#we get by with a little kelp from our fronds | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eroticfriendfictions · 3 years

Note

hi!! what are your top 10 t/jj moments?

Oh boy, everybody strap in...

#1 Ex Mach Tina

I'm just going to count this whole episode because it is perfection. A concept lifted from TBBT, Tina and Jimmy Jr. bonding like never before, three plot lines that wove together, this magnificent kiss in front of the bonfire which symbolizes their burning passion for each other . . . My absolute favorite. There is not one thing I would change about this episode.

#2 The Sky Kiss

Since this episode followed Ex Mach Tina, I figured it should follow on my list too. We really got these 2 great moments one after another, I can barely believe it. I hope life feels that good again someday. Anyway, how cute was Jimmy Jr. in this episode? He planned a whole special Valentine's Day kiss for Tina and he wanted the whole class involved. No wonder this won an Emmy.

#3 The Rose

Another Valentine's Day surprise. This one just makes my heart so happy. Tina spent the whole episode so worried that she wasn't going to get a carnation, and then at the very end Jimmy Jr. comes through, not with a carnation, but a red rose. The rest of Wagstaff had carnations, but only Tina got a rose. Ugh, so sweet.

#4 Tina's 13th Birthday

Where it all began. Say what you want about the rest of this episode, but they got this part right. The moment where they're both pressed up against the windows of their respective restaurants, wanting to be together, was the moment I started shipping them. The over-the-top first kiss was just a bonus.

#5 The Mile

This might seem like an odd choice, but I thought it was really fun to see Tina and Jimmy Jr. be playful and competitive in this episode and I would love to see more interactions like this between them. It doesn't all have to have a heavy romance focus.

#6 Pie in the Sky

I remember the night this aired and it was ridiculously exciting. But yes, this was T/JJ at their best. Jimmy Jr. sold his bike to take Tina to that fancy restaurant. Then when Louise hijacks it and Tina describes how she actually wanted the date to go, Jimmy Jr. not only understands her, but says that's the same date he wanted too. They both wanted to sit in the kelp and kiss! But kissing in the restaurant is good too.

#7 T-I-N-A

I know Two For Tina isn't exactly a shining moment for Jimmy Jr., but I think we have to appreciate all the lengths the boy goes through to try to win Tina back. And come on, the song is a classic.

#8 Bruce the Goose

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again, Jimmy Jr. was 100% the hero of this episode. He saved Bruce for her even though it just caused him further injury, and it was only through his actions that Tina snapped out of her weird goose obsession. Plus we got our first canon cheek kiss. Adorable.

#9 The Quirky Turkey

#I don't know if you all know this, but I am a big fan of long OTP kisses that do not end. We have that Shamy reunion kiss and now we have the T/JJ Quirky Turkey on-stage kiss. Setting aside the blood and guts and weird costumes, this is a great one. We didn't see it, but I like to think Mr. Frond had a hard time breaking them apart at the end.

#10 End of the World

I debated a little on whether to include this one because it's such a quick moment, but I really do appreciate how Tina thought the end was nigh and the first thing she decided she had to do was give Jimmy Jr. this kiss. And as we've discussed previously, I think if it had gone on a little longer he would have kissed back.

#t/jj thursday #perfectly tailored #tina belcher #jimmy jr.#otp #important answers to important questions #anonymous #i was gonna list honorable mentions but it would be like every other interaction between them

60 notes · View notes

corolune · 3 years

Text

Breathing Underwater / Chapter One — Zephyr

AO3 / Tumblr Alex had always known he wasn’t like other children. They didn't hear the song of the ocean in their ears, or feel the thrumming rhythm of the waves in their hearts like he did. Then he finds a silvery coat made of seal fur, glistening and calling him to slip it on — and everything he thought he knew about himself washes away like foam on the sea. Alex Rider is a selkie, and this is the story of how a seal becomes a spy. Prologue 〰 Chapter 1: Zephyr 〰 Chapter 2: Nimbus

zeph·yr — a light wind from the west.

Alex Rider was seven years old when he learned that none of the other children heard the ocean’s song in their ears. A half-formed rhythm that beat in time with his breath, the way the Thames rushed in tune with the hustle and bustle of London.

Mrs. Smith held her finger to her lips, quieting the loud chatter of the class, and beckoned Katie to continue her show and tell.

“And this one,” Katie held up a large, spiralling shell in her hands, “is called a conch shell. When you hold it up to your ear, it sounds like you’re at the beach! It has ocean sounds in it and it’s really really cool. Miss, can I pass it around, for everyone to hear?”

“Yes, you may, but we’ll have to be quiet so we can hear the ocean waves, right class?”

As the shell made its way around the circle of children, Alex leaned into Tom and whispered, “Why would you need a shell to hear the ocean? I can hear it just fine wherever I am!”

Tom shot him a curious look from under his curly, dark fringe. “Yeah, you can imagine how it sounds, but with the shell you can really hear it!”

Alex furrowed his brow, shaking his head, but decided to wait and see what exactly this ocean sound was. The others oohed and ahhed excitedly, holding the conch up to their ears, and soon enough it was his turn.

Tom bounced in place, eyes going wide as he handed the shell over to him with a grin. Cupping it gently to his ear, he listened and waited, but there was nothing other than the sound of air rushing through the twists and turns in the spirally shell. Squeezing his eyes shut and clapping his hand over his other ear, he strained his hearing, but it still sounded nothing like the ocean.

When he blinked his eyes open, it was to Tom’s concerned look, and his neighbour poking his arm.

“Come on Alex, it’s my turn!” James whined, as Alex continued to stare at the shell in his hands. He passed it over to him, leaning over to Tom.

“That didn’t sound anything like the ocean.”

“What are you talking about, mate? That totally sounded like waves on a beach!”

“Waves? But the ocean sounds like a song Tom, and there’s just air in that shell!”

Mrs. Smith cleared her throat, and Alex realized that his whisper was perhaps not much of a whisper after all. “Would you boys like to share what’s going on?”

