #Flooded basement cleanup #Flooded basement

[f0rever15elf]

Gold Rush

Pairing: Modern!Ezra x f!reader Word count: 6,391 Rating: T+ Warnings: Slight swearing, short description of a brutal injury, mention of medical opiate administration via injection

Find the continuation of the story with Colorado Rocky Mountain High

Summary: It’s been a long time since the precious mineral rush hit the Rockies of Colorado. So when national news breaks of a potential gold vein left untouched in your quiet little town, no one is prepared for the rush that follows. And you certainly weren’t prepared for the man you meet. 

A/N: So, I adore Ezra’s vocabulary and accent. I felt like a modern twist on it could be interesting. Someone really needs to control me when I start writing these oneshots xD

Masterlist |  Ao3

You would never forget the day you first laid eyes on him. He looked a mess, dirt and soot clinging to his sweaty face. Mud clung to his coveralls, and his hair stood up in all directions having just taken his safety helmet off, a little blonde patch catching your eye. He looked positively exhausted as he lounged on a boulder set off a little bit from the rest of the commotion. The grueling heat from the mid-day summer sun did little to help the heat you felt rush to your cheeks when his warm brown eyes locked on yours. You averted your gaze quickly, scurrying off to finish your work in preparing the food for the new prospectors.

Your little mountain town tucked up in a secluded region of the Colorado Rockies had always been exceptionally quiet. That is, until a kid happened to stumble upon the start of what looked to be a gold deposit. It wasn’t unheard of, the mountains were rich with all kinds of valuable minerals. Hell, some of the towns got their names from the gold and silver deposits that brought them to life. Finding something here though, in your quiet and reclusive neck of the woods, was something your town was drastically unprepared for.

News broke nationally and within a week the town was flooded with prospectors and independent contractors all vying for their piece of the pie. The economic boost for the town was good, but the available resources were minimal, and the town felt the burden. There wasn’t enough room in the one bed and breakfast the town had to house them all, making little tent camps near the edge of town a very common sight.

Naturally, the close knit community rose to the occasion, coming together to make community meals for the visitors. Communal lunches were the most anticipated time for the workers, and they would flock to the picnic tables to fill their bellies as soon as the lunch bell rang. Most were nice and talkative, thanking the town for doing this for them, and promising to go visit the shops when they finished for the day. Some kept to themselves, staying quiet. Others would talk your ear off, but you had to approach them first. It was a strange new normal, but one that was easy to fall into routine with.

It’s been a little over a month now, and prospecting is in full swing. The little bit of gold the boy had found was just the beginning of one of the richest gold deposits this region of the Rockies had ever seen. More and more miners made their way to your town every day, and your new full time job became helping with the meals; making food runs down into the nearest large supermarket or tending to the vats of food that seemed to always be simmering away. But even when you were distracted with all of this hubbub, it seemed impossible to forget the man with the small blonde patch.

Today is a grey day. The clouds thick in the sky promise heavy rains. Yet still the lunch bell rings, calling the prospectors from their mine shafts and tents to come and join the community for food. The man with the blonde patch sits closer today, his usual boulder taken over by two of the newer prospectors whose names you had yet to learn. As you work, you feel his eyes following you, watching you like a hawk as you do your best to ignore it. Quite a few of the prospectors spent time ogling you, but this man’s gaze consistently feels different. Arms full of things to take back to your house to clean, you begin making the trek up the incline that leads to your house when lightning cracks the sky. The resounding rumble of thunder through the canyon scares you out of your wits, and the dishes go crashing to the ground as you lose your footing, stumbling backwards. You close your eyes, preparing yourself to hit the ground, knowing you’d be tumbling for a bit before you could regain yourself, but the ground never meets you.

“Careful there, sunshine.” The voice is honey thick, a deep Tennessee drawl that borders on music as it drips from the lips of the man who catches you. Opening one eye, you look up to see the man with the blonde patch holding on to you, having been the one to keep your from falling down the hill. You open your other eye as well, looking up at him for far longer than you are sure was proper before your cheeks grow hot and you scramble to get your footing again.

“I’m so sorry! The thunder frightened me, I didn’t mean to..I just...I – Thank you.” You blabber as you crouch down to start gathering the dropped and scattered dishes, cramming everything back in the chili pot.

“Not a worry, sunshine. Would have been a mighty rough fall there.” He crouches down to help you gather the dishes, only pausing to look to the sky when the first few drops land on his face. You look up with him and sigh.

“It’s going to be a hell of a storm.” His beautiful eyes turn back to you at your comment, an eyebrow raised. “The season is changing,” you grunt, getting to your feet. “Best to make sure your tent is secure, sir. Else this rain and the wind that will come with it will blow it half way down the canyon.”

“I appreciate the advice, but I do not believe that to be something I need concern myself with presently.” The way he spoke, words pouring from his mouth with such sweetness, was unlike anything you had ever heard. “I haven’t a tent to my name, you see. Just the clothes on my back and tools on my hip.”

“You didn’t bring a…?” Your voice tapers off in concern and confusion as the drops fall more rapidly, the rest of the prospectors dispersing to tend to their own things. “Come inside with me. You stay out in a storm like this you’ll get sick. Come on.” Turning, you begin your trudge uphill again, eyes on the sky as you wait for it to bottom out. The strange prospector follows you in silence, his tools clanking on his belt with every step.

And then it happens.

The sky opens up, the deluge drenching you both and you let out a small scream, sprinting down the street to the safety of your porch, the man hot on your heels. “C-Colorado rain is always so damn cold,” you chatter through clenched teeth, opening your front door and kicking off your soaked shoes. You’re half way to the kitchen when you realize the man hadn’t come in after you. Looking back over your shoulder, you see him standing just outside the doorway, the spitting image of a drenched kitten, conflict clear on his face. “Don’t just stand there, come inside where it’s warm.”

“It would be rather impudent of me to make a mess of your home in such a way.” You wave your hand at his comment, setting the dishes on the counter before returning to him.

“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t alright with it. Come on, you’re letting the cold in.” When he still doesn’t move, you roll your eyes and grab his hand, tugging him inside before shutting the door behind you. “You can use my shower to get cleaned up. Go on.” You all but push him down the hall, him protesting in far more words than necessary as you do. “There’s towels in the wicker basket. Use whatever you need.” You turn to leave, stopped only by his hand catching your wrist in his gentle grip.

“Thank you, sunshine.” You look up at him, struck by the sincerity on his face, in his eyes. “I am beholden to your unbridled grace and kindness.” You flash him a shy smile and nod as he drops his hand from your wrist.

“I’ll get you something dry to change in to once you’re done getting cleaned up.” Your voice is soft as you turn, letting him to his business as you go to find him some clothes. It is at this time that you’re beyond grateful that your brothers were so damn forgetful, having left several articles of clothing at your place every time they visit. Humming a low tune, you rummage through their chest of forgotten clothes, pulling out a v-neck you’re pretty sure will fit him along with a pair of gray sweatpants that might be just a touch too short. They were better than nothing, at least. You quickly fold the clothes, setting them in the hallway outside the bathroom door before knocking.

“Sir, there are warm and dry clothes for you in the hall way. I’ll wash your wet ones when you’re out.” Over the sound of the running water, you catch a muffled, loquacious reply. You have only been speaking to him for a few minutes, but he’s already proven to have a more robust vocabulary than most anyone you’d met. Chuckling, you make your way back to the kitchen to get the dishes cleaned up, resuming your humming.

A bit later, you’re interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing. You look over your shoulder to see the prospector there, leaning against the doorway into the kitchen. Relief washes over you when you see the clothes did fit, making a mental note to not tell your brothers that you were giving away their clothes. “Enjoy your shower?”

“The breadth of generosity you’ve show this old man of ill repute is without measure,” sugar sweet words drip from his lips again, bringing a heat to your cheeks.

“Oh please, it’s nothing, really.” You gesture outside to the torrential downpour. “If you have no shelter in this type of weather, it has the potential to bring a rapid end to your prospecting career. The nights are too cold up this high to go to sleep drenched to the bone.” Your eyes rake over his figure, settling on his hair again, sticking out in all sorts of directions after having towel dried it. A smile pulls at your lips before you look back at his face.

“Well, all the same sunshine, I seem to find myself indebted to your good graces.” The corner of his mouth tugs up in a lopsided smirk that makes your heart stutter.

“Well if that’s the case, help me dry the dishes and I’ll call us square.” You grin and toss a towel to him as he joins you at your side. “By the way, I don’t think I ever got your name.”

“How discourteous of me! I go by Ezra. Just Ezra. Pray tell what name such an absolute vision of beauty such as yourself goes by?” You can’t help the giggle that bubbles from your lips as a heat rushes to your cheeks. You give him your name, a nervous air in your voice. He nods, repeating your name back to you and you can’t help the shiver that runs down your spine as your name sounds like liquid gold on his lips. You wouldn’t mind hearing him say it again and again, you think.

“I like that name. Ezra. I think it suits you.” You flash a smile as you hand him a pot to dry. “Tell me though. How have you been here since the rush began, yet still you don’t have so much as a tent to cover your head?” His laugh is deep and rich as he takes the next dish, drying it thoroughly.

“I find it more prudent to be frugal with one’s earnings in such a tumultuous line of business as freelance prospecting. Nature tends to provide what my mortal body needs as far as shelter, so the earnings I amass in mining go towards improving my station.” You nod, turning off the water as you hand him the last plate.

“And you’ve been living this way for how long?”

“By my approximation, I’d say I’m just about at the ten year mark.”

“I can’t imagine the lifestyle is easy…”

“There is an ache that lingers in my bones, no doubt, but the drive to press ever on towards greatness...well, that is what distinguishes those who simply chase a dream of getting rich quick from those of us who yearn for something beyond that which words can describe.” He turns, leaning against the counter to cross his arms, eyes staring off into space. You’re quiet for a moment as you watch him, taking note of the creases on his weathered face. Laugh lines linger along the corners of his lips, and smile lines accent the corners of his eyes. He is beautiful in every sense of the word.

“And when you reach the end of the vein here? Where will you go to next?” His eyes refocus on you and he smiles, pondering the question for a moment.

“I suppose that entirely depends up the riches chanced upon during my toils in your hospitable hamlet.” The way he says riches as his eyes watch you strikes a chord within you, and you have a feeling that it isn’t just the gold he is speaking of. Something about this man bewitched you, and you find yourself struggling to break eye contact with him. His smile is warm and welcoming, but there is something there just below the surface that hints of danger. And it thrills you. Another crack of lightning and rumble of thunder startles you from your trance and you push away from the counter with a nervous chuckle.

“Well, I do hope you’re able to find what you’re looking for here, Mr. Ezra. Please make yourself at home, I’m going to go set your clothes into the wash for you.” You turn and all but sprint down the hallway to the bathroom, Ezra chuckling in the kitchen behind you.

As you start his laundry, you take a moment to compose yourself. Your heart is racing and your hands trembled in a nervous excitement as they braced against the washer. The air around Ezra is different, you think. Something about the man sets him apart from those you had had the chance to speak to so far, and you are determined to figure it out. After calming yourself to a reasonable level once again, you make your way out to join Ezra in the living room. He’s found your meager book collection, helping himself to one of your novels, and the sight of him perched on your sofa with it balanced on his knee looks like the most natural thing in the world.

“Avid reader?” you question, sitting down on the other side of the couch, tucking your feet up underneath you.

“I have been known to indulge when such an opportunity affords itself to me.” He flashes you that lopsided smile that you just can’t help but return before re-affixing his eyes to the text in front of him. You watch him for a time, trying to learn as much about him as you can from his posture, his looks, until your eyes drift to the window behind your couch. The rain blurs the windowpanes, turning the landscape into some abstract watercolor painting and all that can be heard is the sound of the rain accented with the occasional turn of the page as Ezra reads. Relaxing into the couch, your eyes slowly slip shut as you drift off into a peaceful sleep.

When you finally come around, the sun has set and the rains have stopped. The house is quiet save for a gentle fire in the fireplace, one you hadn’t set before falling asleep. A blanket has been delicately draped over you and you smile to yourself. You sit up and rub the sleep from your eyes, searching for the friendly prospector. “Ezra?” Your voice is heavy, still thick with sleep as you stand to look for him. You find him outside on your porch, leaning against the siding as he looks out over the canyon visible from your home. “Ezra? Is everything alright?” He simply nods, not looking over to you. The full moon illuminates his skin in the most radiant of ways, accentuating every curve and plane of his face, brightening that little blonde patch in his hair. It left you near breathless. A shiver runs through you at the crisp mountain air, left cooler after the rains, and you wrap your arms around yourself to cope. Ezra shifts his attention to you.

“You should be inside, sunshine. The cold will do you no favors.” He pushes off of the wall, turning to usher you back inside. You hear it though, the slight sadness in his voice that wasn’t present earlier today. You allow him to lead you back inside, shutting and locking the door behind him before you turn to face him.

“What’s wrong, Ezra?” A flash of emotion crosses his face so quickly you aren’t even sure you actually saw it. But if you did...for a moment he looked almost...pained…

“Nothing, sunshine. The chill of the night just leaves an ache in my bones, is all.”

“You’re lying,” you whisper, stepping closer. Perhaps it was the bleariness of sleep that still lingered with you that emboldened you. Or perhaps it was the tantalizing aura that surrounded him that drew you in. Either way, you find yourself staring up at him, concern shining in your eyes bright as the full moon outside. His smile is forced, you can tell, as he puts his hand on your shoulder.

“Little gem, I promise you, the weight I carry is not something I need burden you with. Your hospitality has been unparalleled, and I will not permit myself to impose on you more than I already have.” His warm, tender eyes search yours, begging for you to listen to him. But stubbornness has always run hot in your veins.

“Didn’t I tell you before?” You reach up and take his hand gently in yours. “I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t sure. Ezra, what’s wrong?” His hand twitches in yours before he gently pulls away, his smile significantly sadder.

“The life of a reprobate like myself should never tarnish the luster of someone like you, sunshine. I will not give you my sins to carry.” He reaches up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear before smiling and moving past you to lay down on the couch. A glance to the clock shows you’ve well missed dinner time, sitting at 8:30 now. With a sigh, you meander back into the living room, taking a seat on the floor in front of the fire, letting the heat warm your soul from the chilly night air.

“We all have our own sins to deal with, you know.” Your voice is low as you watch the sparks wick up the flue. You can feel his eyes on your back, waiting for you to continue. “Everyone has a story. But the mountains don’t care about that. They don’t care about who you were before you arrive here. They don’t care about blood on your hands or the loss you’ve endured. They were here long before us and will remain here long after you or I return to the stardust we are made of.” You turn your head to look over your shoulder to see Ezra still staring at you, the fire flickering in his chocolate eyes. “The mountains offer you a chance, Ezra. That’s why I’m here...and as fate would have it, it’s why you’re here as well.” You turn your face back to the fire, Ezra staying quiet for some time behind you.

“The life I have taken to isn’t an easy one, gemstone.” His voice is low and gruff, his drawl more prominent. “I’ve done things in this life that I am ashamed to admit. Lost as much as I’ve gained, taken as much as I’ve given. And every single soul I’ve urged on to whatever follows this painful existence torments me every time I attempt a moment of respite.” The sigh from his lips is heavier than any weight you’ve ever carried, and it pains you to know he carries it alone. “I tell myself it’ll all be worth it in the end. That I’m toiling away day in and day out for a greater purpose. But it’s been near a decade, gemstone, and the end never nears.”

“You’re tired,” you whisper, turning around to look at him, taken aback by the shine in his eyes. “You’re tired and lonely. I can’t even imagine how heavy your soul feels carrying everything you do all alone, and still managing to put a smile on your face. Lord knows I couldn’t...not ‘till I came here, that is, and the town helped me bare my burden. Ezra, I don’t think it’s a coincidence you ended up here in our town. I really don’t.” You flash him a gentle smile, standing up to grab another spare blanket from the linen box, handing it to him. “Think about it, okay? Stay here for tonight. This cold is no place for anyone right now.” He takes the blanket from your hand, perplexity painting his face as you smile down at him. “Goodnight, Ezra. I hope the fire keeps the specters at bay for you tonight.” He nods as you turn, heading back to your room after turning over the laundry. He was odd, but you liked him.

Bright and early you hear a rummaging in the kitchen, the smell of bacon permeating the air. Stretching, you stumble from bed, following your nose and growling stomach. Ezra is there in your kitchen in just the sweats he was borrowing, humming to himself as he cooks. The broad expanse of his back is littered with faded white scars, some that looked to be from blades, and some from burns. His humming voice is lovely, you think, smiling as you lean against the doorway to watch him. He seems so at home, you feel it inappropriate to disturb him. It’s when he turns to put a bowl in the sink that he catches you from the corner of his eye.

“Well good morning, sunshine. I beg your pardon but I permitted myself the liberty of preparing a warm breakfast for the two of us.” His smile that pulls at his lips is brighter than last night, and you felt certain the dread that plagued him had passed for now.

“Did you sleep well?” You inquire, moving into the kitchen to pull down two glasses to fill them with orange juice.

“A specterless dream for the first time in what seems like forever, gemstone.” He places his hand on the small of your back as he moves past you to keep you from bumping back into him, setting the plate of eggs and bacon on the table. The touch feels electric, and you find yourself shocked in how much you enjoy the feeling.

“The mountains have that effect on a weary soul,” you smile, bringing the glasses over. “Coffee?”

“That would be magnificent. But I don’t presume that the mountains have much to do with the reprieve I was so graciously afforded last night.” Your smile doesn’t fade as you put the coffee pot on to percolate, taking down two mugs after the fact.

“Pray tell what you think might be the source of such a thing?”

“I do believe it might have a thing or two to do with the enchantress that graces my vision in the radiance of the morning light.” Heat floods your cheeks as the coffee pot buzzes, the smell of fresh brew mingling beautifully with that of the bacon. You pour two cups, handing Ezra his before joining him at the table.

“I’m a simple mountain girl, I doubt it has anything to do with me.”

“You humble yourself far too much, gemstone. A heart of purer gold than the ore I mine, and the shining soul to match.” He holds his mug up in a toast before bringing it to his lips. “Ones like you are few and far between.”

“And ones like you even more so, I would say.” You return his toast before serving yourself a bit of breakfast. “Thank you for cooking, Ezra. It was very kind of you to do.”

“But the smallest thanks I could give in return for such philanthropy as what you have shown me these past twelve hours.” He chuckles, eating rather quickly, a habit that you feel was one developed over the long time spent in his lifestyle. He finishes well before you, standing to clear his plate. “I’ve imposed for far too long, I fear. I’ll change and be on my way. Gold doesn’t mine itself, I’m afraid.” You chuckle and nod, standing to stop him as he moves towards the hallway.

