Lacertae II

Ducks. Moons. Eternity. Tamed memory.

Little things I keep alive in my mind.

Your presence. Essence. The place in the world your had. It’s still hard to find anything that will ever replace.

Eclipse. Moonshine. Moonstone.

Pentagram, in a illustrated book.

Never, ever, even being.

Your words that saved me. And these little things I do. Again. Again,

Pain gone? That’s a comfort. For some.

I’m trying. Trying to be worthwhile. Again. Again.

Desolation in the empty.

Insidious clouds empty snow. But they are fleeting. Dissipating.

Worthwhile? What is that to a tiny snowflake? To a duck on the lake waiting out the rain? The life that flows through us, it’s trying always to escape.

The world, the essence of it, comes from our little bits of time.

Yours, to brief.

mine still lingering

I ask why

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Animals as elements: 73-74 Tantalum Tantulum elegans, Tungsten Rhinoceros

Tantalum is rare transition metal that your almost certainly using now. It’s used in capacitors in almost every modern computing device. This it is one of the metals most prized in the recycling of such devices. It’s not very toxic at low levels but can easily become so in high doses. It’s tied with the Tantulum elgans a sea bound slug that shares a similar name.

Tungsten is a very hard transition metal. It’s used in heating elements, mining and aerospace. It’s getting harder to source and mine and has become rarer in recent years.

Rhinoceros are large megafauna herbivores that are unfortunately endangered. It’s tied to Tungsten as they both have increased rarity and hardness.

Under the lakeshore boardwalk, near a junction

This moist morning due

a Friday’s moves

Choice tickets torn in two

Recant the wolfs howled they cant survive on rice

Blue plants given a chew

And waiting in ice cream parlors was the way for our crew

In lieu, in lieu

Impressionist duels!

Dying for the winters eyeshadow

Crushed by marrowbones grown in thick orange groves

My queen, I brung down my life for your winter

I have no use for myself anymore

Give me leave to dot my eyes

Oh I cry, oh I cry

Animals as elements: 71-72 Lutetium Hen Harrier, Hafnium Danish Landrace Ram

Lutetium is the last of the lanthanides. It’s another not so rare “rare-earth” metals. Being almost as common as silver in the earths crust but significantly more difficult to process and thus expensive. It’s main use is in determining the age of other minerals, as its isotopes decays in a very predictable pattern and length that gives it an edge over other isotopes. It’s paired up with Hen Harrier as they both share naming issues, the Hen Harrier called many different names throughout Europe, it’s the same with Lutetium which also had many different names in Europe until recently.

Hafnium is a return to the transition metals, it’s used in computing and neutron capture rods in nuclear reactors. It’s resembles Zirconium and is often mistaken for it.

The danish landrace goat bread out of domesticated and wild goats in Denmark. It is often mistaken for other breeds of goat. It’s tied to Hafnium as they both get mistaken often.

Grazing on winters clouds, sodden earth is bleeding

I’m coming down from the highway of the straight. Richard flower blooms it’s gray history of fraught. Chatter of its timely resolution pistol.

Diminishes humanity to gain humanity yet takes all of the sodden Justice who has bled her last. Little “can’ts” wispy flowing with no more worth. Difference socks slide.

Humanity is not going to bring it’s cloudy loftiness down. It yarns victims vast value into resilience soup. Wearing its weakness as a badge of flags high on the lonely hill.

Then again the blood works it’s taste of damaging anger. Tension storms to take humanity’s clouds above again and again to shake a hatred of the snowfall. That feeling is the loss of ourselves within ourselves again.

Animals as Elements: 69-70 Thulium Idiacanthus Atlanticus, Ytterbium Tench

The black dragonfish (Idiacanthus atlanticus) is one of the weirdest looking of the dark sea hunting fish that we know of. It’s likely many more exist that we don’t know about that are just as if not more weird. It almost exclusively hunts in the dark of the ocean and it’s bioluminescent light is almost invisible to human eyes, it however is able to see and use it to hunt its prey.