“Sorry Miss,” Alex mumbled, as Tom continued to glare righteously at him.

“Tom? Is something the matter?” Mrs. Smith raised her eyebrow pointedly.

“Sorry Miss, it’s just that Alex said the shell doesn’t sound like the ocean at all!” At this, the rest of his classmates' voices rose into a rumble and Alex’s cheeks grew pinker by the second.

“It sounds like waves, I suppose, but not like the ocean,” he tried to explain.

“But waves are the ocean!” James exclaimed, while Crystal gasped at him. “If it sounds like waves, it sounds like the ocean,” she said.

Alex sunk deeper into his seat and vowed to never bring up this topic again. Never ever. Especially the bit about the ocean song, which Tom teased him about for weeks afterward.

〰〰

Alex spent his days doing schoolwork, playing football, and sneaking onto the tube with Tom to go to the shops downtown. He learned to avoid other topics, too, like how Ian left him alone at home, or in a hotel when they were on holiday. Or how sometimes, Ian would come home from work trips covered in bruises and scrapes. He made friends easily enough, and then Ian hired Jack to keep him company. It helped him forget that feeling of loneliness that hovered over him like a rain cloud, as if there was something he was missing, like the melody of a song he couldn’t quite remember.

Sometimes, when he was alone at night, he stared up at the stars from his little window and wondered what his parents were like. He barely remembered much of when he was little. Sometimes he thought of the light on the surface of the sea, reflecting into the water below where kelp waved in giant fronds. He remembered cold air on his face and the smell of salt. His parents must have loved the sea, to have taken him to the beach as a baby.

The months passed by, and he got a new bicycle, learned Jack was terrible at cooking, and finally watched the X-Men films Tom had been gushing about. Soon enough, his tenth birthday had come and gone, and summer was upon them.

When the high tides came, at his uncle’s lake cottage in the country, Alex’s blood thrummed hard in his ears. The dark night blanketed the small hamlet, an inky sky bleeding into the city lights that he could see far into the distance. A little lake, too big to be a pond, rippled in the balmy breeze as he lay propped up on his elbows in the grass nearby. If he closed his eyes he could hear the water’s shush-shush-shush in time with his heartbeat.

He was a city boy, but something about the vast, empty lake called to him. He supposed other ten year olds would feel a bit frightened, left alone in the wilderness for hours, where the nearest city was a half hour’s drive away. He never liked the country very much, not when he and Ian went into the woods or hiked up a mountain. But here, there was something that quelled the itchy feeling that had him feeling lost, like he was holding a puzzle piece that wouldn’t fit.

When he heard the car rumbling on the dusty path, he rolled onto his knees and peered over the cattails in the moor. Ian was back from his trip into the little town, and maybe now he would finally stop being so mysterious and tell him the real reason they were here.

“Alex! Come and help me with these,” Ian called, opening up the boot of the car.

Scrambling down the grassy knoll, Alex reached him to see old crates and crumbling piles of paper amongst the grocery bags.

“What’s all this? Where’d you get all this old stuff?”

Ian smiled crookedly. “Help me haul it inside and I’ll tell you!”

The crates were splintered and creaky, rocking with every step on the uneven cobblestone of the driveway. The papers were bundled into musty files, but between the two of them it was short work to gather everything into the foyer of the little cottage.

“So did you drive us up here to go to an estate sale or something without me? Bet I could have found something a lot cooler than some old paperwork.” Alex grinned as he put down the last box.

Ian chuckled, shaking his head. “I didn’t buy any of this. Lucky for me no one had come across it yet.”

He pried one of the crates open. Inside, there were soft cotton dresses, yellowed with age, in floral prints and geometric lines in vibrant colours.

“These things, they’re your mother’s.”

He blinked, looking up sharply.

“My mum’s? But...I thought there wasn’t...” Alex stumbled over his words, confused and hopeful all at once. “I thought there wasn’t anything left of hers,” he finished in a soft, timid voice, feeling something pull at his chest. He ran his fingers over the soft fabric, trying to remember his mum’s face. The smell of sea salt wafted up from where he shook out the folds. A large seashell, curved into a spiral, fell out as he lifted it away, clattering onto the wooden floor, and he reached after it. In his hands, the shell was smooth.

“I didn’t think so either,” Ian said. “But last time I came up here, remember I had to check on some things for our holiday?”

Alex nodded, the sound of his blood rushing in his ears like the thrum of the ocean.

“Helen—your mum—she had a safe in the little bank in town. Just by chance that the man there recognized the name Rider, good thing we weren’t playing disguises, eh?”

Alex had moved onto untying the twine from the bundles of files. The folders were dry, caked with dust, and brittle. The papers inside were less dusty but equally crisp with age. Inside they held an eclectic mix of newspaper clippings and postcards, photographs of people he didn’t recognize, and pressed flowers. Little mementos of a life lived, a life that Alex had had little chance to wonder about.

His parents had died in an accident. But in him now, seeing these objects that his—mum—had once lovingly saved, a spark flared into a hopeful warmth. He read and read his mother’s journal until his eyes slid shut, and he felt Ian lift him up and tuck him into bed. He dreamt of Venice and Prague, of coffee shops and delicate flowers blooming under gentle care. His dreams were full of strange people and stranger plots surrounding both his mum and his dad.

〰〰

The next morning when he woke, he could feel the ocean’s rhythm in his ears, louder than it had ever been before. He stumbled out of bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, to see Ian already awake and halfway through his toast.

“Morning sleepyhead,” Ian said around a mouthful of crunchy bread.

Plopping into a chair, Alex stole some from the pile for himself, spreading a very generous amount of jam onto his piece.

“Hmmm,” he hummed. The jam was really very good. Actually, now that he thought about it, he felt very good too, light and happy for the first time in, well, a long time. If he concentrated hard enough, he could even make out words in the usually jumbled melody in his ears.

Come...sea...little...

