Marius The Acrobat ヽ(•‿•)ノ

The beautiful Cathedral Cliffs rise above the forest: Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming

© riverwindphotography, July, 2019

art by Serena Malyon 

“Erebor – A3, watercolour and gouache. My depiction of The Lonely Mountain (Erebor), from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Deep within the dwarven keep lies Smaug the dragon, perched upon his hoard of treasures. The smell of someone unfamiliar rouses him from sleep, but Bilbo stays hidden, watching.

Rivendell – A3, watercolour and acryla gouache. My depiction of Rivendell from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.”

Astronaut readjusts to life back on Earth

> Don’t give him a baby for a while.

Guys it’s a CRIME that this animal shelter’s video has on 24 views please give them the attention they deserve.

Happy Fossil Friday! Even though this animal looks like a big lizard, it is one of the early relatives of mammals: meet Edaphosaurus! It lived 280 million years ago, in the Permian Period. The key feature that tells us Edaphosaurus is related to mammals? The synapsid opening behind each eye socket. Photo: © AMNH

one of my top 10 favorite childhood memories was going to the garden store with my parents as a kid where they had one of these bad boys

Let me tell you about my panda mini-washer

As an apartment dweller, this is a game changer. My current apartment doesn’t have a laundry facility and the closest Laundromat about a 30 min bus ride which is just not practical. The mini-washer is a life saver

The panda mini washer hooks up to the sink, is incredibly lightweight (about 28 pounds, so light even I can lift it) and easy to use. 

It has a surprisingly large capacity. The basket from the first picture represents about one and a half loads. The jeans took up a whole load while the rest filled the bin only half way. 

Here’s the inside. The left is the washer the right is the spin dryer. Yes, it even drys.

Basically you shove your cloths into the washer, fill it up with water and let it go. I use my shower head to fill it up so it goes faster, the sink hook up took about five minutes to fill the whole tub, with the shower head is is down to a minute an a half. I do it in three wash cycles, a five minute rinse with baking soda, a five minute wash with soap and a three minute rinse with water. You have to drain and refill between each cycle so it’s a little more labor intensive than a traditional washer. 

That’s the spin dryer. It’s about half the capacity of the washer so one wash takes about two loads to dry. The spinner is much more effective than I was expecting. A three minute spin gets my cloths about 90% dry. I hang them up to air dry for that last 10%. 

The machine cost me about 150$. When you factor in two dollars for the bus, five for the machines (per week), the mini-washer pays for its self after only about six months worth of laundry. 

I’m not great at expressing emotion, but I’m hoping you can tell how excited I am.  Let me just say that the panda mini-washer is great and I highly recommend it to anyone currently using a Laundromat.  

I miss doing microscope work. Can we make a thread of our favourite thin section? This is mine

Actinolite Schist