Nightshade. A diary.

[VelveteenCat]

A new beginning ...

Around eighteen months ago I moved to a deserted island, determined to find a home away from home and make new connections. I gathered the most lovely animals to build a community on that island called ‘Dollsgrave’, and for a while, we enjoyed ourselves, each other’s company and our beautiful little paradise. However, as much as I grew to love my new animal friends and the place we called home, I rushed things. Like, really, really rushed things. The experience became mostly about materialism and while I certainly love to surround myself with beautiful things, I feel like I missed out on many experiences along the way. So even though it pains me, I came to the conclusion that it would be best to say goodbye to my beloved animals and start over.

Part of me feels bad for not staying just a little bit longer and helping to make Dollsgrave into the kind of dream it could have been, but for the best possible start in my new home I decided that this is the perfect season to start anew.

So alongside this new chapter in my life, it is time for a new diary:

The diary of Nightshade!

It has been an eventful first day. I left Dollsgrave in such a hurry that I forgot to dye my hair my hair lost its natural ruby shine and in the spirit of truly starting over from scratch, I left all of my beautiful clothes behind (huge regret).

At least I was able to fix that dreadful living situation that involved a tent by charming the real estate guy into giving me a loan so I could move into a dilapidated shack modest little house. Needless to say, this will take some getting used to since I also left my exquisite furniture behind (another regret).

So here I am, looking my worst and feeling a little – well, I don’t know. I miss my old neighbours. The new ones, Flo and Boots, seem alright, but I feel no attachment to them.

Nightshade itself seems like a nice, quite place, but so far there is nothing special about it. It is plain, but perhaps it has potential?

So what is the plan?

First of all, I want to get to know Flo and Boots and hopefully form a connection. This time around, I really want to focus on socialising with all of my neighbours, even those just passing through.

I have already gone out and invited some other animals to live with us, and that part was actually quite uplifting. I told myself to not be too snobby picky and visited four of the countless small islands surrounding Nightshade. While there was an eagle on the first one and eagles are a little scary to me (she seemed sweet though), on the other three I met animals I would have invited even if I hadn’t told myself to not be picky. I will introduce them once they have arrived, but I’m very excited for them to move in so we can get to know each other.

Besides the social aspect, of course I want Nightshade to turn into something beautiful.

I already took the first crucial step by planting red roses, hoping to soon breed my first black one that will make me feel right at home.

While online shopping will be inevitable for making my vision come true, this time I want to take things one day at a time. No rushing, just nurturing.

I want to grow my own fruit and crops and give farm life a try for a little while.

On Dollsgrave, I appreciated anything fine and fancy with a hint of morbid. My vision for Nightshade is ultimately the same, but getting there will be a process so that any lush garden or beautiful park will really feel like an accomplishment.
We are not there yet, and it will take a while until we will even come close to realizing that vision. I hope to enjoy that journey.

I want to close this first entry with these two pictures I snapped of both Flo and Boots taking solitary sunset strolls and pausing to look out into the ocean:

I wonder what kinds of lives they left behind?
Are they contemplating whether their choice to come here was the right one?

Maybe one day in a distant future I will show them these pictures and we will reminiscent about our early days on Nightshade and how it changed over time.

 

[Sara?]

Really like your Sentiment, looking forward to hearing more from your islands development

 

[VelveteenCat]

2nd entry

In terms of progress, everything here on Nightshade is quite splendid considering the short amount of time we have been here..

I “helped” (a.k.a. did all the work) with setting up the living quarters for our three future residents who will hopefully arrive shortly. I am terribly sorry for cramping all of their houses together in one tiny spot, but I’m planning ahead and that way it will be the most cost efficient once I finally get free reign regarding island design. (Which I will as soon as the real estate guy realizes my genius.)

The rivers on Nightshade are simply dreadful, they make it impossible to arrange the buildings in pleasant ways and look quite clunky and chunky. I already told the real estate guy that I have experience with waterscaping from living on Dollsgrave, but he said that we are lacking permits to do anything. Even roads can’t be put down!

I tried to make the best of the situation and started designing an entrance anyway:

This is most certainly not my colour scheme, but it’s charming nonetheless – in a very basic, very lacking way. I can work with that.

Flo also seems to enjoy this little setup, which is important since this is her home, too, and her feelings matter.

(Isn’t she so cute? I’m still not feeling the kind of connection to either her or Boots that I felt to my previous little animal friends, but that’s not their fault – both of them are perfectly lovely.)