He chewed over this development as he finished breakfast, glancing at the crates and papers still piled up in the foyer from the night before. There was just one box he hadn’t gotten to before falling asleep — it was sealed shut so tightly that he hadn’t been able to pry it open by himself.

Ian noticed his gaze. “We can bring those with us for you to keep, when we drive back home.”

“Yes, I’d like that,” Alex nodded. “But I didn’t get a chance to look inside that one, can you help me get it open?”

Without noticing it, he found himself in front of the small box and running his fingers over the little notches in the wood, as if he’d been pulled towards it. A dull rhythm echoed in his ears like a siren song.

Armed with a sharp knife, his uncle pried open the lid. Whatever was inside was wrapped in packing paper and plastic, and an unassuming beige envelope rested on top. “For Alex R.,” it read in curly script, and the back of it was sealed shut with a sticker in the shape of a round, pink heart.

Ian leaned over his shoulder, humming with interest at this new mystery. “I’d reckon your mum left you this, Alex. Strange that I never came across any of this when you were younger.”

“You mean this is all a lucky accident? If we hadn’t come here...if you hadn’t gone to that bank, I wouldn’t have ever gotten any of this?” It wasn’t the first time Alex had had this thought since Ian first told him what he’d brought, and it seemed a little too much like coincidence.

“Perhaps, but then again, maybe she’d assumed you’d go looking for her things one day or another. Either way, it doesn’t matter — go on, open that envelope, I’m dying to see what’s inside just as much as you are!” Ian grinned, and Alex could feel the excitement rolling off of his uncle, who was always thrilled to play detective. Truth be told, he was excited too — it wasn’t everyday that he discovered an old family treasure.

The sticker peeled open easily, its stickiness long since disappeared. Inside, there was thick, creamy stationery paper, folded into thirds, and something shifted inside with a dull clinking sound. A golden chain slid out, flowing into his palm like liquid metal. Tiny shells dotted the chain and a small seashell hung from the middle.

“I remember that necklace,” Ian said thoughtfully. “I only met your mother a few times, but I can remember her wearing it — the seashell opens like a locket, I think, though I can’t recall what was inside it.”

Alex was more interested in the letter than a piece of glittering, girly jewelry, and he was happy to hand it off to Ian to inspect. Unfolding the elegant paper, he shouldn’t have been surprised to see his name on it, but he still couldn’t hold back a small gasp. The curly letters were undoubtedly his mother’s.

Dearest Alex,

In this box is something that has been yours since the day you were born. I’ve kept it safe and hidden, and hopefully you will find it one day when you need it. I wish that I was able to share this with you, face to face.

You must know by now, that you are different from other children; I am sure you never had to be taught to swim, and that the waves call to you in a way unlike anything else. You make friends easily, and others are charmed by you when you smile. You get those traits from me.

There is something else you get from me, too. Like me, you are a selkie, and your life is equally in the sea as it is on land. The sealskin in this box — this is yours. Wear the coat and you will swim as a seal, slip it off and you will walk once more.

Make sure to never lose your skin, always keep it safe and hidden, always keep it a secret. If you lose your skin, you must find it before someone else takes it and holds power over you.

My mother gave me this necklace, and now I’m giving it to you—a rare shell that will be a compass to your coat should you ever lose it. I hope that one day, you will find someone you trust with your life, someone you can share your secret with.

I love you with all my heart, my darling son.

Your Mum,

Helen R.

With slightly watery eyes, he looked up to see Ian nonchalantly trying to read the letter from where he sat next to him. Nothing in the letter made any sense to him—he’d heard of selkies of course, but the idea that his long lost mother was a seal was so weird that it passed right over his head. Distantly he noticed Ian taking the letter from him to read properly, but Alex was too much in the midst of an identity crisis to notice.

The soft, crinkling sounds of paper roused him from his circling thoughts. He turned to see Ian crumpling up the packing paper and tearing open the thin plastic that covered the contents of the box, tipping it over.

Soft, white fur with patches of grey unfurled onto the floor, somehow familiar, beckoning Alex. Something in his chest unfurled along with it, and for the first time that feeling of something missing, that yearning for something more, dissolved like foam on the sea. He ran his hands through the short, white fur, and knew that this was what he’d lost, and now found.

“This is yours,” Ian said.

That night, as Ian sat at the dock and Alex, clad in the silvery fur, dove into the cold lake water shimmering with moonlight, everything he thought he knew about himself washed away.

← Previous Chapter | Next Chapter →

#my writing #alex rider #fic #my fic #fanfiction #breathing underwater #selkies #selkie au

6 notes · View notes

pri-the-writer · 5 years

Text

Fairies and Fowls

Here’s a peak at my piece for the Fowl Mood zine, which you can find at @artemis-fowl-zine

“I’m sorry, you want us to do what exactly?” Holly asked, much to Foaly’s apparent dismay. On the hard light screen he was projected onto, the centaur rolled his eyes and sighed before he spoke again.

“For the last time, play Dungeons and Dragons with me! It’s not that hard to understand, Holly,” Foaly explained again. Holly smirked a tad, sitting back in her special chair- Artemis had customized it to her proportions and height, so that she matched their eye level when seated, or a “toddler’s chair mixed with a salon chair” as Artemis liked to call it- then said, “No, I know, it’s just a little funny to me, is all.”

“Yes, I didn’t take you of all people to be a fan of role-playing games.” Artemis chimed in, smirking as well. On his screen, Foaly rolled his eyes before saying, “I didn’t, at first. But then my nephew got into them and then he got me into them and- look, do you want to play or not?”

The two humans and fairy, all seated around a table in one of the Fowl Manor’s parlor rooms, exchanged a look at each other to consider it. Eventually, they shrugged in unison and Holly said, “Sure, I guess it can’t hurt.”

“Excellent! Now let me explain the rules,” Foaly said, before going off on a tangent about the rules and guidelines for the game that even puzzled Artemis somewhat, before asking, “Got it?”

