iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

@SPF Reminds me of the cover of “Just a Game” by Triumph.

Album cover art, showing the three members of the band precariously perched on a sort of jet-bird thing, which is swooping down on a chessboard with lots of things that might be game pieces on it.

Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

If you’ve ever wondered why to prune a cherry tomato plant, here’s what happened when I didn’t. There are three wire cages holding up various parts of this beast. The rod in front is 1 meter high. I have to reach in to pick fruits from three different […] [Original post on universeodon.com]

A roughly pyramidal heap of tomato plant. The lowest leaves have dropped off, so the trunk is almost visible. The neighbor’s wooden fence, with plenty of weeds, forms the backdrop. The steel stake holds up the closest wire cage, with about 20cm visible above the jungle.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 21/06/2026

This yucca plant sprouted near the garden and I let it grow to see what would happen. “Drought? What #drought?” #gardening

A yucca plant has sent up three flowers stalk about a meter high. Each stalk has a dozen white bell-shaped flowers on it. In the background is a bushy Siberian elm and a clear blue sky.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 16/06/2026

@futurebird I learned that from the Badger in "The Once and Future King".

"Man is the king of the animals."
"Perhaps. Or ought one to say the tyrant? And then again we do
have to admit that he has a quantity of vices."
"King Pellinore has not got many."
"He would go to war, if King Uther declared one. Do you know
that Homo sapiens is almost the only animal which wages war?"
"Ants do."
"Don't say 'Ants do' in that sweeping way, dear boy. There are more than four thousand different sorts of them, and from all those kinds I can only think of five which are belligerent. There are the five ants, one termite that I know of, and Man."

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2026

The weather has been so weird that the roses are hiding well back in the foliage. Can’t say I blame them. #ThornyOnMain

A yellow roles in full bloom, almost obscured by green leaves.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2026

Some of the tomato seedlings were way too tall for their 4-inch pots. I had to plant them in the ground, despite the 49 °F overnight temperature. Then I figured, if normal gardens can have row covers, why can’t mine have column covers? It worked, though it looked kind of ominous. #gardening

A badly-weeded garden plot with black garbage bags over four tomato cages. They look like dolmens erected in honor of the volcano god.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026

@anamariecox.com Wild turkey hen walking past my window on Mother’s Day.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/05/2026

My tomato seedlings are big enough to need cages already, but the forecast temperatures are low enough to need row covers. Is this idea too stupid-looking to work? #gardening

A wire tomato cage with a white plastic kitchen trash bag stretched over it. The bottom 30 cm of the cage is uncovered. The corners of the trash bag look like floppy ears.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 06/05/2026

The low-temperature forecast for Thursday night is 39° F. I am a patient man, but my tomato seedlings don’t like being stuck indoors and request an end to this nonsense. #gardening

Flats of tomato seedlings in 3-inch pots under the grow light. There is a banana for scale; the tallest seedlings are two bananas high.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

The instant-gratification radishes are coming in. Madame assures me they’re full of antioxidants, so I shall not be oxidizing today. #gardening

Four out of five radishes are visible in my fist. They look very large but they’re only about 2 cm across.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2026

“…seo reade netele ðe þurh ærn inwyxð…” This field was fallow last summer, so it’s got all kinds of flowers now. This is purple deadnettle, invading the field just as the old guy said. It’s an important ingredient of the charm to cure elf-shot. #OldEnglish #bloomscrolling

A weed with tiny purple flowers, against a backdrop of green grass and vetch.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2026

On today’s menu: grape hyacinths and wild mustard. #bloomscrolling

It’s too early to till this field, so it’s all wildflowers for the next month. Foreground is a 20-meter swath of purple flowers. Background is a cloud of yellow. Between the blooms is green grass and green vetch.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 15/03/2026

The harbingers of Spring are harbinging the heck out of the riparian buffer. #BloomScrolling

The floor of the forest is mostly dead leaves and sticks, but a few clumps of daffodils are blooming. Some lilies are popping up, too. The creek is visible in the background.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 01/03/2026

The winter wolfsbane is blooming, so despite the temperature they think it's winter. This photo was taken with an iPhone and converted to JPG with Preview. When I dropped it into Google Image Search to identify the species, Google thought the file was a […] [Original post on universeodon.com]

The forest floor is mostly dead leaves right now, but the winter wolfsbane is blooming. They're a spray of yellow flowers popping out of low roseates of green leaves.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 24/02/2026

I’m glad somebody explained truck-packing practices to me because without that, getting this hardware in this box wouldn’t make any sense at all. #FedEx

A couple of curtain hooks, maybe five inches long, are sitting next to the box they were delivered in, which is about 30 inches long.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 08/02/2026

Visitor to the farm today. For scale, the pocketknife is 10 cm long.

