Working with @Alea Downton's gem club, we've decided Hollyhock is the best way to go, given that they are preferential to the "burning down" of their immediate ecosphere. That is, they tend to survive the best as the old growth burns down around them, charring the land and creating the most optimal environment for them to feed on the surface.

As Psyhigh tears down the statues of the various slave-owning founders of Psyhigh, the charred ground will provide the perfect environment for the Hollyhocks to proliferate.

Not only are they one of my personal favorite flowers, but it's important to remember that tending our biosphere is a long term obligation--not just the flowers we can grow in the sort term, but in the ongoing life of the garden for years to come.

Already I've been spending time with the Dancers of this year's hollyhocks. I've promised to remain by my side as we explore the rest of the psychic flora and fauna of the garden and environs. That I've committed to their long-term sustainability has made them even more enthusiastic as to our goals.

Now that the sun is coming out it's got me thinking about the flowers. Psychic gardens traditionally have gem-related beds, and I was thinking how nice it would be to prepare a chorus of chrysanthemum (topaz) or assembly of asters (sapphire) or gaggle of gladiolas (periodot), or such so on or some forth.

@Alea Downton, would the Gems club be interested in joining forces with the Fielding Club to do a little gardening on lower campus this month? Any and all gem aficionados or witchx welcome!

This darn rain makes things sloppy, but it still affords wonderful opportunities for meeting our psychic kin in our particular biome.

Like the earthworms! You know that squishy sound when you hear them churning in the great yard? I started by tap tap tapping on the sod with my stick, and once I had their attention I began the earthworm calling dance. You need to dance in your bare feet on the wet grass in a way that has no discernible rhythm, and yet is complete unique and definable because of its lack of discernible rhythm. Just like in the 16 Dances we learn in gym.

So I'm doing it and the grass is getting slick but eventually a slow wave rises in the lawn and passes under me. And then another, bigger, and another, until finally the mud is crashing all around me and there, hovering in the air, poised to strike like a mighty cobra, it was Tragwyddoldeb! MotherFather of the Earthworms! 30 feet tall when she's standing at attention. Then, she gracefully set down in front of me, eight feet tall. Or thick, I guess.

Tamed by my dance, she allowed me to scale her septum and scramble to the top. Not as icky as you might think! Climb up on their heads, not their butts. (Their heads are farther from the clitellum than the butts. And by the looks of the clitellum on that one there were babies ahoy!) Once you're standing up there, you can guide them with another dance, stomping on their setae to direct them. It doesn't hurt them I swear.

I let this one wander though, and we ended up back at @Janitor Pete's compost pile behind the gym. It must have broken out of its pen! I know because it was bigger than usual earthworms.

I left it there and wandered back, careful to walk with a steady clomp clomp clomp so it wouldn't follow.

I've got a lovely bucket full of limpets! Collected directly from the Chromatic Rain Garden on lower campus. They're quite easy to catch, actually. You just wade through and they stick to your wellies.

They can be rather stubborn coming off though. It's where that old story comes from about the girl on the beach who picks up the sea snails and shakes them -- shakes them till the snails fall right out of their shells. In that way she is separating life from death.

It is unusual to find so many in freshwater. I'd almost call it an infestation if they weren't so cute. I wonder if they are in the same clade as the specimens that @Abigail C found attached to her face?

I was so looking forward to the fielding activity but oh this awful rain. Raindrops as big as cabbages! Could have drowned a baby if one landed in a stroller.

Hopefully it will bring out the wet creatures who enjoy the muck. You'll certainly find me out again soon with my pith helmet and net!

I would be interested in a fielding event, where we go out in the fields and catalogue the various creatures and entities we find flitting about.

While we study all manner of psychic fauna in class, I would love to explore the grounds and see what we can discover “in the wild.”

Let’s go with us, shall we?