Everything can come to monstrous life in Japan, even vegetables! In one legend, a pumpkin monster called Sunamura no onryō appeared in the neighborhood of Sunamura night after night, terrorizing people by chasing them around yokai.com/sunamuranoon... #FolkloreThursday

Catching the Caillebotte exhibit at the Art Institute (it closes Sunday) and a pumpkin mole pie at Pleasant House. A thoroughly pleasant peaceful day in Chicago.

It’s October! 🎃🎃🎃 That means it’s Whodini’s Haunted House of Rock time! youtu.be/BtoWsqgP_vQ?...

I know, according to #folklore, “the devil spits on blackberries on Michaelmas,” but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so timely or literal. Happy Michaelmas!

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Grotesque wealth creates grotesque people

Even Oktoberfest gets bouquets of zinnias! #Flowers #BloomScrolling #GardenJournal2025 #ZinniasAreWorseThanZucchini

I made braised red cabbage and bratwurst onions in the instant pot outside on the patio and not only are they perfectly cooked, but MY HOUSE DOES NOT SMELL LIKE ONIONS AND CABBAGE! It’s an Oktoberfest Miracle!

Okay, but the House on the Rock’s life-sized diorama wasn't that far off!

The squirrels today seem a lot more concerned with preparing for winter than the rapture.

IT IS TIME.

This is the powdery mildew on my gourd and pumpkin vines.

It’s Annual Gourd Index time! 🎃 Not a ton of gourds on sale yet, but prices are as high as last year at a whopping 99¢ per gourd, incl mini pumpkins. (Grocery store, orchard) Surprisingly, regular pumpkins, incl fancy varieties, are as low as $3.99 with coupon. #AnnualGourdReport #Fall #pumpkin

Fuck, yeah! These decorative gourd are tiiiiiiiight! #Gardening #Pumpkin #GardenJournal2025

now is the autumnal equinox of our discontent

AIRHORNS 📣📣📣 Yall… #Gardening #Fall #Pumpkin #GardenJournal2025

Thinking about harvesting some gourds today...

Sigh… we lost most of our homegrown tomato sauce when the refrigerator conked out. Fortunately, the master gardener down the street gave us a bunch of heirlooms to augment our harvest and start again! Ready for roasting with olive oil and salt. #Gardening #Cooking #GardenJournal2025

I did not anticipate how tough it is to see white stitching on white waste canvas on white broadcloth, but I think it’ll look elegant when it’s done. #Sewing #Crosstitch #DayOfTheDead

SearsHenge. This morning in Chicago as we approaching the Autumnal Equinox and Chicagohenge time.

Go, Cubs, Go! (I have no idea why most of the Cubs gifs are lgbtq themed, but it’s okay with me!)

Oooo… there really are a lot more flowers now! Lunch is ready, hummingbirds. #Flowers #BloomScrolling #GardenJournal2025

NEW BABY PHOTO DROP. This lil pumpkin is my fourth. Got enough for a jazz combo now! #Pumpkin #Gardening #GardenJournal2025

Still not getting a ton of flowers on the cardinal climbers, but supposedly there may be more blooms in Fall. We have had a bunch of hummingbirds lately, though. They’re so cute and so hard to photograph. #Flowers #BloomScrolling #GardenJournal2025

Say my three pumpkins sunning themselves on the side of the house

My Doomscrolling is acting up, so I’m starting a new #Crosstitch project. I set up a little ofrenda on a cabinet last year for #DayOfTheDead and I’d like to make a special cloth for it, which I‘ll do white on white using waste canvas. First thing is to create my pattern!

