Barbara B. Harrell
@bbharrell.bsky.social
Organic gardener, nature lover, habitat restorer, night protector, cook, piano player, family historian, retired Ob-Gyn MD, proud mom and grandma, and a lot of other stuff
Pinned
Here's a little series from our back slope habitat restoration, begun Aug 2017 (71 native plant species):
1) Jun 2018 blackberries cleared; deer candy anchor plants caged; 6' deer fence
2) Apr 2019 8' fence + rabbit mesh; gate; huckleberry shades
3) Jun 2022 fence & shades gone
4) Oct 2024
1) Jun 2018 blackberries cleared; deer candy anchor plants caged; 6' deer fence
2) Apr 2019 8' fence + rabbit mesh; gate; huckleberry shades
3) Jun 2022 fence & shades gone
4) Oct 2024
"Whales may possess a communication system more intricate than our own, one that possibly predates human language by tens of millions of years." And AI has helped scientists figure this out. #nature #whales #wildlife #oceans
Gift www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
Gift www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
Opinion | I’m a Marine Biologist. This Is How I Talk to Whales.
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:00 PM
"Whales may possess a communication system more intricate than our own, one that possibly predates human language by tens of millions of years." And AI has helped scientists figure this out. #nature #whales #wildlife #oceans
Gift www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
Gift www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
Great piece by @billmckibben.bsky.social today.
"We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be."
#christianity #evangelical #Jesus #bible
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
"We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be."
#christianity #evangelical #Jesus #bible
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity | Bill McKibben
Trump’s wrecking-ball approach to America has a precedent: the evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Great piece by @billmckibben.bsky.social today.
"We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be."
#christianity #evangelical #Jesus #bible
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
"We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be."
#christianity #evangelical #Jesus #bible
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
I wish we could return to the era when #Halloween waited until October and #Christmas waited until after #Thanksgiving. In my parents' day the tree went up on Christmas Eve and remained until #Epiphany (Jan 6). All these ads and holiday displays make me sick of it all by Christmas! #toxiccapitalism
November 20, 2025 at 3:13 PM
I wish we could return to the era when #Halloween waited until October and #Christmas waited until after #Thanksgiving. In my parents' day the tree went up on Christmas Eve and remained until #Epiphany (Jan 6). All these ads and holiday displays make me sick of it all by Christmas! #toxiccapitalism
Lettuce in our garden is still outgrowing bugs and slugs despite the ideal slug weather, but must be floated in water before eating. (Slug poop.) Surprised to find a few coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) still blooming inside the fence. Dry heads already being devoured by birds, earlier than usual. 🌱
November 20, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Lettuce in our garden is still outgrowing bugs and slugs despite the ideal slug weather, but must be floated in water before eating. (Slug poop.) Surprised to find a few coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) still blooming inside the fence. Dry heads already being devoured by birds, earlier than usual. 🌱
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. There’s no vote required if he wants to release them!
The only reason the house was voting was because he refused.
This is an obviously cynical ploy and major news outlets are running whole pieces without pointing this out. He could release them tonight.
The only reason the house was voting was because he refused.
This is an obviously cynical ploy and major news outlets are running whole pieces without pointing this out. He could release them tonight.
If he has nothing to hide he doesn’t need a House vote. He can just release everything.
Trump now says House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files “because we have nothing to hide”
November 17, 2025 at 4:38 AM
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. There’s no vote required if he wants to release them!
The only reason the house was voting was because he refused.
This is an obviously cynical ploy and major news outlets are running whole pieces without pointing this out. He could release them tonight.
The only reason the house was voting was because he refused.
This is an obviously cynical ploy and major news outlets are running whole pieces without pointing this out. He could release them tonight.
8 years on, and I'm still relieved by the #nature we see from our bedroom here in the middle of #Bellingham, compared to the view from our last home in the middle of #Seattle. Did what I could to green things up there, but built is built, I guess. Crows were the only birds we could attract. #habitat
November 15, 2025 at 4:32 PM
8 years on, and I'm still relieved by the #nature we see from our bedroom here in the middle of #Bellingham, compared to the view from our last home in the middle of #Seattle. Did what I could to green things up there, but built is built, I guess. Crows were the only birds we could attract. #habitat
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
Gosh, why and how could that be? Such an enigma!
November 14, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Gosh, why and how could that be? Such an enigma!
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
November 14, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
This may be Trump's perfect social media post. A true work of art. He confirms:
✅He personally directs criminal investigations.
✅He is targeting opponents.
✅Epstein "records" exist and he knows the contents.
Bonus points for connecting it to investigation of his fondness for Putin.👀
✅He personally directs criminal investigations.
✅He is targeting opponents.
✅Epstein "records" exist and he knows the contents.
Bonus points for connecting it to investigation of his fondness for Putin.👀
November 14, 2025 at 4:25 PM
This may be Trump's perfect social media post. A true work of art. He confirms:
✅He personally directs criminal investigations.
✅He is targeting opponents.
✅Epstein "records" exist and he knows the contents.
Bonus points for connecting it to investigation of his fondness for Putin.👀
✅He personally directs criminal investigations.
✅He is targeting opponents.
✅Epstein "records" exist and he knows the contents.
