Christina Melia

Butterfly Gardener, Newbie Eco Printer and Attorney by day. Lover of good wine, yummy cheese and delicious food.

[Christina Melia @lawcrc]

@sheepinstitches 😢💔

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

Tim Wong noticed the California pipevine swallowtail butterfly had nearly vanished from San Francisco.

So he did something about it.

He tracked down the one plant the caterpillars can eat — the California pipevine — got cuttings from the botanical garden, and built a backyard enclosure from scratch.

He started with 20 caterpillars and has now raised thousands. Every year since 2012 more butterflies have been spotted flying free in San Francisco.

Conservation doesn't require a big organization. It can start in your backyard too.

Planting the right native host plants (even in a pot or small patch) is one of the simplest ways to help butterflies like this.

What's one native plant you're growing this spring?

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

Update on Flight Attendant…

She was sitting in her jump seat directly behind the cockpit when Air Canada Express Flight 8646 collided with a fire truck on Runway 4 at LaGuardia Airport.

On impact, Solange Tremblay, the senior flight attendant on board, was ejected more than 320 feet from the wreckage. She was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat. She was conscious for all of it.

Her daughter Sarah Lépine called it "a total miracle." Aviation safety experts agreed, saying her survival was extraordinary given the complete destruction of the cockpit just feet from where she was sitting. Her four-point harness jump seat, designed to withstand extreme crash loads, likely saved her life.

But Solange's fight is far from over. Her injuries are severe: two shattered legs with open fractures requiring multiple surgeries and metal plates, a fractured spine, skin grafts needed for the flesh she lost sliding across the tarmac, and complications that led to a blood transfusion. She still faces several more surgeries and intensive rehabilitation to learn how to walk again.

Her daughter and cousin have set up a GoFundMe to help the family. The funds will allow Sarah and Solange's husband Denis to take time off work to be by her side as she recovers in a New York hospital for the foreseeable future.

"My mother dedicated her entire life as a flight attendant and was very proud of her work," Sarah wrote. "Right now, my mom needs your help.”

[fill your boots @MilitaryBanter]

Hello mate

I'm hoping you maybe able to assist

I'm head of maintenance at a care home in Devon and I have a resident who turns 100 this year

He's ex tankie and doesn't have his medal that he earned

A colleague and I are busy sorting that and have applied for it.

We took him to the local rememberance last year which was his first actual trip outside the home in years.

Tpr Frank Goodison
14851797
28/9/44 to 9/1/48
War medal 39/45

Rather than just handing over his medal once it arrives I'm trying to find someone of seniority in his cap badge that could present it?

He's a good bloke and we'd like to look after him

[Joseph Niedermeyer @JNiedermey33251]

Unelected state bureaucrats are destroying our family home of 50 years—voiding our ability to do basic and necessary maintenance on our own property.

Let me explain.

Every year, our property—along with other properties in Cannon Beach, Oregon—gets slowly inundated with tens of tons of sand from the beach. This accumulated sand necessitates a property dig-out once a year, in which we move accumulated sand back onto the beach. Without this, our property would slowly become buried in sand over the course of just a few years. This is a problem our family has been managing since the 1960s, and we are more than capable and willing to deal with it. Every year, we get a permit from the city to get an excavation team to move the accumulated sand.

As such, for decades, we responsibly perform this routine dig-out ON OUR OWN DIME with permission of the city and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (ORPD) once per year. This is not new. This is not experimental. This is a tradition rooted in necessity, understood by the local community, and permitted for decades.

One of the most important impacts of our long-standing dig-out is something many visitors never realize. On top of our own property, we dig out the local public beach access walkway ensuring that everyone has accessible and safe access to the beach. Our annual work has helped protect and preserve safe coastal access for everyone, including mobility-impaired visitors. Smoothing the sand next to our property has made it one of the most accessible routes to the beach and famous Haystack Rock. Meanwhile, other public access points have become steep, buried, or completely unusable. Our privately funded work has quietly created a public benefit for decades, at no cost to the state.

But last year, everything changed without warning. Despite receiving another city permit to dig, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, with direction from Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), circumnavigated the City of Cannon Beach and denied our ability to dig—which now makes it a CRIME to dig sand out of our own property.

From our perspective, this abrupt reversal defies logic and ignores the reality of the situation unfolding on the ground; it is a death sentence not only to our family’s home but to many other beachfront properties in Cannon Beach.

Knowing that this was a matter of life or death for the house, and because we love this house, we chose to appeal and fight this inexplicable decision in whatever way we could. For the last 10 months, we’ve been in a legal dispute with OPRD over this issue, trying to regain our right to maintain our property.

This legal dispute has been a nightmare. The back and forth with the state has been mired in incompetency. They’ve caused procedural delays and have offered shifting explanations, conflicting interpretations, and reasoning that does not align with our town’s established understanding of its own shoreline. Based on our experience, it feels like the agencies involved do not fully understand the unique coastal conditions or the decades of precedent behind this work.

It also increasingly feels as though the state is dragging this process out as long as possible, hoping that we will simply give up under the financial and emotional weight of this fight. We’ve had to spend enormous amounts of money on legal fees to fight this battle in court, and it’s been dragged out so much that we’re running out of money. Their added obstacles and drawn-out process make it difficult to see this as anything other than an attempt to exhaust us. Deep down, we feel that they know the facts are not on their side.

