Amanda W
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amwesselmann.bsky.social
Amanda W
@amwesselmann.bsky.social
660 followers 220 following 420 posts
Interested in books, history, neurodiversity, cooking, art, and democracy
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amwesselmann.bsky.social
I give you Pepper Thee Pepper. This bell pepper plant grew from a seed a child planted after most pepper plants are well-established in our area. Pepper sprouted, was nibbled by a rabbit, persisted, and in October set flowers. One grew to this teensy bell pepper that I love. #Gardening #TinyJoys
A small bell pepper plant with one tiny green bell pepper hanging off a low branch. Around the plant, the wooden walls of the raised bed and the red maple leaves used for mulch are visible.
November 5, 2025 at 7:31 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Happy Halloween! 🎃
Eight pumpkins decorated by kids sitting on a porch. Three are drawn on with sharpie and 5 are carved. The carved ones are light from within by electric candles.
November 1, 2025 at 1:36 AM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Who was gonna tell me that dill flowers were so pretty? Who?!?

#GardenSky #BloomScrolling #MagentaMonday #TinyJoys
Flowering dill plant. A flower with magenta petals and yellow center blooms atop a thin green stem, surrounded by unopened buds. The feathery (and tasty!) leaves are below the flowers.
October 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
My LOTR dress and elf ears were much admired at the fall tea party. Happy Hobbit Day!
Photo of a white woman with dark hair wearing pointy elf ears and a green and yellow dress. The skirt portion of the dress is printed with a pattern reminiscent of the Fellowship: a wizard, a hobbit, a dwarf, and an elf all walking as a group.
September 22, 2025 at 11:47 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Tomato #harvest! This is a portion, divided equally among siblings.

#Gardening #TinyJoys #GrowWhatYouEat 🌱
Six cherry tomatoes in a plastic bowl. The tomatoes vary kn ripeness from bright red to orange with hints of green. Not pictured: the enthusiasm of the preschooler who picked them.
September 20, 2025 at 9:45 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
This rose bush was a gift in memory of our first child. It has lived at 3 houses and blooms regularly from April to October. This late bloom just makes me happy.

#RoseWednesday #TinyJoys #BloomScrolling #Gardening
A small white rose in full bloom, including the yellow stamens. In the background are green rose leaves and a few rose hips ripening from green to red.
September 17, 2025 at 10:23 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
They’re blooming!

#BloomScrolling #GardenSky #TinyJoys #NativePlants
About a dozen purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and twice as many yellow coneflowers (Rudbeckia sp.) blooming and leaning to the right due to recent storms with high winds. A cottontail rabbit is sitting at the corner of the plot, grooming itself, because it realizes that the 5 people within 10 feet of it are friendly and won’t harm it.
July 27, 2025 at 1:20 AM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
#Painting with kids today using cotton swabs to dot paint, a la Yayoi Kusama. I question some of my design choices, but #art doesn’t have to be perfect to be enjoyed.

#ArtSky #GardenSky #BloomScrolling #Japan
A homemade painting depicting yellow coneflowers and orange butterfly weed, rendered in dots of tempera paint on white paper in a style inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
June 27, 2025 at 4:56 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Success! After accidentally recycling several pasta sauce jars, I finally cleaned and kept one for home dried herbs.

#GardenSky #gardens #herbs #neurodivergence #homemade #TinyJoys
Glass jar maybe 1/8 full of basil I grew and dried myself. It’s labeled “Dr. Basil” on yellow tape on the side of the jar, but it would rather you just call it Basil.
June 17, 2025 at 10:52 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Coneflowers are blooming!

#GardenSky #BloomScroll 🌱 #TinyJoys
A small Echinacea plant with two yellow blooms. The flower on the left is just sprouting petals, and the flower on the right is more developed and has the characteristic shape of “center on top, petals drooping down”, like a poofy skirt someone stepped out of and hasn’t put away yet.
June 12, 2025 at 12:22 AM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
The local jail is having a #book drive, so I am filling a box.

#BookSky #donate #community
Cardboard box stacked with books that fit the requirements for the mail book drive: paperback, novels, religious/inspirational, health and parent guides.
June 6, 2025 at 9:23 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
A green salad on a plate, including green lettuce, herbs from the garden, dandelion greens and salad dressing.
May 23, 2025 at 6:09 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Making sugar paintings with the kids for #art this week. We’re not as good as street vendors in #China, LOL, but it’s a fun and tasty project.

#TinyJoys #AAPI
On a wooden table, a square of wax paper bears a brown silhouette of a cat. At the top left corner of the image is a white pot and spoon which were used to heat the sugar solution and then drizzle it on the wax paper in the cat design. The child artist is quite proud of this sweet work of art.
May 19, 2025 at 10:43 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
The big kids and I made tonghulu! This Chinese street treat is traditionally made of candy-coated hawthorn berries, but we used red grapes.

