Introducing the world's tallest duck, Long Boi!
Read to the end to see a green sea turtle have a little snacky snack
Welcome to The Bloom newsletter! It feels kind of symbolic to launch this newsletter during springtime — it’s like a little digital chick hatching out of an egg that is The World Wide Web. If you’re getting this email, then let me first say a hearty thank you! This was an idea I’ve been noodling (in my old days of Working In Corporate America, I heard this buzzword once and hate it with every fiber of my being but alas, it’s now non-ironically stuck in my vernacular) around for a bit, and I put a question out into the ether: “Would you be down to hear from me a couple times a month via email?” and you, you beautiful human, said yes. So hello! If I know you, that makes me so happy. And if I don’t know you, that actually makes me even happier because that means that something I’ve done, or said, or written resonated with you and for that, I’m grateful.
You can expect emails every other Friday, to get you in the mood for the weekend. Because it’s Friday then…it’s Saturday, Sunday, WHAT! If you haven’t watched this video before, stop reading, and immediately watch it. You’re welcome.
Some VIBN (Very Important Bird News)
![Twitter avatar for @DickKingSmith](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/DickKingSmith.jpg)
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Long Boi is described as being soft, strong, and very, very long. There seems to be a bit of debate around his precise height, but let’s not split hairs about this glorious specimen of water fowl. However you slice it, he’s an absolute unit of a duck and I just hope to one day be able to see him with my own two eyes. This reminds me of how shortly after we moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, that rad Mandarin duck appeared in Central Park and I was legitimately angry that I wasn’t in NYC to see it.
April Showers Bring May Flowers
…and Mother’s Day! My first Mother’s Day is coming up…and it’s the day after I get my second COVID vaccine! “Aw, bummer! You’re gonna feel like crap and sleep all day and miss Mother’s Day!” you might be thinking. But is there anything a mom wants more than a day entirely spent in bed, snoozing it up, waking only to be brought food and beverages, waited on hand and foot? Even if I feel like I have the flu, I will still cherish every minute of that.
Speaking of mothers: a meme tribute to Mother of Flowers, First of Her Name, Queen Martha Stewart
A Cool Poster That I Recently Got
And I brought it to get framed like a real grownup! Ah, remember the glory days of college when you could just throw a poster on your wall and stick some thumbtacks in and call it a day? I obviously picked the most frugal framing option at the store because HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE PRICE ON FRAMING STUFF? Sheesh kebab, it’s pricy. But yeah! This really helps me to visualize what to do and when without obsessing over exact dates. And it’s just so darn pretty!
A Good Tweet From The Twitterverse
![Twitter avatar for @EboneeDavis](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/EboneeDavis.jpg)
I saw this from my Instagram friend, Siri Lorece, who runs an urban farm in Los Angeles that fosters sustainability & self-care awareness through music, urban Agriculture, and yoga. Just all around a really lovely tweet, ya know? Food for thought.
Like ASMR But Instead Of Weird Noises For Your Ears…It’s Cool Botanical Drawings For Your Eyeballs
If I’ve had a particularly tough day, sometimes I just need a little something to take the edge off. And that something is the Instagram account @alicelovesdrawing. Her drawings do something to my brain that just instantly makes stress melt away. I’ve watched so many that I’ve almost convinced myself that I can draw. And one day, when I have more free time, I plan on *actually* trying some of her tutorials, but for now, they are my stress-relieving kink.
Giant Cloud Rats Are Now My Second Favorite Large Rodents
The first being a capybara, obviously. Is that even a question? But giant cloud rats sound downright adorable! Like some sort of mystical, floating rodent! Fossils of giant cloud rats were found in Phillipine caves recently and I didn’t even know these creatures existed but I am so very glad to live in a world with them. Nature is heckin’ cool!
"The bigger ones would have looked almost like a woodchuck with a squirrel tail," says Heaney. "Cloud rats eat plants, and they've got great big pot bellies that allow them to ferment the plants that they eat, kind of like cows. They have big fluffy or furry tails. They're really quite cute."
Current Reading List
I usually have 3-4 books that I’m reading at any time, and since I personally love book recommendations and seeing what folks are reading — literary voyeurism, if you will — I thought it might be fun to include my current reading list.
The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert Wright (This has been on my to-read list for a while now, and I finally cracked the spine on my copy that I got at a used bookstore in Ojai.)
Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy by Herman Pontzer, PhD (This is written by an anthropologist and is so fascinating I have barely been able to put it down. Just riveting!)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Picked this one up at an estate sale in Pasadena per the recommendations from two of my bookworm friends.)
Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy (Someone on Instagram DM’ed me that they thought I would enjoy this book and enjoy I did!)
Watch A Green Sea Turtle Eat A Jellyfish Like A Bowl Of Spaghetti!!!
![Twitter avatar for @NatGeo](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/NatGeo.jpg)
If you enjoyed this issue of The Bloom, share the love. Forward it to someone you know who digs turtles, long ducks, or freakishly large fake-sounding rodents.