Meanwhile, the sand continues to climb. Our front yard is now buried, and if this keeps up, our home of 50+ years will be buried and rendered unlivable.

This is also a precedent being set that could impact every homeowner along the Oregon coast. This is no longer a simple permitting issue. From where we stand, it has become a troubling example of state agencies overreaching and disregarding local expertise and common-sense solutions that cost the state nothing.

All of this is happening while OPRD faces a $14 million budget shortfall. Instead of allowing responsible, privately funded solutions that improve accessibility for the public, they are spending taxpayer money (that they don’t even have!) to prevent a family from responsibly maintaining their property and local beach walkways.

We need help. We need the public to understand what is happening before our home suffers permanent damage and before this issue spreads across Oregon’s coastal communities. We are calling for press coverage, public awareness, and help from Oregon’s leadership. Please help us shine a light on this.

Tagging for urgent attention and help:
@TinaKotek @OregonHouseGOP @ORDems @WeberforOregon @CyrusforOregon @ORSecretaryRead @KATUNews @Oregonian @fox12oregon @KOINNews @SenJeffMerkley

[Christina Melia @lawcrc]

@FlyTPA Japan???

[🐈 Ranae 🐈‍⬛ @TheNerdyCatLady]

I just wanna reiterate while I'm doing it/thinking about it ... if you're providing winter shelters for feral/outside cats, ONLY USE STRAW! Blankets, pillows, hay, anything else CAN FREEZE THEM. Straw is for strays! RT for awareness. 💕🐾
#CatsOfTwitter

[Jaimee Michell @JaimeeUSA]

The women of Iran are absolute gangsters the likes of which Western feminists will never be able to comprehend.

They are facing actual torture and death, but continue to defy the oppressive Islamic regime in their quest for freedom.

STAND WITH THEM ❤️‍🔥

[Vivid.🇮🇱 @VividProwess]

This is historic. Iranians are bravely flying the real flag of Iran, the Lion and Sun flag, in the heart of their own country as they stand up against the Islamic regime.

The media is completely ignoring this.

Share it. Make it go viral.

[Vivid.🇮🇱 @VividProwess]

BREAKING: Thousands of BRAVE Iranians are taking to the streets on the 11th day of the uprising against the Islamic Republic's terrorist regime.

The mainstream media is IGNORING this.

Make it go viral. Share it everywhere.

[Nick shirley @nickshirleyy]

🚨 Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet. We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day. Like it and share it around like wildfire! Its time to hold these corrupt politicians and fraudsters accountable

We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening, the fraud must be stopped.

[Sam Millar @SamMillar72]

Been paid off 3 days before Christmas holidays due to there not being enough work after the year. Full qualified floor layer with 9 years experience, if anyone knows of any flooring companies taking on.

Failing that, happy to do absolutely anything. RTs appreciated

[Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl @CFAPeachBowl]

To celebrate 100 days from the #CFAPeachBowl, we’re giving away a $100 Chick-fil-A gift card!

Like + repost and comment who you’d buy CFA for to enter.

[Stocking Mill Coffee @smcroasters]

Please Share.

For those asking do we sell merchandise.

Our Creasy Bear hoodies are on the site and proceeds are to help out Evelyn and her family.

[Shipwreckedcrew @shipwreckedcrew]

Hey @gofundme -- why are you allowing the North Carolina murder suspect to raise money for legal fees on your website?

You made a very public announcement after January 6 that your service could not be used to raise funds for defendants accused of violent crimes.

Boycott GoFundMe until they take down the account and refund all money to contributors.

Any money that can't be refunded should go to the victim's family.

Please RT.

[Tampa Electric @TampaElectric]

Your safety is our priority. Tampa Electric will never call to threaten same-day disconnection or demand payment by pre-paid credit card. If you receive a call like this, it’s a scam. Stay vigilant and protect yourself: https://t.co/2BssrlAkIy

[Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift @LeTourFemmes]

💛 RT & follow for the chance to win a 🇲🇺 @KimLeCourt signed Yellow Jersey with @SANTINI_SMS.

💛 RT & follow pour tenter de gagner un Maillot Jaune dédicacé par 🇲🇺 @KimLeCourt avec @SANTINI_SMS.

#TDFF2025 | #WatchTheFemmes | @MaillotjauneLCL

[Tour de France™ @LeTour]

💛 RT & follow for the chance to win a 🇸🇮@TamauPogi signed Yellow Jersey with @SANTINI_SMS

💛 RT & follow pour tenter de gagner un Maillot Jaune dédicacé par 🇸🇮@TamauPogi avec @SANTINI_SMS

#TDF2025 | @MaillotjauneLCL

[Maillot à Pois E.Leclerc @maillotapois]

⚪️🔴 RT & follow pour tenter de gagner un maillot à pois dédicacé par Tadej Pogačar avec @SANTINI_SMS

⚪️🔴 RT & follow for the chance to win a @TamauPogi signed polka dot jersey with @SANTINI_SMS

#TDF2025

[Maillot à Pois E.Leclerc @maillotapois]

⚪️🔴 RT & follow pour tenter de gagner un maillot à pois dédicacé par Élise Chabbey avec @SANTINI_SMS

⚪️🔴 RT & follow for the chance to win an @e_chabbey signed polka dot jersey with @SANTINI_SMS

#TDF2024 #WatchTheFemmes
@GoZwift