They all nodded, two lying and another stretching the truth. Nevertheless, Foaly continued on, unfazed. For this impromptu game, Foaly had Holly bring in several items, including a hard light table, television screen, and tablets for the three of them that would hold the info for their characters. “Now, I have here several options for characters, but I’m going to start with the ones I think you’ll like best. Artemis, I was thinking you could be a rogue, for obvious reasons, but they require a certain amount of dexterity you lack. So then I thought, what about a bard?” Foaly suggested, prompting a smirk from Butler and a snicker from Holly.

“A bard? As in someone who sings and performs? Why exactly does that fit me?” Artemis asked, confused. Foaly huffed, then explained, “Bards sometimes sing, yes, but they also can read poetry or play instruments alone. They also have a spell called Vicious Mockery where you can do damage with words alone.”

“... That does appeal to me.” Artemis admitted.

“Now, Holly, I thought you might be a good fit for a ranger or druid. A ranger is a rogue who works on the edges of nature, protecting people from harm while using the forces of nature to their benefit. A druid is someone who communes with nature and casts spells with the will of the forest.” Foaly explained. Holly considered for a moment, then said, “I think the ranger one sounds interesting. Kinda similar to what I do with LEP and all.”

“Right! And Butler, you seemed a good fit for a paladin, a Holy warrior dedicated to a sacred oath.” Foaly explained. Butler raised an eyebrow and asked simply, “A Holy warrior?”

“Focus on the dedicated to an oath part. That seems like you, doesn’t it? Plus, there’s a sort of romantic air to paladins.” Foaly added quickly. Butler hummed quietly, then nodded. On his screen, Foaly clapped his hands together and exclaimed, “Excellent! Now, I’ve already made your character sheets for you, so that will be all set.”

He sent the character sheets to the trio’s tablets, revealing Artemis was a human bard, Holly was an elven ranger, and Butler was a goliath paladin. After typing some commands into his computer, the hard light table came to life, creating a miniature landscape for the adventurers to roam in. It seemed Foaly had already made little versions of their characters for the board as well, evident from the three individuals on the board who looked like them.

One was a human male, dressed in a fine shirt and pants, along with a black velvet vest adorned with silver buttons. He carried nothing else save a book, which was- according to Artemis’s character sheet- a book of poems. Another was a female elf, dressed in hunting clothes and a long cloak draped around her shoulders. She carried a bow and quiver of arrows with her, along with twin daggers. The final character was a gargantuan Goliath male, dressed in fine armor and wielding a sword and a shield bearing the symbol of the Fowl family.

“Foaly, I love you but you are such a nerd,” Holly said with a chuckle as she looked over everything. Foaly snorted and said, “If being passionate and prepared makes me a nerd, then d’arvit I’m a nerd.”

“Alright, alright. So how do we start?” Holly asked with a grin.

Foaly nodded, satisfied, and said, “Easy. I give you a quest. You three are adventurers and for whatever reason you choose, are out searching for a noble quest. Soon enough in your journey you find a small village and seek out the local tavern to try and find some news of a possible job. As you enter the tavern, which is called Haven’s Rest, you notice that it is surprisingly empty. Normally taverns at least have one or two patrons milling about, so to see it completely empty like this is a bit odd.

“Nevertheless, you head in and see there is a notice board pinned to the right wall of the tavern. At the counter, there is the sole person inside besides you three, a pretty blonde half-elf wiping down the bar. What do you do?” Foaly asked the three of them, looking up from his tablet expectantly. Artemis thought it over for a moment, then said, “I suppose I’ll check the notice board.”

“I’ll join him.” Butler added. Holly shrugged a bit and said, “I guess while they’re looking at that I’ll get us some drinks? Or at least ask the barmaid what’s going on in town.”

“Alright, Artemis, Butler, you two head over to the notice board. You see some normal things like an advertisement to help thatch a roof, a sheepherding job out in the meadows, and a job offer to work at the general store, but the sign that catches your eyes first reads Help! Mayor kidnapped by a dragon! 10,000 gold to anyone who can rescue him. Holly, you walk up to the bar and startle the woman standing behind it, who quickly composes herself and says-” Foaly cleared his voice, then said in a bad impression of a feminine voice, “Oh, hello! Sorry, I didn’t see you there. Wasn’t really expecting customers today- what can I get you?”

After struggling not to die laughing at Foaly’s voice for the woman, Holly replied, “I- I was hoping to get a few mugs of whatever’s good for my friends and I.”

“The woman smiles sadly at you before saying, I’m so sorry, we don’t really have anything except this awful old ale. That terrible dragon smashed the rest of our supplies last week.” Foaly narrated to Holly.

“A dragon? Like the one that stole your mayor?” Holly asked, earning a glare from Foaly.

“Holly, you don’t know about that yet. Only Artemis and Butler have read the poster.” Foaly corrected her. Artemis smirked a bit, and then said, “Oh barmaid, this dragon you speak of- is it the same one that kidnapped your mayor?”

Foaly huffed and rolled his eyes, then said in his female impression, “Yes, it is. The fearsome beast flew into town last week, wreaked havoc and ate the cattle. Our brave mayor tried to make her leave, but she just snatched him up and flew off to his cave. We haven’t anyone strong or brave enough to go after them, so we put up notices and sent word to the capital. Oh, I fear the dear man is already dead!”

“Where is the dragon’s cave?” Butler inquired simply.

“Why, it’s at the peak of the mountains just north of here. You folk wouldn’t happen to want to go there, would you? I’d advise you to take an army if you do. The beast is quite terrible and monstrous.”

“I tell her we can handle it, then leave.” Butler told Foaly, who laughed at the human and replied, “Alright then. Do you two follow him?”

“I think I would like to get some information on the dragon. How large is she? Does she breathe fire? Do they know of any weaknesses she may have?” Artemis listed off. Holly shrugged and said, “I think I’ll head out with Butler.”

“Alright then, Holly and Butler head outside of the bar and Artemis, you join them after getting some information from the barkeep. What do you all do now?” Foaly asked with a grin, obviously pleased with this turn of events.

