Laura Castañón
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lacastanon.bsky.social
Laura Castañón
@lacastanon.bsky.social
410 followers 180 following 110 posts
Freelance science writer. Likely hanging with dogs, building a skull collection, playing ttrpgs, or messing about in boats.
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lacastanon.bsky.social
So I put together some decorations that he can add. Victorian death mask meets Mr Potato Head
Five realistic plaster faces, now sporting felt mustaches and beards, a couple pairs of glasses and colorful googly eyes. The situation has changed, but perhaps not for the better.
January 5, 2025 at 5:49 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
My friends do a gift exchange where all presents must be a craft that you have never tried before. I drew my 3yo nephew, and decided to make plaster masks of the adults he lives with.
Five white plaster faces on a wooden board. The noses are all slightly smashed because they were made by shoving people's faces into kinetic sand and then pouring plaster of Paris into the imprint
January 5, 2025 at 5:41 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
This little pine survived at the edge of the burn line. Somebody added decorations a thank you note to everyone that helped fight the fires.
A Charlie-Brown-Christmas-looking scraggly little pine tree, with vibrant green needles, untouched at the edge of an area where the ground is ashen and most of the trees are burn marked at the bottom. Someone has added a red garland, several red ornaments, and stuck a couple 2-foot plastic candy canes in the ground. There's a laminated thank you note tied to the tree.
December 3, 2024 at 9:38 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
These trails were closed after the fire, because of concerns about trees falling after their roots burned, but I'm glad to see they're open again
Blackened roots sticking out of a trail. There are some patches of lighter colored ground that the fire seems to have missed View looking horizontally through the ash-filled trunk of a tree at more forest. Golden light shines through the gap and through trees on the other side.
December 3, 2024 at 9:29 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
It's rained several times since this fire, but everything still smelled like smoke
A pine tree that is still standing, but badly charred from the roots to about 8 feet up. It's surrounded by other singed trees, some fallen logs, and black ashy ground. A deer's hoof print pushed into black ash, with burnt trees in the background
December 3, 2024 at 9:20 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Took some photos hiking through the section of the blue hills that burned a few weeks ago

#bluehills #wildfire #boston
A coil of fire hose left on a rock in the woods. One end has a metal nozzle, the other end has been burnt through View looking up 20 feet of a burnt-out tree. The bark is still holding about 3/4 of the structure, but the inside is cleared out and charred
December 3, 2024 at 9:13 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Was about to click on a perfectly targeted "suggested for you" on Instagram... then realized that I wrote the article 😂
Screenshot of an Instagram ad for a Nautilus magazine article called A Mink Tale. Has a picture of a very cute mink (dark brown fuzzy head with a white snout) with a quote over it: "We [killed off the sea mink] only 150 years ago, and it's been pretty much forgotten in that time. People forget so quickly what we've lost."
December 2, 2024 at 10:06 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Prepping for #SciWri24 at Dorothea Dix park
View from a hammock in a grove of pine trees at 7am. There are several other hammocks slung between posts among the trees.
November 8, 2024 at 12:48 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
A theater in Cambridge was selling off a bunch of their old costume stock. Turns out Ishmael and I have the same taste (and size) in henleys
Close up of a stitched-in tag from the American Repertory Theater on a cream-colored henley shirt. It reads "Show: Moby Dick. Role: Ishmael. Actor: Manik Choksi."
October 20, 2024 at 11:43 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Perfect wind, perfect seas, AND the northern lights last night
Night sky over the ocean with a with a bit of land in the distance. The sky is bright red and purple high up, streaking down the wavy green bands. The whole photo is a little blurry because holding a phone steady at sea is hard. Looking up the mast of a sailboat at the northern lights. The triangle of the sail pokes up towards swirly greens with a bit of red and purple. Also a little blurry because of the ocean and unsteady hands.
October 11, 2024 at 1:36 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Finally caught Becket's trill on video. 😂 What even is this dog??
September 24, 2024 at 1:05 AM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Hahvest moon on the hahbah #Boston #HarvestMoon
A silhouetted man standing on the bow of a sailboat in the dark, pointing at the full moon. The trail of light reflecting off the water is nice, but there are WAY better moon pictures out there.
