journal 4

They came out better than expected.



I almost don't want to use them. I just put them away for now.

I pressed flowers today. It's not prime season for them yet but there's still some things in bloom I thought I'd give an attempt.

For Christmas I received a flower pressing kit, which is composed of two wooden blocks and a bunch of layers of special material, which you bind together with straps. It was satisfying to fasten it as tightly as possible. I don't know how gentle I am supposed to be so I opted for monstrous strength.

Some flowers were slightly wet, like the apple blossoms, so I don't have high hopes for them.

I will update in a few days.

P.S. The kit came with an X-acto knife.
I used it to make this Gregory Horror Show papercraft instead.

It's so beautiful. Please don't ever view my site again.

i said something about photos and then never delivered. so let's do it!

there was a big storm that knocked everyone's power out and caused a lot of damage. (felt a bit like the yokohama kaidashi kikou ova i watched recently where alpha's cafe gets destroyed by the wind... i remember thinking, wow, i'm glad we've never had weather like that. )

i had a childlike mind about it when i went out to check out the aftermath by myself, since there were fallen trees to play on and under, and a huge one broke the neighbour's fence so now i don't have to climb over that spikey rusty thing to get to that part of the woods anymore. that's always the silver lining to this kind of destruction, i get to experience the land in a way i hadn't before. i can go new places, and watch everything grow back a little different.

but yesterday i took a walk with my mom and though i was already depressed about it, the sadness really set in. a few years ago all of this forest was ravaged by wildfire which was (and continues to be) a very difficult thing for the people who live here. for a few seasons i couldn't go outside without getting... i'll just say upset. the fire killed most of the trees + brush and disturbed the pack of the soil, so this storm easily uprooted these weak dying things, and made a mess of them.

it can be hard living in the valley of the shadow of death!


(click to expand)

still, i don't want to be really negative. it hurts and it'll be a lot of work to clean up, and this winter has had no peaceful snow and has been too warm and with too many extreme spikes in weather, the pelting ice and flooding, but...! this is where i live and i will always love this forest even if i must watch it die, and i have, and i will.


haku and zabuza are also present as usual. physical form...??!

that picture is similar to a painting i'm doing right now though i started it before i took that. i like the idea of walking for a long time and someone being contented just to watch your back. ^_^
до свидания~!

new layout :-) it took a while to come up with something i liked as much as the katamari theme. i may still tweak things, is it ok...?

the background is from mushishi, and there's nikaido and kaiman, and zabuza&haku damaged sprites, all these things i like...

the miharu in the bg will be covered soon so let's enjoy the short time that he is here. next time, i will share photos i think.