“I suppose the best thing to do would be to purchase any supplies we might need for the trip. Is there a store in town?” Butler asked Foaly, ever focused on the mission at hand. Foaly nodded in response and answered, “Yes, there is. Across from the tavern is the general store, inside you find all manners of goods and supplies to aid you. Two elves run the store, a younger one who seems a tad nervous and an older one who seems very serious. He looks up at you from his place behind the counter and says, Welcome to Kelp’s General Store, how may I help you?” Foaly said this in an impression of Trouble- no matter how bad it was, Holly could recognize it- and Holly bust out laughing at the silly voice. Oh, Trouble would kill Foaly if he heard this. Butler merely rolled his eyes with a smirk before he said, “We need supplies for a trip up the mountain.” “We’re going to kill the dragon and save the mayor.” Holly added after her laughter died down. Foaly replied with his Trouble impression, “Really? Well then, you can have a discount. We need that damn thing dead.” Foaly pinched his nose, switching to a nasal voice, “Yeah! It ate Mommy’s cow!” Then he barked in Trouble’s voice, “Oh shut it, Grub.” “Holy Frond, this is hilarious.” Holly chuckled, grinning at the centaur.

#artemis fowl #eoin colfer #artemis fowl zine #a fowl mood #zine #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #fic #dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #fairies and fowls #holly short #domovoi butler #foaly #trouble kelp #grub kelp

58 notes · View notes

dearoldblighty-blog1 · 5 years

Text

How to Use Seaweed In Your Garden (More Info)

Gathering seaweed for use in the garden

Gather ‘mid-beach’

Seaweed is usually found scattered on the beach from the water’s edge to the highest point of recent high tides. The seaweed ‘mid-beach’ is drier than seaweed at the tide line and therefore lighter to carry. It also has fewer bugs than the seaweed high up on the beach, and is a little more enjoyable to gather.

Use fine, broken up seaweed

Look for patches of seaweed which are smaller sized in leaf size since this will be better to apply as mulch. Established large kelp fronds apart – the wide parts are difficult to type around plants in the particular garden beds. The kelp works extremely well to make ‘kelp tea’ and used being a foliar spray to prevent insect pests.

Use red onion sacks or woven poly bags or buckets

We all like onion sacks regarding gathering seaweed because they will are lightweight, water pumps out out easily, plus they are straightforward to grip. They are furthermore small enough that we all don’t overload ourselves along with heavy sacks. Woven poly bags good if a person can find them – ask at your entire foods store because these types of bags are widely-used to deliver whole grains. Don’t make use of plastic garbage bags because they are too difficult in order to handle. Both hands get slimy when picking seaweed plus this transfers towards the handbag so that it is slippery.

Limit your own impact by picking gently from several locations

Every patch of seaweed offers food and shelter for several small marine species. Choose no more than the next from the seaweed through any patch, and shift on to another place.

Applying Seaweed to Your own Garden Beds

Apply seaweed within 36 hours associated with collecting it. Seaweed breaks down and decomposes very quickly, in particular when in a good enclosed sack. In case you depart the seaweed within the sacks too long, it gets sludgy and slimy, and is more difficult to spread evenly over the soil.

Apply thickly, at least 4 – 6” deep

Spread the seaweed thickly and evenly around the garden beds to cover any exposed soil. You may think you’re adding too much, but in a few days you will think otherwise.

Seaweed Mulch Around Plants

In this picture you can see the bare spots showing how much the seaweed has shrunk after the first application. Only a few days earlier, the seaweed was 4 – 6” deep with no soil showing through.

Reapply in one week, another 4 – 6” deep

Seaweed shrinks when it dries. Even a generous layer of seaweed will dry in a few hot days to expose much of the soil. The seaweed will become very stiff and crispy. Ideally, you should reapply in a week or so, and this second application will dry out but still provide good coverage for your soil. Once we make the second application, our beds are often well-mulched for at least 4 – 6 weeks even in hot, dry weather.

Leave a clear space around plant stems

Once you have spread the seaweed around the plants, push it back merely a little through the plant comes so they aren't within direct contact with the particular wet seaweed. Once this dries, the seaweed will ‘shrink’ away from the particular stems, but it’s the good habit with any kind of mulch to help keep plant comes clear.

It’s OK in order to mix seaweed to mulch

We use whatever mulch we can get, and it also doesn’t matter if a person mix several varieties associated with mulch on the garden mattress. For example, our tomato vegetables are mulched with dried out grass clippings (straw) plus topped with seaweed. Within the fall we’ll include maple leaves. Mix plus match, it matters not really.

Don’t Use Seaweed in Order To Cover Garden Paths

Several men and women use seaweed since a pathway mulch yet this is a waste materials of good seaweed, which usually is better used upon your garden soil for the particular reasons in the above list. If seaweed is employed on pathways, this quickly thins out in order to allow weeds to obtain by means of. And the seaweed can become very slippery underfoot following a rain.

0 notes

montereybayaquarium · 2 years

Text

A minute of meditocean with our fronds

#monterey bay aquarium #we get by with a little kelp from our fronds #monday meditocean

2K notes · View notes

rescuesirens · 7 years

Text

NC Mermania 2017, part 2 - Mermaiding

From Jess (originally posted on rescuesirens.com, January 31st, 2017): It’s hard to believe, but I haven’t written yet about my mermaid tail! I’ve posted a handful of tail photos here on the “Rescue Sirens” website as well as pictures and video clips on Instagram and Tumblr, but this is the first time I’ve blogged about it, and I don’t know if I can do it justice with mere words. My mermaid tail is a wearable, working piece of art.

