April Gardner
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slignot.bsky.social
April Gardner
@slignot.bsky.social
350 followers 520 following 1.6K posts
Proudly intolerant of intolerance. Formless terror in service of the Old Ones here to doom mankind.

Queer ace she/her
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slignot.bsky.social
Finished up the hanging pot kitty today, and got the next project set up.
Embroidery project in a round hoop. A black cat lays over the top of a hanging basket with trailing plants. There are different green foliage in a leaf stitch with a handful of red flowers, as well as a tight cluster of blue green colonial knots. A new embroidery project in a round hoop. There is a blue lined pattern in the shape of a seated cat made of flowers and leaves.
November 21, 2025 at 9:55 PM
slignot.bsky.social
The next one I put in the hoop is a kitty in a hanging plant.
A printed blue lined embroidery pattern shows a cat laying across a hanging plant. There is a green thread with some initial stem stitching started.
November 16, 2025 at 12:14 AM
slignot.bsky.social
Finished last stitches on the first embroidery project. I still need to take it out of the hoop, soak out the blue printed pattern, and put it in a more decorative display hip. We picked up some light green fleecey cotton to back each of them once they're done too.
A completed embroidery kit on cream fabric. It has two kitties (a tuxedo and grey colored one) snuggled up side by side below a hanging basket with trailing multicolored leaves.
November 16, 2025 at 12:11 AM
slignot.bsky.social
My spouse surprised me this week with cute little Lego planters, which I assembled on my lunch break.

It helps cheer up a grey cubicle to have tiny friends nearby.
Two small Lego anthropomorphic smiling planters holding hands. The one on the left is blue, and sitting down with its legs out front, and has a round leaf plant. The right one is yellow, and stands upright. It has a spiky plant. A further back picture of the Lego planters next to a white board and pinned watercolor picture on the cubicle wall. The small whiteboard has a sketched dry erase drawing of Grosvenor Arch in southern Utah. The watercolor is an autumnal scene of a fountain at Salt Lake's City and County Building.
November 12, 2025 at 8:06 PM
slignot.bsky.social
Tas is unsure about how to play with Koro. She's big and can be kind of clumsy so he gets a little nervous when they're chasing and she's really excited.

Koro has tried instead to get him to play tug by offering her very favorite rope toys and he looks at her confused.
A picture of the tiny Tasslehoff on top of the back of the couch looking at Koro the brown and white pibble. She has turned her head away from the camera, having just dropped a very beloved rope you she had been offering to Tas.
October 19, 2025 at 3:20 AM
slignot.bsky.social
Been having a wonderful weekend getting to know our new rescue pup, Tasslehoff.

He's so tiny compared to our pibble Koro, and wonderfully cuddly. He's a real joy.
A very small mixed breed dog we've named Tasslehoff. (I think chihuahua and dachshund mix.) He looks up at the camera. He's wearing a jean jacket, and has brown and white fur. The small mixed breed dog described in the last image lays on a couch throw pillow has just stopped nibbling on a stuffed fox toy. His little folded over ears are held up curiously. The little brown and white dog in his jean jacket throws side eye from a perch on top of a quilted blanket on the top edge of the couch. The tiny dog's brown nose and snout peek out from beneath a fuzzy blanket as he was dozing on a bright and multicolored knitted dog bed.
October 19, 2025 at 2:55 AM
slignot.bsky.social
This fellow passenger on my train has just made my day.
A very rotund fawn and white Chihuahua sitting in the bottom basket of a scooter in a light rail car.
September 10, 2025 at 11:04 PM
slignot.bsky.social
My Beaky is middle aged for her species (nanday conure), deeply clownish, incredibly spoiled, and has been an incredible companion to me for almost two decades.
A medium sided parrot is sleeping perched in a man's shirt front. She is mostly green with a black topped head, which is turned backwards nestled into her shoulder. A bright green parrot with slightly darker green wing tops standing stretched out on a bathroom towel bar. Her head and curved beak are black, the tips of her flight feathers and tail are blue, and she has a cuff of orange feathers around her ankles. Bright green and black parrot holding food in her left foot. She's perched on a play gym covered in bright colored toys. A medium, green, blue, and black parrot perched on the top screen of a laptop, seen in profile. A man with long hair and glasses can be seen behind her in the background.
September 10, 2025 at 2:05 AM
slignot.bsky.social
Made a blackberry and peach frangipane galette last night with fresh berries and (preserved) peaches from my garden. I love being able to grow my own desserts.
A plate with a slice of a fruit and frangipane galette topped with whipped cream and a couple fresh blackberries. Tea in a blue and white patterned straight side cup sits behind the plate.
July 18, 2025 at 4:15 PM
slignot.bsky.social
I love that the chickens want to hang out near us whenever we're outside. They've opened their eyes here because I got near with the phone, but it was so cute that they settled down to nap along the patio fence next to me this morning.
Three chickens behind a short wire fence. Two of them have laid down and gotten sleepy, while the one on the right is still standing, looking down at her feet.
July 11, 2025 at 10:13 PM
slignot.bsky.social
Had a very frustrating stretch of hunting for leaks or broken connections in the drip zone that covers the hanging pots, finally resolving to buy split this circuit (which had previously worked fine), and THEN.

