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liminalflares.bsky.social
Maika 🏳️‍⚧️
@liminalflares.bsky.social
58 followers 96 following 49 posts
memento mori magpie & liminal shade
PDX-based writer | photographer | narrator | bibliophile
queer | trans | nonbinary | neurospicy | they/xe

creator & narrator of the Liminal Flares podcast
liminalflares.com (currently on hiatus)
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liminalflares.bsky.social
Home is where the cats are.
Our cat is growing positively tyrannical. If she finds herself alone anywhere she emits blood curdling yells until someone comes running. She gets warm milk about eight o'clock at night and starts yelling for it about 7.30. When she gets it she drinks a little, goes off and sits under a chair, and comes and yells all over again for someone to stand beside her while she has another go at the milk. When we have company she looks them over and decides almost instantly if she likes them. If she does she strolls over and plops down on the floor just far away enough to make it a chore to pet her. If she doesn't like them, she sits in the middle of the living room, casts a contemptuous glance around, and proceeds to wash her backside. Raymond Chandler Letter to James Sandoe 23rd September 1948
March 13, 2024 at 4:19 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
To invite an accidental haunting or not invite an accidental haunting...
White street sign with black print posted outside the gates of a cemetery. The sign reads "Wipe your feet! Are you giving ghosts a free ride? When you walk over their graves, the ghosts who reside there can cling to your shoes, then come off later and haunt where they are unwanted. Help protect this fragile boundary between the land of the living and the spirits of the dead — don't accidentally introduce invasive ghosts. Please use ghost brush before leaving the cemetery. Thank you. City of Portland Bureau of Supernatural Containment." Not pictured: boot brush installed at the base of the sign pole.
February 20, 2024 at 3:36 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Spindly, iced-over perch for a noble Northern Flicker.
A lone woodpecker perches in the spindly, topmost branches of a maple tree, whose branches are all completely covered in a thick layer of ice.
January 25, 2024 at 2:49 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”

—John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
A long, slender green rhododendron leaf is partially concealed by a layer of ice that formed as a ghostly duplicate. As the temperature rises, the ice leaf begins to melt, shrinking and pulling away from its green twin.
January 23, 2024 at 2:13 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Work stops when Black Phillip decides the crook of your elbow is his napping place. Blessed be the sleepy demons.

