Wild-thingslayhere - Just Aesthetic

a lot of pieces of media will show characters catching fireflies with just their bare hands. in some cases they will just land on the persons fingers. to gently be placed inside of a jar..

for people who live in areas who don’t have fireflies, i want you to know that is not made up or exaggerated for those scenes. fireflies are really like that. they are slow and not cautious at all. while camping i would just walk up to one flying in the air and grab it. and it would sit on my hands like “oh ok.” they are my friends.

Perfect mushrooms

A quick introduction to mead making:

Terminology:

Metheglin = Herbed mead

Melomel = mead made with fruit

Carboy = glass container for brewing

Must = yeast sediment that accumulates during brewing

Sodium Metabisulphite = sanitizing powder

green mead = fresh non-aged mead (it’s not literally green)

Rack/Racking = the process of storing and aging finished meads

Equipment/ingredients:

Carboy

Airlock

funnel 

sanitizing agent such as sodium metabisulphite 

(depending on recipe and method) wine/champagne yeast

honey 

non-chlorinated fluoride free water such as spring water or distilled

lemon

fruit/herbs if desired

(optional but recommended) auto-syphon and hose

My basic recipe (for about a gallon):

about 3lbs honey* 

1 gallon spring or distilled water

the juice from half a fresh lemon

about ½ to 2/3 of a 5gram package of blanc wine yeast

*Selecting honey: The kind of honey you use depends on the kind of mead you want, if you use fresh raw honey (i.e. straight from the hive) it will have natural wild yeast in it that can be used in place of added wine yeast. 

Pros of using wild yeast: its free and you could strike gold on flavor.

Cons of using wild yeast: unpredictable flavor, can take longer or even need help to start fermenting process. 

For first time brewers it’s probably a good idea to play it safe and stick with wine yeast, at least until you get the process down and a feel for how things work. You can still use raw honey if you want, just make sure you heat it thoroughly to kill the wild yeast. 

There are other things to keep in mind when choosing honey, the different flowers the bees might collect from effect honey flavor, time of year can also have an effect especially if you’re buying local honey, but there’s no hard or fast rules for choosing honey just go with a flavor you like or even just whatever’s cheap.

Method:

1) sanitize all your equipment especially the carboy

2) If using wine yeast: add all the honey to a large pot and dilute with a bit of your spring/distilled water and heat on low until the honey dissolves and is liquid DO NOT BOIL. (If using wild yeast) mix honey and water but do not heat.

3) pour your honey mixture into the carboy and add the rest of the water making sure to leave at least 6 to 8ins of head space to avoid overflow (the yeast will bubble up a lot in the first week or so of fermenting)

4) add in the yeast and lemon juice and gentle shake the whole thing for about 2 minutes 

5) put the cork and airlock in place, label it with the date, and leave it be, usually bubbling starts within 24hrs but may take longer depending on temperature and yeast.

the length of time needed for fermentation varies by batch, things like temperature, altitude, and sugar content factor into the amount of time needed. It’s important to pay attention to your mead, it will bubble profusely through the airlock early on in fermentation do to the yeast gobbling up sugar and producing gas, this will slow down as the process continues until it stops. Once the fermentation/bubbling stops and the mead looks fairly clear -usually after about a month and a week or so- its ready to be separated from the must.

6) Using an auto-syphon / a small hose and gravity (you can also just pour it very carefully if you have too) separate the clear mead from the must into a clean vessel like a sanitized pot. Note: once again make sure all your equipment/bottles are sanitized  

7) Now you have choices, you should have about a gallon of green mead on your hands it’s technically done and can be enjoyed right away, or you can bottle and rack it for a 1 - 4 months more to achieve a superior tasting aged mead, it’s up to you.

If you are storing your mead in latch-top bottles its best to only fill them up to about where the neck of the bottle meets the wide part, leaving a few inches of headspace in the neck.