FOUND A LINK IN GARDEN HOSE I HAD WALKED PAST THREE TIMES.*sigh*
Hanging pot under a stained wooden pergola filled with a fuschia trailing petunias and lime green sweet potato vines. Hanging pot with two contrasting colors of trailing petunias, striped yellow and white, and purple with white centers. Hanging pot with bright almost salmon pink trailing petunias and purple sweet potato vines.
July 5, 2025 at 7:36 PM
slignot.bsky.social
Enjoying the break in high temps by relaxing in my backyard hammock as my girls scratch and chatter nearby (hoping for more treats).

It's always soothing to relax in the green. Also there are happy little finches darting between the birdbath and trees.
The girls. Three chickens standing in a patch of clover. The closest very round chicken is a light silvery grey, with the next chicken behind her a smoky dark grey. Those two hens have their heads down as they peck at the ground. At the far back, with her head at alert is a black and white smaller hen. She has very short wattles and a flat rose comb. The same three hens, but all upright looking at the camera.
July 4, 2025 at 3:06 PM
slignot.bsky.social
I'm so glad he's still around. I knew he'd be an old man by now, and it makes me so happy you've had so much time with him.

It's been a while since we lost our old girl, and even longer since the fluffy boy's cancer. I still miss them both. (Luckily Koro is here to cuddle when I feel sad.)
Koro, a brown and white pibble laying in the grass with a dandelion flower on her head. She's wearing a green banana. Two dogs in the backseat of a car, with the fluffy Atrus sitting perpendicular and slightly on top of the (mostly) white dog, Midna. A rear view of two dogs in sweaters, laying on a bed side by side. The white dog on the left is a perky eared mix, with a larger brown and white pibble on the right. Atrus, a fluffy corgi mix breed dog smiles as he has his paw on a dragon stuffed toy.
June 30, 2025 at 9:29 PM
slignot.bsky.social
It's finally cooling off enough to enjoy a meal on the back patio. Made my first fresh peach pie of the year, and am relaxing with a shandy as my spouse finishes dinner. (He's cooking the first small harvest of new potatoes I grew too.)

For now I'll kick back in the hammock and enjoy the yard.
A peach pie with four vents and a sparkly crust of demerara sugar on top sits on a patio table with a stylized floral tablecloth pattern. Also on the table is a heavy glass with a deep blue rim holding a blackberry sour shandy, and a cluster of three small pots with parsley growing in them.
June 30, 2025 at 3:05 AM
slignot.bsky.social
Just back from my local city's (very 1st) Pride. (Usually everything is in Salt Lake)

It was lovely, with an incredible drag number by local drag king and amazing trans activist Notta Genda: Bob Ross painting on their belly!

Ran out of a few types of pins when giving pins and stickers away.
Big tote bag covered in rows of pride pins and with some stickers coming out of a pocket and tucked between pins. This side of the bag has rows completely out of rainbow and trans pins, but with vertical rows of round flag pins for: lesbian, bisexual, intersex, agender, asexual, and aromantic. The left pocket has a roll of worm stickers in pride stripes, and there is a hodgepodge of pride flag wielding kitty stickers tucked around. The other side of the bag with another collection of pins. Again, the rainbow flag pins went quickly, but there are round pins for: pansexual, demisexual, polysexual, omnisexual, polyamory, gay (MLM), genderfluid, bigender, genderqueer, demiboy, demigirl, and nonbinary. A folded rainbow parasol sticks out the top of the bag.
June 29, 2025 at 12:04 AM
slignot.bsky.social
As a lifelong Utah resident, this is 100% accurate. It's a place of remarkable (and highly varied) wild beauty and moments of staggering cruelty.
A view through a yellow and red sandstone arch from the shade. The photo is taken among rounded rock formations in Devil's Garden in Utah's Grand Staircase. A long toed lizard suns itself on a large rock in a seasonal wash channel in Hovenweep National Monument in Utah. A fall landscape along the rocky shore trail of Currant Creek Reservoir in Utah. The aspens have gone golden between dark green firs and pines. A red layered sandstone cliff with sage brush and grasses in the foreground.
June 28, 2025 at 5:50 PM
slignot.bsky.social
In the hopes that pictures of fuzzy creatures offer a good brain chemical hit in absence of being able to hug, have a collection of critters.
A brown and white pibble is getting her head petted as she smooshes her snoot so hard into a person's arm that her nose is wrinkled upwards. A very fluffy dog is laying on his side next to a white dog with a wild expression, showing a lot of the white of his eye. He has pointed foxy little ears and has the white, fawn, and black coloring of a corgi. Two dogs heads peek out as they are cuddling side by side in a fuzzy blanket. A pointy snouted yellow dog has only his face visible and his eyes are mostly closed. A brown and white pibble is laying on top of the blanket with her body alongside the other dog. She is looking side eyed at the camera. A mostly white dog with a blue merle face mask is approaching the camera through dappled shade next to intense purple irises. She has pointed ears, a black nose, and is wearing a red bandana.
June 20, 2025 at 4:05 PM
slignot.bsky.social
Fascism is gaining momentum and destroying the lives of so many people (inside and out of the US). People are dying to civil murder, hate crimes, political assassination, & willful funding of genocide.

