Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 16/10/2026Is it ~~bad~~ that people feed wildlife in national parks? Yes, absolutely. But is it funny that jays are like, “gimme trail mix”? Also yes. 51119 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 15/10/2026Have you ever seen one of these “Your GPS is wrong!” signs? There must be a story behind every one. 2222118 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The farm stand was selling sweet corn at a dozen ears for $5 or a box of 50 for … $5. 51616 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Some turtles you nudge to the side of the trail so they don’t get hit by a bike, and some turtles you back away from slowly because they will snap your hand off. 111348 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Can you imagine being able to make people laugh like a 12-year-old (or try hard not to) just by introducing yourself? 818526 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Gotta respect a creature that feeds on poison to thwart its enemies. 615016 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Finally, a tower of award-winning pickles and preserves. 4612 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/07/2026It includes Black and Indigenous state fairs 1281 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/07/2026It has celebrities’ portraits made out of grasses and seeds. 1291 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Friends, if you are in the DC area this summer, I urge you to visit the Renwick’s exhibit on state fairs. americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/... 410924 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Who should lead the investigation: the kerning police or the apostrophe police? 10838 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 13/07/2026Is the reason for having a garden to share stuff with friends, or is the reason for having friends to share stuff from the garden? I wish I could give you pocket friends some tomatoes. 2531215 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Olympic National Park’s newspaper is called the “Bugler” and that’s perfect. (There are elk in the park and elks bugle.) 0794 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 18/06/2026If you get lost in a forest, just look at the trees because moss grows on the north side oh hell… 91273 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 05/06/2026Mr. McGregor in the Peter Rabbit books is the most misunderstood character in English literature. 1618616 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 27/05/2026I've been using the No AI version of DuckDuckGo and am impressed with the results. It seems to favor reliable sites and has a clean interface: noai.duckduckgo.com 1226954 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 21/05/2026I love @merriam-webster.com, but they've started adding automated examples of words in sentences and it's not going well. 5335 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 17/05/2026I’m testing out backpacking gear ahead of a trip this summer & the irregular Therm-a-rest I bought at a steep discount at an REI co-op in 1991 still holds air. 101210 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 08/05/2026I finally figured out what these Mar-a-Lago faces remind me of. It's marionettes. They look like marionettes. www.motherjones.com/politics/202... 2425728 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 07/05/2026Does anybody have favorite mushroom recipes? 20433 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 04/05/2026Every tourist town in West Virginia has a gift shop, cafe, or bar called Almost Heaven. 5564 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Spent the night at a lock house on the C&O Canal. Highly recommend! 71448 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/04/2026If you're still using Facebook (no shame, people have Reasons), turn off all the automatically enabled AI titles and summaries they just rolled out. 39255 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 14/04/2026Those of you in the DC area who work during the week and get to parks only on the weekends have probably never witnessed such a miracle. This is the observation platform on the Maryland side of Great Falls on a beautiful spring day, and it is EMPTY. 3985 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 10/04/2026I get a kick out of how often North American publishers illustrate an article or book with a European robin when the relevant bird is an American robin (1/n) 1623719 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 06/04/2026I’m not sure if this is the best product for clarifying pond water, but it is definitely the best named. 5803 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 30/03/2026I don’t see an American Woodcock sitting on a nest. Do you see an American Woodcock sitting on a nest? 8997 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 30/03/2026The lost & found box at a donut shop near a playground and elementary school is full of little hats & coats & mittens 1302 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/03/2026"Our data show that declines in institutional autonomy are widespread among (former) democracies, and the decline in institutional autonomy in the United States stands out as a case of fast and steep deterioration that warrants comparative analysis." (1/2) academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca... 511255 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 23/02/2026If you want to keep your toast from getting soggy on the bottom, balance it on skewers or chopsticks. 6482 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 25/01/2026Drive safely if you gotta. This is a screenshot of Google Maps traffic view at 7:30 on a Sunday. 1407 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 19/01/2026S TAB LISH JUSTIZ N SURE DOME ESTIK TRAN KWILI T 3617 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 25/12/2025I finished reading another cozy mystery solved by a clever, brave heroine and her sidekicks and realized I’ve just been reading Nancy Drew my entire life. 81395 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 11/12/2025“For those who died and those who survived and all we lost during the covid-19 pandemic, we shall remember.” 314220 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 29/11/2025Sign at an outdoor classroom for a nature center: “Think outside. No box required.” 215827 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 01/11/2025One fun thing about talking to parks department staff is you can say, “could anybody identify this scat” and they all come over to you all excited. (Even better is when they confirm it’s a bear) 3754 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 21/09/2025Anyway it’s a fun little museum where the staff wear blue checkered gingham and love their jobs <end> 1341 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 21/09/2025The whole town is committed to the bit. Statues of Toto everywhere, murals. 2321 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 21/09/2025If you are ever near Wamego, Kansas, stop by their Wizard of Oz Museum. 1522920 0
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 31/08/2025Garden tip: if a crop comes in a purple or red variety, grow those. These purple flat beans and red long beans are much easier to find among the leaves and stems than the green varieties. Also they’re pretty. 1116211 0