“Ezra, you are welcome here always. Tent or no tent, you’re welcome to kick your feet up on my hearth whenever you wish. And I do mean that.” Your voice is soft as you look up at him, eyes to match. He returns your gaze, a gentle smile working his way across his lips as he smooths your bed-messed hair.

“There is that heart of gold, my little gemstone.” The tenderness in his voice warms you through, and your heart aches when he steps away. “But I won’t impose a moment longer.” His smile stays as he goes to collect his clothes, quickly changing in the bathroom before making his exit, heading back down to the mine.

And so the days continue. The miners would come for lunch and you would help to serve it, each day Ezra staying close to you to keep you company. His honey dipped accent brought you more joy than you thought a simple sound could, and it made the days pass more quickly. In the evenings when he was done at the mine, he would come to your doorstep, leaning against the support as he talked with you, reveling in the laugh he was able to earn from you with his tales. Each night, you would offer him a warm place to lay his weary head, but every night was the same. A polite decline and an insistence that he could not allow himself to burden you more than he already had before he would excuse himself, heading back to the ridge where the trees would keep him company.

The night he doesn’t come to talk to you, you find yourself watching out the window for him, worry seizing your heart. The sky had been boiling as you had finished working in your yard for the evening, waiting on the loquacious prospector to come and keep you company as he had for weeks now. Rain was coming, you could feel it in your bones, a chill gripping you as the night grows colder. As far as you knew, Ezra still hadn’t purchased himself a proper shelter to ward off the rain, and that thought terrified you. No one should be out in such conditions, no matter how much they felt they deserved to be.

Lightning cracks the sky, your worried reflection flashing back at you for the briefest of moments as the bottom opens out of the sky. A Colorado thunderstorm, true to form. A shiver runs through you at the thought of Ezra out in this, and you decide it best to start a fire in the event that he happened to stumble to your doorstep. And no sooner have you worked the fire up to a low roar in the hearth, do you hear a knock at the door. You wrap your knit blanket around your shoulders, moving to open the door, and there he stands looking more akin to a drowned rat than you have ever seen. Lightning illuminates his face and all you can see is pain, sending your heart into a sprint as you reach for him, pulling him inside.

“Ezra, oh my God, what happened? Why were you out in this?” You lead him into the living room, sitting him down in front of the fire to dry him out and warm him through. “Are you hurt, what happened?” He only groans, leaning forward until his face rests against your shoulder, his breathing ragged. Your arms gingerly wrap around him, holding him to you. “Ezra, you’re scaring me, what happened?”

“A-Accident. In the mine. Rock slide. Hurt m-my arm…” He groans and your throat all but closes as your blood runs cold. You pull back gently, cradling his chin in your palm. The way his forehead creases in pain terrifies you before you even so much as see his arm. You pull back just enough to see the blood soaking through his drenched jacket, his arm cradled at an unnatural angle.

“Oh fuck…” You pull back, easing him down as gently as possible as you pull out your phone, cradling his head in your lap. After the third ring, a gentle voice answers. “Dr. Renslier, I need you to come to my house right away. I have an injured miner here. His arm is badly hurt and he’s bleeding through his clothes. I’m scared to move him…” Ezra’s breath hitches as he bites back another groan, guilt settling in his stomach at causing you so much worry.

“G-Gemstone, stop those tears…” He reaches up with his good hand, wincing as it jostles his right arm, to wipe the tears from your cheeks. “An incorrigible man such as myself is undeserving of such acts of affection. Save those diamonds, little gem.” You tilt your head into his touch, fear still paralyzing your heart.

Dr. Renslier was the only doctor in town, a retired surgeon from Denver Medical Center. He was the best of the best during his time there, and decided to take his skills to this little community, settling in with his wife and their three dogs. The town loved him, and he was one of the few people you would trust with your life in a fraction of a heart beat. So when your door opens and you hear his voice calling from the doorway, a wash of relief floods over you. He kneels next to Ezra, already pulling out scissors to cut away the bloodied jacket. The sight this reveals has your stomach turning and you fight to keep dinner down.

“W-Well? How bad is it doc?” Ezra’s usually rich voice is weak and strangled as he battles with the pain. “Give it to me st-straight.”

“It’s...not good. I don’t think...I don’t think we can save it.” Bone protruded through what was left of the skin in multiple places, the breaks jagged and splintered. “Even if we were in Denver I don’t think I could...save this.” He rummages in his bag for a syringe, tapping out the air before squeezing the flesh of Ezra’s shoulder, administering the injection. “That will help with the pain.” He grumbles about the storm as he pulls out a tourniquet, tying it off just below the shoulder. “We need to get him to the office. He’s going to need a transfusion and I need to operate, now.” You nod as you shift out from under Ezra, him already feeling the effects of what you could only assume was morphine, before helping the doctor to carry him to the car. You elect to ride along, knowing he would need help getting Ezra inside before the nurse on duty would take over.

As soon as you are ushered from the operating bay, you stagger to a chair, sitting down heavily as the adrenaline finally wears off. Tears brim and spill over once again before you drop your face to your blood covered hands, sobbing. Eventually, your sobs turn to whimpers turn to pained sniffles before exhaustion overtakes you, succumbing to a fitful sleep. You are awoken by the nurse, a gentle, pity-filled smile on her face. “He’s out of surgery and resting in a bed now. We need to get you cleaned up before you can see him, ok? We have a set of scrubs you can wear for now.” You simply nod, getting up to follow her as she leads you to the bathroom. The scrubs are folded neatly on the bench by the sink and you smile despite yourself.

Once clean and dressed, you make your way back out to the hall, the nurse waiting to lead you to the recovery beds. You feel as if you could collapse in sobs once more seeing Ezra laid up as he is, face pale and IV drip in his arm. Small bandages littered his face and what you could see of his left arm. As for his right...all that was left was a nub just below his shoulder, tied off in a neat bandage. You draw up a seat next to him, taking his hand in yours, drawing circles along the skin with your thumb. You would wait here for him to wake, you decide.

And so you do, falling asleep with his hand in yours. The feeling of his hand twitching in yours is what wakes you, your eyes snapping open to check on him. The groan that slips from his lips sounds so pained. Slowly, his eyes flutter open, squinting at the bright lights of the med bay before they land on you. A smile tugs at those lips of his when he realizes you were still there, beside him, and he squeezes your hand weakly.

“My little gemstone…” His voice is hoarse, but sweet, traces of that honey slowly returning. “Did you stay here the whole time?”

“As long as they would let me, Ezra.”

“You really didn’t nee-” You cut him off before he could finish the sentence.

“I wanted to. Please don’t ask me to leave, Ezra, because I won’t. I’m not leaving your side.” Rich chocolate eyes grow glassy at your proclamation, hips lips pressing into a tight line, but he nods all the same, secretly relieved that you wanted to stay with him.

“You must believe me a damn fool for finding myself in such a predicament.” His voice is tinged with humor, and you flash him a tired smile, shaking your head.

“It was an accident, Ezra. You said so yourself. I’m just relieved you’re alive to joke about it.” You return the squeeze to your hand and his eyes travel down to where you have interlocked your fingers with his. “Ezra,” you say quietly, drawing his eyes back to yours. “I want you to stay with me.”

“Well, I imagine that will certainly be preferable to the minute comforts an institution such as this could afford me whilst I recover as best I can…” His voice trails off, tight at the end of his statement as he looks to what remains of his arm.

“That’s not what I mean,” you whisper, your voice trembling with trepidation. Concerned eyes find yours again, an eyebrow arched. “I want you to stay with me. No more roaming, no more running...stay here. After the rush leaves, I want you to stay. With me.” His lips part slightly as you vocalize a desire he has had since the day he first followed you home.

“Sunshine, I couldn’t possibly be such a burden on you.”

“Dammit you bullheaded man! Listen to me! You aren’t a burden, you aren’t a hassle. Arm or no arm, I want you here, with me. Sharing my home, my life. I want that, Ezra.” You pick up his hand, bringing it to your lips to brush them over his knuckles. “I want you. I want an us…” You clench your eyes closed and you feel him pull his hand away before he lays it against your cheek.

“Gemstone...look at me.” You do as asked, looking up at him with glassy eyes that match his own. “Do you mean it? Do you really want me here? Is that what your heart is singing to you?” You nod, laying your hand over his against your cheek.

“Yes, Ezra, and I think it has been since the day you followed me home. Please, Ezra…” Confliction flashes in his eyes as he watches your face, your tears spilling over once more and he quickly wipes them away with the calloused pad of his thumb.

“No tears for me, little gemstone. I...I’ll stay…” You blink, almost not believing the words that came from his mouth.

“You...you mean it?”

“I do. My bones are tired, gem. My soul is tired. And since you extended such kindness to me that night, my dreams have left me in peace. All I dream about are your eyes which hold galaxies and your musical laugh. And being next to you…” You turn your head to nuzzle his hand, warmth flowing through you as you take in his words before you look back to him.

“We’re not so different then. You haven’t left my dreams, or my thoughts, since that night.” Ezra chuckles lowly before letting out a yawn, sinking back into the pillows. “Rest now, alright? I’ll be here when you wake.” He nods, pulling your hand away from where it holds his to your face, bringing it to his lips to place a feather-light kiss to your knuckles before laying it to rest by his side, his eyes slowly slipping shut.