I'll be honest, although I know hope is a discipline, grief and impending horror lap at me daily.
Protest sign that borrows from Star Wars Andor. The rainbow letters read "WE HAVE FRIENDS EVERYWHERE" and there is an outline of the Rebel Alliance logo half in pastel pink and blue in the bottom left corner.
June 14, 2025 at 3:27 PM
slignot.bsky.social
After I called Koro up for post-alarm snuggles she put her head on my belly. How am I supposed to get up and get ready for work with this canine paralysis?
A white and silver brown pibble head on a brown blanket, against a botanical patterned blanket over her body.
May 19, 2025 at 1:23 PM
slignot.bsky.social
I'm going to fucking lose it, what even is this? My plants (approaching a week overdue) are just bouncing around California mostly. I was hopeful when it updated saying Reno thinking it was finally heading toward Utah.

But APPARENTLY last night they're now in SACRAMENTO?! WHY?!
USPS shipping history starting on May 7th in San Jose, then San Francisco, then Reno, and finally last night Sacramento. For the record, this shipment was supposed to arrive in Salt Lake on Monday, May 5th.
May 10, 2025 at 1:41 PM
slignot.bsky.social
As I was watering and moving all the still to be planted starts for this year I found a delightful surprise.

Looks like one of the pairs of quail I've been seeing this spring decided to make a nest in the shade of my front yard. Only one egg that I can see so far, but I can't wait for more.
A brown speckled white egg rests in mixed wood chips near a columbine and hellebore.
May 9, 2025 at 5:54 PM
slignot.bsky.social
I remember enjoying others' gardens vicariously too when I lived in an apartment.

The rambling rose in full bloom do put on one impressive show, then are just green for the year. Here they were last year. (The smaller new rose will repeat bloom, going forward though.)
A three quarters view of a rose arbor in full glorious bloom. The rambling rose is a carpet of pink tinted red reaching forward from the back of the arch. A garden chair sits under the castle panel arch. A sideways view of the rose trellis in full bloom. Pink peony flower heads nod into view in from the left side of the garden.
May 2, 2025 at 4:02 AM
slignot.bsky.social
I still feel behind on all my gardening jobs, but I got a lot of started plants in the ground today (mostly in the herb garden). I can't wait for the show the roses on the arch put on, but it's such an exciting time of the garden coming alive in dense green. 🌱
A low to the ground view though thickets of parsley of a garden chair with a wide brimmed hat hung on it. Right behind the chair is an arch planted with roses. One side is more mature and fully covers all of one side the structure, plus the top and a third of the other side. A newer rose on the left side has only grown halfway up the arch, and it is far less full. A further back view of the chair and rose arbor, shrubs and small trees with different leaf textures and colors are layered along the right side of the garden above a bed mulched with wood chips.
May 2, 2025 at 3:17 AM
slignot.bsky.social
It's a rainy day today, but when I can go out in the garden the scent of the lilacs is intoxicating.

Lilacs make me think of growing up at my grandpa's house, which had the most magnificent mature lilac patches.
A cluster of lavender lilac blossoms beginning to bloom. The two upright spikes have fully opened, but smaller sprays at the base are mostly closed.
April 17, 2025 at 4:23 PM
slignot.bsky.social
The fasciation of the daffodils is kind of amazing. I am weirdly excited to find it in plants in my garden, though I've typically found it in annual flowers or crops. It makes sense that it could have affected an original planted bulb which then passed it on as it spread/naturalized.
A fasciated strawberry with a ladybug on its stem. Two flowers grew conjoined and made a double lobed berry. Unripe green strawberries hang on either side. Two very oddly fasciated sunflower balls, one on the right slightly taller and bigger. Orange yellow petals jut out of dark "center" patches with random bits of calyx here and there.
April 5, 2025 at 10:31 PM