A snowy hillside, with tracks of a great blue heron along the edge of the snow. Each footprint is about 15 cm long. He’s a big boy.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 01/02/2026

All summer, I was gardening and mowing and weed-whacking and I never had a hint that all those #wasps were there. That’s what I call good neighbors.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 29/01/2026

The squirrels around here are a bunch of slobs. #squirrel

Bird feeder in the snow. Seeds have been thrown all over the place.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 08/11/2025

[Trump mocking the disabled] Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian delivers a brutal comment.

Two images. On the left, Trump in 2016 mocking a disabled reporter by contorting his face and waving his arm like it’s atrophied. On the right, Trump in 2025 with half his face slumped down and his arm involuntarily in the same position. Mrs Bowers comments, “May I present Karma?”

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2025

A #roman sculpture of an African acrobat in the British Museum. #bumdayMonday

The acrobat is doing a handstand on the back of a crocodile, with his head turned back so far that he and the crocodile are facing the same direction. He is extremely muscular, so he might survive this.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2025

Six hours. One man. The house across the street is sorted into piles: wood and gypsum board, shrubbery, steel, aluminum, and copper. #demolition

Piles of debris where a house used to be.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2025

The most Mastodon thing I did today was dispose of a failed HDD by running it through the #biochar kiln. I’d like to think that even a nation-state actor would have trouble getting my bank information off of it now.

A lump of aluminum that melted and re-solidified on the bottom of the kiln.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2025

My neighbor’s house doesn’t have long to live. #heavyMachinery

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2025

We got four days without rain, so I finally get to smell the roses. #ThornyOnMain

Yellow climbing rose with blossoms in every stage from bud to full bloom.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2025

This rose bush has been neglected for 30 years, but is still going strong. #ThornyOnMain

Two roses in full bloom, under the eaves of the screen porch.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2025

@mrundkvist, you were grumbling about people who use decimals in percentages? This is from 1902. Maybe we're getting better.

Text snippet: "In all the sonnets taken together, there is the average of 16 3/4 per cent of foreign words to 83 1/4 per cent of native words."

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 09/05/2025

This is the World War I Museum, where the #Tolkien Society conference will start shortly. There is no door on this side. The number of people who have stared at that wall and said “Mellon!” is up to double digits already. #westmoot

On top of a grassy hill, a stone wall with an art-deco relief mural and central tower.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 21/03/2025

The new book by @adapalmer isn’t coming out until next week, but mine arrived today. I must be someone special. #renaissance

Cover photo of “Inventing the Renaissance” sitting on my (clean) desk.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 22/12/2024

@mrundkvist Fascinating that the dishrag is Unclean, but the dishes it was used on are Clean.

Panel from “Peanuts” of Snoopy feeling like a leper, dressed in rags and calling himself unclean.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 17/12/2024

#CFP “Fahrenheit 2451: Ideas Worth Saving” at the Internet Archive HQ. #Inklings #CSLewis

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 17/11/2024

Found this praying mantis catching rays on the south wall of the old barn. We had two freezes this week. Haven’t seen a grasshopper sincee October. But here she is, still. #mantids

Part of a window frame, part of a wall, and all of a five-inch-long mantis. In the Virginia mountains. In November.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 31/10/2024

A few years ago, my nephew from France was too little to use a carving knife, so he drew the #jackolantern face and I executed the design for him. The result terrified him so much that he ran and hid in the bedroom.

Jacques de l’Anterne has enormous eyes and a lipless, soulless smile.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 31/10/2024

This could be the least scary jack o’lantern ever carved.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 22/10/2024

@juergen_hubert And thus began the legend of the Tasmanian Devil.

Alamy stock image of the Warner Bros. character making his whirlwind entrance.

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Virginicus @virginicus.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2024

First year the hawthorn tree has made haws. They’re the only fall color we have so far. Also, the local grasshopper-control officer has executed her continuity-of-operations plan for next spring. #farm

The hawthorn leaves are still dark green in mid-October. There are half a dozen clumps of bright red haws near the top.

Close-up of a branch that doesn’t have any jaws, but does have a praying-mantis ootheca attached to it.

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