@springsandwire
Amsterdam, US emigrant & Latvian. Forest therapy guide. Programmer. Someone's mom, somecat's person, someperson's person. I love getting around outside of a car. Nearly always klaar om different langues à parler: EN, NL, FR. She/her
I find the news very frightening right now, but one thing that helps me is noticing the birds all around me
Do you want a reason to spend 10 minutes a day noticing your local birds? Then join me for this spring’s #TenMinMerlin, using the (free) app Merlin to notice birds. No experience needed!
1/5
The timing of the initial strikes is unusual.
Often you see these types of operations launched in the pre-dawn hours at the target site partly to limit civilian casualties.
This operation began at the beginning of a work and school day, with millions of adult civilians and children in harms way.
I was trying to decide if this was a Transformer-ass or Magneto-ass window (complimentary) and am so glad I’m not alone
Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed.
Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The Immediate Surrender Of Drivers Licenses "The legislature did not include a grace period." ERIN REED FEB 25, 2026 88 5 21 Share Kansas Sate Capitol // farzinvousoughian
1. Numerous transgender people in Kansas are reporting that the state has sent them a letter demanding the immediate surrender of drivers licenses.
Those driving could be arrested, charged, and see privileges revoked.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
www.erininthemorning.com/p/kansas-sen...
just to be clear there is SO MUCH precedent for arresting a senior royal. just not any precedent where it ends well for them
Hi from person whose grandpa’s best friend died of tetanus IIRC, and he wanted my grandpa to look after his love, my eventual grandma! I suspect there are an ungodly number of rhyming stories to ours
Ramadan Mubarak!
Kung Hei Fat Choi!
Laissez bon temps rouler!
Hodesh Adar tov!
Y'ALL
⭐
this is tremendous Medieval Cat energy
Ohhhhhh what. How had this not occurred to me before. And also whaaaaat.
The calendar for the first three months of 2026, with today, Saturday, January 31, highlighted. February begins on Sunday and lasts for exactly four weeks, ending on Saturday.
We have a perfect Rectangular February coming up, first time we’ve had one since 2015
Maybe this is what finally closes the loop and fixes the world
Got a few bruises and the start of a headache, but wow am I deeply grateful for fault-tolerant infrastructure today. Can’t wait til that ice is melted.
And that last person stayed & chatted with me for a bit, wending between Dutch & English — “gaat het, echt?, it happens to everyone, het hoort erbij, now you’ve got that out of the way! Straight roads tend to be fine; de bochten zijn het slechtste” (I was indeed just starting a left turn).
First Dutch bike accident since we got here a few years ago, thanks to compacted snow that went icy. My US brain was like “gotta get out of road immediately,” but of course cars behind me immediately stopped with plenty of room, several people checked on me, someone got my bike out of the road….
I salute your forethought, from "printed a pig ocarina that could be worn on a necklace before thinking about it too deeply." I did at least have the presence of mind to forbid giving them to friends without checking with their parents first.
one of the loveliest things about my all-women Dutch course was that it was a bunch of international women dressing up for their own reasons, and delighting in our own and each other's choices. Dankjewel; het heeft zakken!
yay-sus queena
😏 is that a promise or a threat
Big “sending the tram invoice for the deportation trip” energy (I am still incandescently mad about that one)
Yes! And strong vote for going for ASL, which is useful whether or not you continue with more ASL later. Spence Grugan (they’ve changed their name since the book came out; last name is the same IIRC) is a Deaf creator who wrote a lovely book: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/714348...
Hooooly moly. I’m so sorry
…and she loved British/American friends because they’d hug (the French do not hug). A physical contact lifeline in a land of bisous. Helen moved to Myanmar and I never heard from her again, but I still think of that oasis (the owner was a sweetheart, too) and what it meant to me.
Helen, a server originally from Bath, spoke perfect French and liked to make people guess where she was from (they never got it); she taught me to delight in mysterious accents (my own and those of others). She loved British and American customers because they couldn’t seem to *not* tip…
Both versions had like a dozen different little dishes arranged on a big plate, and as someone who hates to choose, it was heaven: bread and vegan pâté (it is why I know summer savory) and salads and lord knows what else. They had a flawless apple crumble for dessert, too, rich and hot and tender.
Au Grain de Folie in Paris, 2006-2007, closed 2015. I was an au pair outside of the city with a family who wouldn’t let me speak French if the kids were around (so, always), so every weekend I went into the city to get more immersion. There were two options, the vegetarian plate or the vegan plate.
I come here to “yes and” anything Dutch-language I can, and also to make sure I don’t let the normie quotient in my feed get too high
2026 is going to be a year of both horrors and victories, and I think many people, both on the left and liberals new to political activism, will struggle with the victories.
Therapy has taught me it's important to inoculate yourself knowing you can't pretend how you'll respond when you win.
I suspect it might also make that dude mad to be called “European,” making this comment even better
When I was a newborn, the pediatrician apparently said to my mom, “I so envy you this time — and I *also* know that you’re in no place to enjoy it right now.” My mom adores us, deeply, AND has lovingly said “oh, I never hated *anyone* the way I hated my children when they were small.”