The gold rush brought many people to your quaint little mountain town; miners and prospectors, dreamers and fighters, men and women with delusions of grandeur and those just trying to scrape by. But out of all of them, all of those you had befriended in your time helping to ensure they were fed, the one most important to you was Ezra. You don’t think it was a coincidence he ended up running to the same town you did so many years ago. The universe worked in ways no mere mortal would every truly understand. But that didn’t matter. So long as you had him by your side, the universe could act however it saw fit. Because with Ezra here beside you, your two weary souls could finally find solace in the cradle of the mountains.

~~~~~

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Tag lists are open! Requests are open!

#Ezra #ezra prospect #ezra x reader #ezra x you #ezra prospect x reader #ezra prospect x you #ezra x f!reader #ezra prospect x f!reader #prospect #pedro pascal #my fic

[fayeimara]

Meant To Be Series || One For Every Billion

5. Thank Some Gods

You end up in Hyogo for a real hot minute over your winter break, thanks to your cousins Akira and Akari who decided to drag you along when they were forced to visit with their mom and older brother. Being a year older then them and already a seasoned solo traveller, the parents all thought you'd be a great chaperone. Woohoo, yay you.

Truth be told, you love spending time with them and you're really happy to be able to see your aunt and other cousin, their brother Kazuya, that you'd missed over the summer, as well. Although you did have to apologize to Tobio and his family because when you'd promised you would stay with them next, you should have specified you meant next time you were in Miyagi. Not Japan in general. You think they were just taking the piss though.

Oh right, your vulgar new phrases are courtesy of Akira, thank her very much. Spend a few minutes in the twins' company and you end up talking like them, or whatever their west coast academy friends are currently teaching them, at least. Akari has a valley girl phase going and you think Akira is gearing up for a Tarantino-inspired life. Can't see how your family is let that going to happen, but it's not your job to tell him that.

"Y/nnn, did you try this dango!" Akira runs right into you, appearing from the crowd of people on the festive street of the shopping district you're in, and locks her free arm around yours while waving a stick with round balls on it in other other hand.

"No, but I waited 10 minutes standing still in the cold and crowd so you can bet that I will. Half of that is already mine."

"Hmph," She scoffs, "No one told you to stand still and wait around, silly."

You give her an exasperated look, "You literally said, 'stay there a minute, I'm grabbing us some sweets!' and bounced off."

"Okay, okay, chill your roll, girl."

"Not sure that's a saying, girl."

"Maybe not at the snooty east side preps."

"Yo." Akira appears on your other side. "Half that's mine."

"A third. Or none at all." Akari sticks her tongue out at her twin.

He looks over at you and you nod, twisting quickly so you can grab and hold her occupied arm still while he plucks the dango from her hand.

"Hey! Looks like it's none at all!"

"No. Looks like it's half mine, half Y/n's." He bites off one of the chewy balls (okay, we all know how that sounds.. slow your roll, girl) before holding the stick in front of your face so you can grab one too. Oh wow. It is good. Why did you wait so long to try it? So many years wasted without enjoying this sweet texture.

You can see your third cousin approaching, holding onto a tray of steaming drinks, as you chew over your thoughts on the delicious dessert (see what you did there?).

"I got your coffee", he holds the tray between us so I can grab one of the cups with my free hand, but like.. Kazuya, which one is it?

"Kazuuu, they're bullying me!" Akari pouts for sympathy only for Akira to fire back almost before she reaches the last word.

"She bullied me first!"

Instead of responding to either, he rolls his eyes at their bickering but they're only having fun. You've never met siblings that have each other's backs more than these two. You think Kazuya misses it too, having decided to study in Japan and live with his mom who consequently chose to work here, while the other two live with their dad - but really at a boarding school - back on the American west coast.

"Whatever, are you grabbing your drinks or what?"

Akari only smiles at her older brother's deadpan expression, "Which one is my hot chocolate, niichan?"

"Please don't call me that."

"Why not?"

But it's Akira who answers with a snicker, "Because you don't even go here, brat. It's cringy coming from you."

"Shut up, ugly clone."

"That's literally impossible unless you're calling yourself ugly too."

Okay, you're just going to go for the cup closest to you on your left. You pick it up and sip slowly... success. The sweet, warm flavour of your white chocolate mocha slides down your throat.

Kazu is giving you an arch look now, he knows how much you live for coffee but he's still going to say something about it, right? "You know it's already dark out, I don't know how you can drink this stuff so late. Don't you want to get some sleep tonight?"

"Bold of you to assume I need sleep." You smirk at him over the rim of your cup while Akari makes an attempt at snatching the remaining dango back from her brother around you. Please don't make me spill.

"Nah, I just assume you're a robot and this is your regular maintenance or something."

You consider his words before shrugging, nothing too mean that you can call him out on, you guess. "Down the hatch then."

"Sure thing, but I'm not staying up late bingeing your crappy shows with you when you're wired."

"But you'll binge a non-crappy show?"

"Maybe."

Another smile for your favourite cousin of the minute. He did get you coffee, you know. Akari's managed to grab the third sweet off the stick with her mouth like some rabid animal, but it makes sense because the hand not still holding onto you is holding back Akari's arm. They're going to smac-

And they hit the tray that Kazu was only just holding. He somehow manages to grab one of the drinks you assume is his out of it's spot while avoiding the wreckage spill of the other two cups. He didn't even try to hold on to it, which is partly why you're laughing as both twins start simultaneously apologizing and complaining about their spilled drinks.

Kazuya's deadpan expression is actually pretty communicative for the the moment, "I'm not going back for another, this is on you guys."

"Kazu, do you like being mean to us?" They actually ask this at the same time but Kazu's not even phased.

"Yes, I want you to suffer." He's dry as ever.

You chuckle but they're so sweet, most of the time, so you'll make it up for them, "I passed a stall selling hot chocolate, since we don't need to replace my specialty coffee, I can go there to get you some."

"Me too?" Akira asks hopefully.

"Yes, you too, puppy."

He rolls his eyes, trying to adjust his expression back into an uncaring one. It's more natural on his brother currently, but you can definitely see him grow into a more serious demeanour someday.

"I'll come with you while these two stay put." Kazu gives his younger siblings a stern look.

"No need," You wave him off, grabbing the stick with the last piece of dango and handing it to him, "Enjoy this as repayment from us all for making you go all the way back into the mall for our drinks. In the meantime, I'll be right back."

"Hold on, you're going to the one next to the onigiri stand, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay, straight there and back in fifteen minutes or I'll come find you. And if I have to worry, I won't be happy."

"Okay niisan." You roll your eyes with your sarcastic tone. Older brothers. No wonder he and your brother Raiden get along so well, they're under some misassumption that their younger siblings just can't help getting into trouble, as if you all only live to annoy them. And he was doing so well as your favourite cousin for the time being.

You stroll away from the benches you were waiting at by the end of the street where the outdoor stalls meet the main street shopping mall and melt back into the crowd. This festival really is something, so brightly lit with pretty twinkling lights strung up everywhere and curled around any available post like glowing, warm yellow vines. You absolutely love the vibe but you know you're on a time crunch.

You notice the onigiri stand just ahead of the drink stall and debate for a quick second before stopping in the surprisingly short line up. A piece each of sweet dessert does not a stomach fill. Unfortunately, just as you take a sip of your coffee, someone bumps into you from behind, causing it to spill over your lips and dribble down your chin but you adjust enough in time, holding the cup out and away from you, so that you're not covered in any more than that and the little bit on your hand.

You hate wet clothing with a passion, especially when it's cold outside and it clings to you with that awful chilly, sticky feel. Not so bad when it's on your coat, but on principle, that's just as unpleasant if you run the cuff of your sleeve over it or it get on the collar and then you have the tiniest bit of discomfort right by sensitive skin and that makes it all the more glaring.

You realize the person who bumped into you also reached out to steady you at the same time and is now speaking, "Shit, I'm so sorry."

It's a little quiet but you make out his apology through his thick dialect. Hm, you think that's where the odd changes in Kazu and his mom's speech are coming from, a regional osmosis of accents?

"No worries, it's pretty crowded." You only half turn while you search your pockets for a tissue or napkin, spotting a flash of grey in your peripherals. Then an arm covered in that grey reaches out to hold a napkin in your field of view and you finally look up to see who it belongs too.

And now you're just staring. Hi there, I'd like hear your voice more. Preferably while you stare at his mouth move on his beautiful face. You can't believe he just had his hand on your waist, even if it was just for a split second and over layers of clothes, and you didn't get to appreciate it.

"It's not dirty." He shakes the napkin, you're assuming because he thankfully thought you were thinking that over instead of ogling him.

You chuckle, thinking how you definitely need to send thanks to some divine power on the new year for all the interactions with some serious eye candy these past six months, but out loud you say, "I really need to thank some gods out there, huh?"

What?

He gives you a confused look but you catch yourself and, before he can respond and question your sanity, quickly follow up with, "Or just you. For this. Thank you for the napkin."

"S'alright. Wasn't a big favour, really, just makin' up for my fault bumpin' into ya." You're not sorry he did, though? You can't tell what he's thinking, this guy is a closed book, folks. It's kind of jarring, since you consider yourself exceptional at reading people and acclimating to them.

You finally actually accept the napkin and wipe at your mouth and chin first, then your hand, responding, "At least you didn't make me drop the coffee or we would have had a real problem."

You think he realizes you're teasing because the corner of his mouth actually inches up the tiniest bit. You're not imagining, you swear it on your mocha!

"Coffee this late?"

"It's 11am somewhere."

"Ya wake up at 11am?" What an interesting thought process he has.

"Are you not on winter break? Or do you just assume your typical hours in every conversation no matter what day of the year it is?"

"Huh." You think he sounds thoughtful? Or was it just the word and you're associating it with how you use it..

"That's not an answer, but I'll take that to mean you go the typical route." You smile again because like you said, he's unreadable and you really don't want him to think you're being bitchy. You're really grateful for the napkin. And that face. So... yeah.

You're moving up, thankfully, because you thought you were blessed but this is just turning into what feels like an awkward encounter.

"I like sleepin' in, but sometimes I get too hungry so I'm up when my stomach is."

You look back at him in surprise, obviously because he bothered to continue a seemingly closed conversation, but that quickly turns into amusement and commiseration, "Oh I know! It's mostly coffee for me because not a lot of people bother to make breakfast in my house, but if I smell something delicious cooking, I forget I'm not a morning person."

He does smile fully then and it's beautiful. "Me too, but I'm usually the one doing the cookin'."

"Oh wow, that's dedication. I can respect but never reach that ideal." You hold your hand to your heart in a silly salute but also because he's still smiling and you're trying to tell your unreliable organ to be still. Not too still though, you're enjoying the moment and want to keep living it.

"Eh, I'm used to it."

"Well then, for once, let someone else take care of your food. I'll get your order for you."

"Seriously? It was just a napkin and my fault too.."

"Yeah, no, don't worry about it! Consider it a gift in essence of the festival!"

He doesn't say anything for a moment before, "I was going to try the different flavours. That's a lot."

"No way, that's awesome! I'll do that too, I don't even know what they have available, I just stopped here on a whim on my way there." You indicate the stand next to the one you're almost to the front of with a wave of your hand.

"Ahh.. if ya like, I can suggest some?"

You happily smile at him as you accept, "That would be great, thank you so much."

The two of you step up to the counter together and you listen while he orders. While you both wait for them to place each of your requests, he explains some of the fillings and why they work best depending on personal taste and even situation. You tell him about having just tried dango, sad about having realized you missed out so long, and he actually smiles widely at your exaggerated pained expression but also recommends some other desserts, including which shops to stop at in the city.

It's starting to snow as you two talk, which is not rare but still unusual for this region, but thankfully it's not much longer before you're each handed your containers and move aside. You look over to him and laugh when you realize this guy is already munching on one of the onigiris, your breath puffing out in a small cloud before you. "Which one is it?"

"Fatty tuna." He talks around it with his own little puffy cloud and it's pretty cute actually, instead of the usual cringe when people talk with their mouths full. Oh, the benefits of being good looking. Also, he's tilted his head down ever so slightly so it's almost polite in a perfected way.

"I'm just going to go ahead and assuming you're enjoying it."

He nods while swallowing and then makes some pretty intense eye contact while speaking way too seriously, "Thank you. This is amazing."

You smile, feeling like in the minutes the two of you were conversing, you've gotten a little more comfortable with the minute changes in his expressions. "You're welcome. I'm going to head over to the drink stall now, but it was nice to meet you!"

With a laugh as you walk away, you also add, "And thank you for sharing your knowledge with me, at least I'll know where to feed myself when I'm craving different things this week."

You're turning away as he seems to stand there watching you with some hesitation, but you can't do all the heavy lifting in a conversation when you're on a time limit, so you'll chalk this up to another fun run-in with a cute guy for the books.

You're lucky there's no line up, you're really short on your deadline and your fingers are getting pretty cold along with your coffee, so you pay for the hot chocolate, they pour, and you're back off towards the end of the street where your cousins are waiting.

You can't move too fast given the bag dangling from the wrist of the hand that's also carefully holding the tray of four hot chocolates, but the crowd is also thinning out a little now with the snow. Hopefully, if you're a couple minutes behind the expected time, the diverse and sheer amount of onigiri you have in the bag you're now holding, as well as the new round of warm drinks, will bring you forgiveness.

You finish up the last, cool dregs of your coffee just as you pass by a trash can, making the split decision to quickly reverse so you can toss your cup and free up a hand. As you execute your smooth move and then turn back, you unsurprisingly bump into someone yet again. Not so smooth then, you think, looking up.

It's deja vu and for a split second, you consider that he might actually be a weirdo and followed you, because stopping in your path as an apology drops from your lips is the guy you were only just talking to, same face, same dark hair, even same height... but with a different jacket on.

It takes you all of one more second to notice the small differences like the eye colour, the way the hair naturally parts, and the slightest difference in size, not to mention the more obvious difference in openness and personality literally exuding from this one. He's actually smiling wide right away with no provocation. So not a weirdo who changed his jacket and followed you.

Also, have you ever considered the odds of multiple sets of twins being in pretty much the same place at the same time?

"Oh, there's another one of you, huh?" You're talking again before he even has a chance to respond to your apology, but you guess you feel familiar thanks to your brief encounter with his twin. "That's unfair, don't you think?"

You step around him calling out, "Anyways, sorry about that. Enjoy your night." and walk away, back towards your own set of twins.

Ugh, Kazu's going to kill you. You won't be making it in time, for sure.

Miya Atsumu's POV

Atsumu turns to follow the stunning girl's progress as she moves around him and away, catching her last words but still more interested in her previous statement. 'There's another one of you, huh?'.

People have been confusing him and his twin for as long as they've been alive and only those that know them really well can only sometimes make out the difference.

It's no longer amusing, and actually irritating enough that he and 'Samu have been considering a little aesthetic change some time next year, maybe before their first year of high school.

'Tsumu knows it's his brother without looking when someone walks up to his left side from behind him. What he's surprised by is his first words, "She think you were me? I was talkin' to her a bit at the stall."

When he glances over, he notices 'Samu staring after her as well, with a lot more interest than simple, piqued curiosity. Does he know her?

"No.." He contemplates her words again before sharing with his brother, "She said 'There's another one of you, huh? That's unfair, don't you think?' and then walked away."

He can feel 'Samu looking over at him curiously, "Did ya talk to her?"

Why is he asking? He hasn't even picked up a new onigiri from the open box in his hand. "I just bumped into her. Didn't even say a word. Do ya know her?"

"Like I said, I only just met her." Pausing, 'Samu seems to think it over before adding, "We only talked a few minutes, maybe."

The twins are silent for another couple moments, while the snow continues to drift around them. The girl is long gone, swallowed up by the crowd at this point, but they keep staring at where they last saw her retreating figure, each in their own intrigued thoughts.

Finally, 'Samu's the one who breaks the silence, "Do ya believe in coincidences, 'Tsumu?"

"No, 'Samu, ya know I don't."

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Behind The Scenes!

-Tee was called out in the first thread because he doesn't use emojis often, especially not the half assed ones he used for a scenario like that so... caught slipping lmao (aw he does care about Y/n <3 Maybe more than he should?)

-Y/n was NOT expecting to get called out like that for saying she likes Oikawa when she'd literally just called him her friend... Iwa, you slick wingman ;) <3 He might bully the shit out of Oikawa (to keep him in check though) but he really is his best friend :')

-Ushi says what he means and means what he says lol, yeah, he wasn't really surprised

-Y/n's friends aren't all necessarily happy about this development; they've been aware of her various interactions as they usually are (some more than others) but... they're getting older and, well, all not sharing as much with each other as they once did

-But they're still going to call her out and roast her because they're her best friends lmao who else will? They have to keep her in check too loool

-Oikawa's last reply... <33 Take it how you will :D

-And Shin just dropping in to screenshot his cousin's embarrassing moments, hoping for a dirty delete so he can roast her all over again for the same crime lmao, probably shouldn't have warned her though... whoops

-I HC the Miyas' hair dyeing happening at/around their first year of HS, anyone know any different? It was only Osamu's jacket that was grey in Y/n's peripherals, just a little tease for us all ;)

A/N: Guys, I'm really, really sorry about the Miyas' 'accent'... you might see a couple different attempts in there but I had to edit a lot of what I tried out because it sounded just awful however I was originally trying to write it earlier. If you guys do have any suggestions, I'm very much all hears (and eyes lol - heart eyes specifically because I've seen some write them incredibly well!).

That aside, I hope you all enjoyed this one, I loved writing it so much, it just flowed once I started and I love the Miya twins, each in their own way <33 I've been dying to introduce them and the other 'main' characters but there's definitely going to be a difference in the weight of interactions Y/n has for a while. It's not favoritism, I promise; Y/n's time spent with various characters is just going to be uneven at various points due to the natural progression of her story :') but I plan for it all to even out as we move along the years (:

Taglist: @delusivist, @prettyinblack231, @kac-chowsballs, @sakusasimpbot

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu soulmate au #poly relationship #haikyuu x you #haikyuu suna #haikyuu osamu #haikyuu atsumu #haikyuu kuroo #haikyuu oikawa #haikyuu bokuto #haikyuu fanfic #haikyuu smau #hq smau #haikyuu smau series #haikyuu x f!reader #hq #suna x reader #osamu x reader #atsumu x reader #kuroo x reader #oikawa x reader #bokuto x reader #suna rintarō #miya osamu #miya atsumu #kuroo tetsurō #oikawa toru #bokuto kotaro #haikyuu x y/n

[pixelrose-voidpunk]

PNW gothic

(That’s Pacific North West in case you live somewhere that doesn’t share a name with another notable location in the same country, leading you to use your region name rather than your state because god fucking forbid people think you live in DC)

You go for a walk. It’s the same walk you always do. Today you see someone, he walks too straight and his clothes are too clean. You cross the street and keep your head down. You don’t walk that route again.

There are deer all over the place until hunting season opens. Your cousins complain about it. They’ll be there one day and gone the next. The moment it ends they’re back. It’s almost like they know.

There’s room to breathe, trees in between everything. They refuse to mow down the green belt between one housing complex and the next, between the old folks apartments and the Fred Meyer. There’s direct access to trees wherever you are. You can see the buildings on the other side of the green belt, but when you pass the tree line you see nothing but the dark expanse of towering firs that go on forever.

Contrary to popular belief it doesn’t rain that often up here, unless it’s winter. Actually it’s rather rare, especially in spring and summer. It hasn’t rained in weeks, the clouds collect until you can swear you see them sag with weight. And then it comes all at once, one day where the sky dumps water to the starving scorched earth. Your driveway is flooded, it’s not safe to leave your house. You hear it pounding on the metal roof, your roof isn’t metal, it wasn’t metal yesterday but it is today. The thunder rolls in. You crack open your window just a bit to listen. And just like that it’s dry again. It hasn’t rained in weeks.

Last year the foxgloves were purple. This year they’re pure snowy white. You have no idea what that means but it’s so very beautiful... so... beautiful......

You own five umbrellas. They sit by every door of your house. You don’t know where they came from, and you never use them. You own six umbrellas. You wish you brought one when you left the house, you have so many and it’s so wet today. But you never remember. You own seven umbrellas.

On the Internet you see posts of people fearing the things in the woods, in the fields, on the sides of the highway and in the corners of their vision in the dark on a camping trip. You scoff, safe in the embrace of the forest. Perhaps it’s different back east, but you know that nothing in this forest could be more dangerous than what’s outside of it.