Thulium is a fairly rare “earth” element, it maintains this name despite being available in sufficiently detectable quantities in the ocean. It’s mostly used in lasers and X-ray machines. All this makes it a suitable candidate for being tied to the black dragonfish.

Ytterbium (not to be confused with Yttrium, it’s one of four elements named after the same Swedish Town) is the second last lanthanide. It’s mostly used to help form stainless steel, in lasers, and as a source of gamma rays. It will react fairly readily with oxygen outside of an alloy and forms a white salt.

Tench are a fresh water fish, though “fresh” is stretching it as they tolerate very low oxygen environments that even Carp has trouble surviving at. This is why it’s paired with Ytterbium.

Animals as Elements: 67-68 Holmium Nembrotha Aurea (Sea Slug), Erbium Flamingo

Holmium is a really colorful elements when it’s an alloy or oxide, being able to readily change color under certain lights. It is mostly used in optical products. This is pretty much the reason I paired it with Sea Slugs that have similar color changing attributes.

Erbium is also quite colorful in an alloy. Again mostly used in optical cables and fiber optic signal enhancing. It forms often pink alloys, especially Erbium Chloride, which is intensely pink. This was the reason to pair it with the Flamingo.

Animals as elements: 65-66 Terbium Western Spade-foot, Dysprosium Water Buffalo

Terbium is probably one of the weirdest elements in the first 100 elements besides Mercury. It reacts with pretty much everything including water. Its ability to react readily means it often needs care in its handling, but it is handy as an alloy being used in the production of tungsten, fluorescent tubes, phosphorescence paint, sonar technology, and even in the detection of certain nasty strains of bacteria.

The Western Spadefoot is an arid area toad that lives in the California region. A nocturnal toad that mostly lives in small ponds and has one of the quickest known metamorphosis of any toad, in that it will transform form spawnling to tadpole, to small toad in a matter of 12-13 days if conditions are optimal.  This is why I related this strange looking toad with Terbium, they both transform quickly in the right circumstances.

Dysprosium is probably one of those elements most people wouldn’t even pay much attention to. Mostly as it is not exceptionally useful as a separate element. Though its use in ultraviolet LED’s has led to it being in broader use in your remote controls in recent times as LED’s replace earlier ultraviolet light emitting means. It is also used as in nuclear reactor control rods as it is able to perform very well for neutron capture.

Water buffalo are large bovine (bovid) from South-Southeast Asia. It is a partially domesticated animal with many feral populations within countries throughout the world. Both its milk and meat are eaten, and it is also used as a beast of burden for the tillage of fields and cropping. It mostly likes to live in wetland and grasslands ranging as far as tropical savannah.  It is connected to Dysprosium as it current main source is in Southeast Asia, but it may be sourced from the others such as Australia in the not too distant future as well.

 

Cuttlefish’s eyes, gardeners surprise

Authors note: Inspired by Mills, Jennifer (2018) swimming with aliens, in Overland, issue 230, Autumn 2018

Cuttlefish turn on their colorful display

On and off from my place in this sea

We follow them in this little cove

Are you a eye of truth or a eye that sees the truth?

I’m a intruder, a non cuttlefish

You are not unwelcome, for now

Do we save you with a referendum? Is that how we humans decide things now?

This is my favorite stone to hide under

Our collective energy feeds into your ocean, are you doing ok?

it’s getting too hot for us

I am sorry this is all our fault

Animals as elements: 63-64 Europium Moon Jellyfish, Gadolinium Ruddy Shelduck

Europium is a element that is liquid at room temperatures, and often can look like a silvery metal. It can oxidize fairly easily so care is taking in its handling. It’s used in lasers, lights, CRT monitors, and computing.

The moon jellyfish is a odd little creature that is only about 25-40 cm round when full grown. It’s capable of a small range of movement and can swim to a very small extent. It generally follows currents to feast on plankton. It’s tied to European as its a water creature that likes lukewarm environments.

