Brent Merrill

I may be a little improbable but I'm not impossible - Fibber McGee

[Brent Merrill @BrentMerrill]

Wild plum

[VenetiaJane's Garden @VenetiaJane]

The wildflower Daucus carota is known as “Queen Anne’s Lace”. The name may refer to St Anne, “Queen of Heaven” and patron saint of lacemakers. Legend says the tiny red flower at the heart of its lacy white blooms marks a drop of blood that fell from her pricked finger. #folklore

[Patrick Heizer @PatrickHeizer]

Another modestly pro-social thing you can do to conserve energy during a heatwave: grill outside rather than cook indoors.

[BowTiedGarden @BowTiedGarden]

Good Afternoon

[Into The Forest Dark @ElliottBlackwe3]

Bakufu Ohno

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens”, says the Lord in the #GospelOfTheDay (Mt 11:25–30). Jesus takes upon himself humanity wounded by evil in order to heal and care for it.

[Godyssey @GodysseyPodcast]

Awen is inspiration, the gift of creativity given to bards and diviners who make beauty and speak truth to power. While today called an "energy", historical Welsh use is closer to instinct or genius, though occasionally divine in origin. #FolkloreSunday

[Maryland DNR @MarylandDNR]

Local lore experts theorized the ponies arrived on the island via a shipwrecked vessel in the late 18th or early 19th century. Others attribute their arrival by pirates drawn to the island who ultimately abandoned the animals. A more likely theory is that farmers in colonial times used the island for grazing areas to avoid paying taxes on the land.

Their diet consists mainly of marsh and dune grasses and water comes from the freshwater ponds located on the island. They are true horses, and not actual ponies, who have adapted to the diet and life on Assateague.

During the winter their coats become quite thick to protect them from the harsh winds. Their short, stocky build allows them to navigate the marshes and to store water efficiently.

Did you know that the horses’ eyes do not reflect light at night? This makes them difficult to see after dark so drive safely and stay alert!

There are two herds on the island; one in Maryland and one in Virginia. Approximately 78 are in the Maryland herd and about 150 in the Virginia herd. A contraceptive darting program may be used with the Maryland horses in order to keep the population size to a sustainable number.

It is illegal to touch or feed any wildlife. Citations are issued when visitors are observed doing so. It is dangerous both for the horses and for people when interactions are too close. Animals can easily pick up scavenging practices, so never feed them. Animals stay healthier when you do not feed them. And, once they learn to beg, they can become aggressive, more likely to get injured by vehicles, and can become seriously ill. Although they appear harmless and even curious about you, horses injure visitors every year. That’s partly why approaching, harassing, or feeding any kind of wildlife, no matter how small or familiar, is illegal.

[Godyssey @GodysseyPodcast]

Yōkai art is the art of creativity and learning to stand out. While many yōkai are genuine bits of folklore, many Japanese monsters originated in the minds of artists who wanted to stand out from their competitors in Edo period markets. #FolkloreSunday

[VenetiaJane's Garden @VenetiaJane]

Elizabeth Blackwell (c.1707–1758) created ‘A Curious Herbal’ to support her family, drawing, engraving, and hand-colouring over 500 medicinal plants. Her work was praised for its accuracy and beauty, and became a landmark of 18th-century botanical illustration. #FolkloreSunday

[MoundLore @MoundLore]

There’s a mountain pass in North Georgia where generations of Native people kept returning to carve the same soapstone boulders.

More than 500 petroglyphs survive… footprints, circles, bird tracks, and symbols added over centuries. The landscape was already important during the Late Archaic period, and later Woodland, Mississippian, and Cherokee peoples all left traces of their connection to it.

Nobody knows exactly what every carving meant.

That’s what makes Track Rock Gap one of the most compelling archaeological sites in the eastern United States.

[The English Oak Project @TheKentAcorn]

An English Bluebell a day until I run out of photos #46

[Lady Hollow Tree @LadyHollowTree]

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

📸 taken this morning by OHT’s uncle who’s visiting.

[The Last Homely House @AHomelyHouse]

Science bros will tell you with a straight face that they've studying all kinds of remains of the thing on the left, but the medieval folks were just making up silly nonsense with the thing on the right.

[The English Oak Project @TheKentAcorn]

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow

Langston Hughes

[The Orchard Keeper @keeper_orchard]

A Sabbath Poem by Wendell Berry

[Brent Merrill @BrentMerrill]

😅🇺🇸🙏🏻

[Philip Bunn @PhilipDBunn]

Me: “so today is America’s birthday. America is 250 years old.”
Daughter: “Wow, he’s old, he’s probably about to die.”
Me: “Please don’t say that.”

[Elle Lookbook @EvaLovesDesign]

One of the earliest Thirteen Star American Flags.

Likely made in Rhode Island between 1777-94, this is a rare five-pointed variant of the "great star pattern."

@Sothebys

[David Frum @davidfrum]

250 years after July 4, 1776, the successor of King George III pays taxes and publishes his returns. The successor of George Washington does not. https://t.co/CbIXDe8UQY

[Brent Merrill @BrentMerrill]

Also historically a very Jewish document 😍🤓🇺🇸

[G. K. Chesterton @GKCdaily]

The American Declaration of Independence is in its elements a very Catholic document. Almost alone among the plans of modern institutions, it bases all government on the right of men to justice, and all rights of men on the authority of God.

[Brent Merrill @BrentMerrill]

You get the Mediterranean rhythm here in the south though

[Brent Merrill @BrentMerrill]

Sprinting before storms and the heat on the fee remaining garden projects