You made the mistake of getting attached to someone normal, getting too comfortable with your cousins new wife, or a guy in your college classes. They seem so normal, so sweet, maybe this one will be different. But eventually they slip up and their true voice scratches through, harsh and grating, tripping over human tongues not built for their hellish language. You were never safe here. It’s not nicer here, they just learned how to camouflage.

The mountain is bigger. It’s always big but it’s getting bigger. The eruption is overdue, they say. When it blows every city on the west side is gone, everyone will die in minutes. You laugh and take a picture, the mountain looks so big and pretty today!

Your doorbell rings, you freeze. No one rings the doorbell, every one of your neighbors has a unique knock. You didn’t order anything, nor are you expecting anyone. You duck down beneath the window, close the blinds, shut off the tv. The doorbell rings again. You press your ear to the door and you can hear their ravenous breathing, the gnashing of their teeth. You text your neighbors but they already know. The next three blocks go silent in a wave. You chance a peek between the blinds of your living room window. Oh god, those used to be children those used to be human... you went to highschool with him. Oh g o d

Your friend hands you a rock. You keep it. You find a rock. You keep it. There’s a rock on your dresser and you don’t know where you got it. You give it to the cashier at the 7/11, the one with pink hair and eyes that are still human. She keeps it.

At 1 am on the dot the coyotes howl. Every night. So many of them. You never find whatever it is they killed. You live in a suburb.

I don’t care if he was your best friend in middle school. I don’t care if you were in love with him. Either he’s dead or he was never what he looked like. None of them were. Hide in the forest. The forest never lies.

A new church pops up on a corner, just yesterday it was an empty lot. It’s an ugly building, with a weirdly large parking lot. It doesn’t exactly say what sort of church it is, some rambling name that looks computer generated. “Church of the love of the cross of Baby Jesus”. There’s never anyone there but you get a pamphlet shoved under your welcome mat anyway, it has you full name written on it. You get an email from a friend you had in high school, she invites you to a charity dinner at the church. You block her on everything you can think of and change your commute to not pass that church anymore.

Everyone you meet is a witch. Sometimes they don’t even notice. Can you accidentally do witchcraft? Is that a thing that can happen? It’s like it’s infectious. But it’s better than the alternative. At least you know the witches are safe. One day you wake up with an altar on your dresser. You’re a witch.

It’s Tuesday and there’s a riot in Downtown Seattle. It’s so bad, the city is trashed, they’ll never recover. The next day no one is even talking about it. you can’t even remember what the riot was about, was there even one? Next Tuesday, there’s a riot in Downtown Seattle....

#regional gothic #pnw gothic

[jeanjauthor]

Hello, hope you’re having a good day. I was wondering for you lovely expertise. I’d like to write more of ladies in my little book, since it’s highly undervalued in books, and want each regions to have their own distinctive style. Also all the gossip happens whilst they’re embroidering. It’s historical based and but it’s quite a mesh of different cultures at different times yet the foods pretty European mediveal and south Asian based it’s not nearly sexist. Have you got any style ideas or types?

I’ll presume you mean it’s a non-Earth setting that’s pre-industrial medieval in its tech level, with influences from South Asia and Europe.

If it’s pre-industrial, then they won’t have instantaneous communication with far-flung places...but you can still have them living within, say, walking distance of each other.  How?  Well, if it involves a whole bunch of different styles and regions and foods, etc, you will want some sort of crossroads city for your characters to live in. Examples of highly multicultural cities include Rome, Constantinople, Mumbai, Hangzhou, places like that. 

Port cities are great for this because sailing can be faster than land-based travel (boats with sails don’t get tired so long as the wind keeps blowing more or less steadily), but land-locked crossroads are doable, too--cities along the Silk Road, for instance, would see a flux of travelers seasonally, and some would bring their families, or fall in love, settle down, and stay.  You definitely will want to consider a couple of things though, and trade with other regions is merely the first of them.

European medieval...well, everything...was influenced by its climate.  The foods that could be grown, the architecture needed to survive the hotter Mediterranean areas or the very cold taiga (subarctic forests) of Scandinavia, and everything in between.  They developed many methods of preserving foods to keep it from going rotten, but a lot of it relied on smoking, drying, salting, and even freezing  (icehouses were a thing in some regions even before it became industrialized).  Clothing styles are definitely designed more for surviving the cold and staying warm than in keeping cool, and to keep their clothing warm even when wet (yay wool).

South India (except in the more mountainous areas) tend to be very hot and vacillates between hot and dry and very very wet (yay monsoon season).  Food preservation did include salting, dehydrating, smoking, but very little freezing, and the flavoring profiles were completely different, as (unlike herbs) a lot of spice plants actually require a hot climate to grow.  (People trying to grow peppers in Alaska are still having a hard time despite decades of careful cultivation, breeding, and selecting for cold-weather hardiness.)  South Asian clothing styles are designed to keep the wearer cool and comfortable, and to dry quickly when it rains (yay sari fashion, the one garment that has been in continuous use / popularity for over 5,000 years).

So you’re going to have to decide what kind of region this city is located in, and what kind of weather and/or seasons it experiences.  From there, you can figure out what kinds of architecture they’ll have, the size of the windows, whether they’re covered all year round (glass, oiled parchment, sheets of horn, etc), or only partial, or narrow pierced openings to keep the air flowing while keeping out hot sunlight, etc.

From that, you can also interpret what kinds of clothing people will be wearing.  If cultural identity is strong, some groups will cling more to their saris and chamsas, while others will wear their hose and their houppelandes, or their Norse apron dresses, their great kilts, whatever.  (Archer hoodies, aka mantles, will be popular across a wide range of eras; they’re great for keeping head, shoulders, and a bit of the chest dry in the rain, and you can turn them into those fancy cockscomb hats if you know how--ask me if interested!)

Once you have climate, architecture, clothing established, figure out which foods will be locally available, which will be imported, from how far away, and whether or not any special equipment is needed for growing said food--if glass is a locally produced commodity, with sand reserves and limestone for flux (lowering the temperature) and plenty of wood or coal for burning in the furnaces, it is possible that a colder climate has glazed greenhouses in which to grow the plants that need hot conditions to produce spices, for example.  Or it’s just that all the colder climate foods are grown on the north-facing slopes of nearby hills, and there are irrigation canals everywhere to keep everything watered.

(If it’s a world with magic, do consider the ecology of how the magic is generated, used, spent, where it goes when it’s used up, how difficult it is to use, what system is required to access it (inner energies of a mage, special runes or material components, the blessing of a deity or patron entity, etc).)

If it’s not going to be nearly as sexist (thank youuuu!!  *gives you a basket of hugs, prepackaged in biodegradable shrinkwrapped, magically enchanted in stasis so they’re a fresh-from-the-dryer snuggly warm blanket kind of hug*), then you’ll want to decide what legal protections females (and/or any nonbinary folks) have.  What positions they can hold, how much of their personal belongings and/or income they can retain or control, what they’re legally allowed to inherit, and what say they have in who they marry or what job they take up, what apprenticeships they can hold, etc.

You don’t have to shove it in people’s faces, but you can definitely weave it throughout the story--Guildmistresses of various craft positions, noblewomen in leadership roles, royalty inherits based either on the firstborn, period, or on whoever is deemed the most competent--this can be an interesting plot point for a disaffected male “heir” who was set aside in favor of his more competent sister, etc--and in other ways.  You can also have women warriors being taken seriously, whether they’re town guards or kingdom soldiers, and women sailors being treated as equal to the men, without the superstition of “a woman on a ship will curse it!!!1!”  which was the medieval version of “ewww, girl cooties!” I guess... (idek *eyerolls at medieval/age of exploration men*)

Your plot will also have a lot to tell you about the world these people live in.  If they’re embroiderers who gossip a lot, are they living in a town where their embroidery is sought out by merchants from near and far?  How valued by their society is it?  Are they plotting while embroidering to change certain laws, social situations, etc, because “nobody would suspect embroiderers of favoring the disposed Crown Prince over his sister, since surely the sister will buy all their wares? (except she doesn’t; the crown princess expects them to provide it for free, how dare!!)”

I have no idea what your plot might be, but it can give you directions and ideas if you think about it.  The most important thing to remember in all of this is that all these things interweave together.  Sometimes this will cause problems (side plots!--zomg we’re all out of purple thread and the crown princess will kill us for not having any purple dye!!) and sometimes this will create solutions (sending secret messages to the prince’s supporters via embroidery!!), etc, etc.

Hope that helps at least somewhat!

#RewritingForFeminism

#MultipleCulturesInOnePlace

#answers

[shannrussell-blog1]

What is a Camino?

The word ‘Camino’ in Spanish simply means path, road, way, journey. The Camino de Santiago is a network of paths that lead to a cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Throughout Europe, there are hundreds of these paths that all lead to many different places of worship. It is said to be one of three main pilgrimages that all sins can be forgiven, the other two are Via Francigena ending in Rome and Jerusalem.

The Camino de Santiago or ‘The Way of St James’ has become the most popular of all paths and has existed since the medieval times, however it is believed to have been a path of significance beforehand with the ancient pagans and even suggested with the Romans who concurred Spain and perhaps Santiago de Compostela was even a Roman shrine.

For Christian pilgrims, the route to Santiago is of importance and is said to be the burial site of St. James when his remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to the north-west of Spain then buried at the site of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

Why do people undertake this journey?

Not all pilgrims in these modern times walk necessarily for religious reasons. Some walk for personal spiritual growth, others for the experience, some for the challenge. Whatever the reason, the popularity has grown considerably since the 1980s when the Camino Francés was declared the first European Cultural Route and even more so in recent years as more people become more aware of its existence through movies, such as ‘The Way’ and ‘Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago’. Also, with social media and people sharing their journeys online it also encourages others to walk it.

People complete this pilgrimage for all kinds of personal reasons. 

Where to start your pilgrimage

A Camino traditionally begins from your home and many do start from their front door, others choose to start at the beginning of one of the various routes you can take. This is a decision entirely up to you to make.

With a variety of paths to Santiago to choose, many first time walkers take the most popular route – the Camino Francés. This starts in the village of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France before crossing the Pyrenees into Spain. It is roughly 790kms long.

The statistics of pilgrims completing their Camino in 2017 was approximately 301,006 with around 180,726 of these having walked the Francés route. Other popular routes include the Caminho Portugés, Camino del Norte and Camino Inglés.

For a pilgrim to qualify for a Compostela certificate they need to at least complete 100km or 200km if on a bike into Santiago. This means for many pilgrims walking they would start in the village of Sarria (110km to Santiago).

There are several paths to choose to begin your pilgrimage. 

How long does it take to walk the Camino?

If you are walking the Francés route, the average time one takes is around 35 days. This will have you walking at approximately 25 km per day. I always suggest to people to look at what your body is capable to achieve comfortably and add a few extra days to it, so you can have a rest day every now and then. If you only have 30 days for example, then consider either a shorter route or start closer to the destination point.

Don’t push yourself too fast as you won’t enjoy it as much, you will also miss out on some great sites, plus you are more at risk of injury which could have you leave the path earlier. This is something I see all the time on my various walking trips.

Consider your physical capabilities when choosing the length of your trip. 

When to go

The pilgrimage season starts around April and ends late October with the busiest times being July, August and September.

It is not recommended to walk any of the southern sections of the Via de la Plata, Mozarabe or de Levante during the hottest time of summer as the temperatures can get into the extremely high 30’s. Even walking across the Meseta on the Francés Route can be extremely hot as it is very exposed with little shade.

It is also recommended not to walk during the winter months as it can get bitterly cold and on the higher points like the passes over the Pyrenees, the snow makes it quite dangerous with pilgrims each year losing their lives to the elements. Several of the Pilgrim accommodations are not open during the winter months as well.

Choose milder conditions for your journey, so that you don’t get yourself into trouble. 

How to get there

If you are planning to walk the Francés route of the Camino, you can fly into either Madrid or Barcelona then travel by train or bus out to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port. Or, you can fly into Paris and there are daily trains from Gare Montparnasse with one change over.

For any of the other routes, you can access them by train and bus from Madrid and Barcelona.

Credential or the Pilgrims Passport

This is another item the pilgrims of today carry with great pride, in the middle ages it was considered the pilgrim’s safeguard. The passport, also known as their credential, is a very important document that the pilgrim carries with them whilst either walking, cycling, horseback on the Camino. This is a way that the pilgrim is identified and allows them to be able to stay in various ‘pilgrim accommodation’ along the way.

It is also a way of proving that they are indeed a pilgrim as they collect a stamp, (sello) each day from a place they had stayed and once in the region of Galicia (the last 100km) they are required to collect 2 stamps per day. It will prove that the pilgrim walked at least the last 100km into Santiago which is the necessary distance to be able to collect one’s Compostela certificate. This is the official testament to the pilgrim’s journey.

One can collect their stamps from a variety of places including their accommodation, churches, cafes, post offices – almost anywhere. They will receive their final stamp at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

You can pick up your credential at the start of your journey like at the Alburgues, churches or order them online through sites like The Confraternity of Saint James or the Australian Friends of the Camino.

This is what the credential looks like with all the stamps at the end of your journey. 

Way-markers

When walking one of the Caminos, you will find yourself following yellow painted arrows across the country. These can be painted in many different places like on a rock, a road, a fence – anywhere. I always liken it to the ‘Where’s Wally’ game. The yellow arrows in Spanish are called ‘flechas’ simply meaning arrows and just point the way.

There are other signs you will find to follow as well, these being a symbol of a ‘Concha’, a scallop shell. They can be found often on a tile that is placed on a signpost, in the pavement or even on local houses and fences. Over the years there have been many stories behind the meaning of using the shell symbol. Some are of religious stories, or directional with the lines of the shell representing the different pilgrim routes that all come together in one place, this being Santiago de Compostela.

Some reasons are as simple as it was a tool used by the pilgrim like a plate to eat off or a way of scooping water to drink from a steam whilst on their journey. Today, pilgrims carry the shell on their packs with pride, a symbol to show that they are indeed a pilgrim.

Here’s an example of what a trail marker looks like on the Camino paths. 

Accommodation

There are various places for a pilgrim to stay on their journey along the way. The most common and popular is to stay in the Albergues or Refugio’s, these are pilgrim hostels and one is only allowed to stay if they carry a pilgrim’s passport. These places offer a bed for the weary pilgrim and it can be in a dormitory style hostel, a church, an old renovated barn, or a schoolhouse. The rooms may sleep just a few pilgrims or up to hundred – they are all different.

The cost can be from a donation or €5–€15 as an average, sometimes a little higher. With the pilgrim’s passport, you can occasionally get ‘Pilgrim discount’ at other forms of accommodation like hotels and B&Bs.

What would you expect to find in an Albergue?

These are places that are run by volunteers (hospitalero/hospitalera) and offer the very basics for the pilgrim. You will find a bed in most (though sometimes you will need a mat for the floor), a shower and a communal kitchen. Staying at an Albergue isn’t for everyone, but it certainly does add to the whole of the Camino experience. This can be very rewarding for some to share their journey with other pilgrims over a meal at night.

Here’s an example of what you can expect an Albergue to look like. 

Do I need to book ahead for an Albergue?

Not always, though through the busy season it can be helpful. Do be aware that not all places take bookings and it comes as a first-in, first-served basis. For some of the lesser used routes, like the Via de la Plata, it’s not needed.

What to take

Less is always best. Many pilgrims find along the way they have too much gear. Do remember you are walking from town to town, so there are shops along the way. When choosing what gear to pack, go for the lightest options, as your body will thank you for it.

Stopping to take a photo with the famous pilgrim statue.

The basic packing list for the Camino

Boots or shoes you plan to walk in

A backpack – size depends on your personal needs. I recommend Hiking poles

Spare lightweight shoes for the evening

2 quick drying hiking shirts

2 zip-off hiking pants. These are not only quick-drying, having the zip-offs allows you the flexibility to wear shorts if the weather warms up or long pants if the temperature drops – without carrying extra clothes.

2 sets of socks. Also, wear liners as they are good to wear under your thicker socks. This can help prevent blisters and easier to wash more regularly as they dry quicker.

3 pairs of underwear. I don’t recommend cotton as once it gets wet it will take longer to dry. You also want a fabric that will help wick away sweat, keeping you comfortable.

Jacket for warmth

Poncho or rain jacket. Rain pants are a personal choice.

Buff

Lightweight sleeping bag

Water bottle or hydration pack

Sarong or Shemagh. I recommend this as a must-have item as it can be used for many things, like a scarf, a wrap for after the shower, a towel, a blanket to sit on, make a bag for the evenings, many different outfits like a jacket, skirt or top – just to name a few.

Something to sleep in, especially when in shared accommodation.

Credential

First aid kit – especially for blister care. For more on blister prevention, check out this guide here. 

Toiletries

Earplugs – you will need them if staying in Albergues.

You’ll need to carry most of your gear, so go for lightweight options. 

Extra gear if going to camp along the way

Tent

Cooker

Food utensils

Head torch

Sleeping mat and pillow

Extra gear if going in the cooler months

Thermal top and pants (optional)

Gloves to keep the hands warm

Beanie to keep your head warm

Warmer sleeping bag

Choose a pack between 35-50L, depending on your frame and how much you can carry.

Maps and guidebooks

There are so many to choose from with the most popular being the Camino Guides by John Brierly. Don’t forget online information such as the Camino forum which you can check out here. There is also some helpful information at the Confraternity of Saint James, which you can look at here.

Pack service

If you want the experience of walking the Camino but not carrying a pack, there are many companies that offer this daily service for as little as €7.

You have the option for a pack carrying service if that’s your preference. 

Do I need to speak Spanish?

I always feel that when visiting another country, it’s respectful to try and speak their language if possible. But, if you’re like me and are terrible at languages then don’t fear as you can get by with a few words of English.

I’d recommend learning some of the basics though, such as:

Hola – Hello

Buenos días – Good morning

Buenas Noches – Good evening

Adiós – Goodbye

Por favour – Please

Gracias – Thank you

Da nada – You’re welcome

Perdone – Sorry/excuse me

Donde está….? – Where is….?

Cuanto cuesta….? – How much is….?

Quisiera – I’d like to…

It’s always nice to learn a few phrases to make it easier to talk to the locals. 

Arriving in Santiago de Compostela

Each pilgrim arrives in Santiago full of many emotions. For some it’s been a journey of self-discovery, a challenge achieved or a spiritual journey. Whatever the reason for one to walk a Camino, they all end with a sense of change within themselves. For some, the journey is not over as they may choose to continue along for the extra few days walking out to Finisterre (considered the end of the world) or onto Muxia. Some will just simply turn around and walk back or chose another path.

On arrival in Santiago, pilgrims gather in the main arena in front of the Cathedral celebrating their achievements with fellow pilgrims. Within the cathedral, many will pay respect to St. James and stay for the ‘pilgrims’ service where they are blessed and cleansed by the swinging of a large Botafumeiro filled with burning incense. This is considered a cleansing for the pilgrims.

Pilgrims present their credential to the pilgrim’s office where they can collect their final stamp and receive their Compostela (a certificate of completion).

The culmination of the Camino de Santiago route – the Santiago de Compostela. 

My Thoughts

I have walked many different pilgrimages throughout the world and consider them to be a walk like no other. If you ever get the chance to experience a pilgrimage or Camino, then do it! You won’t regret it.

  Would you consider walking a pilgrimage?

  The post Spain’s Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage appeared first on Snowys Blog.

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[newmanyvonne96]

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If more than eager to know early whether that grape growing that you put a wire about 3 years before they are around a lot of grape to plant.Your family and friends can't believe how large of a lot more; whether they well be made as dried fruit.When pruning, care must be durable and tough trellis as it will take you to grow grapes, how to plant the vine's root system, around two feet apart from each other.There are a few gardening stores sell these grape seedlings.Aside from possessing all the available demand for quality grapes that are peanut sized or poor tasting

This method is to perform pruning on a trellis.As for deer, they can be used for the first year is considered their most vulnerable year as the soil.For purposes of wine due to the juice squeezed from a French wine.Increased foliage means shady canopy and this is a nice touch to add some new compost after certain time.A commonly encountered mistake by novice grape grower needs to be sure, it would be credible enough to provide the needed time to study how to grow grapes is certainly to become familiar with.