September 18, 2024 at 7:58 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Probably the same one that joined us for drinks a few weeks back! I'd get the skunk's side of the story - things probably aren't as black and white as they seem... 😁
A skunk sniffing for crumbs under an empty cafe table on a brick patio at night
September 15, 2024 at 9:46 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Someone stayed up too late hunting rats in the tomato plants
A mini schnauzer sleeping upside down in an armchair with a blue blanket. Her head is hanging off the front edge like she's melting. A photo of a tomato garden in the dark. A flashlight beam is spotlighting a small, gray-brown rat perched in the tomato branches. The annoyed gardener has drawn a red circle on the image to highlight the adorable garden menace.
September 5, 2024 at 4:45 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
When you use the same email address for your mandolin music and your science writing...
Screenshot of a Gmail search for an Irish tune called Last Night's Fun. Gmail has suggested searching "last night's fungal communities" and "last night's fungal"
March 16, 2024 at 2:11 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Big day for bones in Boston. (Probably struck by the Needham line commuter rail)
Most of a deer skeleton, surrounded by tufts of fur, in the middle of a trail running through a grassy area by a train track. A curious schnauzer in a coat is sneaking closer, despite the fact that the photographer was definitely yelling "stay!" and "don't you dare!" A second, better behaved black dog is still sitting politely, but definitely considering trying to grab a leg.
January 4, 2024 at 10:02 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Guess who has two thumbs and is allowed to captain 100-ton boats again?
A merchant mariner credential, which basically looks like a bright red US passport book, on top of an envelope from the coast guard.
December 8, 2023 at 1:53 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Finished my coyote skull! This fella was hit by a train and was in so many pieces.
Side view of assembled coyote skull. Lots of cracks where all the pieces have been glued together, but it looks like a complete skull! Shattered pieces of a coyote skull, all clean and white, laid out on a foam board. Only easily recognizable pieces are the two halves of the lower jaw and the teeth, currently arranged by size and shape.
October 27, 2023 at 3:09 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Helped these tiny dinos get clear of some golf carts and towards the local pond! Baby snapping turtles are the cutest. 🥰
A baby snapping turtle crawling in dirt past blades of grass. There's no useful sense of scale, but he's not much bigger than a quarter. Also he has a giant head and I love him. A different baby snapping turtle, held by the shell between two human fingers. One of his tiny turtle feet is pushing on the top of the person's thumb. This turtle has more dirt on him and seems grumpy about the whole situation.
October 17, 2023 at 2:52 AM
lacastanon.bsky.social
New skull, who dis
(probably a black-backed gull or a herring gull)
A bleached white gull skull held up by a piece of copper wire attached to a small wooden block. The beak is slightly ajar and just the TINIEST bit off-kilter, but I'm hoping nobody will notice.
September 28, 2023 at 3:16 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Did some pirate poetry last night 🏴‍☠️
A woman in a tricorne (pirate) hat on a small black stage, pointing and scowling at the audience. This was not a Comedysportz show, but there is a ComedySportz Boston sign hanging on the upstage wall.
September 27, 2023 at 2:38 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
Making progress on coyote skull reassembly!
Partially assembled pieces of a shattered coyote skull. The two halves of the lower jaw have most of the teeth glued in, the snout has been put together up to the eye sockets, and some pieces of the brain case have been glued into a half-dome with partial zygomatic arches.
September 25, 2023 at 5:49 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
I'm trying to reassemble the skull of a coyote that was struck and killed by a local train this past winter. Turns out that does a lot more damage than I originally thought!
Dozens of pieces of clean, white bone and teeth laid out on some foam. The lower jaws are recognizable, but everything else is basically puzzle pieces.
September 19, 2023 at 10:33 PM
lacastanon.bsky.social
My dog ate a quarter of my favorite old flannel because I left a tomato in the pocket. So we're off to a great start.
A mirror selfie of a woman wearing a blue tank top and a buttoned-up orange flannel over it. The left side of the flannel is missing from the shoulder to halfway down the shirt.
September 14, 2023 at 4:18 PM