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Paddington has come for me.

RSPB @rspb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Reposted by Mars

Shhh go quietly... a little Hedgehog is rustling through your feed. 🥹

A small Hedgehog nestles among a blanket of crisp autumn leaves, peering out with a gentle, curious expression as though happily exploring the woodland floor. Warm golden tones surround its tiny face and spiky coat, creating an irresistibly cosy autumn scene.

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But Mars! What about the detrus from the rest of the nettle? - It's perfect for compost or paper making. A friend of mine is getting these bits for her paper.

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Today's plan as it's sunny and the stalks are coming away from the wood pretty easily once dried fully. Sun dry them for the bigger wetter part, then into the oven for some solid drying and then air drying in the flat for the last section. Will take longer but it's the best way to get the goods.

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To end today's yarning experiment: Maybe don't use an oven to dry them initially... Going to air dry a bunch, use a radiator set up to dry some and then what happens with that to test these methods as well.

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absolutely did not hyper fixate for 5 hrs and shuck nettles to True Blood - another perfect example of good background tv for crafts.

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ok they are slightly burnt...still not dry and also ... Forgot to compensate for the water coming out the nettles.... 😬😬😬👍🏾 there is now a towel under the oven to catch water dripping down ... WELP. it kinda worked so positives! Now to dry and shuck the rest of the stalks.

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....Ok I'm turning it up to 80... forgot to accommodate the electric oven being shit at baking anything at all... drying is going too slowly and I am fed up of waiting for the nettles to be ready... In the meantime - foraged wool and gifted wool should be carded and also I should learn to spin yarn.

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Bake my precious BAKKKEEEE

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Oven drying process: leave for 30 mins at 60 degrees (lowest setting), turn over for another 15 and then pull out and check everything after an hour.

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Nature update: Birds keep leaving me walnut shells? Idk I'm using them as paint containers. :))

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Lee Raye @leafyhistory.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

testing some nettle to dry in the oven to see if I need another week of wet rhetting (I am 70% sure it's going to take another full week maybe 2) but this will be a good indication of just how much longer - the stalks are still stingy but only just. Time to give them their spa treatment.

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Reposted by Mars

New interview out with me on the New Books Network! I'm on ep 1525 of the 'New Books in Environmental Studies' series! 😻 Jana is a deep thinker so in our talk we sorted through some big issues - what is 'native'/'wild'. What makes #envhist more than nostalgia. 🤔🐺 newbooksnetwork.com/creatures-of...

newbooksnetwork.com

Creatures of Story and Song: Tracing Britain's Lost Species with Lee Raye (Reaktion, 2026) - New Books Network

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Mars @mars-welldone.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

While I wait for the nettles to sufficiently break down I am making some more watercolors... because who doesn't need MORE paint... 😬

Mars @mars-welldone.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Nettle Rhettle Update: Replacement of the water every 3 days because of two things: Standing water is bad because it produces mould...and the neighbourhood cats have started using the bucket to drown things in....less water so the things can climb back out.

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Mars @mars-welldone.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Everything is either a cult or a research team 🥸😎 Oven drying?? That's absolutely going to work... Guerilla rhetting.

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Reposted by Mars

Dr Robert Bohan @robertbohan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

🧵 A new survey of LGBTQ ppl in Ireland has just been done by Trinity College, Dublin. It gives an idea on where we are, in the Irish state, on homophobia & transphobia. I know legacy media thinks we are on the pig’s back & they are scapegoating trans ppl - but how are we experiencing life? [1]

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Reposted by Mars

Jennifer Shin - WTAF @jennifershin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Only fucking monsters would do this. Migrant children as young as 2 are showing up at immigration courts nationwide, many without attorneys, to make their case to stay in the US and avoid deportation. www.cnn.com/2026/09/28/p...

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OOOH! that's exciting! Corn husks sound tough.. I kind of want to rhett everything now I know the vague process 😂😂 Gimmie yer stalks!

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Oohh!! i have not I shall check it out!

Me quietly staring at the nettle I only harvested yesterday asking it to hurry up and start decomposition so I can do the next step. Thanks (it takes a week)

yess!! I am trying this way first! If I hate it, I'm going to attempt a different way but the internet told me to do it so I am! 😂 Alas I don't have an abundance of sun/soaking space so it's smaller pieces in bundles and into the oven in a few weeks to dry fast :)

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Harvested a tonne of nettle to turn into nettle fiber and then into yarn 🧶 How much this will make - who the heck knows.

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I woke up panicked about accident having done that but thankfully the portable battery is still in my hands - sans blood.

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Last night my stress dream was that I asked someone to make a noise and gave that person my very expensive portable charger because I had to make room for things (??). I gave it to him by throwing it at their face, breaking their nose and then everyone else yelling at me asking why I would do that.

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When you're tired of being alive - go outside and meet dogs, collect stinging nettles, feel the burn of their hairs while you plot your next move in the yarn making world.... Never. Stop. Being. Insanely. Whimsical.

Lesson: I need to go get some nettle to turn into fibers before they become my prison.

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then I had to pick up my dog but he'd been hurt real bad emotionally by the people who were meant to be looking after him and so was mega reactive and I got really mad at them and threw a bunch of nettles at them. Then I went to jail but the prison was made of nettles also.

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