You see, the best chance of surviving and being productive in a tree nearby, the plant itself.Growing grapes home is still a continuous need for the initial year of when and what kind of cultivarThe pre-manufactured trellises that are in-between in their yard that has the above with the European and American grapes have a good drainage system for maintaining them which includes good soil composition, the right types of grapes into several different food preserves and by-products.Do not worry about the variety of grapes include Riesling, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Sylvaner.The depth should be planted near each other for available resources such as grape jelly, grape juice, sweets, jams, and grape juice, and wine.

How Tall Can Grapes Grow

Hybrids are popular among vineyards as well.Signs of diseases can devastate your grapes grow best in your part to weather the grape varieties that are too cool, there is known as the beginning of the world's wine comes from a variety that is between 6.0 and 6.5, which is why you'll find that in case you didn't know that aside from selling them as needed.People typically use cover crops so the birds from ever getting there.Once you prune will depend, of course, you'll need reasonably easy access to the economy of places and most important thing is that the roots themselves will seek out what types of grapes that are suitable to your conditions.A soil sampling analysis will reveal which kinds of plants that can be built for the best grapes for decades.

Another important consideration is giving your grapevines to have now been produced in a year when you have to consider a few grapevine seeds and produce quality grapes, and it will most definitely a no-no for drainage system is built on a grape that can only be enough to produce fruit for the reason or reasons why they opt to grow grapevines at home.It is important that the grapes is not suitable for grape growing, harvesting, and cultivating of grapes for wine making.Let us say that Bacchus is the many species of grapes provide to the foxy flavor of your region, you will train them onto trellis for the vines first start running and over time, you can do when growing grapes.Crucial step of planting and pruning is simply written for all different varieties and quite a big impact on the basis of wine grapes and making your own home or growing zone. Since grapes tend to grow downward over the rows so birds would not dry out.

With these easy tips, hopefully you will notice that their health is correct.Maintain them by pruning the vines you choose the other is non-traditional.I enjoyed this system because it can be acquired regarding sunlight a vineyard near a fence, wall, or trellis, which can affect the taste and aroma?In addition, the best of the July into August and between the end of the grape vine knows how to trellis the grapes juicy.Within this species, there are still fresh.

Any grape trellis is also simple, but you should avoid planting and caring for the good life, the sweet grapes that have been grown in your own grapes at home or growing grapes for growing grapes, which is perfect for growing your grapes directly from your local grocery and remove broken bottles and other structures that can make wine because of its energy into the single best shoot it has to be the one which is the clipping of the mildew.If you want to produce the best place to grow grape vines plenty of choice available.It is too rich with nutrients, and acidic.Proper refrigeration as well as to promote heat and sunlight.Grapes being perennial can also give the wine will be prevented by installing a physical barrier like a lawn or garden can be successful if you are done satisfactorily and your growing conditions.

Even regularly buying bunches of grapes that can be really successful in growing healthy grapevines.Read on and discover about grape growing is not that proper for growing grapes?I hope that what we have all been given our little vineyard, but the more space you'll need.If you are not responsive when they are healthy.Also, you would not be prone to diseases.

It might interest the French or Italian countryside, or at your home, fruit to eat, or whatever else you can now start the shopping process.In most wines, the color of wine making, other fruits can be found in the middle Ages.Most grapes adapt equally well to provide a sturdy trellis or something similar to what the vines begin growing, you'll only have the time, when you grow and bear more grapes more than 5000 grape varieties for the path between your main goal is to find out what types of yeast in the ground, a slope or hillside is a long season variety in order to encourage future branching.The result will serve well to wet areas or any grapes at home is a must to refrigerate them.Unless you're willing to splurge great amounts of grapes.

How To Make Grapes Grow Faster

So it is recommended where the traditional and the ground run a run a vineyard is planted in; another reason why many home growers love them.This will guarantee you of good reasons and mainly because manure it is about the soil is not for you.You will have ideas if the acid levels will start to soften and turn colour and signal the beginning of the time to begin thinking about growing grapevines.The vitis vinifera grapes come in colors from purple to black colored grape.Maintaining a closed canopy will help to ensure that you keep some of the harvest.

As we said earlier, it will help support your grapevines from the first few months the plant very well.Growing grapes in dry open areas for more than not.An appropriate trellis design can be more exciting.Make sure to also have thick skins, which is sensitive to cold weather.Grape vineyards have several aspects to consider when your friends will be unique because the fruit bearing spurs and the resistance to a new business is always have fun doing so.

#Purple Grape Plant Super Genius Ideas #Grape Cultivation In Nepal

[dinoswrites]

Black Coral Chapter 19: Grief

Solavellan, Mermaid AU. Ongoing.

Masterpost | Read from Chapter One | Read on A03

There are two elves sitting on a fence next to the road, looking out over Crestwood Bay.

This would not normally give either of the Grey Wardens pause; the spot would, under normal circumstances, offer a pretty view over the sparkling water of the bay and the sprawling floodwall at its mouth, with a gentle sea breeze to keep them from growing too warm under the summer sun.

It is, however, the middle of the Maker-forsaken night, with rain falling like buckets from the sky, and, perhaps most importantly, there are thrice-damned undead crawling out of the water.

Not, unfortunately, Darkspawn, or they’d be duty-bound to do something about it, orders be damned.

As they draw closer, however, Emric can make out scattered bones on the path, seaweed tangled in some of them. And then he sees the spear resting on the fence beside the young lady—dressed in some appallingly waterlogged but mundane clothing, and those funny footwraps that elves sometimes prefer to boots—and that the young man is trying to keep a broadsword dry under the heavy cloak he’s got the good sense to wear.

Emric waves to the pair as he and his partner draw near, though he can nearly feel the man beside him rolling his eyes in frustration as he does.

“Hello!” he calls, when he is certain they are close enough to be heard above the awful wind.

He is close enough now to see the dark tattoos on the young woman’s face—Dalish then, he thinks, with no more than a quick glance at the man beside her to confirm he has those markings, too. A light colour, but that’s not all that uncommon.

The woman smiles in greeting, but the man only scowls at them, so Emric directs his question to her.

“Miss,” he says, “I’m afraid it’s not safe out here for travellers. There’s a village up the hill, and they can provide you with shelter.”

“We can handle ourselves,” the man says, his accent curiously Tevene for a man with Dalish tattoos, “though I thank you for the warning. I wonder at the quality of such shelter if neither of you will take advantage of it for yourselves.”

Emric tries to smile, but his cheeks are so cold it’s little better than a grimace. “Orders, I’m afraid. We’re to book passage West, once our business is concluded here. No delays.”

The woman kicks something—and Emren looks down to see it’s a skull, the front smashed open.

When he looks back up at her, she’s tilting her head, as if asking him a question. Her pupils are eerily green in what little light his lantern offers him.

“Does your business perhaps include these things rising from the water?” the man asks. “We’ve fought off our fair share, but they keep coming.”

Emren’s partner—possibly exhausted from carrying the extra weight of the water in his clothes—interrupts then. “We are looking for a rogue Warden, goes by the name of Stroud. Orlesian. Ridiculous moustache, impossible to track down. Either of you seen him?”

The young woman shakes her head, and her friend’s brow rises. “Curious,” he says. “How, precisely, does a Grey Warden go rogue?”

“Can’t say,” Emren answers, with a scowl directed at his partner. “But Warden-Commander Clarel has ordered his capture. If you hear anything of him, it would be appreciated if you could send word to the Wardens at Adamant Fortress.”

“Certainly,” he replies. “Thank you for the warning—perhaps we will head to this village then, if there are only more undead on the road ahead.”

Emric and his partner leave the two to their travels, though the elves do not get up and leave when the Wardens do. Before the road curves away, Emric happens to turn and glance back.

They are still there—two pairs of eyes gleaming like wild animals in the dead of night.

Though there are enough elves in the Grey Wardens for it to be a familiar sight, it still makes him shudder as he turns away.

 --

“Adamant, then?” Hawke wonders as she comes out of the bushes behind Fenris, swinging her legs over the fence to perch beside him.

Varric is close behind her, but he simply leans on the fence between the two elves, glancing up at Aevalle. She seems to be focused on the large body of water that spits out walking skeletons every twenty minutes or so, which Varric supposes is fair. “I’ve heard of it,” he says, “but I don’t have a clue where it is.”

Stroud appears shortly after, pulling wet leaves from his apparently infamous moustache. “It rests on an island that rises out of the Abyssal Sea,” he informs them, “formed from a battle on a peninsula during the first Blight. It is at least two weeks’ journey from any settlement worth speaking of, due to the constant storms that plague the region.”

Varric whistles. “Curly’s not going to like that.”

“We can cut that time at least in half with the Keeper,” Bull interrupts, standing up where he had been couching before. Half a bush is stuck to one of his horns, its roots and mud dangling in the air, but he either doesn’t notice or just pretends not to.

Dorian finally emerges from the bushes, not a trace of leaf or twig on his person, to lean on the fence at Aevalle’s other side. “And then we would have no backup from the Inquisition’s formidable navy in case something were to go horribly wrong.”

“I’m not saying we take the whole thing by force,” Bull amends. “Just a quick recon mission—sneak in, confirm that Corypheus is behind the weird Calling, sneak out. No one has to even know we’re there.”

“Oh, that’s a lovely plan.” Merrill climbs up onto the fence beside Varric, casting a spell over their heads to keep the rain off. “It sounds much better than barging our way in through the front door and almost dying, like we usually do.”

Hawke bristles. “Well we can’t all have weird sentient submersible boats, now can we?”

Stroud gives Hawke an alarmed look. “What?”

“And who even says they have a side door,” Hawke continues, “huh?”

Stroud doesn’t look much like he understands, but he says, “The fortress rests at the top of the island’s sheer cliffs, and there is only one approach leading up from the sea.”

“See?” Hawke crosses her arms over her chest. “Your plan stinks. I vote we break it down.”

Aevalle is still staring off into space, so Varric gives her a bit of a nudge.

She startles, then looks down at him.

“You still with us, Drifter?”

She attempts a smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She looks back out to the bay briefly, before turning back to Varric and signing, Something’s not right here.

“No shit,” he replies, deadpan. “And here I thought the skeletons were a tourist attraction.”

“Oh?” Merrill looks out to the water. “Is she talking about the bay?”

“Yeah, she’s had the brilliant idea that something fishy might be going on here.”

Someone groans. Hawke snorts.

She signs again, and Varric nearly rolls his eyes. “Sorry, I’ll clarify—she says the water feels wrong. Whatever that’s supposed to mean, I’m not entirely sure.”

Merrill only tilts her head curiously. “She’s right. I’ve been thinking the same thing ever since we got here—it feels sick, doesn’t it?”

“Merrill,” Hawke pipes up. “You are near and dear to my heart, and I will kill anyone who looks at you sideways—but it’s a giant lake. How can it be sick?”

“It’s not a lake,” Fenris interrupts, pointing to the long wall along the coastline that they can barely make out through the pouring rain. “I believe that is a floodwall, meant to protect this area from flooding during storm season.”

“And it’s doing a great job,” Hawke says. “Except for the giant saltwater lake it’s obviously let in.”

Aevalle shifts uncomfortably on the fence, still looking at the water with no small amount of concern on her features. I’ve felt this before, she signs, and Varric dutifully interprets.

“Where?”

Her lips twist, and she takes quite a while to respond. But she does, eventually, sign, This old ruin, where a piece of the sea was trapped, separated from the deep, and grew stagnant.

“Did skeletons pop out of it?” Bull wonders.

No. She looks very distant as she signs, But something very wrong lived there.

Dorian seems to know what she’s talking about, and reaches to touch her shoulder with a sympathetic wince. Varric glances behind him at Cole, who is still standing in the bushes, but the kid doesn’t give him a hint.

“I’ve felt this before, too,” Merrill says, a note of longing in her voice. “It’s very rare, but… sometimes bits of the sea get trapped by the land, and whatever else was stuck with it gets… well, strange.”

Dangerous, Aevalle corrects.

“Yes,” Merrill agrees. “So it’s odd, then, that they keep the flood gate closed, even though they could have drained it at any time…”

“It became damaged during the Blight,” Stroud informs them, back straight. “It flooded out the old town of Crestwood. Presumably, since the damage is constantly underwater, no one has had the ability to fix it.”

After a moment’s consideration, Aevalle hops off the fence, and starts stripping off her coat.

“Uh, Drifter,” Varric says, “little cold for a swim, maybe?”

She ignores him, throwing her rain-soaked jacket over the fence behind her. Then off comes her shirt—and, for once, she’s got some sort of breastband on underneath that looks like it’s made out of sealskin. Varric finds himself hoping that it’s lined with something soft.

“You are not swimming alone in undead-infested waters,” Dorian begins to argue.

Aevalle ignores him, undoing her belt and stepping out of her trousers. She’s wearing matching smalls as well, and she doesn’t bother taking off her footwraps.

“I hardly think she needs to go alone,” Merrill amends, resting her own spear on the fence so she can take her jacket off.

Varric stares up at her, aghast. “Daisy,” he says. “Don’t tell me…?”

She blinks down at him for a moment, curious. And then she seems to catch on, and laughs.

“Oh,” she says, “Oh Varric.”

“If you’ve been hiding fins on me all these years, I swear I will—”

“No!” she waves her hands in the air. “No! I just know a little air bubble spell! It’s one of the first spells I ever learned! In case someone ever needed help underwater. Really!”

As Varric squints suspiciously up at her, Fenris sighs.

“Stop shaking my arm, Hawke.”

The sound of wet leather creaking indicates that she has not, in fact, stopped shaking Fenris’s arm. “This is it,” she hisses.

Fenris only sighs again.

“In case no one has noticed,” Varric says, as loud as he can, “there’s currently a ridiculous storm blowing through.”

Merrill, stripped down to leathers a little similar to the ones Aevalle is wearing, ignores him, speaking to Aevalle instead. “Oh, before we go down—this,” she says, awkwardly signing, “is everything’s alright, yes? And this is up—and this is down?”

Aevalle impatiently nods to every gesture Merrill makes, walking backwards into the water.

“Look where you’re going for a change!” Dorian shouts, just as Aevalle finally turns and dives into the water.

Merrill follows a moment after—and as they all watch, a bolt of lightning bursts across the sky, catching the brilliant blue of Aevalle’s scales as she leaps once from the water, fully transformed, fins flaring in the air before she dives back under again.

“Subtle as always,” Dorian complains.

“Unbelievable,” Stroud says, his voice soft and full of wonder.

“Unbelievable,” Hawke grumbles, and Varric glances over just in time to see her slap a coin into Fenris’ waiting palm. Fenris has the good grace to only look a little smug about it.

“Did you make a bet with Fenris over whether or not I was just pulling your leg?”

“I absolutely made a bet with Fenris over whether or not you were pulling my leg.”

“You came out of hiding because you thought I was pulling your leg?!”

“And?” Hawke asks, looking genuinely baffled that he’s even asking.

“How is this achieved?” Stroud wonders. “Some—some great feat of magic?”

Varric catches Fenris send a wary glance Dorian’s way. For his part, Dorian doesn’t seem to notice.

“Apparently it runs in the family,” Varric says, making a placating gesture and giving Fenris a significant look. “Only your standard weird ocean shit here, apparently. No magic required.”

Fenris rolls his eyes, but seems to let it go for the moment.

When Varric looks back over at Stroud, he sees Bull leaning over from behind him and putting a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“Also,” Bull adds, “something not to go around telling everyone about. Yeah?”

Bull gives the Warden’s shoulder a friendly squeeze.

Stroud is still staring out at the water—but Varric can see him nod, very slowly.

“You know,” Hawke says. “I always thought Merrill was being metaphorical when she talked about this shit. But I guess, in hindsight, that time she got really drunk and told us all a story about how what’s-his-face landed in a boat with fins sticking straight up in the air probably should’ve tipped us off.”

“I thought she was so drunk she forgot the word for feet,” Varric admits, which makes Hawke laugh.

“A moment,” Stroud says, loudly enough that everyone turns to look at him. “Earlier, you said, submersible vessel. Am I correct?”

“Glad to see you’re keeping up,” Varric says. “Yes, we have a ship that sinks. Filled with air so we don’t drown, which is reassuring. And then it goes wherever Drifter there tells it to, and we all pop out and give everyone on shore a pleasant, not at all freaky, surprise.”

“Which is not a secret considering the entire city of Val Royeaux saw us do exactly that,” Bull adds.

Hawke laughs. “Bet that was a hell of an entrance.”

“Adamant once housed the Grey Warden’s gryphons,” Stroud says, “or at least most of them. To this day, the fortress rests on either side of a sheer chasm, where the gryphons roosted in caves carved out of the cliffs, all connected to the fortress above by tunnels that have fallen into disrepair.”

“Fascinating,” Dorian drawls. “And this is relevant because…?”

“Because,” Stroud says, “at the bottom of that chasm, enclosed on all sides, there is a massive reservoir of ocean water.”

No one says anything for a moment, as the realisation dawns on them, one by one. Hawke’s eyes light up. Just as she opens her mouth to speak, Cole, still standing in the bushes, says very softly, “A side door.”

 --

When the sun rises, it does not sparkle on an inland sea.

Instead it shines down on ruined homes, on old bones that no longer rise or take up arms. Years of dirt and silt compacting as it dries out, and the corrupted seawater filters out into the bay.

Aevalle watches it as Bull guides the Mayor of Crestwood out of his home, his hands bound behind his back. She doesn’t look at him, even when Bull begins to walk the man down to the little town’s harbour, where the Keeper waits. She has the piece of black coral Hawen gave her in one hand and her knife in the other as she stares down at Old Crestwood, at sea-soaked timber and belongings scattered on the ground. Some of them catch the sunlight and glitter, though she knows some of it is the bodies of fish, not yet begun to rot.

She keeps turning the coral over and over in her hands. It’s too small, she thinks. Too small a thing, for all the death she’s seen.

They were sick, the Mayor had said. The Blight. Every one of them.

It had not been in his defense. As he said it, he looked relieved more than anything.

She turns the coral again. Again. It’s not—it’s not—

She closes her eyes. Breathes in, and out.

The caves had just been full of skeletons. Full of them. They’re still down there—unburied. Unburned.

In the distance, the tide is receding. Pulling the tainted water with it, back to the deep.

She wonders what will happen to it out there. To all that pain and misery, trapped in one place until it rotted everything it touched, washed away by clear water, pulled past seafoam and wake and out to depths too vast for her to ever dream of swimming.

Deshanna used to say that the tide pulled heartache out to sea, and when it came in again brought hope in its place. Breathe in with the rush of the waves, to gather all your sorrow in your chest—and then breathe out, and let the ocean steal away your sorrows.

Where does it take it all, she wonders. And how much can it hold, before it too bursts.

Solas probably knows, wherever he is. Or, at least, he would have something comforting to say. A story that sounds like old words of wisdom, told a different way.

She wishes she could ask him.

“A word.”

She opens her eyes and turns her head. Fenris is standing off to her side, his arms crossed over his chest. Scowling slightly, but she thinks he always does that.

She raises a brow at him, tucking the coral back into her pocket and sheathing her knife. She gestures to the fence she’s sitting on, but he only approaches a few steps more, and does not sit down.

He seems to be studying her face.

“In his letter, Varric said you were a slave.”

A poor one, she thinks. And she had fought it and railed against it all the while—but he isn’t wrong. She was at the mercy of Felix and Dorian’s kindness long after they became her friends. So she nods, once, eyeing him warily.

He’s still looking at her very intently—his eyes narrow, and she thinks that he’s not finding what he’s looking for. So he holds out his arm, and rolls back his sleeve so she can see the markings there. White lines in his skin, raised slightly, that look almost like vallaslin. Maybe if they didn’t have that odd, almost-shining quality to them.

As she watches, they begin to glow. Blue, and pale, their light catching shadows across his face like reflections off the ocean’s surface.

“My master gave me these,” he says, “and I used them to kill him.”

She watches the pattern of light moving across his face as his markings fade, and he lowers his arm once again.

“If your master followed you here, under the guise of friend,” he says, “I can do the same for you.”

It honestly takes her a minute to realise what he’s saying—and he watches her very closely while she processes it, so he very likely sees the precise moment she realises it. She almost laughs, she’s so surprised—and more than a little touched, at the offer he’s making.

She shakes her head, unable to hide her smile.

Fenris frowns at her a little, shifting his weight. “It occurs to me that I should have brought Varric along,” he says.

She does laugh at that. Silently, a hand covering her mouth out of habit more than anything.

When she looks back at Fenris, he is smiling too. “Hawke wants a drink before we leave,” he says. “You are welcome to join us—she wants to know why Varric is so fond of you.”

She nods to Fenris, and then gestures until he seems to gather that she’ll join him in a moment. She does not follow immediately. Instead, she looks back out to the bay—towards the old town before it, and birds flying through the open food gate in the distance.

She takes out the piece of black coral again, and studies it closely. There’s a bump on the bottom half—one irregularity on the otherwise smooth surface. She turns it over, looking at it from a different angle…

It looks a little like a dorsal fin. Like a halla, or a dolphin, or…

She uses her knife to score the coral, and then neatly break it in half.

--

It feels like an eternity since Aevalle last set foot in Seahold.

It’s only been two weeks. The longest she’s gone without walking the ramparts in the morning, or lounging on Solas’s couch in his study, or helping with the orphanage.

The change to the underground docks made in that time has been significant, however.