Bonus points for connecting it to investigation of his fondness for Putin.👀
Our loaded flowering crabapple (malus 'Adirondack') today. Planted as a small sapling in 2019, and selected because #birds like its fruit. (Not all crabapples are palatable to birds. These need to be sweetened by a hard freeze.) Robins cleaned them off in Jan '24, but nobody ate them in '25. 🌱
November 14, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Our loaded flowering crabapple (malus 'Adirondack') today. Planted as a small sapling in 2019, and selected because #birds like its fruit. (Not all crabapples are palatable to birds. These need to be sweetened by a hard freeze.) Robins cleaned them off in Jan '24, but nobody ate them in '25. 🌱
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
Did you know corals time their spawning perfectly with a particular moon phase?
They wait for a few days after a full moon, in the dark of the night before spawning.
Light pollution can have huge consequences for our coral reefs, and with coastal artificial light increasing, it’s a serious issue
They wait for a few days after a full moon, in the dark of the night before spawning.
Light pollution can have huge consequences for our coral reefs, and with coastal artificial light increasing, it’s a serious issue
The Great Barrier Reef is spawning. 🪸 ✨
A phenomenon Sir David Attenborough once described as “one of the greatest of all natural spectacles,” the annual event is a dazzling display presenting hope for bigger, stronger coral reefs. 💙
Here's what spawning looks like👇
A phenomenon Sir David Attenborough once described as “one of the greatest of all natural spectacles,” the annual event is a dazzling display presenting hope for bigger, stronger coral reefs. 💙
Here's what spawning looks like👇
November 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Did you know corals time their spawning perfectly with a particular moon phase?
They wait for a few days after a full moon, in the dark of the night before spawning.
Light pollution can have huge consequences for our coral reefs, and with coastal artificial light increasing, it’s a serious issue
They wait for a few days after a full moon, in the dark of the night before spawning.
Light pollution can have huge consequences for our coral reefs, and with coastal artificial light increasing, it’s a serious issue
Did you know corals time their spawning perfectly with a particular moon phase?
They wait for a few days after a full moon, in the dark of the night before spawning.
Light pollution can have huge consequences for our coral reefs, and with coastal artificial light increasing, it’s a serious issue
They wait for a few days after a full moon, in the dark of the night before spawning.
Light pollution can have huge consequences for our coral reefs, and with coastal artificial light increasing, it’s a serious issue
The Great Barrier Reef is spawning. 🪸 ✨
A phenomenon Sir David Attenborough once described as “one of the greatest of all natural spectacles,” the annual event is a dazzling display presenting hope for bigger, stronger coral reefs. 💙
Here's what spawning looks like👇
A phenomenon Sir David Attenborough once described as “one of the greatest of all natural spectacles,” the annual event is a dazzling display presenting hope for bigger, stronger coral reefs. 💙
Here's what spawning looks like👇
November 14, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Dreary if badly needed November rain has set in here in the #PacificNorthwest. It has its charms, but does kinda squelch hiking and gardening (for me, anyhow). Here's a reminder that summer is just around the corner😊 🌱 #wildlife #habitat #gardening
November 14, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Dreary if badly needed November rain has set in here in the #PacificNorthwest. It has its charms, but does kinda squelch hiking and gardening (for me, anyhow). Here's a reminder that summer is just around the corner😊 🌱 #wildlife #habitat #gardening
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
November 6, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
Elon Musk’s new pay package would feed all forty million Americans on SNAP for the next ten years. He wouldn’t notice the difference but the country would.
November 8, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Elon Musk’s new pay package would feed all forty million Americans on SNAP for the next ten years. He wouldn’t notice the difference but the country would.
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
A man collapsed in the Oval Office yesterday. The internet got the story wrong.
My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.
My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.
A man collapsed in the Oval Office. The internet got the story wrong.
A case study in how bad information can spread — and how hard it is to correct it.
dandiamond.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
A man collapsed in the Oval Office yesterday. The internet got the story wrong.
My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.
My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
November 5, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
This is what they did at one of my mother's dementia facilities, so that residents are less likely to get lost.
November 5, 2025 at 3:55 PM
This is what they did at one of my mother's dementia facilities, so that residents are less likely to get lost.
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
Bat and Moon — Yamada Hōgyoku, c. 1830
October 22, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Bat and Moon — Yamada Hōgyoku, c. 1830
October 30, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
Time for Seiryu maple (Acer palmatum dissectum 'Seiryu') to shine. Just getting going, now that the neighboring dogwood has lost most of its leaves. We're in a lull between storms, and flocks of bushtits have been visiting Seiryu daily, feeding on something. Not sure what. 🌱 #Japanesemaples #PNW
October 27, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Time for Seiryu maple (Acer palmatum dissectum 'Seiryu') to shine. Just getting going, now that the neighboring dogwood has lost most of its leaves. We're in a lull between storms, and flocks of bushtits have been visiting Seiryu daily, feeding on something. Not sure what. 🌱 #Japanesemaples #PNW
I was wrong. That wasn't peak color yet. Maybe this is 🌱
October 22, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I was wrong. That wasn't peak color yet. Maybe this is 🌱
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.
October 22, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Graduate seminar did a deep dive on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense yesterday. At the line, “in America the law is king,” they (14 students from 6 countries) burst out laughing. I've been doing this for 35 years and this is the first time that was a laugh line.
Reposted by Barbara B. Harrell
