Totally Poised
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tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Totally Poised
@tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
310 followers 510 following 710 posts
Writer, poet, writing & creativity mentor (there is no one right way, just your own way), mother of shapeshifter, Nazis not welcome, terribly woke lefty, covid is airborne + not over. She/her
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tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Gilbert II joins the contemplations.
A very fluffy ginger cat lies on his back staring at the ceiling. You can only see his top half, and the photo is taken from the side so you can see his profile. His front paws are relaxed, like t-rex arms.
April 26, 2025 at 10:43 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Ummmm… some die, which breaks my heart

But the rest? I pot them up and keep them and then have to remember to water them, I aspire to plant them out in my garden or try to give them away
Many, many plants in pots, ranging from small pots with sticks poking out of them in the foreground to large pots with thriving plants in them in the background. They’re on the ground in dappled shade.
April 17, 2025 at 10:52 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
I love to grow plants from cuttings. Any plant that offers a branch, I’ll stick in water or a pot of soil and see what happens.
Miraculous how most of the time, they grow!
Two sprigs of two different plants poke out the top of a small glass bottle full of water. They’re sitting in front of a window and you can see by the light shining through that they’re growing roots.
April 17, 2025 at 10:31 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Clawde is intrigued by the prospect of catnip tea
In the foreground, a stoneware bowl in grey and green tones has water plus a herb - a couple of sprigs of catnip - floating in the water. The bowl is on a grey stone bench. A small fluffy grey and white cat sits behind the bowl, sniffing appreciatively. You can just see her head above the bench top.
April 7, 2025 at 2:11 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Look at my goth pumpkin!

It’s a compost volunteer, so I don’t know the variety, and they’re small - mini basketball sized.

But I’m in love with the depth and saturation of that colour, my god. They’re almost black.
A photo of a pumpkin on a vine. It’s almost stereotypically pumpkin shaped, round with deep ridges like segments. The whole fruit is an incredibly deep green. So deep green it’s almost black. It’s a huge contrast to the vivid like green leaves of the plant it’s attached to. It’s like a goth pumpkin.
April 3, 2025 at 11:20 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
And here is Clawde, our petite tyrant. She is barely 3kg, but rules over our Maine Coon like she was born to it.
A fluffy grey and white cat is on a golden-upholstered armchair. You can see the top half of her, and her snow white paws are stuck straight out in front of her, and she’s looking vigilant.
March 31, 2025 at 1:58 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
I present to you Gilbert Lightfoot II, our cantankerous & large Maine Coon. He is a one-person cat (adores Himself), all others are inferior.

He is also deathly afraid of being brushed & will fight for his life no matter what we use or try.
A very fluffy ginger & white cat - a Maine Coon - curled up to sleep on the end of a bed that had a cover on it in the same yellow-orange shade as he is. He has his head upside down and one watchful eye open.
March 31, 2025 at 1:54 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Dinner, sorted.
Even if I still need to make pesto with the basil and chop up the fresh tomatoes.
And boil up some pasta. And grate Parmesan.

Ok, there’s still a lot of work to do before the “simple” dinner appears.
A black plastic tray in the foreground with an assortment of different coloured and sizes of tomatoes in it, from yellow and green striped zebra tomatoes to deep reddish purple cherry tomatoes, red and orange striped oval small ones to yellow cherry tomatoes. There are two baskets brimming with basil behind the tray.
March 30, 2025 at 5:54 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
A naturally occurring sculpture that was on the road when I went for my walk one day last week.

I doubled back to take a pic, it was so tiny and lovely.
A photo showing an asphalt road surface, with a small group of stones and leaves that look intentionally placed - they weren’t. Three rocks with leaves sandwiches between them are bracketed by two long thin leaves, one on either side of the rocks.
March 27, 2025 at 1:44 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
No one tells you that when you grow zucchini up a stake, it ends up looking decidedly phallic.
A photo of a zucchini plant, grown up a stake. It’s stem is tied to the stake at intervals and all its bottom leaves are removed. There is one zucchini sticking out at what can only be called “half mast” and looks like a good phallic representation of the phrase “you could have someone’s eye out with that!”
March 27, 2025 at 1:21 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Spot the stick insect!

Its camouflage was so good I almost pruned it just now when I was pruning the quince tree!
A lot of twigs and branches of a quince tree. If you look carefully and know what you’re looking for, you’ll see a brown stick insect hiding on a twig in plain sight.
March 22, 2025 at 6:21 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Went for a walk with company this morning.
These three are firm friends.

They were so pleased to see each other after a long break that their joy caused passers-by to grin widely at their reunion.
Then they settled to the business of walking together, sniffing the snifs & alerting to rabbits.
Three dogs, ahead of the camera, taking their owners for a walk down a gravel path. Left to right, they’re: An almost white golden retriever, a very light brown golden doodle, and a russet coloured golden doodle. You can tell they’re pleased to be walking together, shoulder to shoulder, this morning. They are all wagging their tails in time with their gait.
March 13, 2025 at 11:20 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
We get the same! One week in October is marked as “azalea week” in our calendars, we bring chairs outside to eat dinner & admire the spectacle
A hedge of bright almost neon pink azaleas, with a lawn in front of it. The pink is pretty much all you can see of the bushes.
March 12, 2025 at 9:09 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Post a picture when your pet was little.
A small and fluffy white golden retriever puppy is doing his best to sit on the grass. He’s looking up and smiling at the camera, showing snowy teeth and smiling black eyes. He’s got a harness on and a blue lead. There’s dappled sunshine on him and the grass.
March 11, 2025 at 12:16 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Here’s my Baba, with her signature “eyes closed in photos” look, laughing as she loved to do. Gosh she knew how to have a good time - and she was eternally grateful for peace & for the wonderful life she had in Australia.