Gadolinium is a fairly rare, rare earth metal, that has applications in medicine for radiation therapy and as a neutron absorbing elements that can be used in fission nuclear reactors.

Ruddy Shelducks is a duck that has amazingly orange coloured feathers that lives all over Europe and Asia. It’s usually nocturnal and like most ducks is an omnivore. It’s tied to be Gadolinium as when it’s in it’s mineral form as Gadolinite it’s an amazing orange-red colour like the Shelduck.

Delays

Hi readers,

Sorry about this but stuff is going be a bit quieter than usual for a bit. I will try and keep the animals as elements coming but I can’t guarantee anything else.

In understanding and writing,

Anne R

Animals as elements: 61-62 Promethium Hedgehog and Samarium Badger

Probably one of the rarest semi naturally occurring elements, promethium is radioactive and decays generally into neodymium. It’s mostly used in batteries and luminous paint.

Hedgehogs are actually omnivorous, despite often being thought of as chiefly in the now abandoned Insectivora. They will eat fruit, berries, ants, slugs, eggs, snakes, snails and pretty much anything small enough. Their spines make them a hard to hunt animal and protect them from their chief predators, owls, foxes, dog and domestic cats. Their defense mechanism is what made me tie them to promethium.

Samarium is another “common” rare earth metal, having a occurrence of about 40th in The rarity of metals in the Earths crust. A myth about Samarium is it named after the ancient civilization of Samaria, which is untrue. It is in fact the first element to have been named after a person Colonel Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets. It’s a pretty useful rare earth element, being used in batteries, superconducting magnets, and quantum computing. It will form alloys with most other elements, these alloys are how it is usually used.

Badgers are also omnivores, and often can be surprisingly vicious for their size. They live in family groups that often hunt and eat together. They can be inquisitive but very shy creatures, but have been known to team up with foxes and coyotes for hunts, though in desperate times they will hunt each other! Samarium is tied to badger as they are both sharing but somewhat shy and difficult at times.

Animals as Elements: 59-60 Praseodymium Igauna, Neodymium Crow

Praseodymium is a lanthanide with the unusual ability to have a +5 oxidation state. Though it generally is happy with just forming +3 oxides. Pure praseodymium will develop a lovely green shaded +3 oxide on its outside given time. It is one of the most useful lanthanides, used in everything from optics to magnets, lights, construction, catalysts, aircraft engines and even has helped get us the ability to chill things down to within a few thousandths of a degree of zero. It was hiding in plain sight for many years, often being confused with silver due to its very similar lustre and hardness. There is no doubt that some ancient silver vessels probably have some praseodymium in them.

Iguana makes a good match for praseodymium as they both tend to form the same green and tend to hide in plain sight and are surprisingly useful.

“Neodymium will make lovely glass.” As the song goes. Ok maybe only I heard that song. Or made it up? Neodymium is also a non-rare “rare earth metal” being no rarer than no rarer that cobolt, nickle or copper. It is, as you probebly guessed mostly used to make glass in a verity of colors, especially blues and pinks. It is also used in ceramics. The existance of neodymium will possibly help us achive fusion power in years, from its us in high powered lasers.

Crows are where the name Corvid comes from. They are one of the most talented birds, being able to form patterns and predict how things will happen. Some crows have been seen picking up nuts they have cracked using cars on pedestrian crossings. Others have used the same tactics to help kill prey. It’s tied with Neodymium as they are both exceptional.

Subsidy of clothes pegs

Upside album in my head

fungal trampoline yard it fills

Source and as we sing trills

Cure pedestrians pliers on roads

Crows team in political memes

Keep rocks towers to lean

Eastern west-men keen

Shrinkwraped in years

Time has become my body

Down the drain of the contraflow

Gripped by tides of tears

I’m shrink-wrapped for years

Animals as Elements: 57-58 Lanthanum Goat, Cerium Blue Mud Dauber Wasp

Lanthanum is a element that has a entire group of 15 similar metallic elements that share similarities to it. The Lanthanides. It’s a very sharing element, giving a +3 electron charge to its shell, it will react with oxygen, the halogens, and most acids. It’s the strongest and hardest base (alkaline) element in its group.

