Sooz
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soozbz.bsky.social
Sooz
@soozbz.bsky.social
800 followers 610 following 1.7K posts
Awkward 18th-century frog. Canadian immigrant in Dublin. She/her.

Things I like to talk about: plants, knitting, social movements, Star Trek, grants/philanthropy, animals, neurodivergence & monotropism.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸
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soozbz.bsky.social
Today I'm celebrating all the space dads, including this guy
Tom Paris lying down in sick bay, just starting his journey to becoming a salamander dad in the Voyager episode "Threshold."
June 15, 2025 at 11:33 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
First nasturtium bloom of the season 🌸🌱
A bright red nasturtium flower, with dark red streaks extending from the yellow center. Behind the flower are large, round, variegated green leaves.
May 28, 2025 at 9:49 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
Some of my top results from that fictional character personality quiz that's going around.

...Yeah, I'm a dork.

openpsychometrics.org/tests/charac...
Jonathan Byers, from Stranger Things Will Byers, from Stranger Things Cameron Frye, from Ferris Bueller's Day Off Ben Wyatt, from Parks & Recreation
May 19, 2025 at 6:00 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
I mean. We get a Spot reference and everything.
Panel from the graphic novel. Worf and Jadzia, with green grass and trees in the background. Jadzia, snuggling a dog, says, "You ARE the cutest thing in the galaxy." Worf says, "This dog sheds much more than Spot ever did."
May 16, 2025 at 10:05 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
So. This is very fun. DS9 corgi!
The cover of a graphic novel titled, "Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Dog of War." Pictured are the station and the heads of Sisko, Quark, and a corgi. The corgi is wearing a Borg-like headpiece around one side of his head. At the bottom of the image is a lineup of various dogs, some of them wearing Borg-looking pieces, and one holding a baseball in its mouth. Authors/artists listed at the bottom of the cover are Mike Chen and Angel Hernandez.
May 16, 2025 at 10:03 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
What are you wearing to the bsky prom?
Vic Michaelis on Game Changer, wearing a bright red and blue squid costume.
May 12, 2025 at 9:40 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
Bushy park yesterday. 🌳
A calm river surrounded by tall, leafy green trees on a sunny day. The sun shines down between the trees. The trees and tiny patches of blue sky are reflected in the river below.
May 11, 2025 at 5:20 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
Heron.
May 11, 2025 at 12:23 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
Yesterday in Bray. 🌊
May 4, 2025 at 8:05 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
It's wisteria season, bitches
View from below of a large bunch of wisteria on a white building on a sunny day. The green foliage extends up to a railing at the top of the building, and the pale purple flowers cascade down along the foliage.
May 1, 2025 at 9:34 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
My hoya carnosa flowered for the first time ever. Based on what I'm seeing online I think it usually flowers in bunches, but I only got a single tiny flower 😂 Hopefully more to come - and even if not, this one is very cute!
Closeup of a tiny white flower on a hanging houseplant. The flower is waxy with five petals sticking out like a star. In the middle there's a spot of bright pink, with what looks like a second tiny white flower on top of that.
April 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
this is where I post from:
Quark's bar, mostly empty, except for Morn sitting at the bar and Quark serving him.
April 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
One thing that's really shocked me since moving here is how much (misguided) trust many Irish seem to have in the Gardaí and a belief that more policing = more safety. If this doesn't undermine that trust, then I don't know what will.

