Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

@orchidfever.bsky.social I don't know who else to tell but I was in touch with the breeder, Ross Hella at Deerwood Orchids, about my Balding Man paph and he said "On a normally single flowered plant, having an extra flower bud means you must be growing the plant well. Congratulations!" I'm thrilled.

December 4, 2025 at 9:54 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

@orchidfever.bsky.social One last Henry still in bloom, not for long, Balding Man almost completely open, and our mutual friend Purple Splash hanging in there.
Puna’s Greatness and Delenatii and of course Malipoense are in various stages of bud. #orchids #BloomScrolling #flowers

2 slipper orchids, one larger than the other, both with spotted top petals, and a small Dendrobium white flowers with pink/purple centers and petal edges

December 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

I put Santa ornaments in each of the little libraries near me. Maybe someone will be delighted to have them.

Trying to get rid of our old Christmas ornaments but this method would take a while!

Inside of one of those little street libraries on a pole. It’s packed with books and one little Santa ornament carrying gifts and a tree

November 29, 2025 at 2:29 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

@orchidfever.bsky.social Malipoense is showing slight movement: the petals no longer tightly closed. #orchids

A longish fuzzy green bud draping gracefully from a fuzzy green stem mottled with maroon brown

November 26, 2025 at 12:40 AM

Reposted by Nancy Wisser

zunderscore

@zunderscore.tv

Everybody knows there are standard hot dog configurations, especially regionally. Things like the classic ketchup and/or mustard, chili, slaw, Reuben, Chicago, Sonoran, Seattle...

But what's your unhinged hot dog topping combo you swear by? I'm thinking of doing a video series where I try them all.

November 22, 2025 at 10:24 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

Not everyone is enthusiastic about early Christmas decorations.

Brick steps up to an old wooden porch. Little off-white statues, maybe a foot and a half high of a morel mushroom and what looks like a sentient rabbit are on the left edge of the step just down from the porch and next to them is a pumpkin, probably cute and “scary” back at Halloween time but now caving in slightly so its expression makes it look sarcastic or in an argumentative mood.

November 23, 2025 at 10:42 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

If you see this, post your getaway vehicle.

November 22, 2025 at 1:22 AM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

@orchidfever.bsky.social Feeling brave! After blooming for a year nonstop my Chamberlainianum stopped and its 2 new growths weren’t spiking so in a fit of energy this morning I repotted it. Big plant and the pot was all roots. Scary but hoping for the best.

November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM

Reposted by Nancy Wisser

Ashley Schofield is looking for work!🐉

@ashlikeadragon.bsky.social

happy transgender day of remembrance

thank you for sticking around in the hardest of times. if you haven't, you are missed dearly

please live 💜

A screenshot from Celeste. Madeline stands by a memorial dedicated to those who perished on the climb up Celeste Mountain.

November 20, 2025 at 10:57 AM

Reposted by Nancy Wisser

ellen teapot 🇨🇦🏳️‍⚧️

@ellenteapot.ca

if you’re trans, you have to continue being alive

that’s the the rule

November 20, 2025 at 5:56 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

#SilentSunday

#portugal

A misty forest with mossy brick steps made uneven with time curving downward on the right side of the picture. A huge tree with many twisty and curved thick branches that are completely covered with bright green moss and many pale lichens dominates the picture. The camera is even with it about half way up its height and down below are shrubs with bright leaves gleaming with moisture and rocks making an uneven forest floor completely covered with moss. Further back half hidden in the mist are more trees that appear to be similarly old and large. It looks like a scene from a dreamy fantasy but this is a real photo I took at one edge of the Buçaco (Bussaco) forest in Portugal. I wish I had had at least a week to wander in this place that was tended by monks from the 600s to the 1800s then made into a hunting preserve for the Portuguese king. The forest was long considered holy and signs no longer valid still warn that women are forbidden to enter

November 16, 2025 at 2:11 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

Maybe I should stop dying my hair, let it turn gray, diminish and go to the West, etc etc

November 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

@orchidfever.bsky.social Here’s the bud or buds on Paph Balding Man, a cross between P Garibaldi and P Manayunk. No pictures online show 2 to a stem so I’m watching closely! #orchids

Meanwhile Paph Little Man had 2 growths with buds but one has blasted so I’m just hoping the other makes it!

November 13, 2025 at 11:07 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

6 years ago today I stayed in that little town in the picture. I had to leave the next morning but I would have liked to stay a few weeks to hike in those hills and get to know some of the people there. #Portugal is incredible. The town is called Piódão.
#travel

Steep ravines wooded slopes with greener woods on the lower parts (the upper sloped had burned in wildfires a few years before) and nestled toward the bottom among green terraces is a little town of stone houses, schist houses is often the term used but it resembles shale. The town is placed gracefully on the slopes and is often compared to a crèche like people set up at Christmas. A few narrow roads and paths lead to and from it. Above it the upper slopes are splashed with generous patches of warm sun.

November 13, 2025 at 1:01 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

Watch for aurora tonight if you’re in northern North America. It’s strong enough that we could have it here but of course clouds

November 12, 2025 at 1:07 AM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

To balance out all that, here’s ridiculous Bridget in her shaggy orange trousers having a stretch. #cats #CatsOfBlueSky

A cat on her sure, stretching. She is curled so that from the camera’s perspective the back of her shaggy striped orange hind legs is closest and sharpest. Her head is far away and out of focus and between the thick black stripes of her classic tabby markings make her look blotchy, set off cutely by her white paws and neck. Her front legs are stretched toward the camera and two pink toe beans are visible on one paw. It’s a funny perspective on a resting stretching cat but it still seems like this cat is relaxed and content.

November 11, 2025 at 11:35 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

I didn't have to move away in order to live in a foreign country. I just had to wait a few decades.

November 11, 2025 at 10:48 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

The moon, waning gibbous, with Jupiter in the early morning sky. #sky #astronomy #moon #jupiter #planets

Broken clouds against a black sky, lit by the moon a little more than half full. Its light creates a halo in the unevenly thick clouds with just a little golden cast that deepens with distance from the moon. To the lower left of the moon is a bright clear “star” which is actually the planet Jupiter.

November 10, 2025 at 1:33 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

@orchidfever.bsky.social I may be misinterpreting what I’m seeing but it looks like Paph Balding Man is going to have 2 flowers on its stem. Not typical for this kind of complex. Maybe it’s mislabeled? Time will tell.

November 9, 2025 at 4:57 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

The thing to know about #Tumblr

A tweet by tumblr dot com the website that says, We are cringe. But we are free.

November 8, 2025 at 11:41 AM

Reposted by Nancy Wisser

Pittsburgh graffiti

@pghgraffiti.bsky.social

November 6, 2025 at 1:14 PM

Nancy Wisser

@nwisser.bsky.social

Here in #Pennsylvania there was a good outcome to a small town election. I spent parts of a few summers just outside Downingtown, back when the fox hunting groups in full attire would go by with their hounds and horses. Times have changed. #trans
whyy.org/articles/ele...