Beetlings, March 30 - April 6 (Patreon)

Like last time, here's progress of my little beet seedlings, culled from my Instagram account <3

I'm doing this a little differently, though. Patreon has a bad habit of eating my posts, especially if they are image heavy-- which this one will be. I've already lost the first draft of it once today! LOL. So I'm gunna post this with just a couple photos, and then edit in the newer ones a few at a time. Keep hittin' refresh to see what new wonders get added!

March 30th, Day 14

🎶 I WANT TO BREAK FREEEEE 🎶

Such a handsome little dirt chapeau.

The lovers and their audience.

Man, day 15 and these two are STILL trapped together through that seed casing. Matt wants to pull it off, like a lose tooth, but I’ve forbidden him because I believe in my little beetlings and know they can handle this on their own. If we do everything for them now, they’ll never learn how to be competent adults who can take care of themselves when they’re out in the world on their own. I’m teaching them a valuable life lesson. It’ll put hair on their chests. They’ll thank me when they’re older U_U

🌱⛓🌱

March 31, Day 15

Awkward angle of The Lovers and their bondage seed casing.

April 1, Day 16

My battle with the craning-towards-the-window sunshine lean has made me seriously consider installing some plant-friendly overhead lights to encourage my next batch of little sproutlings to grow up straight. Straight, as in a ruler. Obviously, I respect whatever personal identity and/or sexual orientations my beetlings feel is true to them 🙌

My poor little lovers, still trying to break free from each other on day 16. I feel like it could be any day now. WILL KEEP U POSTED.

Daily portrait of the lovers. It’s been fun (and regularly frustrating) learning how to use color pencils. Mad respect to Melanie Gillman, this documentation process has given me an even deeper appreciation of how you create the illustrations that you do. Like. How. How do you build up such rich colors and have them all work together like you do???? Amazing.

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April 2, Day 17

Matt and me as our beetsonas.

The lovers are really struggling to stand upright, I keep having to push extra dirt and little pebbles up against their base to keep them from completely flopping over. If I were a benevolent god to my little beetlings, I would remove that infernal seed casing that’s joining them, but... I really wanna see how this plays out naturally??? This must be what legit deities feel when they’re looking down on earth and seeing all the pain and hardship they could resolve with one simple prodding of their divine fingers, but instead they’re like “....BUT I WANNA SEE HOW HOW MY LITTLE PEOPLINGS FIGURE IT OUT ON THEIR OWN. This is so interesting!”

April 3, Day 18

Monsieur Dirt Chapeau still has not set down his hat.

In very exciting news: one of the Beetlings has THREE leaves??? This is from one of the pots with a mix of beet seeds, so I don’t know what breed it is. In the future, I’m gunna keep my seed types separated, so I actually know which is which.

Study of the lovers and their attendants that I didn’t have time to finish  :( 

Every day, my goal is to draw my little beetlings and especially The Lovers, but lately... I've been getting such a late start so I don't have time to sketch them before I leave for work and then when I get home the sun is going down and the light in the kitchen just isn't really conducive to accurately recreating what these little guys look like in color pencil. I feel like a neglectful mom. But I do, at least, take these photos every day, so maybe I can cheat and do some drawing catch-up based off those.

Monsieur Dirt Chapeau, still chapeau-ing.

Whoopsie-Doodle

Ok, so somewhere over the course of these photos, I fucked up the dates? I DID take photos every single day, I don't have any gaps! I just... mislabeled the previous pictures somehow. I don't know, man. I CAN say for certain that the following photos were taken today, April 6th, which is the 21st day since the beetlings were planted. 

April 6th, Day 21

BREAKING NEWS: A buncha the beetlings have a little middle leaf developing between their two big main ones!!!! EXCITING TIMES :D :D :D

Little vestigial leaves! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU, LITTLE BEETLINGS.

And, comme toujours, The Lovers are still loving. The very tips of the right one’s leaves have broken through the other side of the seed casing, which is exciting! I tried to take a picture for you, but my phone camera couldn’t focus on it clearly enough.

The growth on these guys in the Michelle and Barrack pots got severely stunted when we transplanted most of their siblings to the outside, which resulted in significant dirt loss in their containers so now they’re all much lower down in them and it takes longer for the sun to creep over the lip of the pot to reach them.

Me too, little beetling. Me too.

I leave you with a parting shot of Monsieur Dirt Chapeau 🌱🎩
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OK THIS IS ACTUALLY THE END NOW.

The End