FRIENDLY REMINDER

THE👏WOODS👏ARE👏JUST👏TREES👏THE 👏TREES👏 ARE 👏JUST 👏WOOD👏

This is very literally not true and I will not stand for this gross unscientific misinformation

A woodland is an entire ecosystem of which trees are a keystone species, but a long, long way from the whole picture. Above ground you’ve got the whole understory of ground flora, bryophytes, fungi, lichens, ferns, bacteria, invertebrates, mammals, birds and reptiles; below ground, it has a secondary ecosystem all of its own of soil organisms, invertebrates and micro invertebrates and bacteria and fungi and sometimes mammals. 

And, something that is legit called the Wood Wide Web. 

Basically, it’s a network of mycorrhizal fungi (essentially, every tree has a symbiotic fungus that works like our digestive enzymes, and helps it take water and nutrients in from soil) that grow long tendrils and so link all the plants together. But this network lets the trees do two things!

Firstly, it lets them share resources. Trees are very charitable creatures. If a tree in a wood is struggling, through disease or infestation or being in a shitty patch of  soil or what have you, the other trees nearby will send it sugars and nutrients to help it along. If a tree is cut down, its surrounding neighbours will send sugars to the stump for years, helping it regenerate. Sociable things.

Secondly, it lets them communicate, I fucking shit you not. Trees have some resistances to fungal diseases or infestations, for example, especially if given time to get their defensive enzymes flowing before the problem hits. And if a tree at the edge of the Wood Wide Web is struck with such a disease, it will alert all the other trees in the network so that they can start producing the enzymes AND THEN THEY ALL SURVIVE. And when that first tree succumbs? See point one. The others do their best to revive it. 

And trees are not just wood, in the same way that humans are not just flesh. Trees have heart wood, but also sap, xylem, phloem, cambium, leaves, bark, rooting material, and a shit-ton of enzymes including things like lignin, which is incredibly cool for several reasons; firstly because it was one of the biggest weapons in the evolutionary arms race (beetles and that couldn’t digest it, which allowed dead stuff to become, among other things, coal), and secondly because its chemical structure is almost identical to vanillin, so when you open an old book and get Old Book Smell it’s the lignin breaking down.

Coal and Old Book Smell. Thanks to lignin.

So in conclusion the woods are not just trees and the trees are not just wood. Please fact check before you reblog. This is blatant tree erasure.

                                         But oh, my heart was flawed                                              I knew my weakness

                                              So hold my hand                                         Subscribe me not to darkness