(If thou wouldst like to live deliciously, until nap time is over you'll have to get your own butter.)
A sleek black short-haired kitten rests his head in the tattooed crook of a person's elbow. His eyes are half closed as he drifts off to sleep, because kittens truly can sleep anywhere, demonic kittens doubly so.
January 22, 2024 at 8:39 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Mossicle giving me Southern Reach Trilogy vibes. Winter has come to Area X.
Clusters of moss and lichen growing along a woody vine are covered in layers of ice. The fluffy, feathery textures of the moss and lichen caused the ice to form in bulbous shapes with an irregular scaly texture, giving the appearance of a translucent green alien organism.
January 21, 2024 at 9:21 PM
liminalflares.bsky.social
When there's a queue for the peanuts... because if you can't have a peanut, at least you can safely taunt a cat.
A short-haired cat crouches at a large window, attentively watching four fluffy-tailed grey squirrels vying for access to a circular metal coil of peanuts hanging overhead. One of the squirrels is directly opposite the cat on the other side of the window, because if you can't have a peanut, at least you can safely taunt a cat.
January 20, 2024 at 11:39 PM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Blessed be the witches' weeds.
Close-up of the tightly whorled end of a purple Datura flower. Tonight the spiral will unfurl to reveal one intensely fragrant devil's trumpet nested within another.
September 24, 2023 at 9:49 PM
liminalflares.bsky.social
The rain has finally returned to Portland and the bumble bees are decidedly damp.
A fuzzy, very damp bumble bee taking shelter from the rain on the pink and white petals of a large dahlia flower.
August 31, 2023 at 9:32 PM
liminalflares.bsky.social
In better news, I'm delighted with the shiny new pin I received today. ​🏳️‍⚧️ Matching t-shirt not pictured, but equally pleasing. Pleasing, that is, excepting that statements such as this so urgently need to be made in the first place.
A pin with white and pink letters that reads "Leave Trans Kids Alone You Absolute Freaks" pinned to the outside pocket of a black leather satchel. Heed the pin.
August 19, 2023 at 12:43 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
This is Merricat. She has a heart between two of her toes and a serious crush on Neville. I'm sorry today is so horrible. I hope tomorrow is kinder to you. 🖤
A fluffy, long-haired grey and white cat is stretched out on her belly on the back of an upholstered chair. She's sandwiched between the back cushion of the chair and a curio cabinet. Her front legs extend out in front of her with both paws hanging down over the side of the chair. Her back legs and floofy tail stick out behind her, making her appear much longer than she actually is. And her little pink tongue is partially sticking out as she looks up at us. Merricat, too, is over this summer heat, thank you very much. Close-up photo of a cat's exceedingly soft snow-white front paws, one of which has a heart-shaped patch a dark grey fur between two toes. Two impressively floofy cats lounging together on the corner of a bed, one in front of the other. Neville, the cat in the foreground, is doing his best to be patient about sharing space with another cat. While behind him Merricat is trying to contain her excitement at getting to sit so close to her favourite kitty friend.
August 15, 2023 at 2:30 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Pneuma has the right idea for an entirely too-hot day. Alas, I cannot contort myself to lounge as elegantly as he does, but I can certainly keep very, very still, wondering crossly why aestivation isn't an option for humans.
Photo of a pale ball python lounging inside his enclosure on and wrapped around a crooked piece of sandblasted grapevine. Together the snake and the wood appear to form an embellished ampersand. If the snake is aware of this cleverness, he's not telling.
August 14, 2023 at 1:18 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Today in small garden spooder doings: I found these three juvenile bold jumping spiders, Phidippus audax, each tiny cutie hanging out in their own dahlia petal palace. I wonder if they're siblings...
Photo of a tiny jumping spider perched on the edge of a pink and white dahlia petal, surrounded by a sea of petals that look like cresting waves. The spider is upside-down, peering down into the heart of the flower. From this angle the markings on their abdomen look like a cartoonish grinning face. Photo of a tiny, dark jumping spider carefully perched on the vertical edge of a snowy white dahlia petal. With their back to us, the spider appears to be gazing off into the distance like one would do at a scenic viewpoint. In fact, these flamelike petals are so much larger than the spider, they are perfect scenic outlook points for creatures this small. Photo of a tiny jumping spider crouching deep inside the voluminous layers of a pale pink dahlia. They peer out at us with large, shiny black eyes. It's an incomprehensibly big world and they are a very small spooder.
August 12, 2023 at 2:39 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
For all the exasperating and infuriating aspects of the internet, I cherish those moments when someone pipes up with a very specific hot take that makes me feel seen.
Screenshot of two text posts that read "Hell is when book covers get redesigned with the actors of the show/movie that was made based on it." and "stop saying there are exceptions to this post there are literally no exceptions!!!"
August 8, 2023 at 12:32 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Few things are as purely pleasing as a new stack of book friends. 📚
Photo of a horizontal stack of books - Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, White Walls: Collected Stories by Tatyana Tolstaya, Harrow by Joy Williams, Future Feeling by Joss Lake, Never Say You Can't Survive by Charlie Jane Anders, and Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
August 6, 2023 at 10:56 PM
liminalflares.bsky.social
A little love from Merricat for anyone who needs it.
Close-up photo of a heart-shaped patch of dark grey fur between two toes on a cat's otherwise white front paw. The paw is exceedingly soft, as is the rest of the cat. Photo of a long-haired grey and white cat lounging on a bed with her front paws resting possessively on the back of her person's heavily tattooed right hand. She has a heart-shaped patch of grey fur between two toes on one of her otherwise white front paws, and a look on her face that says "this calm, sweet moment may suddenly turn violent at my mercurial whim."
August 6, 2023 at 1:47 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Today in small spooder doings: Salticus scenicus, a juvenile zebra jumping spider, regarding the world from a dahlia petal.
A tiny, stripy jumping spider perches on the tip of a pink and white dahlia petal.
August 4, 2023 at 8:28 PM
liminalflares.bsky.social
Today in itsy-bitsy, incy-wincy spooder doings: I'm beginning to spot Araneus diadematus spiderlings in the garden. By autumn, surviving females will be grand gravid beauties in magnificent orb webs. Right now, while they're so small and translucent, I'd swear they're made of at least 50% sunlight.
Photo of a very small, translucent orange and gold spiderling perched on the tip of a pale green clematis leaf. Photo of a very small, translucent orange and gold spiderling making their way from the top of a pale green clematis leaf to the underside of the leaf, possibly in annoyance with the spider paparazzi, too large for them to comprehend, but vexing all the same.
August 2, 2023 at 2:03 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
For the first time ever, a post about astrology that makes me feel seen. Same reason why, though I can't change it officially, I chose a birthday that feels meaningful and worth celebrating (the date I legally changed my name & gender marker) instead of what always felt randomly assigned and hollow.
Screenshot of text that reads: Asking a trans person if they like astrology is so fucking funny. Like "hey do you like arbitrary categories that people are sorted into because of the circumstances of their birth?" I'm not sure I do, no.
July 31, 2023 at 11:18 PM
liminalflares.bsky.social
For all the aspects of summer that I dislike, that disagree with my brain, it's also Misumena vatia season. While I understand how these spiders find their blooms (mostly by scent), that they locate & take up residence inside flowers—like tiny, 8-legged, predatory Thumbelinas—feels like magic to me.
A small white spider balances on the delicate edge of a pink and white dahlia petal, one of many petals that make up the large flower that serves as her personal, many-chambered palace. The spider's four elegant front legs are much longer than her back four. She uses them to catch prey, but right now she holds them out on either side of her, appearing to use them the way an acrobat uses a balance pole.
July 31, 2023 at 3:38 AM
liminalflares.bsky.social
“I can't help it when people are frightened," says Barbie. "I always want to frighten them more.”

—Shirley Greta Jackson-Gerwig, We Have Always Lived in the Barbie Castle
Sreenshot text reads - My name is Barbie. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Skipper. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Skipper, and Kenneth Carson, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.
July 30, 2023 at 11:01 PM