You can read up on them, and see some nice photos here on mander… they’re really interesting creatures!

…and a beautiful sea slug too

Created my account 3 years ago so I could still access one of the piracy subs in case they were banned from reddit, they used to have an alt community on lemmy.ml…

I came over properly during the reddit blackout, set up the communities I most wanted to see over here (that didn’t exist already), and have stayed ever since

I like the fact that the posts have (generally) sensible comments, without 1000 replies of inane drivel to sift through, overall it feels like a nice quiet corner of the internet where I can recognise usernames and have a brief chat, then be on my way

That’s really lovely! Are you still friends or in contact with them today?

I was taken under the wing of a motherly school friend after I was ostracized and bullied by previous ‘friend’ group…I got my diagnosis 30+ years later

Totally agree…

I’ve been using mint for the last 4 years, and while I have had to use the command line for some obscure installs, it also works as an OS without needing to use it (i jumped in at the deep end and installed it in a pc I got from my brother and used it as my everyday OS)

I don’t understand why Mint isn’t the first suggestion for Linux ‘virgins’ switching over from Windows etc, it has everything you need pre installed plus the download manager for anything else

Linux has a flavour for everyone, and after a while when you’re confidence and skills grow there is the fun of using the command line and a bit of tinkering…or not, if you are happy with the ‘basics’

I’ve seen lots of contemporary dance performances which have blown me away, one was called ‘The Silk Road’ and showed how dance, as well as material goods was passed on via the silk road.

It had traditional Indian dance and Spanish dance (the one where the men do the foot stomping, I’ve not been up for long and my brain is still in sleep mode). It was amazing. The dancing was beautiful and demonstrated how culture and ideas are transmitted, in this instance- the similarities of dance movements

Also saw a free performance of some students of Chethams School of Music (Manchester) perform the harp. I think there was 4, maybe 5 female students, and it was beautiful. I’ve never heard the harp performed just on its own and they used percussive rhythms made by drumming and tapping the instrument…

I have the flyers from both above performances, so I’ll edit my comment later on after I’ve found them

Also adding Estas Tonne…my boyfriend is a big fan and we traveled down to London for a week which included one of his gigs…it was held in a church and was just him and his guitars (and 2 incense sticks)

Guilty as charged

I rather like this one…

wearily she waves

the white flag of surrender

cobwebbed butterfly

—Tracy Davidson from here

Pawprints fade, empty

Silence fills the empty space

Love lives on, always

From here

I sometimes feel that the classic haiku are let down by some translations, and the fact there are Japanese words that don’t translate across very well or at all.

I have a soft spot for this one

The old pond,

A frog jumps in:

Plop!

Translated by Alan Watts from here

It’s interesting to see how each translation differs, and tries to put into English something that is probably untranslatable…also…

pond

frog

plop!

Translated by James Kirkup

‘The sound of water’ ‘kerplunk’ ‘splashing the water’ ‘leap, splash’ ‘water note’ …just don’t capture it for me

Do you know any that are decent?

I discovered The CryptoNaturalist over at the other place, and ending up buying ‘Field Guide to the Haunted Forest’ and ‘Love Notes from the Hollow Tree’ by Jarod K. Anderson…

Which is unusual for me as I detest poetry. I think it’s a pile of long-winded, navel gazing wank…Except for haiku, (because they’re short and sweet, and condense things down to their essence, which I like).

I like The CryptoNaturalist though, probably because they write about nature in a weird, beautiful and wonderous way. I want to use the word ‘magical’ to describe it, but am reluctant, for reasons

Also, thanks to this post I just found out there’s a couple of other books available which I’m going to buy tonight 😀

I find that I’m both drawn the the building as well as the exhibits when I’m there, all the pillars are trees with texture and foliage (and monkeys too), the large room with the minerals has sea creatures carved onto the stonework. The carved wood, the floor even the outside with the metal drain pipes and tiled roof…it’s a Temple to Nature, really beautiful place!

That is excellent to hear!

Makes me look at this differently now