(Added alt text for those who need it.)
Screenshot from the Irish Times website. Headline: "Women protesting outside Leinster House strip-searched, one subjected to cavity search" Subhead: "TDs protest at Garda treatment, Taoiseach did not understand 'necessity for any strip-searching'" Accompanying photo shows bouquets of flowers on the ground next to a metal barricade. One bouquet has a note affixed to it with Palestinian flag stickers.
April 2, 2025 at 9:41 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
logging on
Data from Star Trek TNG. A strangely rectangular hole in his chest holds an old-school telephone. Data holds the receiver in his hand and looks at it, vaguely confused.
March 27, 2025 at 1:52 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
Take me back there, please
Looking out on the sea from a rocky beach on a sunny day. The rocks in the front of the frame are flat, brown/grey and jagged. The waves are crashing onto them, sending foamy spray up into the air (more than a metre high on the right side). Towards the front of the frame, the water pools among the rocks. Further out, the sea sparkles with the sunlight. Mountains are visible in the distance. The sky is blue, with scattered white, fluffy clouds.
March 27, 2025 at 9:38 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
West coast of Donegal just casually looking like a work of art
A bright, curved rainbow extending from the sky directly down to a little farmhouse. The house is sitting on a grassy green and brown hill, with the sea in the background. The sky is cloudy grey, with some clearer blue in the distance. There is a reflection of the rainbow just to its left. There is a tractor to the left of the house, and out front there's a sheep and a wood and wire fence. In spite of the clouds the sun shines down from above onto the hill, just next to the house.
March 25, 2025 at 8:11 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
Got to see Belfast's botanic gardens this weekend. So many leaves = stimmy heaven.
The front of the Palm House at the Belfast Botanic Gardens, seen from the outside. It is a long, ornate, Victorian-style greenhouse of white iron and glass. It extends lengthwise left and right, and protrudes upwards and outwards in the middle. There is a circular patch of flowers in front. View from inside the center of the Palm House, looking upward. It is filled with green, tropical trees - mostly various types of palms. Behind a pole there is a tall, old-looking lamp extending upwards, topped with multiple round bulbs. The sun is shining in through the glass of the building. Another view of the trees in the palm house. They are various shades of bright and dark green, with waxy-looking leaves - some broad and flat, others long and skinny. A couple of plants towards the front of the frame are variegated green and white. The colourful plants of the more tropical wing of the Palm House. Towards the front are green, pink and white bromeliads (I think?), with long, bright, waxy leaves. Next to it there is something with smaller, more frizzled-looking bright green leaves. Above them is a plant with stripey, oval-ish leaves in shades of coral, bright green and a yellowish/light green.
March 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
Swan naps.
Two white mute swans lying in the sun on the grassy bank of the Grand Canal. Their necks are curved around their bodies, and their heads are tucked into their wings.
March 5, 2025 at 3:46 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
Dún Laoghaire pier at sunset. I need to hang out by the sea more often.
The Dún Laoghaire coast at sunset, as seen from the pier. Towards the front of the frame is the harbour: some dark brown seaweed by the pier, and the sea mostly dark grey, gently rippling, lit up a little by the sky. In the distance is the coast, with various buildings, a couple of church steeples, and hills behind them. The sky ranges from light grey to golden orange/yellow, and is filled with patchy dark grey clouds.
March 1, 2025 at 12:39 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
Oooooh look what came in the post today 🧶😍

