Last tomato of the season.

Inbox: “UVA Emergency Alert: ACTIVE ATTACKER with a gun reported in area of Shannon Library 160 McCormick Road. RUN HIDE FIGHT” #uva

"We are prepared to fund this program for the entire month of November" https://www.29news.com/2025/10/28/virginia-continue-snap-benefits-with-state-funds-during-federal-uncertainty/ #snap #virginia #hunger #poverty #uspolitics

Overwhelmed at 3am? This helps. Make space for hope. Move.

​BREAKING: Today, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum opened all 1.56 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing. These lands are sacred to the Gwich’in Nation, home to irreplaceable wildlife and wilderness, and have never seen industrialization.

ABC News pulled the satellite imagery of the White House comparing Sept. 26 to today. abcnews.go.com/Politics/new...

Attention Cville/Alb: NOW is the time to donate to local food banks, emergency pantries, and food insecurity partner orgs. Funding freezes/cuts to SNAP and WIC are coming and the next few months (++?) will be HARD for our neighbors. —Your local DSS Advisory Board rep ✌️

I scrolled through the @1stforall.bsky.social's gallery of print front pages for local coverage of "No Kings" protests. Here are some of the standout papers, starting with the Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado:

The family at Charlottesville’s No Kings Day.

Why does the naked mole rat have the longest lifespan of any rodent, nearly 40 years? A 30-year long mystery unraveled @ScienceMagazine today! Its cGAS enzyme in cells has 4 missense mutations that upends its function, promoting DNA repair and suppressing inflammation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.” Diary of Anne Frank January 13, 1943

Climate change-driven range expansion leads to species interacting and creating hybrids.

Two great finds on the AT near Ravens Roost. A white-spotted slimy salamander and a glowworm! Glowworm beetle larvae are bioluminescent. The side spots glow like lighted windows on a passenger train giving them the nickname “railroad worm.”

The students who planted tomatoes and basil in their school garden in May got to enjoy mini Caprese skewers at lunch today. A bright spot on an otherwise bland lunch tray.

Spending the morning with some of my least favorite caterpillars. The oh so painful saddleback and the oh so destructive hornworm.

IT IS TIME.

These tiny, fluffy tufts are beech blight aphids feeding on the sap of beech tree branch. They're also know as boogie-woogie aphids because they dance as they eat. The spongy orange fungus is called a honeydew eater which grows on the excrement of the aphids, and eventually turns black.

Roses, Late Summer

This may explain why there’s an aggressive response to people who merely post Kirk’s own words. It threatens the existence of the alternate Kirk - the motivational speaker that had been marketed to young kids and white Christian groups through selective quotation & clips.

On this day in 1991, Clarence Thomas’ hearings began. We didn’t listen to the brilliant Black woman who told us the truth. 33 years later, his seat still stains the Court. Maybe it’s time we started listening to the women in the room. #BelieveWomen

Time to remind people about the Commercial Pattern Archive — it doesn’t have instructions and search is a bear but there’s two hundred years’ worth of clothing patterns in here including all the big names new and old: copa.apps.uri.edu

The monarchs are here!

imagine being so maniacally racist that you side with the fire over the firefighter

Well this is good news! The chemical companies have also entered into multi-billion-dollar agreements with public water systems across the country to tackle widespread contamination of drinking water with PFAS.

The GOP bill would take healthcare from 17 million people. Big numbers can be hard to understand - 17 million is the same as the *entire* population of: Wyoming Vermont Alaska North Dakota South Dakota Delaware Rhode Island Montana Maine New Hampshire Hawaii West Virginia Idaho Nebraska COMBINED

That large yellow dot is a very full pollen basket. She’s packed pollen and saliva onto the hairs of her leg to carry it back to the nest.

Happy Pride to hydrangeas, the most transgender flower

It seems there thunderstorms everywhere but the ball field. Tom Sox win 4-3.

Every year, I start tomatoes from seed and fuss over the timing and the transplanting and the spacing. Did I get it all just right? And every year, some rando volunteers pop up and take off without a care in the world, leaping ahead of everything I started.

Mushroom Monday along the Rivanna River.

Our “Welcome to The Free Book Bus” signs greet our guests and reflect our commitment to an inclusive space for all readers. We lost a significant monthly donor recently after I confirmed that we carry LGBTQ+ books. We’ll keep showing up with an open door and books for every child & family.

Our son held a protest in our front yard. Gotta love the rainbow stormtrooper.

Our brains love the colour gradation in rainbows, maybe due to our ancestors searching for sources of water. Looking at plants helps us recover from stress & looking at something we think is beautiful causes dopamine release. I've posted this photo to alter your brain biochemistry for the better 🌿

The first civilian detained by U.S. Marines in Los Angeles was an ARMY VETERAN on his way to a VA APPOINTMENT

Never give up!

A class at my kid’s school hatched chicks. One of them has splayed leg. The teacher hasn’t had any luck with taping and the kids are devastated. So, it came home with us for intensive rehab—standing in a mason jar so that its body is supported and its legs can be in the correct position. 24-48hrs 🤞🏼

Ron Finley said, “Kids who grow kale eat kale.” Indeed. Making kale chips at Stony Point Elementary.

FBI agents are now visiting Charlottesville’s public defenders *at their homes*. It’s naked intimidation of our justice system.

Albemarle Co is planning to build a bridge over Lickinghole Creek without including a protected wildlife corridor. This breaks promises made in the County’s Biodiversity Action Plan & puts animals and people at risk. Bears, bobcats, and others regularly cross here. Learn more and sign the petition.

Our beloved cherry suffered from a bacterial attack and gummosis last year. I winced as I pruned away large portions of the tree, hoping to save it and not kill it in the process. It survived and rewarded us. We picked as many as we could before the incoming rain splits them.

Local folks: check the locations listed to see if you were possibly exposed to measles and call your health care provider if you have questions. www.vdh.virginia.gov/news/2025-ne...?

brb going back to 2020 to kick the tires of the morgue trucks that had bodies stacked up in the goddamn street

This is absolutely terrible news. With the shifting regulatory climate (i.e., antivax ratfuckery), Moderna has withdrawn their application for their eagerly anticipated COVID-flu combo vaccine. This vaccine offered better protection than getting each shot separately. h/t @merz.bsky.social

I don't usually pass these things along, but this story shook me. We lost our driveway in this week's flood, but another family here in Albemarle County lost their beautiful boy. Even if you can't donate, please read, and share so that we can honor this joyous child.

The PBS Kids app is one of the few things you can trust your kids to play around with on a computer. All the shows that you can stream are good and entertaining. Nothing positive comes from getting rid of this, they're just trying to make life worse for everyone www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/u...

@froomkin.bsky.social has the right idea here: A volunteer army tracking exactly what Trump is breaking, so we can fix it later. Lots of work is already happening, but a combined, organized, ongoing effort is crucial. It's a manifestation of faith in recovery, and a tool to help us get it done.

Fight me.

if you know a lot of stuff i think it is your moral duty to be kind and excited when people learn stuff for the first time. the world is full of stuff we don't know about, don't be mean

I love it when community nonprofits team up! The Piedmont Master Gardeners have partnered with the Albemarle County Fair to have a sunflower growing contest. It’s a great way for kids to learn about plants, food, and fairs. You can pick up free seeds at Gordon Ave library and start growing!