The location of the airport and plaza actually call for a quaint little town as the heart of the island. I’m thinking of a neighbourhood compiled of dark alleys and solitary streetlamps and perhaps a huge bonfire in the community centre near the plaza. Maybe even a tiny canal going through the residential area?
The possibilities are endless!

I already made an attempt of making the plaza look at least a little nicer:

However, starting to play around with ideas for design made me realize how different from Dollsgrave Nightshade really is.
The plaza is too close to the airport to do something really grand with the entrance and that does make me sad, but on the other hand, I don’t want Nightshade to be nothing but a rehash of Dollsgrave. It’s meant to be its own thing and I did deliberately pick an island with a layout very different from what I’m used to.

I guess I’m still a little homesick. Hopefully that will change once the paperwork is done and I can get to realizing all of my ideas.

On a brighter note, we have a shop now! It’s lacking (just like pretty much anything here), but it’s a start.

(Yes, my hair is still dull and I do look like I hate fashion [the T-shirt says ‘Hallo’ which – so I tell myself – was actually meant to say ‘Halloween’, but the overworked yet underpaid designer couldn’t fit it all]. And yes again, I do have a swollen face. Because I’m doing a lot of manual labour and wasps attack me frequently.)

I’m still committed to the idea of giving farm life a shot, even the tulips around the plaza are set up in a very mindful way: I intend to crossbreed them in order to get black ones. Initially I had thought I was done with those since back on Dollsgrave I realized that their beauty doesn’t even come close to that of black roses, but this isn’t Dollsgrave and it will take a while until we even have enough black roses to decorate the island with. So in the meantime, especially while I’m indulging in a more simple lifestyle, black tulips shall be suitable.

Besides that, the pumpkins I planted right after arriving here are coming in nicely. Sadly I can’t seem to recall any of the DIY ideas I once had for them which I really, really hope will change as the month goes on. After all, the reason why I chose to leave Dollgrave as rashly as I did, was so that I could utilize all of the unique ideas for pumpkins that one can only come up with in October.

So all things considered, I think life on Nightshade is alright. I know I have to stop comparing it to Dollsgrave and I will get there, but it is also important to feel one’s feelings in order to process them.

 

[VelveteenCat]

3rd entry

Today I feel much better. Less homesick, more driven. A few little things might have helped lifting my spirit – first of all, I managed to find enough clothes to create a black outfit (except for the shoes, but those don’t count.)

Here I am, looking vibrant among my very own flowers and pumpkins:

It is a little cold for short shorts this time a year, but better cold than … I wanna say ‘unfashionable’, but let’s keep it real and rather call it ‘even less fashionable.’
I also finally got my hands on some hair dye.
This new emotional high is also very good for my hair as it seems to bring back its natural ruby shimmer.
Since this picture was taken, I have relocated the flowers and planted more because I’m a busy little farmer lady.

Seeing all of the colourful bugs sitting on blossoms, hearing the wind rustle in the leaves and the whisper of the ocean … It’s all of those things that I had begun to entirely disregard on my previous island. Even though the early days of Nightshade are not as mesmerizing as the early days on Dollsgrave were, a certain feeling has at least to some degree returned and I know that moving was the right choice.

I’m excited when a balloon with a present attached floats by. Entering the shop first thing in the morning gives me a feeling of anticipation. I fish.
Last night a scene very reminiscent of my early days on Dollsgrave unfolded:

I probably did more fishing that one night than within the whole last year. And during these peaceful hours, I even remembered some of the nice things one can do with pumpkins:

• Spooky chair
• Spooky table
• Spooky scarecrow
• Spooky tree
• Spooky fence

This morning, Boots even gave me a recipe for how to make a Spooky trick lamp which is entirely new to me.

Speaking of Boots, him and Flo have upgraded their tents to houses and our first new neighbour moved in:

Isn’t he adorable?
Back on Dollsgrave, long before I even knew what the animals I could encounter would be like or even how the island would develop, I considered having someone like him around.

I hope that we will soon become a real community. Especially Flo seems to share that sentiment and is proving to be quite proactive – she even acquired some décor and ask me to put it up for her:

Well, I mean, sure … I had to remind myself that just yesterday I wrote into this very diary that her feelings matter, so I put these benches somewhere she would surely see them (which is incidently right next to my house). I plan to get rid of them as soon as we have the permits for terraforming; I’m sure that once Flo sees me realizing my vision, she will agree that it is much better than whatever she had in mind when she bought this garish piece of plastic furniture.