Goats are one of the animals longest domesticated by humans. A very versatile animal, of the bovines, it is able to live in most environments with human assistance. Breading has led to making of goats suited to some of the more hostile environments humans will endure to live in. This versatility has led me to match goats with Lanthanum.

Cerium is a very well used element, though not biologically important it isn’t toxic. Its main use is now in catalytic converters, gas lamps, in TV screens and as a additive in glass. It also may see future use in water splitting and soil state fuel cells. Alloys of cerium have been used in paints to produce both red and blue colors.

The blue mud dauber wasp, is much like other mud dauber wasps only, unsurprisingly, blue. Mud dauber wasps often have a specific prey item, be it spiders, crickets, ants or any number of insects. The blue mud dauber specially hunts the black widow spider. It’s color likely comes from the need to surprise it’s prey. Mud daubers play a very critical part in the environment in keeping insect species in check. Much much cerium keeps many of our fabulous inventions safer.

Animals as elements: 55-56 Cesium Brown Bear, Barium Barramundi

Cesium is a highly reactive alkali metal. It’s high toxicity generally means its use is limited to atomic clocks and as a drilling lubricant (as a liquid alloy). It will react with water at even very low temperatures, which means care has to be taken in its use.

Brown Bears are large omnivorous mammals. They are capable of putting on a huge amount of weight to hibernate through winter months, eating almost anything. Encroachment of human habitation has led to more encounters with the creatures in the search of enough calories to last the winter. They can easily kill a man, if so inclined. Their hunger and danger makes them a good match for cesium.

Barium is a highly reactive element that is in general not found in nature. It’s mostly used for processing esters, x Ray contrast and making endothermic reactions. It’s actually often forms insoluble salts that don’t react with water, which makes pairing it with water creatures a little unusual. I couldn’t though go past the silly pun, so.

Barramundi also known as Asian sea bass and Australian sea bass. It’s a very highly sought after fish for fishing and as food. Though it is flakey and often has low flavor it’s often cooked with various flavors such as lime and garlic, and is a favorite fish for curry. It’s a undergoes sequential gender variation, changing gender often after one or two seasons as a adult male to adult female.

The Day of the Bath (comic)

Etsy Store is up!

Etsy Store!

Hi all the Etsy store is up! A few other changes have been made to the site, but not much.

Hope you are all enjoy the art, poetry and such that I put together. If you want more buy my stuff off of Esty or Redbubble! Or if you are looking for something really special go to my commissions page. You can email me details of the sort of thing you are looking for. You get progress shots, and I will try my best to give you the art you are after before you buy. I have 10 commission slots, and NONE thats right NONE of them are currently taken up! So get in now if you need some art! (I also do poetry commissions)

Yours in art,

Anne

Animals as Elements: 53-54 Iodine Red Lionfish, Xenon Goose

Iodine is a slightly rare halogen element that is highly reactive and somewhat toxic. Though it is also essential to life, is required for the synthesis of thyroid hormones. It is also heavily used in the treatment of endocrine and thyroid cancers and in antiseptic treatments.

The red lionfish is the largest of the lionfish. Its toxin relates it to iodine, as it’s not fatal to humans necessarily. The red lionfish is invasive in the Caribbean and other tropical Atlantic environs. It’s become a major pest in some areas, its capacity to breed quickly and lack of predators makes it particularly hard to control.

One of the most famous Nobel gasses Xenon is actually uncommon in Earths atmosphere. It’s mostly used in lighting, lasers and as a propellant in ion thrusters.