Tips/notes:

whether or not you decide to use wine yeast or wild yeast use local farm fresh honey for the best flavor (it also supports your local farmers)

if you decide to rack and age your mead make damn well sure its completely done fermenting, if its not it may continue in the bottle and built up pressure until the bottle explodes.

mead is best drank within about a year of making it but can last up to at least 2 years

if you are planning on making batches one after another make sure to label your bottles so you don’t mix up old and new mead or different flavors

experiment with different types of honey and water to honey ratios to achieve different flavors/alcohol levels

I intentionally left out adding any kinds of fruits or herbs because this is just a basic recipe and depending on what you use there can be different processes, it’s best to do your own research.

There so many different methods and recipes for mead making, if anyone wants to add impute or recipes please do!

@pinetreesandhoneybees @cat-a-holic

Dark Forest by James Mills jamesmillsphotography.com

kids remind me, often, of the things i've taught myself out of.

i have a big dog. he looks like a deer. he is taller than most young children. while we were on a trail the other day, a boy coming our direction saw us and froze. he took a step back and said: "i'm feeling nervous. your - your dog is kind of big."

goblin and i both stopped walking immediately. "he is kind of a big dog," i admitted. "he's called a greyhound. they are gentle but they are pretty tall, which is kind of scary, you're right. their legs are so long because they are made for running fast. i am sorry we scared you. would you like us to stand still while you move past us, or would you feel more safe in your body if we move and you stay still?'

"oh. i didn't know that about - greyhounds. i think i ... i want to stay still," he said. at this point, his adult had caught up to us. "i'm nervous about the dog," he told her, "so i'm - i'm gonna stay still." she didn't argue. she didn't make fun of him. she just smiled at him and at me and held his hand while goblin and i, with as wide of a berth as we could make, crept our way through.

behind us, i heard him exhale a deep breath and kind of laugh - "he was really big, huh? she said it's because greyhounds have to go fast."

"he was big," she said. "i understand why that could have made you a little scared."

"yeah. next time i - next time do you think i could maybe ask to touch him? when - i mean, next time, maybe, if i'm not nervous."

later, going to a work event, in the big city, i stood outside, trembling. my social anxiety as a caught bird in my chest. i took a deep breath and turned to my coworker. she's not even really my friend yet. i told her: "i feel nervous about this. i am not used to meeting new people, ever since covid."

she laughed, but not in a mean way. she said she was nervous too. she reached her hand out and held mine, and we both took another deep breath and walked in like that, interlinked. a few people asked us - together? - and i told the truth: i feel nervous, and she's helping. over and over i watched people relax too, admitting i feel really kind of shy lately actually, thank you for saying that.

the next time i go to an event, and i feel a little scared, i ask right away: wanna hold hands? this feels a little dangerous. i hesitate less. i don't hide it as much. i watch for other people who are also nervous and say - it's kinda hard, huh?

i know, logically, i'm not good at asking for help. but i am also not good at noticing when i need help. i've trained myself out of asking completely, but i've also trained myself to never accept my own fears or excuses. i have trained myself to tamp down every anxiety and just-push-through. i don't know what i'm protecting myself from - just that i never think to admit it to anyone.

but every person on earth occasionally needs comfort. every person on earth occasionally needs connection. many of us were taught independence is the same thing as never needing anything.

each of us should have had an adult who heard - i feel nervous and held our hand and asked us how we could be helped to feel safe. no judgement, and no chiding. many of us did not. many of us were punished for the ways that we seemed "weak".

but here is something: i am an adult now. and i get nervous a lot, actually. and if you are an adult and you are feeling a little nervous - come talk to me. we can hold hands and figure out what will help us feel safe in our bodies. and maybe, next time, if we're brave, we can pet the dog that's passing.

I love this

I redid this older comic I made for my storytelling class based on this post. Have some cute wlw love in your day.

It’s hard, if I had more free time I could make it so pretty, this is what I could throw together for the assignment.

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A collection of Lodgepole pine cones along Lake Creek, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming

© riverwindphotography, March 2022

Meadow flowers

Art by Dominik Mayer