By the way, turns out Flo really enjoys singing which is absolutely lovely!
Being here with her and Boots made me think of my very first neighbours back on Dollsgrave, a pig named Kevin who, just like Boots, talked about working out a lot while never actually doing it, and a squirrel named Hazel, who wasn’t very much like Flo at all. I thought that Hazel looked very unique and interesting and wanted to be her friend so badly, but she constantly made me feel like she was annoyed by my advances. Flo, on the other hand, is an absolute sweetheart and always kind.

I currently don’t have much to say about Boots since he spent the whole day in his house, which makes me wonder if perhaps he is a little shy?

As for my vision of Nightshade, I realized that I was spoiled rotten with how amazing all of the essentials were on Dollsgrave, especially the location of both plaza and airport. In my experience, animals who believe to be in charge because they waste away in a town hall (and are in reality not in charge at all) like to establish their imaginary power by not being willing to bargain when it comes to changing the location of the plaza, so what we got is what we’ll have regarding that issue.

So that alone makes Nightshade a bit of a challenge, however, my ideas are plenty and I can’t wait to get started!
I guess once we got all of the permits necessary, there won’t be too much time to just scribble away in this diary, but that’s alright. I mostly need it to deal with the transition from one place to the other, and I pledge that from now on, I won’t compare Nightshade to Dollsgrave anymore.

 

[VelveteenCat]

4th entry

I want to keep this entry relatively short since there isn’t much to reflect upon right now.

Today was a hard day in terms of farming.
My first batch of pumpkins was ready to be harvested, but sadly only one of the little plants bore white fruits. Of course I would have liked to craft many décor items right away, but farming seems to be a game of patience and planning ahead, so I planted a good number of my orange pumpkins and all three white ones in order to grow more. In the end I only had enough to craft two different kinds of lamps which I won’t even be able to customize until next harvest. O well.

I learnt that this seems to be a particularly good time to get into agriculture, so that is convenient. I also learnt that one has to wait at least two weeks to acquire the permits for terraforming, which is the opposite of convenient – it hasn’t even been a week since I’m here and I’m realizing that being patient isn’t my strong suit.

Besides all that, this pretty lady moved in today:

Her name is Piper and part of me thinks that she could perhaps be someone who would fit in here permanently, but I don’t really want to think about that yet. Instead, I would rather admire Piper’s exquisite taste in fashion – black lace! I’m sure we’ll get along splendidly.

Last night I took this gorgeous shot of Flo seemingly enjoying the sea breeze under the moonlight:

I guess these wide, open spaces are the one nice thing about not being able to change Nightshade up to my desires.

This morning, I found Flo resting on a bale of hay:

Is it just me or is she utterly adorable?
It almost seems like she is my personal little ray starshine in this difficult phase of dealing with regrets about moving islands. (I want to stop missing my old friends, but I can’t and the task of starting over seems huge, especially since I can’t really do anything at the moment.)

Our new neighbour Stitches has finished unpacking his stuff and was out and about the island today. He tested out the heinous plastic seats Flo has blessed us with and didn’t seem all too sure about them either:

I thought that he would want to sit down next to Boots in the plaza, but he did not.

Feeling sorry for Boots – he does indeed seem a little shy –, I decided to pay him some company instead.

I’ve obviously lost another battle against pesky wasps. And I’m wearing a bathing suit. Why? Because I had just taken an autumnal swim in the ocean!

The water is very cold, but once one gets used to it, swimming is a delight and the view of the sunset all the better.

 

[VelveteenCat]

5th entry

As busy as I am taking care of my pumpkins and flowers in the morning, once all the chores are done, days are going by slowly. It’s especially prevalent during the sleepless hours of night – there’s only so much fishing one can enjoy.

The other night, while I was lost in my thoughts and ideas and unable to act upon any of my countless whims, I decided to do some online shopping for plants because plants always lift my spirit and it is in the name of Nightshade that our island is meant to be a lush oasis of plant life. So while I was browsing the web, shopping and also looking up places of similar constitution and history as my own home, it hit me: What we need is a symbol!

And so I decided to buy a bell to become part of our history.

Obviously there is the minor tiny issue (if one would even call it that) that I’m a avaricious crow who will heap and hoard anything that is shiny, which is why instead of one bell, I bought three. In my defence though, I really wanted them the community of Nightshade will be enriched by every single one.

The first one that stroke my fancy used to belong to a community on the mainland, far enough from the sea so that the village’s inhabitants didn’t know the first thing about fishing or sailing and focussed solely on farm work and craftsmanship.