Geese are one of the largest birds species. Most are capable of flight and are migratory, though there are a few exceptions. There used to be giant flightless geese, most are now extinct. It is connected to Xenon by its flight and slightly uncommon nature.

Crosses in cloudscape

Two eggs, laid down by the corridors

Sure as mortal days escape by the west coast

Rolling boulders feel the way of the mocking birds

Roasting legs dripping starlight onto the verge

Up in my estimations, high sky crosses the absurd river of ice

Titanic served salmon on a bed of white rice

With such luscious little smiles, scales and forgiveness in the rails

It’s the day of the cowardly snails

Animals as Elememts: 51-52 Antimony Yellowhead Catfish, Tellurium Latrodectus tredecimguttatus

Yellowhead catfish (Tachysurus fulvidraco) also known as the Korean Bullhead can be found throughout most of northern Asia. It’s not to be confused with the American Yellow Bullhead. The former being a scaled bagrid catfish.

Antimony is a silver colored metal that behaves very much like lead and phosphorus though it is less explosive and as a used as a halogen as a fire retardant. It’s also used in the production of batteries, soldiers and bearings. It’s connection to the Yellowhead catfish is to do with the local of its main source, being mostly found in China and Korea.

Latrodectus tredecimguttatus is a spider that is related to the Black Widow and the infamous Red Bellied Spider. Though its main place of home is in the Mediterranean coastal grasslands and forested area in Europe. It’s name literally means of thirteen spots, and has 13 red, white or orange spots on its body.

Tellurium is a silvery metalloid that can be somewhat toxic. Mostly used for copper and steel alloys and the production of solar panels. It’s now in far higher demand than ever and as it is a rare metal its likely to become even rarer. It’s relation Latrodectus tredecimguttatus is through its relative rarity and usefulness, but mild toxicity.

Pop up people

Poppin and rocking out with the shocking news of people not along

Are they digging dirt, shifting mirth, Eating in a pop-up park

Booking from, a booking dot prom

Glass slippers rented cheep

Angry ground tilted into the surrounds, lark heated pool

Nazareth and his bloody teeth seem almost like heaven now

As sold becomes double the rent, triple the whalebone spoons

Dead dogfish, read a wrong east

Now how do you do?

Warrior poets, bleeding from a mortal metaphor

For the gods have always had a sense of humor.

The idea of warrior poets was so amusing that only was their a brief appearance of them.

Mortally wounding a mortal with a metaphor had of course, little to do with vanity.

It was all about differentially making a odd little calculus deceiptherabe into a linguistic phantasm.

Math and litriture as one, into a more horrible beast than meer juxtopostion into the blue metaphor that would come from a cloudless sky, say.

Laughthing at this passion play beyond the want of any, made to only be understandable in little bits like a puzle looked upon from far off.

The warroir poets bleed sinking red dusty soil out of old veins that manticores have once sleign.

 

 

 

Animals as Elements: 49-50 Indium Glowworm & Tin Vipera Latiffi

Indium is fairly toxic but very useful element whose main use is in LCD monitors and similar screens such as those used in mobile devices, TVs, and other liquid crystal displays. It’s also used in bearings and vacuums tube chambers. The glowworm is similar to Indium in that it’s glowing effect comes from its food (so electricity and crystal bonds in Indium case) to produce photosynthesis. Though most glowworms are omnivores, a few are carnivores, using their colonies of glowing bacteria in their rear to attract moths and insects to a long thread of silk like a spiders web, then eating it at their leisure.

Tin is a useful binding metal that has been used for centuries. Its widespread use has mostly been applied in making Pewter and in Solder. It’s fairly non toxic and has one of the most numbers of isotopes of any metal. Vipera Latiffi is a viper that lives exclusively in Iran, and it’s associated with Tin as its highly likely the Tin was discovered and first used near its native range.

Acacia’s in the morning, autumn weather present

No one thing has ever really described the Acacias in the morning in autumn.