#cooking #China #AAPI #kids #TinyJoys
A blue plate bearing a homemade version of tonghulu, red candy-coated grapes speared with toothpicks. There are also pools of the candy coating that dripped off while it was cooling. The candy coating is clear, sweet, and crunchy, while the grapes are crisp and fruity.
May 12, 2025 at 10:25 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
I decided on a quote from Thorin’s last words to Bilbo for the baby shower card. I think it turned out pretty well.
Inside of a white card. At the bottom of the left half is the quote from The Hobbit, “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure.” - JRR Tolkien The right half reads, “We are excited to welcome your new little hobbit!” Both are handwritten in black pen. Front of a handmade baby shower card. In the center is a frame of gold/tan paper printed with leaf impressions, and a smaller mat of forest green paper, surrounding a white square depicting a drawn image of a baby. The baby is colored with light brown face and hands, and a single curl for hair, and lying on their back. The smiling baby is wearing a green sleeper with yellow polka dots. Below the baby image, white letters in green bubbles spell out “congrats”.
April 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
The #NativePlants #perennials I planted last year in the front #garden are creeping! (Reference to the growth pattern of perennials: first year sleep, second year creep, third year leap)

🌱 🌿 #TinyJoys
A garden bed, with three green plants poking through the brown leaf mulch. Two plants near the top of the photo with silvery green leaves are yellow coneflowers (Echinacea paradoxa) and a larger plant with lighter green leaves is purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).
April 6, 2025 at 4:03 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F Walker was a good, hard read. I learned a lot about the Panthers, and also about how much systems have *not* changed in the US. 5 stars, highly recommend.

#books #BlackHistory 💙📚 ⏳ #GraphicNovel
The cover of The Black Panther Party by David F Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson.
April 4, 2025 at 7:50 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
It seems a bit early to #harvest anything, but the sorrel in the #garden had plenty of leaves, so into my salad it goes! 🌱 🌿 #TinyJoys
A few bright green sorrel leaves rest in a blue bowl. They are oval-shaped and smooth-edged, with a sharp lemony flavor that is not obvious in the photo but will be when I crunch it up for lunch.
April 3, 2025 at 7:01 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson was a lovely read. Mostly descriptive, it conveyed information about marine and shore life with a rhythmic prose that echoed the movement of the sea. This landlubber liked it more than expected.

💙📚 #WomensHistoryMonth #ocean #birds #environment #books
Cover of the book Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson. From the lower right corner, the golden sand of the beach ends in waves breaking over rocks in white foam. The waves continue rolling in from the middle of the picture. The light blue sky peppered with cottonball clouds looks like a perfect day for a baby cod to hunt shrimp, or a young gull to find a mate. Lines of text read from top to bottom: New York Times Bestseller, Rachel Carson, Author of The Silent Spring, Under the Sea Wind.
March 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
I caught the Easter bunny laying a stock of eggs!

#EasterBunny #rabbit #pets #eggs
An enormous black rabbit lays on the floor of an interior room. The rabbit's back is to the camera, and a yellow plastic egg is directly behind it, as though the rabbit laid the egg. The photo is backlit, the rabbit looks alert, and you can tell the photo was taken paparazzi-style by a ninja mama just before the sassy bunny hopped away.
March 28, 2025 at 5:12 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Boo-Berry (blueberry) pie for #PiDay!

#TinyJoys #cooking
A homemade blueberry pie, cooling uncut, but with a spot of juice leaked out the left side where I crimped my crust poorly. Grandma Lolly always said pies came easy for her, and that’s goals. 😏
March 15, 2025 at 12:05 AM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Dark-eyed juncos gobbling up invertebrates!

🪶 #birds #TinyJoys
Three dark-eyes juncos look for bugs in a yard of brown, dormant grass. A rain-soaked wooden fence is in the background and a huge stick some kid dragged into the yard is much more noticeable than the birds.
March 4, 2025 at 8:35 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
Making prints with carved styrofoam and tempera paint! The kids and I enjoyed the process.

#art #garden #tinyjoys
Four items related to print-making/painting on a wooden table. Clockwise from top right: a paper plate with splotches of tempera paint and a bit of carved, paint-covered styrofoam; a depiction of a garden at twilight; a seascape at night; and a layered painting of green, blue, and black. All paintings have a texture and pattern to the paint from using a styrofoam stamp. One is mine, the others were painted by children.
March 4, 2025 at 8:26 PM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
My sister crocheted me this mushroom fairy, and I just love it!

🧶 🍄 🌱 #knit #garden #TinyJoys
A lovely mushroom fairy crocheted with different colors of yarn. She resembles yours truly, female with pale skin and brown hair. Her dress is sage green with gold trim around the edges, and she has a gold shawl tied around her shoulders. Her hat resembles a mushroom cap, red with white felt spots sewn to it. She also has black button eyes and a sweet little smile that isn’t quite visible from the angle of the photo.
February 26, 2025 at 5:25 AM
amwesselmann.bsky.social
I made “turning point” apple crisp and cream for book club, partly to remind myself to ask the question, “what do you think is the turning point of the book?” Because George Orwell and I have different opinions. 😂 Now I get to eat the leftovers.
📚 #booksky #tinyjoys
A plate of apple crisp and cream, which will serve as both delicious treat and prompt to rehash mentally the discussion of the turning point of Animal Farm by George Orwell.
February 20, 2025 at 7:35 PM