Although it’s been around for decades, the sport, performance, or hobby of mermaiding has really taken off in recent years. Today, you can buy an affordable fabric tail that slips over a plastic monofin (a device, as the name suggests, that looks like a pair of fins fused together, designed to contain both feet and keep a swimmer’s legs together to aid in the dolphin kick), or you can spring for a variety of other materials, varying in price up to $4,000 or more. One of the most popular materials is silicone, and there are multiple tailmakers who create truly stunning silicone mermaid tails for swimming. My tail and matching top were handcrafted by Raven and Tyler Sutter of Merbella Studios Inc., based in my home state of Florida.

The story behind the creation of my tail is pretty magical. On our family vacation to Orlando in August of 2015, Chris, his daughter Nicole, and I made a side trip to meet Raven and Tyler at historic Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, Florida’s “City of Live Mermaids.” There, I got to view the fabled springs for myself for the first time -- I grew up in Florida and spent a lot of time at Ginnie Springs over the years as well as Silver Springs and Homosassa, but, almost unbelievably, I’d never visited Weeki Wachee… and now here I was in this iconic mermaid mecca, with Mermaid Raven, seeing one of her gorgeous silicone mermaid tails in person! Wow!

I was so impressed with her handiwork’s artistry and flawless construction, and even more impressed with Raven and Tyler themselves: they’re brilliant, beautiful, fun, and phenomenally talented people who I feel very fortunate to call my friends today.

That first meeting. As you can see, we all got caught in a Florida thunderstorm!

Before we parted ways, Tyler and Raven took detailed measurements of my lower body so they could custom-build my tail, and I left Weeki Wachee looking forward to the day when I could try it on and go for my first swim.

Both the tail and the top that went with it were going to be designed as a “realistic” version of Nim’s, the Rescue Siren whose appearance Chris based on mine, and I was curious to find out how Raven would adapt Chris’s drawings into something that had to obey the laws of physics and look like it “belonged” on a real human being (as opposed to a cartoon), while still retaining the spirit of Nim’s design. Over the next eight months, Raven periodically sent work-in-progress photos as she sculpted Nim’s flukes and fins as well as the leafy, kelp-like halter top that Nim wears in her undersea home, Lophelia. Even in humble gray clay, everything looked amazing.

In April of 2016, Chris and I took another trip to Florida, and we made plans with Raven and Tyler to spend some time at Orlando’s YMCA Aquatic Center. The Y features a seventeen-foot-deep dive well, and I was beside myself with excitement at the idea of hanging out with Raven again and even getting to swim together. I knew that she was close to completing my tail and had already finished my top, but I wasn’t expecting to receive them until May, so I figured she’d bring one of her extra tails and I could borrow it for our swim. Imagine the look on my face, then, when Raven unveiled my very own Nim tail in the YMCA’s parking lot! It was so unexpected that I actually didn’t register what I was seeing for several moments, and then I squealed and squeezed Raven half to death.

Raven had taken the images of Nim that Chris had drawn and she had made them real. The delicate curling fronds of Nim's seaweed top, with sparkling green crystals imbedded amongst the gentle floral curves... the sweeping lines of Nim's graceful tail -- "blue as the ocean in the morning," scales glittering with iridescent shine -- from the flawless transition at the blended waist to the lightly ribbed dorsal, adipose, and ventral fins, all the way down to the immense flukes: three feet wide and ingeniously hiding a Finis Competitor monofin within.

Raven still had some finishing touches to put on my tail’s paint job, but I could try it on and go swimming with her!

I didn’t truly understand the phrase “fits like a glove” until I put on my Nim tail. It was made to conform to my body exactly, and, boy, does it do that. Even with Raven’s help, I swear it took me something like an hour and half to wriggle into my tail that first time. I’ve since gotten it down to under ten minutes (again, with my husband Chris’s help), but, if I hadn’t had Raven there to show me what to do at first, I honestly don’t know if I would’ve believed I could get into that tail. Once it’s on, it fits like a second skin, which makes moving through the water effortless. (Loose tails can flap around a person’s waist and legs, catching water as they swim and creating drag.) And once it was finally on that first time, I took off into the dive well… and I felt like I was flying.

When you’re wearing a mermaid tail, you can’t really get a good look at yourself while you’re swimming, so what made me do a double-take was seeing Raven (who can get into her tail in, like, two minutes!) glide past me in her own tail. The illusion is flawless; the blended waist effect that Raven can achieve with her tails is wholly convincing, her tails’ flukes bend and flow realistically, and Raven herself is so fluid and graceful in the water that you would swear she’s a real mermaid.

A post shared by Rescue Sirens:Mermaids On Duty (@rescuesirens) on Dec 22, 2016 at 1:33pm PST

Chris and Tyler, watching us, discussed the interesting quirk about mermaid tails: when a Victoria’s Secret model wears angel wings, she can’t fly, but, when someone puts on a mermaid tail, they really can swim. The fiberglass Finis Competitor monofin built into my tail is rated for ocean swimming, and I can cross a pool in only a few dolphin kicks. I went from the dive well’s surface to the bottom at seventeen feet below in the blink of an eye. I felt strong, powerful, and beautiful -- just like I imagine the Rescue Sirens in my stories -- and I can never thank Raven and Tyler enough for that.

My Nim tail has already been on a number of adventures, from Orlando to two Hawaiian islands to Weeki Wachee Springs and back here to Los Angeles, but those tail-tales will have to wait for another day, because today I want to write about mermaiding at NC Mermania!

The main event of NC Mermania was our time at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, affectionately referred to as the GAC (that’s pronounced “gack”). Merfolk took over the facility’s dive well, which, just like Orlando’s YMCA Aquatic Center, is a whopping seventeen feet deep and twenty-five yards wide; vendors (like us) set up on either side of the giant body of water. Chris and I readied our table with books, buttons, and Diving Belle motel key tags, and then I “turned tail”… with the help of Chris (who is an incredible husband for many reasons; this is only one of them) and a whoooole lot of coconut oil.

Although the tail is a challenge to get into, the reward once I’m in is well worth it: I get to go swimming! It’s so refreshing, both physically and mentally. I feel like a little kid again, only I’ve leveled up the way I “play mermaids” in a manner that wee Jess never could have imagined. I've always been a water baby, and swimming in a realistic mermaid tail is a whole new way of interacting with the element I love so dearly.