Apparently the village originally consisted of only three families, but it slowly grew and the father of one particularly unlucky girl who was meant to marry the village chief gave the bell as a part of the dowry. It only rang for tragic occasions such as disease striking, someone passing or marriage (which apparently wasn’t considered joyous in this time and place.)
Over the decades, the village grew into a town, and when that town made an alliance with another, a new bell was gifted to replace the old one.

It seems to me as if the old bell never really had a chance of becoming something great – like it was never appreciated. I want to provide it with a new beginning here on Nightshade, simply because I think it is far too beautiful to be melted down.

The second bell also used to belong to a tiny village, but that one was located near the sea which is why over the years, the copper has been tainted by sea salt.

The chime of this bell used to mean that a storm was approaching or that someone was lost at sea. There are also old tales about a lighthouse keeper who rang it excessively because he thought that the ghosts of the drowned were seeking refuge in the lighthouse. He vanished, probably into the ocean.

Over the years, the water level increased and eventually the village had to be relocated for it was about to be swallowed by the sea. That’s why this bell was for sale, and I found its history quite intriguing. I plan to keep it close to the shore, and if someone ever gets lost out there, it shall be rung again.

The third and last bell that I bought has no history at all. It is a blank slate, commissioned for the sole purpose of being ours; sharing and witnissing Nightshade's history.

It is located near the airport to be the first thing that greets visitors upon them first stepping foot onto the island.

The fencing I did around that area will most likely be permanent. As stated before, due to space issues I’m limited with what I can do near the island’s entrance and I think that I have worked out a good way to utilize it to its full capacity.

I’m trying really hard to be productive here, but the fact that we still don’t have permits for landscaping is a nightmare!

I put up some Halloween décor where I hope to eventually build a bustling town square, and it looks, well, like Halloween décor.

I’m not too fond of all that orange, but I keep telling myself that it is at least appropriate for the season.

Since all I can do is think about what I want instead of actually getting it done, my mind often arrives at the question of what kinds of animals I could see as permanent residents here on Nightshade and I have quite a few ideas.

Speaking of residents, I haven’t put our newest member of the community into this diary yet:

This is Skye, a quiet and lovely wolf.

Like myself, she seems to regard Flo as her emotional support penguin, relentlessly following her around.

I have stated before that Flo likes to sing, and my heart melted when I realized that Skye likes to dance – here they are, one of them serenading into the night, while the other one seems to deeply enjoy every single note:

Meanwhile, Piper seemed utterly unimpressed by the scene and just wanted to get some sweeping done:

(She always seems to have a somewhat angry look upon her face, but apparently that is just her neutral expression. Personally, I appreciate women not always trying to look carefree and approachable.)

I do like Boots and Stitches, but Flo, Skye and Piper are the ones currently making my time here on Nightshade worthwhile. I hope to soon be able to repay the favour by making our home beautiful, but in the meantime, I appreciate that friendships seem to form between the animals.

 

[VelveteenCat]

6th entry

Finally some good news: Sweeter times are ahead! If everything goes according to plan, amazing things are about to happen.

First of all, and I don't want to give too much away, tomorrow someone dear to me is scheduled to move to the island (my hand is shaking while writing this line).
Secondly, a boutique will open very soon and last but certainly not least, tomorrow should also be the day we will at last receive the highly anticipated permits!

Not having full freedom when it comes to expressing my creative whims is simply dreadful and makes me never want to move islands again.

I wish I could claim to feel fully at home here on Nightshade, but so far all I have is a head full of ideas, a storage full of pumpkins, two measly black tulips, one even measlier black rose and far too much time on my hands.

I lied to Flo because I couldn’t bear breaking her heart, so now she thinks I enjoy being called ‘motor’. Motor! Seriously? Those are the moments I’m convinced that as much as I like Flo, there are levels on which we will never connect. Then again, she also gifted me the most wonderful hat and a dress that may not be my favourite colour, but is lovely nonetheless.

I also underwent a bit of a makeover and got myself a new hair colour which I like quite a bit – of course I do, because that is my favourite colour.

Here I am, wearing Flo’s gifts while wishing upon shooting stars by the bell I have dubbed ‘bell of Nightshade village’:

(The other bells are the ‘bell of Nightshade town’ and the ‘bell of Nighshade shore’. Obviously there is neither a town nor a village on this island, but we do, in fact, have a shore.)