They should put a warning on the seed packets: “WARNING: IF YOU GROW ZINNIAS YOU’LL BECOME THE KIND OF PERSON WHO GIVES PEOPLE BOUQUETS WHETHER THEY WANT THEM OR NOT” #Flowers #BloomScrolling #Gardening #GardenJournal2025

Celosia (coxcomb) update: it’s big and beautiful! Look at those brain coral-like rows. #Flowers #Gardening #GardenJournal2025 #BloomScrolling

Huh! I didn’t see any germination in the Mexican sunflowers so I dumped the soil, but here’s one mixed in with my Four O’Clocks. #Flowers #Gardening #GardenJournal2025

Harvested my third pumpkin (should I call him Kenzo? ‘Kinzo?) today. Theres a bunch of green pumpkins still on the vine, so hopefully we’ll get more. #Pumpkins #Gardening #GardenJournal2025

Turns out my friend doesn’t like the rhubarb growing in her yard, but her loss is my mouthwatering gain! 🥧 #gardening #baking #pies

All natural gourd garland! Both the gourds and pumpkin vines are waaaay bigger than the seed packet suggested, so either mine are unusually big or they didn’t wanna scare off potential gardeners #Pumpkins #Gardening #GardenJournal2025

Truly excellent

Harvested this little round boy, easily the most attractive of all the pumpkins so far. That stem was hard to cut through. Maybe I need bolt cutters. Then I could also steal bikes! #Pumpkin #GardenJournal2025 #Gardening

Bwah hahahahahahaha… I gave tomatoes to dear friends last night who wanted tomatoes. 🍅 Also a bouquet of zinnias a large beardy gentleman who likes pretty flowers. I have no idea why I feel like I got away with something. #gardening #gardenjournal2025

Suddenly had a weird flashback to high school English class when we had to read The Natural and the middle-aged male teacher bellowed “Oh, I am a twisted tree!” across the room, then stared at the sea of blank teenaged faces like… “Boy, isn’t this great stuff?! SYMBOLISM. #booksky

My precious baby! Now to let it sit in the sun for 10 days and then put it in my root cellar. A thing that I definitely have. Yes. #Pumpkin #Gardening #GardenJournal2025

Dang, I cannot believe how many tomatoes I’m getting from one Black Krim plant. Tomato lady is legit! I feel I should point out Tomato Lady is also young and beautiful, in case you’d like a mental picture. #Gardening #GardenJournal2025

Cute bumblebee on a zinnia. The zinnias certainly attract a lot of pollinators! Swallowtails and monarchs today too. #Bees #Bumblebee #Flowers #BloomScrolling #GardenJournal2025

“Live life in a way that when you die of old age, people think you went too soon.” An aspirational (and true!) paraphrase from @mattbaume.bsky.social ’s excellent Hi Honey, I’m Homo! #booksky

BEHOLD! The entire harvest of bell peppers this summer! awe-inspiring. #GardenJournal2025 #Gardening

Handsome bumblebee going to town on this African marigold. #Bees #Bumblebee #Flowers #BloomScrolling #GardenJournal2025

Finally have blooms on the asters! That took some time, but it’s nice they’re coming in as the strawflowers are fading. #Flowers #BloomScrolling #GardenJournal2025

I have officially closed the Swallowtail B&B for the season! I emptied and washed the enclosure. Mildly interesting: I had a bunch of different sticks for the caterpillars to form their chrysalis and they overwhelmingly preferred these strips of bark from the swamp maple tree. #butterflies

This tiny little lady (she was a tiny but determined caterpillar unlike Kevin the Derp of His Name) is #17, Frances Bean. She’s probably the last butterfly I’ll have this year, but I’ll keep the enclosure up for a couple more days in case I miscounted.

This book is so good that instead of tearing through it in a day, I deliberately rationed it out to make it last longer. The three narratives are equally compelling and never confusing, which is a huge compliment! #booksky

Love Lost Eras! Best place for oddities, Wicker Mam masks, or mascot suit rental.

If we’re playing that game where the last four authors you’ve read are your squad, I’m feeling pretty confident: Matt Baume Chuck Tingle Stephen Graham Jones Silvia Moreno-Garcia. #booksky