She taught me about nazis and fascism. She’d hate what’s going on now.
A black and white photo of my Bab, a Belorussian/Polish/Russian woman. In the photo she’s middle aged and has a bouffant hairdo and 1960s patterned sleeveless dress. She’s laughing, chin down and eyes closed, giving her a double chin and the iconic look of “eyes never open for photos” that she was known for throughout her life. She looks like she’s having a terrific time, and like she thinks she’s the luckiest woman on earth.
March 8, 2025 at 9:54 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
The correct way to eat vegemite toast.
A plate that has a white middle and wide dark blue rim has an oval piece of toast on it. The toast has melted butter and a very sparse scraping of vegemite, a dark brown savoury spread, on it. Toast is cut in half and there is a bite out of one side. It’s the iconic - and correct - way to eat vegemite toast.
March 5, 2025 at 10:07 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Truly hideous.

Have been for a good walk around the block though, and the local Saturday produce cart is in situ!
A hand-built produce cart with a canopy over it and wheels on one end has an assortment of white plastic buckets sitting on it. There are handwritten labels describing produce and prices. One says “lemons, $1 a bag” and another “posies $5”. There are no posies in any buckets. And sign in the foreground is hammered into the ground at an angle and says “flowers for sale” There’s an esky - a cooler in other parts of the world - to the left of the cart that is Bacardi branded and probably has summer produce in it for sale according to another handwritten sign that says “veges for sale beans cucumer zucchini tomatoes.” Spelling is as the sign is written. The sun is shining and the grass of the verge is dry and yellow as it’s late summer in Australia
March 1, 2025 at 12:30 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
I do love my morning walk. This road never fails to make me stop and admire the aspect.
A photo of a road in the countryside. There’s a large dark green hedge on the left, shading the road in a geometric pattern. It stretches into the distance. There’s a sunny bank on the right, with gum trees and plants growing along it. The road is deserted, and curves off to the left in the distance uphill, where it becomes lined with birch trees. The slice of sky visible is bright blue with a few wispy clouds.
February 26, 2025 at 2:33 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Never forget the idiocy of this man.
Two pics of Angus Taylor, a white man with dark hair in a dark suit, made to look like he’s facing himself and shaking hands. The text is from a comment he left on one of his own Twitter posts, and says, “Fantastic. Great move. Well done, Angus.” He obviously forgot to switch to a different account before commenting to boost his own algorithm.
February 18, 2025 at 11:24 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
This menace woke me up 3 times last night for no good reason (his reasons are normally impeccable)

It’s going to be a long day
Gilbert the second, a huge, fluffy ginger tabby Maine Coon cat sits on a shelf of a cat tree, looking to one side. His eyes are huge and almost fully black, ears at attention. He looks like he’s spooked and razzed up.
February 18, 2025 at 10:24 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
And a perfect reply:
A colourful graphic with a hand-drawn quality. It’s titled: infographic: what is a real book? There are two rounded oblongs, one apricot and one green. Where they intersect is brown. The apricot one has the following in it: Hardcover books Paperback books The green one has: E-books Audio books The brown section where they intersect has: Children’s books Young adult books Comic books There’s an extra section on the right hand side that is pink. It has a simple stick figure saying, “Pah! That’s not a real book!” Along the bottom of the graphic is the key for reading the graphic, with small squares with apricot, green, brown and pink. The apricot, green and brown have “real books” written next to them but the pink has “nitwit” Personally, I’d have said “fucker” The graphic is by Tom Gauld.
February 11, 2025 at 9:46 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Any reading is reading. Policies that restrict kids’ choices restrict the possibility that they’ll find *the* book that gets them hooked on books.

And don’t get me started on introducing food judgements at the same time. Fuckers.

*Posted as a stand alone post bc the original didn’t have Alt text
A photo if a notice from a school library. It says: Dessert books: only allowed one at a time, have to have checked out a nutritional book as well Then there’s a list that reads: All graphic novels Captain Underpants Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dork Diaries Drawing books Joke books Bad Kitty Seek and Find books Bad Guys The author of the notice seems to have paid more attention to their petty authoritarian notice than their punctuation, as they opened parentheses after “dessert books” but never closed them. Idiot.
February 11, 2025 at 9:39 PM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
Owwwww!

My ADHD self always has arm scratches & bruises from gardening.
Last time I saw my GP she started asking me questions about my relationship. Gradually dawned on me she was asking DV screening questions.

I was grateful she did, tho I didn’t need them.
Pic of my left forearm, showing some bruises and scratches near the wrist. If you made some assumptions, it could look like self harm or self defence, but they’re from both gardening and being clumsy around hot oven while baking .
February 7, 2025 at 11:45 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
The timeline is exquisite today!
A screenshot of two skeets, one under the other. The first says: “In an Uber en route to the theatre with a spider crab, giant millipede and ball python. Hoping this doesn’t negatively impact my rating. You can have 4 passengers, right? That’s normal.” The one immediately under it says: “None of this is normal” repeatedly down the page. Classic timeline doing its thing.
February 6, 2025 at 2:49 AM
tamaraprotassow.bsky.social
The timeline requires adorable cats.
A large and extremely floofy ginger cat is draped on a bathroom bench and into the sink. He has his back to us, and is drinking from the tap. He is a Maine Coon and loves water.
February 4, 2025 at 11:25 AM