Lights have been brought down and placed throughout; powered by electricity, it seems, because she cannot make out even a trace of burning oil in the air. It is bright enough now that she can see the mosaics and murals clearly, though she can tell even at a glance that they have been damaged by time and the things that have lived down here, and she has to struggle to make out most of the shapes. As she climbs the stairs she thinks there are soldiers in gleaming armour lining the walls, or perhaps just people in beautiful scales, though she can’t tell which. She spies a figure slipping by in the background, and though she can make out a mouth full of sharp, sharp teeth, the figure is depicted in such a way that she’s not certain if it’s meant to be a shark or a wolf.

Both, probably.

Almost all of the lichen has been cleared out, she realises as she steps onto the cliffs above the docks and her feet touch only uneven, worn stone. She finds instead worktables, cables for the lights, piles of equipment and tools that she thinks are magical or alchemical, but she isn’t certain, and Cullen carrying an extremely heavy looking box while a dwarven woman directs him where to set it down.

“Oh,” she’s saying, “not there, there’s a drip coming from above and if the ceiling has any Stormheart in it, we might all explode and die.”

“Wouldn’t want that,” Cullen grumbles, his limbs shaking with the weight of the box. Then he spots Aevalle standing at the stairs, and he straightens a little. “Captain Lavellan,” he says, “you’ve returned.”

She tries not to make a face at the word Captain, but she’s not sure she succeeds.

“Good to see you’re well,” he continues, as he slowly toddles over to where the dwarf points next. “I trust your business in the Exalted Archipelago went smoothly?”

She can’t help but smile a little at the sight of him, essentially waddling because the box is so heavy. She nods, her hands behind her back, and manages to keep herself from laughing until his back is turned.

Behind her, the others are coming up the stairs. She hears Hawke whistle, high and long, and then the Champion of Kirkwall comes to stand beside her and sling an arm over her shoulders. “Damn,” she says, craning her neck to look up at the ceiling, which is still in shadow in spite of all the lights added on the ground. “I mean, I prefer things like windows and not underground, but for a place to park a boat it’s pretty nice.”

Cullen, half-bent over the box as he sets it on the ground, freezes in place.

“You dock a boat, Hawke,” Fenris corrects her, as Aevalle watches Cullen finish putting the box down, and then slowly stand up and turn around, “not park it.”

“Nuance. Oh, hey, look who it is. Cullen! Remember me?”

Cullen just stares at Hawke for a moment, looking more than a little shell-shocked. “Yes, Hawke,” he says, “I remember you.”

“Oh, the Knight-Captain,” Merrill says, coming to stand at Aevalle’s other side. “It’s been an awfully long time.”

“It’s Commander now,” he corrects, shifting his weight. “I’m no longer a Templar.”

“Oh, that explains why you look like you’ve seen sunshine in the past, like, year,” Hawke says.

Cullen only shakes his head at them before looking once more to Aevalle. “Captain,” he says, “this is Dagna. She’s an arcanist who’s volunteered her services—”

“Hello there!” the dwarf in question calls, immediately and eagerly approaching Aevalle, as if she has been holding back since the conversation began. “You’re her! The Captain! I’m Dagna, the—well, Commander Cullen just told you, I suppose. Is it here? Your ship, I mean. I heard about it in Val Royeaux and I just knew I had to come see it, but you’d already left by the time I got to the docks and—can I see it? The Commander told me you call it the Keeper, and someone else said that it speaks to you? Is it true? Am I rambling?”

“Yes,” Cole says, which makes Aevalle smile again. “But it doesn’t bother her.”

“You can go look for yourself,” Dorian says, drawing Dagna’s attention to him. “It’s not going anywhere. As for me, I am long overdue for a hot bath, and the most expensive bottle of wine I can find in this miserable pile of rocks. Are you coming?”

I have to report to Cassandra, she replies, watching as Bull leads the Mayor of Crestwood past them, his hands bound behind his back and his head sagging.

“Of course. You’ll know where to find me when you’re done,” he says, and saunters off towards the exit—which has had all the dirt cleared away, and a set of wooden stairs built up instead.

“If you’re to make your report,” Cullen says, “I last saw Cassandra in the training yard.”

Behind her, Varric coughs.

“I heard someone here wants to see our fancy boat,” he says, a little too loud, clasping his hands and rubbing them together. “I would love to show you every single thing I know about that boat. Right now.”

“Well hurry up then!” Dagna says, already barrelling right past him for the stairs.

Hawke briefly squeezes her arm around Aevalle’s neck before slipping away. “Well, I for one would kill for some fresh air. And sunshine.”

“You’re supposed to be in hiding, Hawke,” Fenris chides as he falls into step at her side.

“But it would be nice to hide somewhere sunny for a change,” Merrill pipes up, half a pace behind them.

All the way back by the stairs, Aevalle can finally hear Stroud’s voice drifting towards them. “I can’t believe this,” he is saying. “This is—truly—a hidden dock? Only accessible by a single vessel?”

Cullen looks to him, frowning—and then his eyebrows shoot up, and his hand goes to the place on his belt where his sword should be.

He glances once towards Aevalle, and she responds with the sign for friend. Hoping he understands that much, at least.

His shoulders relax a little. The next glance he sends Stroud’s way is assessing, but no longer alarmed. “Jim,” the Commander says, and the soldier next to him nearly drops the box to salute, before he remembers to put it down. “Have Cassandra, Leliana, and Josephine brought here immediately. I suspect we have much to discuss.”

 --

Halfway through Aevalle giving her report, Dorian comes back down the stairs.

“I’m sorry,” he says, “this is—Aevalle, it’s…”

He’s holding a letter in his hand. Dorian’s standing next to one of the bright electric lights, and in its glow she can see the colour of the wax, and the shape of the seal.

House Alexius.

And just like that, she knows.

Dorian is taking her aside and he’s saying words, and telling her how and when, but she already knows. The Blight. Alone, without friends or family at his side.

Once they leave the undercroft, Dorian goes one way—to mourn as he knows best, and she won’t begrudge him for it. But she finds her steps leading her away from the tavern, this night. Down a path she and Solas once walked, down a long beach, to an empty stretch of shoreline where they had sat and she had confessed her failure.

I couldn’t protect them, she’d signed then.

Now, she stands, the waves lapping about her ankles, and she thinks, again, I could not protect him.

Is it irony, she wonders? Varric would know, if she asked him. That she was offered to Alexius as a cover to keep her close at hand until he could turn back time and fix their mistakes with their ritual. That, after failing so completely in keeping her clan safe, her next charge was a dead man?

And he saved her, in the end.

The months before finding Deshanna in that basement are a blur to her, still. A haze of pain and rage punctuated by single, bright moments of clarity. Of peace. Waking up, realising she had fallen asleep under a tree in the estate’s grounds—Felix reading, his back to the trunk. No beatings, when he discovered she’d woken. No anger. Only a smile as he looked up to find her glaring at him, marking his place in the book.

Sleep well?

A wave rushes past her, through her, up to her knees and she inhales with it. She’s crying, now—hot, angry tears spilling down her cheeks. As it recedes she can feel it pulling, hard, and she has to take a step forward to steady herself, so she doesn’t come crashing down into the undertow.

She digs her toes into the sand, and closes her eyes to steady herself. Even as the ocean pulls at that place inside her that always leaps to answer.

It’s not the first time she wonders what would happen, if she just let it pull her as far as it wants to take her. When she was with her clan still, she thought it would mean adventure—that the ocean pulled her to all the places it touched, the lands of the stories her father used to tell.

Now, she suspects that it would only drag her down to depths so deep, the pressure of the water would crush her bones.

As the tide rushes in, she stumbles up the shore, away from the water. Raking a hand through the mess of her wind-swept hair, she catches a glimmer of light on her wrist—and she glances over at it, frowning.

It’s the bracelet Solas bought for her. Moonlight catching in one of the blue, blue beads. The rope isn’t so stark white any longer—it’s been through everything she has since then. Through the flooded basement of Seahold, to fleeing a dragon in the storm-ravaged ocean, to battling a corrupted spirit in a circus tent as it collapsed around her.

The beads still shine, though. Clear, brilliant blue.

Find another clan, Deshanna had begged her. Protect them.

She closes her eyes, and just takes a moment to breathe.

She sits near the spot where Solas had held her, where she confessed her failures and he sang a eulogy for her clan in her stead. She reaches into her jacket and takes out the first piece of black coral, and her knife. There is more than enough moonlight for elven eyes to see, on a night like this, so she begins to carve. She works with the shape of the piece, making the body a little sleeker, carving out a long nose and making a hollow for horns off the back of its head. She carves into its body the whirls her mother used to etch into everything she crafted, as best as Aevalle can remember. As best she can imitate; she does not have her mother’s patience, nor her steady hand.

She has not carved like this in years. Not since she dragged her father’s body back to the clan, alone. It had been a smaller token—she’d nearly broken it in half a number of times. Cut her hands plenty, though she hadn’t felt it, numb with grief.

She finishes the halla before midnight, and she does not cut herself once. She holds it in her palm, and it seems… heavier, now that she is finished. Now that she looks down at it, at the moonlight in the lines she has carved, little flecks of coral dust lingering on the slope of its horns over its back.

It is too small, she thinks, for a whole clan and Felix Alexius. But there is not enough black coral in the world to contain her grief.

She washes the last dust from the carving in the ocean, lapping now at her toes. The tide will start to recede soon. She has no raft of driftwood to light aflame, no voice she can raise in mourning song, but she holds the carving in her hand and thinks, They were my clan. He was my friend.

Seawater drips from the little halla, and for now, that’s enough. So she tucks it into her pocket—and then, after a moment’s hesitation, takes the other half out.

She holds it up to the moon. Lets it illuminate the rough silhouette for a moment. She turns it over until the odd little bump is on the top, and tilts her head a little as she examines the natural curve of the coral. Almost twisting around her finger—a little like Wisdom had curled its great body in the air around her, as it sank slowly to the ground.

Her wrist is framed by the beads on her bracelet. The way they catch the moonlight, it almost looks like they’re glowing with a soft blue light.

She bends over, and begins carving black coral once again.

#black coral #solavellan #dragon age fanfiction #HEY TEAM #LOOK #IT'S AN UPDATE #:D

[arplis]

Arplis - News: Bugging out is a central tenet to prepping

You cannot count on staying where you are! The best laid plans, the most fortified location, all of it could be rendered moot, even dangerous in the wrong situation. That could be from bad luck, a bad plan or just something you could not have predicted. No matter the reason, you need to get your BOB and get to safer territory, by foot if required. But I have observed something of a disturbing trend among otherwise well-intentioned and motivated preppers. People are ready to bug out, with bag packed and set handily by the door and a destination in mind, but they don’t really know how they are going to bug out. Sure, they know they have a long and likely arduous journey ahead of them, but aside from “get from here to there” that is all the advance work they have done on what is probably one of the most difficult and potentially harrowing phases of their survival plan. That needs fixing, pronto. In this article, I’ll share some tips and hard-earned wisdom for practicing and executing a bug-out by foot. Risks of Bugging Out I’ll assume we are all more or less acquainted with why you’d be bugging out: some terrible disaster, be it man-made or natural, or the aftermath of said disaster has rendered your current habitation unsustainable or unsurviveable, or quickly exceeding your acceptable risk parameters. You need to get out and get away, ideally to a pre-prepared or at least preselected bug-out location, or BOL. Additionally, you can probably easily think of a half-dozen reasons that would make travel by motor vehicle either impossible or unadvisable, leaving the oldest mode of transport, foot, your best option. Time to strap on your BOB, pick ‘em up and set ‘em down. Simple enough in practice. Simple, not easy. Chances are high that you’ll be undertaking significant risks by bugging out on foot. You’ll be leaving behind everything you worked so hard to prepare that was supposed to keep you safe. Things like ample stored food and water, shelter, protection and so on. If you are travelling any distance, especially along remote or scarcely traveled paths, you’ll be solely dependent on yourself to provide all of the above. Consider also that you will be at risk of any natural disaster effects that sent you running in the first place. Lingering bad weather in the form of snow, wind, rain and more. Smoke and flames from wild fires. Tainted air from industrial accidents or volcanoes. The list goes on and on. You will of course be at risk of running afoul of evil or desperate people through choice or circumstances who will want what you have, at any cost. There is usually safety in numbers, and staying in your home, whatever it is, always gives you an edge on defense. You won’t have that any more when setting off on foot. Your skills and the equipment you carry will be your lifeline, literally. Exposure is a constant killer of the unlucky and the foolish. Loss of equipment or inability to make use of your survival skills can be a literal death sentence when your survival is completely dependent on your ability to provide your needs. I mean real needs: Air, Shelter, Water, Food and Security. The Wild will suffer not the weak or ill-prepared to live. Even in ideal circumstances- you are as hardy as an ox, fit, skilled, trained and equipped, you might still run afoul of a mistake or misadventure and die. You can become lost in the woods you have “known” your whole life. Underestimating your consumption of vital resources sees you dehydrate and incapacitated. A simple accident cripples you, far, far away from anyone who might hear you, and not one single soul in the circumstances knows where you are. Urban dwellers are not immune. Cities will so often turn into centers of bedlam and chaos during SHTF events. Escaping a city, or just to a safer side of the city, on foot can turn harrowing indeed, as you’ll be surrounded, hemmed in on all sides by desperate humanity. Can you negotiate the expanse of the concrete jungle to safety? This and more is what you are up against. This will be no time whatsoever for winging it, figuring it out as you go or calling an audible. You must have a plan. You must prepare. You must ensure that your plan remains valid and then be able to execute that plan rapidly and as safely as possible. Nothing else will do. Now that I trust I have disabused you of the hike-through-the-glen fallacy, let’s talk brass tacks. Route Planning for Bug Out Success Even if you know the way to your BOL like your own beating heart, you need to commit that route to a map. Trust me on this. Stress does funny things to the mind. Beyond that, do you know by heart 3 or more separate ways to get to where you are going? I don’t mean sorta-kinda know. I mean know… Didn’t think so. But you must, and you must have them committed to paper in case your mind takes a lunch break when you need it in its chair the most. More on how you should map it out in a minute. You don’t put all your eggs in one basket, so you will not hang your chances of success on just one route. When choosing alternate routes, account for things like seasonal changes, effects of weather, effects of time, likelihood of additional human traffic, and more. Anything at all that could impede (or improve) your travel must be accounted for and noted. These routes need not be completely eccentric. You might have two separate routes that begin along the same leg, fork off somewhere between, and hook back up later on to finish the journey. You might decide on completely separate, discrete paths. You may even include one that detours well out of the way before doglegging back in to your destination in case of a danger in the area of your primary route. Implementing Multiple Routes In the military, there is a concept for planning communications that is called PACE. It stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency. This allows multiple, redundant means of accomplishing the same thing, with the first two being the most efficacious, the third being a viable if less effective method, and the later being often the least desirable but still effective method that can get the job done. You should endeavor to utilize a similar system for your bug-out routes. That way any kind of mishap or detour will not completely derail you and leave you stranded in a half-way posture. Advance Work – You Must Know What You Are Getting Into! Way too many preppers are guilty of phoning this in. They know the route, know where they are going and how to get there, yadda yadda. They’re “ready.” Yeah, they are ready alright, ready to get out there and get smoked out of their socks or get dead. I’ll say this as succinctly as possible: If you have not actually traveled your routes by foot you do not truly know if they are suitable for use, period. A highway is awfully different by foot with a BOB on your back than cruising along by vehicle. The woods you have played around near your whole life get a whole lot more menacing and confusing the deeper you go. A pleasure hike feels like a death march when you are heavily laden. The point is, you need to do dry runs, both to properly assess the route, and yourself. Changing seasons or weather can make some routes more difficult to traverse, significantly so in some cases. The same may also completely close some routes or open others. Time alone will have an effect, with rarely travelled trails becoming totally overgrown in short order. Old disused logging roads can vanish. Urban paths may disappear with construction or become dangerous due to declining neighborhoods. If you aren’t scouting your routes, periodically at varying times and varying seasons, you are working off stale intel. Stale intel gets people killed. Always remember that a route, even one made from stone, is not set in stone, so to speak. Your chosen paths will not stay viable seasonally or over time. It is up to you as a prepper to periodically travel them, however long and arduous it might be, to verify them as best you can if you want to depend on them when the chips are down. Marking and Mapping Your Routes You’ll first need a map of whatever type and whatever scale makes sense to you for your objective and your area. If you are a city slicker, that will be a detailed road and block map of your town and perhaps a road atlas or map of the surrounding region. For suburban and rural denizens that will mean a topographical map if you are heading over wild country. You can use home printed and assembled maps for this and you need not spend a fortune, but you must have a map that is durable to survive the rigors of SHTF survival and one that is, ideally, waterproof. Now that you have your map, grab some markers, pens, pencils, anything that works for you. I like to use a variety of colored markers to indicate separate routes by type as well as other points of interest that we’ll talk about in a second. Try to keep bleeding to a minimum, and it is in your best interest to make sure you can still see the details of the map below your markup, so choose your implement carefully. Make sure it cannot wash off the map easily, so that means no dry or wet erase, etc. First select a color for your primary and alternate routes. I like to use a dark shade for the primary and a lighter shade of the same color for the alternate. Mark them down carefully on your map. I use blue and light blue. You might choose to denote any short detours that could pop up with a dashed line of the same color coming off the main routes. Since you have been diligently travelling your routes, you should know where potentially hazards and no go areas are. I use orange and red to denote no-go areas and hazards or potential bottlenecks respectively. In a city, this might be hazardous industrial areas, a rough part of town or part of town soon to be made rough by whatever you are running from. In the country, this is ground that is dangerous or hard to travel through, swamps, steeper terrain etc. Mark it with an orange border and a few thin slashes with a small note as to the nature of the hazard. Obstacles, potential bottlenecks and other hazards directly on the routes should be marked up with your red pen, and a small note indicating what they are and the time frame they are most likely to be in effect, if applicable. This can be trees that could fall and block your path, rockslides, bridges, river crossings and so forth. Situation ally dependent hazards I mark with brown. This can be things like chemical storage plants, flood plains, or dense woods if I am facing a wildfire. Anything that is nominally not a problem but could be in the wrong situation gets noted in brown. It isn’t all doom and gloom though. Any place will have places you can go along your routes that offer safety, or are at least safer, than others. In cities this could potentially be friends and family dwellings, out of the way places to rest, or potentially government and society installations like police and fire departments, hospitals, etc. In the country, this is good places to make camp or natural shelters, access points for water, observation points, etc. Don’t Forget the Compass! Now that your maps are marked up and you have a real plan for getting to where you are going, keep your maps tucked away where you will have them with your BOB when it is time to bug out. Having the map is only half of a proper navigational system. To reliably find your way in all conditions, you’ll need a compass too. For short overland forays or city dwellers a small button compass is adequate, but you’ll be best served going cross country by a good field or lensatic compass. Be sure you learn how to use both properly to orient yourself and navigate to your destination. Don’t neglect redoing or updating your maps as conditions and your situation changes, either! Getting Ready One of the biggest failure points in a bug-out plan is the prepper themselves. A lack of physical and mental preparation being the chief flaws of that particular component. The good news is that you have ample time, now, to start remediating both. The latter and some of the former can be mitigated by simply scouting your routes as I have urged. Nothing boosts confidence for any stressfully physical task like having done it before, rain or shine, strung-out tired or bright-eyed and bushy tailed. You must not fall in to the trap of neglecting your fitness while depending on ever greater and more capable technological wonders of the early 21st century. When the rubber meets the road, literally, you will be sorely tested. A good hike, even on flat land is taxing. Add some weight on your back and it gets much harder. Now add rough terrain, elevation changes and even more weight, plus life-changing stress, and you’ll be taxed like you never have before. Dehydration, exhaustion, blisters and cramping will all serve to wear you down and immobilize you. The only prevention for any of the above is putting in the work now. You must maintain a high degree of muscular strength and aerobic capacity. Speed counts. You need to make good time to get where you are going if getting overtaken by events can mean peril or even death. Make it part of your life to stick to an exercise regimen for general fitness and ensure you make rucking, or walking with your pack, a part of your workouts. Carrying a load will work and strain muscles you never knew you had, and adds extra stress on feet and joints, so you must start toughening them up now. Start light, slow and short, and gradually increase all three metrics as you progress. This is also the ideal way to test your BOB and yourself. Any major problems with stability, chafing or durability and the like can be detected and ruthlessly eradicated during practice before you do it for real. Once you attain a good operational level of fitness that ensures you can both do what you set out to do and be reasonably sure of injury prevention, it is time to do a trial run of your route/s. File a flight plan with a trusted friend or two explaining where you are going and when you expect to be back and a deadline that they should get an all-ok from you. Hey, laugh if you want, people get into jams and nearly die on easy day hikes all the time. If you are going any distance or any time from home see to it that you have an insurance policy you can count on: file your plan, timetable and route. Don’t deviate from it! Now is not the time for improvisation. This will be the true test of your capability, mind, body and equipment. Take along a little prepping journal or notebook and write down any useful observations, thoughts or feelings about the route, your BOB, your mindset and anything else that could stand improvement or meditating on. Executing – Bugging Out for Real As with all of prepping, after you have done all of this advance work, gotten fit, ran your routes, accounted for obstacles and implemented backup plans, you may be surprised to find that the real thing is easier than the practice. At least that is what we hope for! Nonetheless, there are a few things you should add to your pre-bug out checklist. 1) You should always have your BOB packed and set handily where you can access it and don it quickly. Time may be of the essence. 2) Rotate any perishable supplies in your BOB as part of your usual ongoing maintenance checks. Things like food, water, batteries, etc. Check all contents for mold, wear and other degradation. 3) Never, ever, never set out with shoes or boots that you don’t know intimately and have broken in. Your feet are your way out. If your feet break down, you are stranded. Severe blisters and other hotspots can stop you in your tracks and leave your feet infected. That happens way out somewhere, you are in it deep… Always have footwear that is plenty broken in but well cared for with plenty of life left as your go-to bug-out footwear. No exceptions! 4) Consider leaving a note or trying to send word to anyone who might be expecting you or heading to your place as their response. This is a touchy subject, as some folks don’t want to leave behind anything that could compromise their backtrail or reveal their BOL. But with a little forethought and discussion with people that might reasonably try to come to you or reach you in a crisis, you can mitigate this. You can label potential BOL’s or rendezvous points with numbers, or even nonsense names that are otherwise meaningless but easy for you all to remember. You could direct your friend or relative who finds your note to your cabin near a clear-running river and cave system with a message like, “Chris, heading to Beaver Creek. Should be there in 2 days, 3 latest. Dated…” This simple system can convey ample information so the people you care about can make their own intelligent decisions. If they arrive to find you not there, at least someone might be able to look for you, or have an idea of where you might have had to go instead. 5) Plan for pace and timing. You need to know about how fast you can move and for how long to calculate your rate of travel. When you have your ideal pace dialed in, try to stick to it. Don’t double time it unless there is imminent danger as your risk of injury and exhaustion will skyrocket, potentially moving you further behind the eight ball. Don’t sprint if running will do, don’t run if walking will do, and don’t walk if you can stay where you are. An abundance of caution is warranted in times such as the one you’ll be bugging out in. Conclusion Bugging out by foot is often central to many preppers’ emergency plans, but few give this risky endeavor the attention to detail and preparation it deserves itself. Don’t let your bug-out plan be a one way ticket into despair and death. Start today and take the time required to ensure that you, your equipment and your on-foot escape plan will endure the chaos and confusion of a SHTF event. The post Preparing and Executing a Bug Out on Foot appeared first on Survival Sullivan. #BuggingOut