A storm is coming

‘  all i need is for you to stay by my side.  ’ ‘  all of the love songs remind me of you.  ’ ‘  all of the words in the world can’t show how much you mean to me.  ’ ‘  boy,  could i use your love  &  affection right now.  ’ ‘  concept:  we’re both awake at 4 a.m.  i call you to hear your sleepy voice.  ’ ‘  cute thing that you do:  the most stereotypical giggle  &  then hiding your face.  ’ ‘  don’t let this be temporary.  ’ ‘  don’t worry about me.  i just want to know you’re okay.  ’ ‘  every day i get to see your gorgeous face is a good day.  ’ ‘  everything about our relationship feels so natural  &  perfect.  ’ ‘  feelings change,  but mine about you won’t.  ’ ‘  hey,  guess what?  i love you.  ’ ‘  hold me tight  &  tell me you love me.  ’ ‘  i always daydream about living with you.  ’ ‘  i am so exhausted,  but i’d sleep so much better with your arms around me.  ’ ‘  i can’t help but imagine living with you years from now.  ’ ‘  i can’t keep setting fires to keep you warm.  ’ ‘  i could listen to you talk about the things you love forever.  ’ ‘  i don’t think i’ll ever stop wanting you.  ’ ‘  i don’t want those memories any more.  ’ ‘  i forget who  &  where i am when we kiss.  ’ ‘  i get that warm,  pleasant feeling in my chest when i’m with you.  ’ ‘  i hope with all my heart that you love me like i love you.  ’ ‘  i hope you feel the same way you make me feel.  ’ ‘  i just want to softly cuddle with you  &  count the freckles on your cheek  &  i want to run my fingers through your hair.  ’ ‘  i know it’s getting scary,  but you’ve just got your perfect self out of bed  &  do the best with what you’ve got.  i believe in you.  ’ ‘  i love looking into your squinted eyes while we laugh.  ’ ‘  i love when you give me little kisses on my hand  &  cheek  &  neck.  it makes me feel so loved.  ’ ‘  i never thought i’d deserve the love you give me.  ’ ‘  i think you’ve shown me what love really is.  ’ ‘  i want the only thing between our bodies to be our love.  ’ ‘  i want the only thing between our love to be our lips.  ’ ‘  i want to bury my face in the crook of your neck until we both fall asleep.  ’ ‘  i want to listen to the beautiful song of your voice for hours.  ’ ‘  i want to make you just as happy as you make me.  ’ ‘  i want to wake up to your smile.  ’ ‘  i want to wrap my arms around you at 3 a.m.  &  tell you i love you.  ’ ‘  i want you to be my yesterday,  my today,  &  my tomorrow.  ’ ‘  i want you.  ’ ‘  i will always love you.  even when you don’t think it’s a possibility,  i am going to love you.  ’ ‘  i would sleep so much better with you right next to me.  ’ ‘  if only you could see your angelic self from my perspective.  ’ ‘  if you frequently play with my hair,  i might just fall in love with you.  ’ ‘  it’s amazing feeling the warmth of your love.  ’ ‘  it’s okay to have a bad day every once in a while.  ’ ‘  it’s so much easier to fall asleep when you’re in bed next to me,  running your gentle fingers down my back while we softly smile at each other through the darkness.  ’ ‘  i’d wait a lifetime to be in your arms.  ’ ‘  i’m all yours.  always.  ’ ‘  i’m always going to support you.  without even a second thought,  i’ll be there when you need me.  i want what’s best for you.  ’ ‘  just knowing you’re there comforts me.  ’ ‘  just thinking about how you make me blush.  ’ ‘  keep in mind all the things that you have to look forward to,  babe.  ’ ‘  kiss me under the starry sky.  ’ ‘  let me know if you’re in love with me too.  ’ ‘  let today be the day that everything changes.  you are capable of so much.  ’ ‘  let’s go on a cute,  cliché date.  ’ ‘  let’s sleep together under the stars.  ’ ‘  make yourself  &  your own happiness you priority.  ’ ‘  make yourself happy before you worry about me.  ’ ‘  my kindness isn’t weakness.  ’ ‘  my new years resolution is for all our arguments to be settled because i know you’ll still have my love  ’ ‘  oh,  what a privilege it is to matter to you.  ’ ‘  our love could make flowers bloom int he dead of winter.  ’ ‘  pet names are my weakness.  ’ ‘  start setting boundaries.  enough is enough.  ’ ‘  thank you for caring like nobody else ever has.  ’ ‘  thank you for caring when nobody else has.  ’ ‘  the world is going to do something amazing for you.  ’ ‘  there are times to power through it  &  there are times to say no.  ’ ‘  when i look at the stars i can’t help but think of you.  ’ ‘  when you look at me,  the butterflies flutter.  ’ ‘  you are my happiness  &  you don’t even know it.  ’ ‘  you are my starlight.  ’ ‘  you are the one i’d do anything for.  ’ ‘  you are what puts my mind to rest when i can’t sleep.  ’ ‘  you don’t need anyone to rescue you.  you can do it all on your own,  babe.  i know you can.  ’ ‘  you feel like home.  ’ ‘  you have a smile that lights up my world.  ’ ‘  you have no idea how proud of you i am.  you’ve done so much for everyone.  thank you.  ’ ‘  you stole my heart,  but i’ll let you keep it.  ’ ‘  you’re made of stars  &  you’re my favorite constellation.  ’ ‘  you’re my favorite notification.  ’ ‘  you’re my home  &  i’m homesick.  ’ ‘  you’re not just your mistakes  &  you deserve to be happy.  ’ ‘  you’re so much more than good enough.  don’t ever doubt that.  ’ ‘  you’re soft  &  sweet  &  too good for me.  ’ ‘  you’re something special babe.  you can make a difference.  ’ ‘  you’re the happy part of my days.  ’ ‘  you’re the one i’m looking for.  ’ ‘  you’re the one thing i think about when i wake up every morning.  ’ ‘  you’re the reason why i want to get up every morning.  ’ ‘  you’re waking,  talking,  living,  loving poetry.  ’

on a scale of one to ten how sad are you.

you almost say seven but the answer floats in your lungs like rising mud. you shift your shoulders. some part of you is already forming an excuse. that it’s not that bad sometimes. one, two, three on a day that the clouds are out. you’re just complaining about stuff. yesterday you laughed past a brick of a four, does that make the brick come down to a two-point-five.  the solid seven panic attack of last tuesday feels somehow like a little thorn, just a regular day full of a gentle three-point-nine earthquake rocking after yesterday’s close-to-an-eight. see but if tomorrow you have a real bad day, it will make today look simple.

and what if. what if tomorrow it’s a big old red eight-point-nine. like one of those days where sirens are going off in every part of you but you’re stuck behind a glass window watching it all burn down. like one of those days that your skin against the air feels foreign. like too much of everything. like sitting-in-the-shower, like can’t-eat, like the tide isn’t just coming in, it came while you were sleeping and now you’ve gotta learn how to swim. like bounce me against a bullet hole kind of day.

you keep numbers like nine and ten way out of reach. those are for the people who really are suffering. you’ve got no excuse. nine and ten are funeral numbers, for real problems, not yours, no. and sometimes you’re fine. and you’re kind of used to it. and it’s not sad, it’s just numb like a television caught on static. numb like i can’t remember if i care about this. numb like nothing works but i can’t be bothered to fix it. that’s not sad that’s every day stuff. everybody feels like this, right? feels like they’ve been shut off. right.  

maybe five. right in the middle. like not gonna shoot myself but i’m not wasting your time. a nonanswer. like could be worse could be better. like i need help but i don’t want you to worry even though i need someone to worry about me because i can’t worry about myself. maybe five. but what if five is too small. what if five is too big. what if -

“on a scale of one to ten,” he repeats into your silence, and then pauses. “and please be honest about this.”

*acts up because i really want dick*

all i need right now is a joint, a cup of tea and you