Mirknen, by the Wee Yarn Company, in "Nebula" and "The Vines." It's 40% BFL, 40% Shetland, and 20% alpaca.
Four skeins of a rustic-looking fingering weight yarn, lying on some pink and white patterned tissue paper. The two skeins on the left are a mix of light and dark purple, bits of pink and blue, and dark grey. The two on the right are bright, neon green and sort of an ocean-y teal green. All of them have a white label with the Wee Yarn Company logo, which bears the image of a very charming sheep.
February 25, 2025 at 11:07 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
Aha, I managed to use Google Lens to capture the full article text from the originally-posted image! You can read it via the alt text of these images:
Alt text part 1: Newspaper article in the Irish Independent, 17 Feb 2025. Headline reads: "I'm trans, but few politicians would now utter that word, let alone advocate for us" Author: Jenny Maguire Article includes a photo from a rally, featuring a person holding a sign with the trans flag on it that says: "Stand up & protect my trans fam." Caption: "People attend a rally in Union Square, Manhattan supporting transgender youth in New York City. Photo: Getty. The article reads: The Gender Recognition Act was passed 10 years ago with support across the political spectrum. This allowed anyone over the age of 18, including myself, to change gender without the need for surgery, sterilisation or the approval of a medical professional. This act, though flawed, was applauded for its progressive nature, with plans to expand access to over-16s included in the Programme for Government in 2020. You would be hard-pressed now to find any government politician even willing to mention the word "trans", let alone trying to legislate for us meaningfully, The current Programme for Government represents a new apathy for transgender people. It removes the commitment to develop a trans healthcare model that does not class being transgender as a mental illness. It also leaves out any commitment to expand gender recognition to under-16s and non-binary people. With experiences of hatred directed at LGBTQ people on the rise, so-called conversion therapy still not banned and the forbidding of puberty blockers by the Sinn Féin and DUP-led Executive in the North, you have to ask how things have changed so much. We must examine why a group that repre sents less than 1pc of the population now takes up such a large slice of the political and media landscape and more importantly, what is being ignored as a result. (Continued in next image) Alt text part 2: This shift has been felt far beyond our shores. In 2016, a bill introduced in North Carolina to ban transgender people from using their preferred bathroom drew international backlash. The National College Athletics Association (NCAA) introduced a six-month boycott of the state in response, only returning after the repeal of the bill. In the first four weeks of Donald Trump's second term as US president, he has removed the existence of transgender people on numerous government websites, legislated for the sole recognition of two sexes, ended federal funding for gender affirming care for transgender youth, banned trans girls from taking part in sports in federally funded schools and paved the way for an outright ban of transgender people from the US military. Every one of these acts targets a minority of a minority, and defies the advice of medical experts. Intersex people, meaning those born with physical, chromosomal or hormonal sex characteristics that don't fit the male/female binary, are as common as people with red hair. Access to gender-affirming care is necessary and potentially life-changing, as supported by the American Medical Association. But enacting policy that targets the real issues is not the goal. And not just for US politicians. Labour in the United Kingdom, the Nats (Young Nationals) in New Zealand and even Sinn Féin in Stormont all fell in line (despite it being against their own party policy). The current trajectory of those in power here looks similar, but we cannot be naive enough to believe them when they say it's for anything other than targeting a minority for political points. If the cause of protecting women matters to policymakers, they should use their fight to expand the 12-week limit on abortion. If they are really concerned about saving women's sports, they should finally address the strong relationship between social disadvantage and participation. (Continued in next image) Alt text part 3: If those in power want to protect women's spaces, we must focus on the most place for women in Ireland: their own home. We have seen the harm this State can do to those it believes should be hidden. Every group of undesirables since its foundation have been relegated to the outskirts of public life. Whether you were pregnant out of wedlock, a Traveller, an asylum-seeker, or needed an abortion after your first trimester, you have never mattered to the State. That is until, after decades of advocacy, you may get an apology and small amounts of financial compensation. It is so easy to shift our focus away from people at the heart of all this: transgender people. As someone who grew up knowing I was trans, access to affirming healthcare at an early age would have saved me years of hating myself and missing the milestones everyone else my age was hitting. I am a happy, confident woman now in spite of the hardship I was and still am being put through unnecessarily by the State. Ireland has the worst transgender healthcare in the EU. I was just as trans at age 16 when I went to my first GP appointment with my mam as I am today at age 23. The only difference now is that I am, frankly, more afraid. Those in charge of my healthcare campaign against me. They claim they know what's best for trans people, while overseeing a waiting list that stands at a decade long. But none of that matters to those who advocate against my existence. No cause does, besides the one that eliminates me from public life. Calling for "justice and safety" for women and children to introduce regressive policies cannot be entertained any further. We need politicians that want to protect women, not just bash whichever minority of the moment is unpopular. Transgender people are entitled to safety like everyone else. The Government, opposition parties and Irish society must stop bargaining with those who demand otherwise. (Continued in next image) Alt text part 4: Ten years on from the Gender Recognition Act, we must reflect on the pain we have caused by valuing politeness over the lives, well-being and future of a small section of Irish people. By allowing this hatred to go unchecked, we open the door for more and more groups to be targeted, until they finally target you or your loved ones. I don't want a public apology when I'm 70-I want to live freely, openly, and without fear. now.
February 17, 2025 at 11:38 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
Hey, do you like moss? Here is some moss!
A bit of upright rock wall completely covered in wet moss. There are a few different kinds of moss, in different shapes and shades of green, ranging from light/bright to deep green and even a tiny bit of bit of pale pink and gold. Some are sort of rounded and spikey-looking, while others look a bit more like the leaves on ferns and cedar trees. The moss is really thick - you could stick your hand in and kind of grab onto it. The moss is framed by bits of clover and other leaves around it.
February 16, 2025 at 10:18 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
@thebigeogh.bsky.social wins at Valentine's Day. I mean look at this card
A card with a photo of Luigi the United Health CEO assassin, shirtless in the woods. Next to him is a big pink heart, with text that reads: "Are you a CEO? Coz I'd like to take you out."
February 14, 2025 at 11:01 PM
soozbz.bsky.social
Meme of Principal Skinner from the Simpsons, but altered to be about trees. In panel 1, he holds his chin thoughtfully and asks: "Am out of touch?" Panel 2, he looks up and says: "No it's the trees who are wrong." (The word "children" from the original is scratched out, and replaced with the word "trees.")
February 11, 2025 at 10:21 AM
soozbz.bsky.social
Can someone explain to me why the centre-left parties are so into cops? I'm glad the Soc Dems are calling out the anti-immigrant bullshit in response to yesterday's attack in Stoneybatter, but enough with the garda worship already...

(From this piece: www.rte.ie/news/ireland...)
Screenshot from RTÉ article that says: "Mr Gannon said a more visual presence of gardaí could have prevented such an incident and called on Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan to introduce "a proper policing strategy" for the city centre. "These are highly densely populated areas. They have huge levels of complex needs. What does an actual residential policing strategy look like for the city centre communities? We've been crying out for this, in Dublin 1, Dublin 7, crossing Dublin 2. "We have incredible garda there. We need more of them. What's the plan?" he asked."
February 10, 2025 at 1:16 PM