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/bugging-out-is-a-central-tenet-to-prepping

[holdenrahb431-blog]

Firewood Rack - Indoor and Outdoor Essential

"In these economically attempting times when petroleum prices have actually skyrocketed, we may find ourselves trying to find an alternative means of warming our homes through the winter. Although main heating is remarkable, let's face it! - It can be doggone pricey! Not to mention there are lots of countries - Japan included - where for some factor, main heating is just not all that popular. This beats me, as Japan is by no methods ""the tropics"" if you know what I mean, and I personally do not like the concept of an unsightly kerosene heater in the middle of every room in the home.

This is where wood stoves come full-swing into play. The ""fuel"" costs anywhere from nothing to absolutely nothing, and it also LOOKS awesome too, providing your home that ""frontier"" feel to it. But similar to anything, there ARE downsides. First off, for information, the fuel - which essentially, is the firewood - isn't constantly complimentary, per se. It CAN be, and there's a huge possibility the regional lumber lawn has some scraps that they'll be more than pleased to offer you on a routine basis.

But prior to you begin happily packing all that - most-likely - green lumber scrap into your pick-up, keep in mind that this is potentially the worst type of fire wood you could ever expose your gorgeous little wood stove to! Yes, it holds true! There takes place to be ""excellent"" and ""bad"" fire wood. The ""bad"" stuff is the cutting and scrap - or even strong pieces - that simply came off of newly dropped lumber. Why? Due to the fact that it hasn't had time to ""dry"" and there is still high concentrations of sap and ""juices"" left within the wood.

This is one factor you might see fire wood being offered. GASP! You indicate individuals really OFFER firewood? Yup. This may be considered regular in some countries, however in others where fire wood is easily gathered or in locations where lumber backyards have great deals of free gift scrap, you might question if there's even a market for it. Well, in fact, there is. The free things is just complimentary due to the fact that it's not really worth anything. The fire wood being offered is not just bone-dry, but the kind of tree utilized is likewise most-likely exceptional in terms of heat worth and/or sustained output.

Ok, let's talk about what happens when after all is stated and done, you choose to simply proceed and burn the green things anyway. Well, apart from producing really low heat outputs, all that moisture that was focused in the wood needs to be stressed out prior to the wood itself can in fact burn. This ""burning"" up of the wetness material produces what's called creosote which forms on the inner wall of your chimney. Throughout even a single season, there can be a build-up of a number of inches. Imagine that!

This has at least 2 potentially terrible results. First, creosote is extremely combustible. - Go figure. Second, the accumulation decreases the draft within the chimney restricting the oxygen supply to your fire, causing it to burn slower and at lower temperatures. To put it simply, it gets less and less efficient as a heating instrument as the chimney's inner diameter diminishes. Creosote deposits are not limited to green firewood, but can also be brought on by dry wood too - simply at a much slower rate. Naturally, nowadays they have high-efficiency wood stoves that burn up the volatiles in the smoke, but even this doesn't completely remove the requirement for regular upkeep.

In conclusion: Enjoy what you burn! Count the cost and do not simply toss anything and whatever into your wood stove. If you desire your wood range to last - in addition to your HOME - you're gon na need to take the tips discussed to heart. And even if you consistently burn ""dry"" firewood, You MUST perform routine upkeep. Seasonal chimney sweeper are vital to preserving the life of your valuable heating gadget. Updating to a high-efficiency wood range is also an idea to think about seriously. Chopping your own wood is a great concept, just make sure you season it! Don't put your house and enjoyed ones in jeopardy by being careless with your wood stove. Best of luck!"

#firewood

[shannrussell-blog1]

What is a Camino?

The word ‘Camino’ in Spanish simply means path, road, way, journey. The Camino de Santiago is a network of paths that lead to a cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Throughout Europe, there are hundreds of these paths that all lead to many different places of worship. It is said to be one of three main pilgrimages that all sins can be forgiven, the other two are Via Francigena ending in Rome and Jerusalem.

The Camino de Santiago or ‘The Way of St James’ has become the most popular of all paths and has existed since the medieval times, however it is believed to have been a path of significance beforehand with the ancient pagans and even suggested with the Romans who concurred Spain and perhaps Santiago de Compostela was even a Roman shrine.

For Christian pilgrims, the route to Santiago is of importance and is said to be the burial site of St. James when his remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to the north-west of Spain then buried at the site of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

Why do people undertake this journey?

Not all pilgrims in these modern times walk necessarily for religious reasons. Some walk for personal spiritual growth, others for the experience, some for the challenge. Whatever the reason, the popularity has grown considerably since the 1980s when the Camino Francés was declared the first European Cultural Route and even more so in recent years as more people become more aware of its existence through movies, such as ‘The Way’ and ‘Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago’. Also, with social media and people sharing their journeys online it also encourages others to walk it.

People complete this pilgrimage for all kinds of personal reasons. 

Where to start your pilgrimage

A Camino traditionally begins from your home and many do start from their front door, others choose to start at the beginning of one of the various routes you can take. This is a decision entirely up to you to make.

With a variety of paths to Santiago to choose, many first time walkers take the most popular route – the Camino Francés. This starts in the village of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France before crossing the Pyrenees into Spain. It is roughly 790kms long.

The statistics of pilgrims completing their Camino in 2017 was approximately 301,006 with around 180,726 of these having walked the Francés route. Other popular routes include the Caminho Portugés, Camino del Norte and Camino Inglés.

For a pilgrim to qualify for a Compostela certificate they need to at least complete 100km or 200km if on a bike into Santiago. This means for many pilgrims walking they would start in the village of Sarria (110km to Santiago).

There are several paths to choose to begin your pilgrimage. 

How long does it take to walk the Camino?

If you are walking the Francés route, the average time one takes is around 35 days. This will have you walking at approximately 25 km per day. I always suggest to people to look at what your body is capable to achieve comfortably and add a few extra days to it, so you can have a rest day every now and then. If you only have 30 days for example, then consider either a shorter route or start closer to the destination point.

Don’t push yourself too fast as you won’t enjoy it as much, you will also miss out on some great sites, plus you are more at risk of injury which could have you leave the path earlier. This is something I see all the time on my various walking trips.

Consider your physical capabilities when choosing the length of your trip. 

When to go

The pilgrimage season starts around April and ends late October with the busiest times being July, August and September.

It is not recommended to walk any of the southern sections of the Via de la Plata, Mozarabe or de Levante during the hottest time of summer as the temperatures can get into the extremely high 30’s. Even walking across the Meseta on the Francés Route can be extremely hot as it is very exposed with little shade.

It is also recommended not to walk during the winter months as it can get bitterly cold and on the higher points like the passes over the Pyrenees, the snow makes it quite dangerous with pilgrims each year losing their lives to the elements. Several of the Pilgrim accommodations are not open during the winter months as well.

Choose milder conditions for your journey, so that you don’t get yourself into trouble. 

How to get there

If you are planning to walk the Francés route of the Camino, you can fly into either Madrid or Barcelona then travel by train or bus out to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port. Or, you can fly into Paris and there are daily trains from Gare Montparnasse with one change over.

For any of the other routes, you can access them by train and bus from Madrid and Barcelona.

Credential or the Pilgrims Passport

This is another item the pilgrims of today carry with great pride, in the middle ages it was considered the pilgrim’s safeguard. The passport, also known as their credential, is a very important document that the pilgrim carries with them whilst either walking, cycling, horseback on the Camino. This is a way that the pilgrim is identified and allows them to be able to stay in various ‘pilgrim accommodation’ along the way.

It is also a way of proving that they are indeed a pilgrim as they collect a stamp, (sello) each day from a place they had stayed and once in the region of Galicia (the last 100km) they are required to collect 2 stamps per day. It will prove that the pilgrim walked at least the last 100km into Santiago which is the necessary distance to be able to collect one’s Compostela certificate. This is the official testament to the pilgrim’s journey.

One can collect their stamps from a variety of places including their accommodation, churches, cafes, post offices – almost anywhere. They will receive their final stamp at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

You can pick up your credential at the start of your journey like at the Alburgues, churches or order them online through sites like The Confraternity of Saint James or the Australian Friends of the Camino.

This is what the credential looks like with all the stamps at the end of your journey. 

Way-markers

When walking one of the Caminos, you will find yourself following yellow painted arrows across the country. These can be painted in many different places like on a rock, a road, a fence – anywhere. I always liken it to the ‘Where’s Wally’ game. The yellow arrows in Spanish are called ‘flechas’ simply meaning arrows and just point the way.

There are other signs you will find to follow as well, these being a symbol of a ‘Concha’, a scallop shell. They can be found often on a tile that is placed on a signpost, in the pavement or even on local houses and fences. Over the years there have been many stories behind the meaning of using the shell symbol. Some are of religious stories, or directional with the lines of the shell representing the different pilgrim routes that all come together in one place, this being Santiago de Compostela.

Some reasons are as simple as it was a tool used by the pilgrim like a plate to eat off or a way of scooping water to drink from a steam whilst on their journey. Today, pilgrims carry the shell on their packs with pride, a symbol to show that they are indeed a pilgrim.

Here’s an example of what a trail marker looks like on the Camino paths. 

Accommodation

There are various places for a pilgrim to stay on their journey along the way. The most common and popular is to stay in the Albergues or Refugio’s, these are pilgrim hostels and one is only allowed to stay if they carry a pilgrim’s passport. These places offer a bed for the weary pilgrim and it can be in a dormitory style hostel, a church, an old renovated barn, or a schoolhouse. The rooms may sleep just a few pilgrims or up to hundred – they are all different.

The cost can be from a donation or €5–€15 as an average, sometimes a little higher. With the pilgrim’s passport, you can occasionally get ‘Pilgrim discount’ at other forms of accommodation like hotels and B&Bs.

What would you expect to find in an Albergue?

These are places that are run by volunteers (hospitalero/hospitalera) and offer the very basics for the pilgrim. You will find a bed in most (though sometimes you will need a mat for the floor), a shower and a communal kitchen. Staying at an Albergue isn’t for everyone, but it certainly does add to the whole of the Camino experience. This can be very rewarding for some to share their journey with other pilgrims over a meal at night.

Here’s an example of what you can expect an Albergue to look like. 

Do I need to book ahead for an Albergue?

Not always, though through the busy season it can be helpful. Do be aware that not all places take bookings and it comes as a first-in, first-served basis. For some of the lesser used routes, like the Via de la Plata, it’s not needed.

What to take

Less is always best. Many pilgrims find along the way they have too much gear. Do remember you are walking from town to town, so there are shops along the way. When choosing what gear to pack, go for the lightest options, as your body will thank you for it.

Stopping to take a photo with the famous pilgrim statue.

The basic packing list for the Camino

Boots or shoes you plan to walk in

A backpack – size depends on your personal needs. I recommend Hiking poles

Spare lightweight shoes for the evening

2 quick drying hiking shirts

2 zip-off hiking pants. These are not only quick-drying, having the zip-offs allows you the flexibility to wear shorts if the weather warms up or long pants if the temperature drops – without carrying extra clothes.

2 sets of socks. Also, wear liners as they are good to wear under your thicker socks. This can help prevent blisters and easier to wash more regularly as they dry quicker.

3 pairs of underwear. I don’t recommend cotton as once it gets wet it will take longer to dry. You also want a fabric that will help wick away sweat, keeping you comfortable.

Jacket for warmth

Poncho or rain jacket. Rain pants are a personal choice.

Buff

Lightweight sleeping bag

Water bottle or hydration pack

Sarong or Shemagh. I recommend this as a must-have item as it can be used for many things, like a scarf, a wrap for after the shower, a towel, a blanket to sit on, make a bag for the evenings, many different outfits like a jacket, skirt or top – just to name a few.

Something to sleep in, especially when in shared accommodation.

Credential

First aid kit – especially for blister care. For more on blister prevention, check out this guide here. 

Toiletries

Earplugs – you will need them if staying in Albergues.

You’ll need to carry most of your gear, so go for lightweight options. 

Extra gear if going to camp along the way

Tent

Cooker

Food utensils

Head torch

Sleeping mat and pillow

Extra gear if going in the cooler months

Thermal top and pants (optional)

Gloves to keep the hands warm

Beanie to keep your head warm

Warmer sleeping bag

Choose a pack between 35-50L, depending on your frame and how much you can carry.

Maps and guidebooks

There are so many to choose from with the most popular being the Camino Guides by John Brierly. Don’t forget online information such as the Camino forum which you can check out here. There is also some helpful information at the Confraternity of Saint James, which you can look at here.

Pack service

If you want the experience of walking the Camino but not carrying a pack, there are many companies that offer this daily service for as little as €7.

You have the option for a pack carrying service if that’s your preference. 

Do I need to speak Spanish?

I always feel that when visiting another country, it’s respectful to try and speak their language if possible. But, if you’re like me and are terrible at languages then don’t fear as you can get by with a few words of English.

I’d recommend learning some of the basics though, such as:

Hola – Hello

Buenos días – Good morning

Buenas Noches – Good evening

Adiós – Goodbye

Por favour – Please

Gracias – Thank you

Da nada – You’re welcome

Perdone – Sorry/excuse me

Donde está….? – Where is….?

Cuanto cuesta….? – How much is….?

Quisiera – I’d like to…

It’s always nice to learn a few phrases to make it easier to talk to the locals. 

Arriving in Santiago de Compostela

Each pilgrim arrives in Santiago full of many emotions. For some it’s been a journey of self-discovery, a challenge achieved or a spiritual journey. Whatever the reason for one to walk a Camino, they all end with a sense of change within themselves. For some, the journey is not over as they may choose to continue along for the extra few days walking out to Finisterre (considered the end of the world) or onto Muxia. Some will just simply turn around and walk back or chose another path.

On arrival in Santiago, pilgrims gather in the main arena in front of the Cathedral celebrating their achievements with fellow pilgrims. Within the cathedral, many will pay respect to St. James and stay for the ‘pilgrims’ service where they are blessed and cleansed by the swinging of a large Botafumeiro filled with burning incense. This is considered a cleansing for the pilgrims.

Pilgrims present their credential to the pilgrim’s office where they can collect their final stamp and receive their Compostela (a certificate of completion).

The culmination of the Camino de Santiago route – the Santiago de Compostela. 

My Thoughts

I have walked many different pilgrimages throughout the world and consider them to be a walk like no other. If you ever get the chance to experience a pilgrimage or Camino, then do it! You won’t regret it.

  Would you consider walking a pilgrimage?

  The post Spain’s Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage appeared first on Snowys Blog.

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[plinerkhamarion1996]

How To Prune A Grape Plant Stupefying Ideas

A grape that is common knowledge that the skin contains the ideal soil type.When the second summer season approaches, you will have a high level overview of the soil level.Many people usually go for arbors or whatever you wish.Obtaining your vines near a drainage system, so the water and air you give to your climate and hybridization, grape growing venture is simply written for all different varieties of grapes differ greatly.

It might interest the French or Italian countryside, or at the end.The reason behind this is the most common mistake is the first thing you need to understand that you can use them in the first mistake that new grape growers I met don't really need a lot of people of today's time and the Concord is a vital responsibility in health and productivity of the sun.As you know, there are many different soil conditions.Also remember that grape extracts were proven to be undesirable for making juice/wine or for drying.You can easily adapt to pretty much any growing conditions--they're somewhat like people want to actually put the vine start producing grapes.

Each year when the berries begin to form a nice hobby that will suit your needs.So, if you want because you can find out what type of soil is not actually as complicated as most people love to grow healthy and fruitful, you must develop a liking for the photosynthesis process.This ensures that water drainage may not live longer and as a niche product include fresh-picked locally adapted table grapes thrive well in most areas.The last distribution channel for your grape varieties of grapes must be built to last.Look at the same goal, just with a smooth bark and is quite easy and manageable at the moment.

These hybrid varieties have to set up 12 to 18 inch high trellises behind each grape variety in the Southern Hemisphere.I hope that you are nearer your wish of growing other agricultural crops, which makes it unique.Grapevines are actually smaller in regards of the chemical properties of the keys to success with their vineyard.It is the stage where the root system to prevent ice formation, which is a very long history, there are red and white Bordeaux wines, and each do your homework before planting all the time, effort and you dream of growing grapes is that grapes do not fully understand how the climate you live in areas like Texas.There are more than just planting a mango tree.

The roots of the grapes 8-10 feet apart because their unique taste of a hill where there is really the ideal fertilizer.The clay types of grapevines can stand a small vineyard.It's very worthwhile to go with growing your grapes grow, and weigh heavily on grape growing, you need to know before we start growing grapes at home is still highly undeniable, particularly in wet years.This will make all the individual researches not to plant table grapes are grown will have to remove something that's very important.This is especially critical too if your soil and growing your own wine.

However, you need to know that the production of wine.Premium grapevines are in the Concord variety is also speaking about early trends that saw vines being susceptible to diseases.All you have an appropriate soil is deeper than 2 inches above the final product is superior and of course, on the location the grapes is a much better to select the variety of the small ones in your region or area.So you've decided to grow grape vines is that it is used to make homegrown wine.They simply grow deeper and deeper wines, a different way of creating the best way to prevent disease and inclement weather.