When they flower in springtime, that’s when people see them.

Big yellow pom-poms hanging out egg yolks, fluffy but when wet a yellow painting that’s leaked over the grass.

It’s hard not to miss that. I suppose.

It’s in the autumn I think their best beautiful display is out, because no flowers, but they always seem a bit greener. Like they have all summer stores the green and now it’s overflowing into their leaves.

That green, it’s the best green. When the frosts come and slivers of ice melt on the leaves, the green comes out even more somehow. It’s the green of life. You can see them hold it. Store it.

Then as it matures it turns yellow and grows and they let it out with the yellow flowers, letting it spill across the country. Letting the life out, all over the ground and into the grass, the other plants, the animals and then me.

I know though, the summer will come then. The heat and rains will fall. The life will be stored again, in the acacias, the wattles. If it’s not, who knows if it will last all the winter.

Caution, please stand clear: autumn opens inwards

The first frost closes in on my flesh like a falling leaf, dying in its orange light. Pattering sighs of ice melting towards a harsh stream. Rotting pumpkins sit being slowly nibbled by rabbits, getting hungry and trying to eat as much as they can for a long cold winter.

I open the frost inwardly, hearing crackling thunder of the last summer storms across the plains. Dark bark, scraped off trees defeated by another encore of the days.

Slippery streets, full of black ice, steering carts and buggies around gets dangerous for the livery. Most of them have tasted the new grapes, thinking of them on long trips as the city is emptied out of suites. Green velvet cake and fresh iced coffee greets them in the tea room, to remind them of the snakes who will not be seen in the winters haze.

Roadworks start in ernest as none may know they need to keep from doing such things when they suited can see them. Orange hatted daisies are but only paid slaves to the white ghost gums, whom keep them under close eye.

Animals as Elements: 47-48 Silver Fox & Cadmium Golden Eagle

Silver is an uncommon metal element that is mostly used decoratively and in jewellery. Though it is used in solar panels, water filtration, circuitry, and in radio and radar technologies. It has the lowest contact resistance and highest electrical conductivity of any known metal, and its applications are getting more widespread within the computer electronics and electric generation industries.

Foxes are a versatile candid like animal, though some are more closely related to voles than dogs they are my favourite creature bar none. The common phrase “a silver fox” is pretty much all it took to get its association with this element but I’m sure you can find plenty more.

The Golden Eagle is a common bird of prey that lives all round the northern hemisphere. It’s much like Cadmium in its commonality. It preys small rodents, occasionally other birds and carrion.

Cadmium is often a byproduct of the zinc refining process and is used in glass plating and used to be used in batteries. Cadmium is somewhat toxic and has some long-lived isotopes and can be bio reactive causing damage to cells and cancer in fallout post-nuclear bombs or meltdowns.

Hex owls’ quarry

Reduced flower tears coating my purple blood

I’m a hex owls’ quarry, digging myself under the lust

Least I welcome a thunderstorms blight upon us all

Poison flows in my mind, trying hard working it’s very bind

Cowering does not save my life

Sidewalk sunscreen

All of us stand, waiting in a passion for a self-contained prison

Earhole, homeless, scrape, blood all over the sidewalk like sunscreen on a beach-ready body

I don’t really know what a beach-ready body is, I saw it in a magazine

Old blue necklace on a woman who looks disgusted by the screen

Trees leaves falling by the slippers we all wear, fashion of the reaping consultants

I get mine by the factory outlet, never wear them and they sit in a carpeted closet by a set of skis I wore only once

Waiting still for the passion to hit me, I read a blog on my WordPress while eating sultanas

Cone of my own thoughts written they’re from years ago, just orange juice slipping into a skirt

Headphones, its playing musing time dilated crimson finch songs to the tune of stairways

I sure start to rank, my old thoughts are but commonplace now? Is this what it means? Meaningfulness?

Open the pod bay doors, HAL it’s time to restart things again I think as I get on my bus