I recently had rashguards screen-printed with the “Rescue Sirens” logo, and I wore those stretchy lifeguard tops as part of my Nim outfit for both days in the dive well at the GAC. I was so tickled every time someone recognized our property! I loved talking to people, answering their questions about the books and the world, and spreading the word about this series that means so much to me. Because NC Mermania attendees are passionate about many of the same things that I am -- the ocean, marine conservation, water safety, and mythology -- that made everyone easy to talk to, even for an introvert like me!

Besides talking about "Rescue Sirens," conversations involved admiring and discussing one another's tails (Merbella Studios' tails like mine, Finfolk Productions, Mertailor, Mernation, any number of commercially available fabric tails, and even handmade), swapping water-friendly hair and makeup tips, learning new tricks (I was taught how to blow bubble rings!), and simply having fun swimming together. There was an innocence to the event that I found really charming. When was the last time, as an adult, that you really just enjoyed splashing around in the water with friends the way you did as a kid? I didn't realize how much I'd missed that.

While I played in the dive well, Chris was a rockstar and, as usual, a phenomenal husband: he not only sold copies of "Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist" at our poolside table, but he also took lots of photos and videos to remember our time at NC Mermania. The only thing that Chris couldn't do was take photos from in the water (since he had to be able to return to our table at a moment's notice), but the wonderful Karsten Shein of Mountain Mermaid Photography had that covered, spending both days suited up in scuba gear at the bottom of the dive well with camera in hand.

Here are some of my favorite candids shot by Karsten (thank you so much!):

In addition to Karsten's underwater photos, I chose some of the best pictures and videos that Chris shot from the pool deck and compiled them into this short video, which follows me around a bit during our time at the GAC on Saturday. Huge thanks also go to Tom Cardwell for graciously sharing the underwater footage that he recorded of me swimming, and to Mermaid Aria for the photo of her, Mermaid Jolene, and yours truly. I'm so grateful for everyone's help!

youtube

Next in this series: it's time to make legs and dry off for NC Mermania's social events and panels!

#rescue sirens #mermaids #nc mermania #chris sanders #jessica steele-sanders #merbella studios #conventions

18 notes · View notes

3ezentrum3-blog · 6 years

Text

Five Easy Things You Can Do Now to Help Prevent Breast Cancer

As opposed to concentrating on bosom disease, Wise Women focus on keeping our bosoms solid through savvy way of life and dietary decisions.

The accompanying tips may astonish you, since the activities and nourishments they recommend run counter to numerous elective perspectives of growth counteractive action. They are bolstered with solid research, anyway - from the lab, with creatures, and in long haul human investigations. In this manner, every one of these tips has a strong logical premise, not at all like the declarations made by those expectation on offering you their sentiments and items.

Setting out on even one of these recommendations will bring down your danger of bosom tumor. Utilizing them all is shockingly better.

1. Be more dynamic

Proof keeps on amassing that a fiery way of life is a standout amongst other approaches to cut bosom growth chance. An investigation of 20,624 Norwegian ladies found the individuals who practiced or worked out consistently cut their bosom disease hazard by 72%. (NEJM, 5/1/1997)

For bosom wellbeing I walk each day, take a week by week yoga class, and do jujitsu two times per week.

2. Eat more grungy seed nourishments

All seeds give phytoestrogens. Ladies who eat the most phytoestrogenic sustenances are four times more averse to be determined to have bosom disease than the individuals who eat the slightest. "No investigation has demonstrated a level of hazard lessening like that found for phytoestrogens..." (Lancet, 10/4/1997)

Entire grains, for example, wheat, rice, corn, kasha, millet, and quinoa are foul seed nourishments. Beans, for example, lentils, dark beans, pinto beans, lima beans, and chickpeas are grungy seed nourishments. Nuts including peanuts, walnuts, almonds, and pecans are foul seed nourishments. What's more, palatable seeds, for example, sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin are foul seed nourishments. Products of the soil that are eaten with their seeds -, for example, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi natural product, summer squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers - consider foul seed nourishments. Indeed, even seeds utilized as seasonings check, for example, cumin, coriander, caraway, anise, and dill seeds.

For bosom wellbeing, I have supplanted every single refined sugar - including white rice and white/unbleached flour items, for example, pasta, bread, treats, saltines, pretzels, bagels, doughnuts, and cakes - with entire grain items.

3. Eat less vegetable oil; increment creature fat, particularly from dairy items

"Weight control plans high in corn oil leave creatures particularly helpless against synthetically instigated tumors" say scientists. (Science News, 6/24/89; 10/2/99) Frightening as this announcement seems to be, it isn't genuine just of corn oil yet of all vegetable (or seed) oils including those produced using soy, sesame, sunflower, cottonseed, flax, and hemp.

In the event that you are questionable about eating more creature fat and dairy items to lessen bosom growth hazard, consider this historic point examine revealed in the Archives of Internal Medicine (1/12/1998). To decide whether nourishment influenced bosom growth chance. The eating methodologies of 61,000 Swedish ladies between the ages of 40-76 were taken after for a long time. The outcomes? For each 5 grams (about a teaspoonful) of vegetable oil devoured every day, bosom growth chance expanded by 70%. Interestingly, for every 10 grams of fat from meat and dairy items in the day by day eat less, bosom growth chance was diminished by 55%.

Another investigation, started in the mid 1970s, took after 4,000 Finnish ladies' weight control plans for a long time. Results as of late discharged found that the individuals who "drank the most drain had just a large portion of the bosom malignancy danger of the individuals who drank the minimum."

American specialists concur. As indicated by a report in International Journal of Cancer (2001), ladies who drank drain as kids and kept drinking it as grown-ups had a large portion of the rate of bosom malignancy of non-drain consumers. (Indeed, I do purchase natural drain, however the investigations utilized consistent store drain.)

