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esmethesciencewitch:
galadhir:
esmethesciencewitch:
jumpedoverthemoon:
Kind of sucks that i am not living in an ivy-covered cottage in the pacific northwest, drinking mint tea with honey,, riding my bike into town for the groceries and spending my day writing novels on a mossy tree stump with a cool breeze making the pine needles go sssssshhhhhh,,,,,,,
As someone from the Pacific Northwest (and whose parents moved to a small town there from the suburbs), I will tell you that ivy is Satan. Kill it wherever you shall find it. It will girdle your trees and eat your house. The same goes for Himalayan Blackberries. They will consume the land.
We also have no bike lanes whatsoever outside of like 2 streets in Seattle. Where my parents live now, it’s a 20 minute drive to the nearest grocery store (though you can walk to church). Down several roads that I hate to drive on, much less bike.
We have nonexistent urban planning out there in many areas, which is a problem. Public transportation is not really a thing, and is unreliable when it is there. Due to poverty and isolation in many areas, opioids are often a problem. Rents are obscenely high in Seattle and everywhere within a 30-mile radius (due to the presence of Microsoft and Amazon). That, predictably has led to widespread homelessness. And that’s not even touching on the issues many Native American communities face.
Finally, the trees are usually a mix of hemlock, cedar, alder, and big-leaf maple. Not pine.
tl;dr I love the part of the country I grew up in, but it is a real place with real issues too. The scenery is beautiful though. I saw Portland go from a normal town to a commodified lifestyle with a corresponding increase in cost of living, watched the Amazon bubble burst over Seattle, and lived for a time in a relatively isolated small town.
Oh thank God, someone else who feels like I do about ivy! Our place is actually encircled by walls covered with ivy. I’ve torn it down from two of them and now have a brush pile the size of a small garage. But the third side is so infested that I can’t even get to the soil to pull it up.
Every time I post on Mastodon about tearing up the ivy, though, someone is bound to comment suggesting I keep it because it’s good for birds and bees. I’m like “If there was any chance I didn’t have to spend 24/7 every day just trying to fight it back from engulfing us completely, I would feel differently.
As it is, on tearing it out I’ve discovered two plum trees, a stack of plastic kitchen chairs and a rusted-through garden incinerator underneath it that I had no idea were there.
I reblogged this mainly because, although I live in a small house in the east of england and prefer coffee to tea, I do ride my bike into town for the groceries, and I do spend my day writing novels (indoors where it’s warm.)
So it was a kind of “When the depression hits, try to remember you’re actually living the dream,” post. It’s nice to be reminded of that, now and again :)
Wow, you really are living the dream! House, garden, writing, and bike riding… I aspire to that someday.
I didn’t think English Ivy would be a problem in England (it’s an invasive species in the PNW).
I just went off because I can get tired of people romanticizing the PNW without realizing that it may not be this mystical land of sexy vampires, hipsters, serial killers, and magical nature.
Like every place, it has its charms and its challenges. I do want to settle down there when I can.
Heh, yes, ivy may not be technically an invasive species here, but it sure can take over everything anyway.
I can see how people romanticising a place you love despite not knowing it at all can be irritating. We have the opposite problem here. People assume the Fens are a bleak and poverty-stricken area, and that’s fair enough but I want to tell them all how beautiful it is here and what a great community spirit there is. (I don’t think I’d like it if people romanticised it either.)
esmethesciencewitch:
galadhir:
esmethesciencewitch:
jumpedoverthemoon:
Kind of sucks that i am not living in an ivy-covered cottage in the pacific northwest, drinking mint tea with honey,, riding my bike into town for the groceries and spending my day writing novels on a mossy tree stump with a cool breeze making the pine needles go sssssshhhhhh,,,,,,,
As someone from the Pacific Northwest (and whose parents moved to a small town there from the suburbs), I will tell you that ivy is Satan. Kill it wherever you shall find it. It will girdle your trees and eat your house. The same goes for Himalayan Blackberries. They will consume the land.
We also have no bike lanes whatsoever outside of like 2 streets in Seattle. Where my parents live now, it’s a 20 minute drive to the nearest grocery store (though you can walk to church). Down several roads that I hate to drive on, much less bike.
We have nonexistent urban planning out there in many areas, which is a problem. Public transportation is not really a thing, and is unreliable when it is there. Due to poverty and isolation in many areas, opioids are often a problem. Rents are obscenely high in Seattle and everywhere within a 30-mile radius (due to the presence of Microsoft and Amazon). That, predictably has led to widespread homelessness. And that’s not even touching on the issues many Native American communities face.
Finally, the trees are usually a mix of hemlock, cedar, alder, and big-leaf maple. Not pine.
tl;dr I love the part of the country I grew up in, but it is a real place with real issues too. The scenery is beautiful though. I saw Portland go from a normal town to a commodified lifestyle with a corresponding increase in cost of living, watched the Amazon bubble burst over Seattle, and lived for a time in a relatively isolated small town.
Oh thank God, someone else who feels like I do about ivy! Our place is actually encircled by walls covered with ivy. I’ve torn it down from two of them and now have a brush pile the size of a small garage. But the third side is so infested that I can’t even get to the soil to pull it up.
Every time I post on Mastodon about tearing up the ivy, though, someone is bound to comment suggesting I keep it because it’s good for birds and bees. I’m like “If there was any chance I didn’t have to spend 24/7 every day just trying to fight it back from engulfing us completely, I would feel differently.
As it is, on tearing it out I’ve discovered two plum trees, a stack of plastic kitchen chairs and a rusted-through garden incinerator underneath it that I had no idea were there.
I reblogged this mainly because, although I live in a small house in the east of england and prefer coffee to tea, I do ride my bike into town for the groceries, and I do spend my day writing novels (indoors where it’s warm.)
So it was a kind of “When the depression hits, try to remember you’re actually living the dream,” post. It’s nice to be reminded of that, now and again :)
Wow, you really are living the dream! House, garden, writing, and bike riding… I aspire to that someday.
I didn’t think English Ivy would be a problem in England (it’s an invasive species in the PNW).
I just went off because I can get tired of people romanticizing the PNW without realizing that it may not be this mystical land of sexy vampires, hipsters, serial killers, and magical nature.
Like every place, it has its charms and its challenges. I do want to settle down there when I can.
Heh, yes, ivy may not be technically an invasive species here, but it sure can take over everything anyway.
I can see how people romanticising a place you love despite not knowing it at all can be irritating. We have the opposite problem here. People assume the Fens are a bleak and poverty-stricken area, and that’s fair enough but I want to tell them all how beautiful it is here and what a great community spirit there is. (I don’t think I’d like it if people romanticised it either.)