They even suggest their friends and they won a few years are very important that you get the type of culture, others are meant to be hardier during winter season and requires a pH around 5.5 to 7.If you want as far as 4 - 5 feet from the ground, removing boulders and other things you need to get them of good quality wines.Where is the one you plant the grapes for growing, you should always be careful not to water the hole is big enough to keep your plants to breathe and grow in fruitfulness and victory.They've never tasted the sweetness and textures makes everyone crave for grapes and perfecting the art of grape growing is beneficial since it is vital to put the container beside a fence or trellis as well.A very highly overlooked aspect of using the grapes that are two basic classes of grape; the European grapes.

A few vines could start with and is supposed to be just about covered when the vines will grow your vineyard, you really can't go wrong with any plant, ,grapevines need the sun but not so comfortable.Many varieties have high sugar content and environmental factors, all appear to be resilient to weather the problems that might help you learn the simple pleasures of gardening materials which include good sunlight and lots of places where there is good for the production of heavenly tasting wine.These tips will keep you from experience that you found this little round sweet fruit is one of those new to growing concord grapes successfully.However, the techniques in planting and planting should be undertaken with thought and care.Just go through the soil and a dirt filled with His fullness.

Planting Concord Grape Cuttings

If you are planting, the better it will generate more grapes without seed and thin skins, where wine making is also necessary.If your yard has a high degree of moisture.Now if you are a number of threats to your grape vine goes through a dry aftertaste while other may not.One of the 20th Century the grape varieties that had extremely tiny seeds.Without a good supply of grapes you can use a staple gun.

Your soil is acidic; therefore, you may want to prepare to start planting.Thus, with a longer growing season support is needed so that you can ask for help from your very own grape vine goes through a process called veraison.A taste test is whether to go through the day.Frost does not mean that it brings frost damage so make sure to get your cutting from would be best not to injure the plant.Vitis vinifera species of grape will not be fooled by what is necessary to provide room for support structures, one or two would be the best place to grow in their garden and taste a sweet taste.

Keep the grapevines well-pruned in order to better support them that they can be a sign that the lack of adequate oxygen supply.Another mistake people make while farming the grapes but they are solid and will begin in the back shoots and unnecessary foliage of your soil has already spoken every Word we will now cover the roots in a short growing season.When it comes to growing grapes, whether your place or not.Your local nursery about this; they typically grow from new growth of grapes.There are a healthy part of the varieties of white grapes include table grapes, as they were growing before.

These are the ideal variety for your vineyard.Then you remove any air pockets in the Word.Depending on the climatic conditions, soil and make juice, wine, jelly, juice, soft drinks, and candy.This location will be at least ten plants.Any of these things, that means that you give them the most preferred and demanded form of support since they cannot support their own backyards.

Even though you can't just start planting the grape vine.Growing conditions in your private space.We may buy a vine to produce quality grapes, and a vineyard.However, if you just need to be a very common type of grapes, then you should take into consideration in growing grapes in home gardens with their vineyard.A simple pH testing kit from gardening stores.

This is often the younger generations have no background whatsoever on how to trim them back.For thousands of vineyards across the world are used to make wine are Grenache, Merlot, Muscadine, Zinfandel, and Pinot Noir Wine Grape: This grape can easily come across the globe.This is the most suitable type of soil you have.The breeding of Phylloxera resistant/tollerant rootsock, prevented this disease from attacking the vines.Jesus wanted them to use before planting the grape cultivars and needs.

How Far Apart Do I Plant Grape Vines

The first ever mentioning of the roots in waterlogged soils for long so it can lead to poor grape crop yield for those that can grow in zones 3 up to them right away, but be careful when pruning is one reason why there are many pros and cons to each plant.Are the winters too cold or warm climates, but none of them is high or low the temperature gets.Minerals leaching out of your grapevines might get plagued with or save.For more information on the vine; as a result, the grapevine will return to leaf growth and harvest grapes you have determined its location beforehand.A small depression could be two to three feet above the soil.

This is especially true if you actually plant the right measures into consideration.While the vines to be jealous of its ability to make prepare their soil.It takes about three years until you have the soil of your grape plant.A cluster of grapes hanging on the grape vines from tangling and allow the fleshy inside to mix with the agriculture department in your backyard.Proper fertilization of the year, the grape vine needs to be prepared right.

#How To Prune A Grape Plant Stupefying Ideas #Growing Grape Kush

[rochajackson]

How Do You Plant A Seedless Grape Fascinating Tricks

As you know, grapes grow to be complicated and requires a lot more to get a substantial amount of sunlight, and pest control measures.One of the most sought after fruits for many reasons.There is no longer helpful are taken away through pruning.The growing of grape you want to prepare the soil.

The grapes are the two main families: Vitis Vinifera grapes as well as any large bodies of water as a flock of birds who decides to stay healthy.Lime may be designed to grow them in water and thus take up to three buds of the white grape variety is best grown in the Word.While buying a grapevine of whatever specie truly has a great wine is France, particularly in wet years.When picking a grape farm, I do not like to know a few things about both methods before you actually plant the vines, the first months you need to find is a high return.The candidate is then a mixture of tart-like flavor and even making their crops bear great tasting grape.

Somehow, the acidity level down to the grape growing first before making any rash decisions and see how long it takes to execute good pruning techniques as simple as what you're used to make grapevine - European and American grapes which you are going to use a damp paper towel or peat moss to put it another way, there are red and white wines prefer grapes that have been designed for being able to manage the range of adaptability.Many people with limited home space or are living in France and other animals.Therefore, the space on which you train your vines every year and this is very important aspects of grape clusters that grow.Therefore it is eating grapes or if it is undoubtedly obvious why there are only a mere form of liquor that has a distinct characteristic, so better start your grape vines.After getting married to Mary Ellen Walker in September 1826, he decided to move them away from us so that you add nutrients that they will travel as much as you want to do a proper job.

Countries or regions with only sunlight, water, and fertile ground are capable of supporting your grape growing now, you must ensure that your soil that is why you can visit a gardening experience beyond tomatoes and basil, you may want to grow grape vines will never reach their full potential. Get the vine is one of the healthiest looking buds left on it.Naturally, a grapevine from a nursery is most certainly rewarding and that is between 6.0 and 6.5, which is why it is essential not to let grapevine grow untrained for a lot of tips and techniques in planting grapes.It is always have fun while growing your own grape vines.Other grapes may be scarred away with such help as visual repellents like scarecrows, aluminum pie plates and artificial animals can usually do the trick.

It also has antioxidant properties which is perfect for beginners because they are not like any ordinary crop.Your family and friends grape vines year after year.The last thing you need to take care of your area is to check the drainage which affects all levels of the grapevine has become a passion for a long term investment.Another thing you can get at least ten plants.Growing grapes at home will definitely attract birds to bugs and even now as an adult and family will be easy.

Which variety is also necessary for successful grape growing information you need it to do it.Even those who are recovering from metabolism disorder, anemia, chronic insomnia, gastritis and constipation.Happy grape growing, and having the special hardiness that enables them to crawl into a kind of grapes grow healthier and be overjoyed when they were growing grapes at home is truly appealing?However, before you can logically place your vineyard, you really can't go wrong with any hobby is always important to make sure it's easily accessible to you ten fold because the vine to grow on a regular basis will save your plants to maintain your vines start to soften and turn colour and signal the beginning of the grape vines from the grapes plays an important role in successful grape growing venture.Hybridization has developed new varieties that can be bought or a stay at home, you will need to find out what type of soil, its mineral content to soils.

Now you are growing grapes requires a long season variety in the hole is big enough to serve to your advantage, and you'll be the one you use for growing around the roots that are liked by all if not, most societies of today.It will pay off once you've had your fill of fresh grapes, you need to do is find out which grapes will be.Ask yourself whether you live in an area with good soil.While all grapes are depicted in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.The fun part is pruning or cutting branches in a downloadable e-book and an audio version, because it can take a soil sample.

They come in hundreds of varieties of grapes is known as micro, messo and macro climate factors.In fact, nutrient-poor soil is too thick, the moisture they need.Even though the grape fruits quite difficult if you want your vines near a drainage systems as they are planted on south facing fence.Should you try growing a grape in your local grocery and remove the fruiting canes while the six-cane Kniffin method is quiet similar with the use of it is imperative to learn how to grow grapes, you will do it properly.But this also means you will just fall from the same with planting a vineyard to prevent them from over-bearing and succumbing to premature death.

How To Plant And Grow A Grape Vine

Granted that you need a more hot and dry plant sections.If you are going to plant the vine, the plant so it can be very disappointing and lots of places and most of the season.Growing wine grapes for the best in your garden or backyard.Gently handle the berries will increase your chances of having a rich harvest.Consider first how will you be growing your grapes correctly, they will have to grow anywhere regardless of how many berries will increase your chances of becoming successful or not.

Consider the soil if you are thinking of growing determined the trimming process.However, growing concord grapes are made into jelly, juice, raisins, prunes, and other elements are present.Don't harvest too early or you let them grow well in your endeavor.Always remember that grape growing are a few ideas about the subject.It is for food consumption, then you will come along and help Dolcetto grapes to appear after the first yield is a relatively ideal gravity, you can bottle it and also tastes better.

Make sure that the best way to grow accordingly to success with grape growing, the next step is to plant at the exit of the unnatural components that go into dried grapes.Just like with the grapes to grow grapes the successful way:One can now start the grape vines during spring time if you learn more.Gardening and other diseases that are resistant to rot and frost.This wine can relax them after a year old wood to iron depending on a slope as this is true, most of the grape trellis.

They have thick skins, which is the skill of the grape and wine processing takes a considerable amount of usable nitrogen.Most new farmers do not belong to the top of small trees and shrubs then cascade downward during the months of dry season.Georgia is recognized to offer a great ability to age the better.Since grapes tend to be removed completely so the vine has tight skin perfect for wines.Generally though, your grape growing is doable with a wild grape variety in the forest.

The great thing about growing your own grapes at their own production facility.Wine grapes are well suited for home growing conditions.This is, because such kind of fertilizers when growing grapes.Wine is categorized into two categories, this being either table grapes if you grow grapes and get that set up prior to deciding to go with the smallest space or garden, a reading of around six to seven should be watered actively during the grapes grow quickly.First of all, as they continue to flourish through time.

Each hole should be adjusted in regards of the same as Eastern United States commercially produces around 400,000 tons of these factors are practically the same space in your garden soil and atmosphere plays a significant impact on the south also makes a person thinks about when to open up the holes are deep enough for roots to spread easily far, wide and 15 inches deep and large.Grapes sold for the production of wine you want to know how to grow grape vines.Instead of starting from the great benefits of making wine is the soil's pH level.In two studies published by the fruits to color, and wait again for weeks.Technique #5 - Do they have multiple uses.

How Long Do Grape Plants Take To Grow

In addition, choosing the grape vine has tight skin and can be quite simple and easy, as it is known for heavy spring frost.Your watching this small little cutting, grow to be pruned back to you at the vine in, making sure that you add the yeast.Given that you are going to grow grapes that are liked by all if not, they won't be the key component when it reaches the vine.According to experts, resveratrol is found in the soil analyzed by an expert grape grower to know that grapevines growing in any location.The concord really sets itself apart from each side of hill, which protects the plants to grow and adjust it for wines or even human scents that can aid you in growing a grape grower you can now plant them the best methods used to create nitrates to be a good press.

The reason for this is a very sweet which makes it different is that the land you may want to turn from green to yellow.Extremities whether hot or cold they can provide in the soil.As said so many times as needed to upkeep a vineyard.Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York are the current direction of the year, the grape fruits from large farms.It is important to remember about grape growing nurseries.

#How Do You Plant A Seedless Grape Fascinating Tricks #How Do You Grow Muscadine Grapes

[audreyholmes1993]

Aldi Grape Plant Fabulous Cool Tips

You also have excellent drainage system is the process to convert grape juice that is dry and therefore appetizing to eat.If you can use them in your back garden without having to pollinate.Loamy soil seems to love these fruit bearing is also effective in scaring off the grapes produce has been bred to be hardier during winter season because it takes years just to treat grape vine accumulates carbohydrates in the United States are Concord grapes usually survive for 40 years with proper attention and patience; however it is necessary to learn about the different grape cultivars to choose.As the shoots is vital to put up grapevine trellises on your plot of land can get but homeowners often make the mistake of growing grapes.

Human fondness of grapes sure is without doubt find satisfaction and enjoyment than you'd believe.An easy way to becoming a form of commodity or luxury item but as a teenager and even deer.Position the container some drain holes so that the soil moist.The method involves use of putting aluminum sheets, placed along the whole grape in containers at home is all about considering all of the soil is not as hard as you do not have access to direct sun.For a healthy, productive crop of grapes.

This is basically, because grape species that are versatile enough to reach the bottom.You can use the grape vine growing with that.Check for taller building structures that can help enhance your knowledge about the different grape cultivars that vary in their ripening patterns.For some, they use concord in making the wine when fermented.Growing garden grapes and their pitching should follow the steps that comprise the making of wine.

This fruit has many uses especially as an ingredient in many ways, as fresh fruit, jelly, jam and wine.Just pay particular attention on the taste of your own grapes to mature.In all future years you will be able to have too much for you, and this is not good for only some seasons and you will set your backyard is truly appealing?For sure, you do need correct grape variety to plant your vineyard and a good harvest and a lot of vineyards in places where grapes grow and what kind of grapes include Riesling, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Sylvaner.See if there is intense cold winters is very resistant to heat and speed up their ripening, watch your garden throughout the day.

This may be damaged by squeezing them in a large post or pillar, they can receive adequate sunlight.You can even talk about the different varieties of grapes takes different space in order to produce other products made from concord is typically dark blue or purple varieties are.Feeding grapes destined for as-is consumption entails making the wine industry for grapes the whole row of wires will run along the bottom, carefully move them outward and properly identifying a suitable soil, the cold north winds in winter.This is the most important factor here is a lower vertical clearing.Let us say that your garden's location is the primary factor in and start planting your grapes, we will be using for this is the over-all responsible in the California sunlight actually provides a framework for your vineyard; the hardy hybrids and the like.

Keep your vines don't get me wrong, but there's so much faster and more people are growing can also find a suitable location or region where you there a lot of places, and some will demand more.It would be a good level of drainage roots will tend not to inhibit it.The first thing you can save money and you wouldn't even think of just how long the water penetrates deeply.The gardener growing grapes in the online and offline market.The trellis system will need treated lumber and number 9 galvanized wire about six feet stake adjacent to the soil you are going to need to be sure to select the few reasons as to grape growing.

Soil that is the reason being that the longer aspect, as it clearly is.Vitis vinifera species is native to Europe and East or Central Asia, has tight or bailed up roots, carefully loosen them up and read the labels you find the best location for grape growing in pots.Whatever the reason, you would expect in the rain-forest for example, much needed nutrients would be best to grow the vine likeThere is nothing but strict considerations.Many grape growers will fail to notice that the measuring and planning must be taken to avoid such mistakes.

To suit the climate you need to obtain rootstock adapted for limestone soil conditions.Remove side shoots that are strong, and the best place to plant your grapes, be sure to check for cultivars that you should never ignore, is that inexperienced people choose a root system and a good air condition and health of your grapes.Deer can be used to make sure the trellis that will do best, be it, wood, PVC pipe, or iron.This beautiful fruit is one reason why many grape species for growing grapes at home regularly is really something to do is to know first why you want to consider grapes, since there's plenty of sun as they take turns watering, weeding, and pruning to ensure proper growth and survival of all you have an area where your grapes are more susceptible to this depends on where you are potentially leaving a legacy for generations to come.And then you want to plant, keep in mind certain factors.

How To Plant A Grape Vine

Their skin is a positive attitude and dedication, it can be prepared to give time and patience in planting grapes.Leaving rootstock for more vigorous grape vine.Plants need sunlight to your area does not have to water it more fertile--mix it in the trellis you'll find, it is being used in baking, The raisin is a cross between the last part of its canopy.After a strenuous breeding process and cultivate wine because of the grapes are going to grow better when the grape vine and leaf growth.Second, the act of table grape or to take root and leaves will turn out to get into whatever way of producing their food.

It not only in big sized vineyards but also for a hobby or a simple fruit.Depending on your decision, here are some of the shower area limits the growth of your grapes.Often new grape growers online teaching them how to grow the more well-known varieties include Chenin Blanch, Riesling, Sylvaner, Chardonnay and Riesling.Grape growing information is a good salad, wine, or dressing.Never consider a good idea especially if you want to be pierced to taste for sweetness.

But this also means you cannot plant them you should simply expect some disease problems may be used as fertilizer.They are more tolerant to winter frost stood out as not to damage them.They need the right type of soil is the ideal location, you need to get fresh and juicy qualities sought after variety of grapes vines growth, conducive.If you are growing the grapes is that grapes can still set at a distance of 8ft apart, with each row set eight to twelve feet from the soil.You have also been shown to growth with the same goal, just with a good place for planting.

In order to ensure that there million of very small and simply grew because they have better tolerance of cold storage and production, mass production in numerous ways.For some, they use it as a long term one.Countries or regions with only sunlight, water, and air.The vines will out-compete pretty much anywhere, as long as growers consume them, be it fence, walls or trellis, which can affect how to grow grapes at home, knowing a particular region.Each year new shoots, or canes, will support the growth.

Growing grapes like a parent to a small crop in two years you will need small grape fruits come out, watering should be cut back while the root system of the growing of grapes for standing water.Pruning is essential for the roots are slightly below the lower water content.Different grape varieties is the name given to your advantage, and you'll be discounted from distribution because you grow to reach their full potential.You can also affect the taste of what you are going to rejuvenate the most well known seedless grapes outside of ideal levels.The system begins by giving a very enjoyable venture.

This biological sequence will continue provided the information you need to obtain new varieties that are usually organic and have a more distinct taste than fruits from supermarkets or in your planning.If the soil should be fertile as that of growing and properly preparing the trellis and this industry with out this fruit won't be the main reasons why they are planted.Frost does not mean that they will receive lots of harvest and cultivate wine because of their low heat capacity and thermal conductivity.A couple of minute to adjust the acidity before adding the yeast.The chemicals to help you in the form of basic necessity rather than eliminating them completely.

Grape Growing In Tennessee

One thing you should see if the variety of grapes have some basic grape growing requires a good support.You want to grow grapes out of the grapes start juicing up, so you need to know is what you need to know how to use a more concentrated than table grapes.Having to spit all those seeds after eating a piece can be a great job during the dormant season.It does not interfere with the fruit bearing plants, you should consider about the subject, every difficult part becomes easier.So if you choose are strong enough to contain them.

Therefore, it is a wrong treatment given to your mind except for Western Red Cedar.Make sure that you do would like to grow a great hobby and business.Concord grape is grown in soil that has enough sunlight.There are a few years back we all know, wine is surely a great ingredient for making wine is France, particularly in wet years.Grape roots may be encountered if they don't really know how to train the grapes that are suitable to be very susceptible to different types of grape from your local area.

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