Why? Galactose, the essential sugar in drain, moderates ovarian generation of estradiol, a growth advancing hormone. Furthermore, drain is wealthy in CLA (conjugated linoleic corrosive), a fat known to smother bosom tumors in creatures.

For bosom wellbeing I utilize yogurt, cheddar, drain, margarine, and olive oil day by day, and eat meat infrequently.

Keep in mind that olive oil is squeezed from an organic product, not a seed. Ladies whose weight control plans are high in olive oil, and who eat meat and dairy items frequently, have the most minimal rates of bosom disease on the planet. (Diary of the National Cancer Institute, 1/18/1995)

4. Eat less tofu and soy drink; eat more miso and tamari

While beyond any doubt in the event that you start eating soy sustenances as a kid and proceed all through pubescence the bosom tissues you make amid your youthfulness will be profoundly impervious to malignancy until after menopause. Be that as it may, in the event that you start eating unfermented soy (tofu, soy drain, and so forth) after adolescence, your danger of bosom growth increments. (Science News, 4/24/1999)

The dynamic fixing in soy - isoflavone - when given to bosom malignancy cells in petri dishes makes them develop quickly. (Concentrates of dong quai and licorice have a comparative impact.)

Miso and tamari - matured soy sustenances - are the special cases. Both are firmly growth deterrent, regardless of when you begin eating them. Creature ponders have discovered both miso and tamari very compelling in avoiding malignancy, even in mice hereditarily modified to get bosom growth. Also, the more you eat, the more you bring down your danger of tumor.

For bosom wellbeing, I utilize miso or potentially tamari consistently. I every so often eat tofu or edemame. I drink no soy drain, and eat no other soy results of any sort.

5. Eat sustenances wealthy in cancer prevention agents; dodge supplements of vitamins C and E

An eating regimen that contains a lot of sustenances wealthy in cell reinforcements unquestionably brings down bosom malignancy chance. Be that as it may, supplements appear to do the inverse.

Specialists in Stockholm watched that, among bosom tumor patients, treatment disappointments were higher for ladies taking vitamin E supplements - and the disappointment rate expanded with measurement. Concentrate this impact, scientists found that the counter malignancy advantages of fish oils "vanished when [we] gave... cell reinforcement vitamins". Indeed, when mice with bosom malignancy were given vitamin E supplements "the more we gave them, the greater their tumors developed." The writers presume that vitamin E supplements "specially secure a growth and even guide its spread." (Science News, 4/29/1995 and 7/15/1995)

Supplements of vitamin C (engineered ascorbic corrosive) are inadequately utilized by body tissues. Be that as it may, growth cells appear to flourish with it. (Tumor Research, 9/15/1999) One new "chemotherapy" connects a deadly type of zinc to an ascorbic corrosive particle; when the disease eats the ascorbic corrosive, the zinc is without set to execute the growth cell.

For bosom wellbeing I eat 5-7 servings of dim green and splendid red/orange nourishments day by day.

Other than being dynamic, picking an eating regimen high in phytoestrogens, eating at least one servings of dairy items day by day, utilizing miso and tamari frequently, and staying away from vitamin supplements, here are three more things you can do to help avert bosom tumor:

6. Sleep oblivious

Introduction to light around evening time expands the danger of bosom growth. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute (8/17/2001) reports that unending concealment of melatonin - a hostile to growth hormone made just oblivious - expands bosom disease chance by no less than 36%.

For bosom wellbeing, be sure there is no light (with the exception of from the moon) in the room where you rest. Not in any case a night-light. Not the light from a clock. Not the little lights on gadgets.

7. Drink red clover bloom imbuement

Red clover is an intense hostile to disease herb. It contains ten times more phytoestrogens than soy, and in a more entire frame. I have seen it clear in situ growths and pre-harmful polyps several times. Since many bosom growths take 7-10 years to wind up sufficiently enormous to be seen on a mammogram, I drink a quart of red clover implantation consistently and avoid the mammogram.

To set up the imbuement:

Place one ounce, by weight (about a glass by volume), of dried red clover in a quart canning jug.

Fill the container to the best with bubbling water and cover firmly.

Let soak for four hours or medium-term.

Strain and drink.

Refrigerate overabundance and drink inside 24-36 hours.

For bosom wellbeing, I drink red clover implantation frequently.

8. Eat ocean growth as a vegetable

In the event that the enduring and growth free Japanese have a mystery, it is kelp, not soy. A sprinkling of kelp as a flavoring is pleasant, as are nori rolls - however neither does much to avert growth. For that we should eat ocean growth as a vegetable - no less than a half-container serving every week. Wakame, kombu, kelp, and alaria are particularly successful, yet ocean palm fronds, hijiki, nori, and dulse might be utilized once in a while.

There is a rich assortment of ocean growth accessible in Chinese markets, wellbeing nourishment stores, and via mail.

These eight hints - five simple ones and three more troublesome ones - will incomprehensibly build your odds of living to be a wild, savvy old lady with sound bosoms. That is the Wise Woman Way the world round.

Legitimate Disclaimer: This substance isn't planned to supplant traditional therapeutic treatment. Any recommendations made and all herbs recorded are not planned to analyze, treat, fix or keep any ailment, condition or indication. Individual headings and utilize ought to be given by a clinical cultivator or other qualified human services professional with a particular equation for you. All material contained in this is accommodated general data purposes just and ought not be viewed as therapeutic guidance or discussion. Contact a legitimate medicinal services expert on the off chance that you need restorative care. Exercise self-strengthening by looking for a second conclusion.

[email protected]

Figure out HOW TO PREVENT ILLNESS AND HEAL YOURSELF securely and effortlessly the Wise Woman Way. Ladies' wellbeing discussion, FREE ladies' gathering, weblog, and email gathering. Subjects incorporate menopause, bosom wellbeing, childbearing, fruitfulness, illness counteractive action, nourishing counsel, and malignancy aversion. Visit the Wise Woman Web

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/master/Susun_Wee

0 notes