Despite my feeling of a lack of progress, Nightshade is indeed growing.
We recently had a tourist who enjoyed his stay so much he decided to move in.

Interestingly enough, I think he could fit right in and yet I would have probably never approached him, so I’m curious to see how he will partake in our community.

I also met an anteater on one of the nearby deserted islands, and since anteaters’ fluffy tails make it impossible for me to think straight, I invited her to move in, as well.

She only arrived yesterday and took the day to settle in, but I ran into her a couple of times today and she seems quite lovely.
The issue is, that it is her birthday tomorrow and I have no idea what to give her. Sure, fruit is always an option, but this could be the only birthday she will spend here and I would like for it to be a bit more memorable.
She could most definitely use some style advice, but we don’t have a boutique on this island – yet.

I can’t wait to go dress shopping again!

As of now, I spend a lot of time on the internet, buying whatever isn’t available on Nightshade, and I also did some networking.

I figured that I do not have the patience to keep travelling to those little islands, hoping to find animals fitting for our community, and therefor I reached out to possible candidaties online, which is how today, an old friend of mine came to move in.

Well, ‘friend’ is probably too big of a word. Agnes is an acquaintance at best, but I hope to change that.
I know her from Dollsgrave where she resided for a little bit, but we never really connected, and she seemed unhappy. Perhaps Nightshade is a better fit for her?
Time has passed, we both have grown, I think it is reasonable to want to give this relationship another try.
After all, I did always admire her beauty.

And speaking of old friends and rekindled relationships …
No, I shouldn’t. I want to write it down so that I can read it; so that it feels real, but I’m terrified of jinxing it.
All I’m going to say right now is that I can hardly wait for that special someone who will hopefully arrive tomorrow and whose presence may finally make me feel at home here.

So instead of reminiscing about what once was and what could be again, I will just close this entry with a picture of Piper bathing under the moonlight by the bell of Nightshade town:

 

[VelveteenCat]

7th entry - part 1/2

She really came.

Annalisa, my dearest friend from Dollsgrave.

I expected a whirlwind of emotions, but right now, I feel empty inside. All I seem to be able to do is cry, and I don’t know if those are tears of joy or sadness or relief or something else entirely. Maybe it’s the void that’s crying.

The only thing that is clear is that we are not the same. There is distance now. Our friendship ended the moment I overhastily boarded a plane and abandoned Dollsgrave without saying good-bye. I abandoned my home and my friends without a word and I fully understand that Annalisa doesn’t trust me anymore. Regardless, she came.

When I reached out, I was terrified. I expected her to be angry and I didn’t want to hear all of the things I thought she wanted to say to me; things that I very well deserved to hear, but she never did get angry and I don’t think she ever will – she worked through it, all by herself, and now I don’t matter enough to get angry at.

But again, she came!

I want to grab her and yell at her: ‘Why do you let others treat you like that!?’, and I also want to hug her but I can’t do any of that because that would be inappropriate.

I have to fix this. I will fix this, we will be friends again!

 

[VelveteenCat]

7th entry - part 2/2

It is late in the evening now and I’m calmer than this morning. Well, as calm as one can be after such an eventful day.
I decided to give Annalisa some space to settle in, which wasn’t hard to do considering my incredibly long to-do list.

We got the permits and I could finally begin beautifying our island!

I have made quite a bit of progress already. The most hateful part of Nightshade has always been the tiny little space where I have crammed all of our houses together, but soon I hope to find the proper living spaces for both myself and my lovely animal friends.

Today I worked mostly on what I soon hope to be Nightshade town, designing lots with Piper and Zell in mind and also planning where our business ventures should go.
If everything goes right, the shop should already be moved to the right space by tomorrow.

Of course I also worked on my personal passion project, our island entrance:

It seems like I am indeed committed to that Halloween theme for now. It saddens me that I won’t be able to help my neighbours decorate their yards since by the time that we will all own our very own personal yards Halloween will long be over, but I am continuously working on the town square which will probably be an infinite work in progress.

Agnes seems to enjoy what I have come up with so far.

Besides my old best friend moving in and the beginning of Nightshade's beautification, there was also the affair of Snooty’s birthday today.

Her gift turned out to be even more tricky than I had anticipated.
I had been to her house one time very briefly, so I had a vague idea of what she might like, and with that in mind, I bought her a beautiful paper parasol. However, when I tried to wrap it this morning, I realized that that was an impossible endeavour. Panicking, I ran to the store, hoping to find something else, but of course everything they had seemed dreadfully tacky. There was a teddy bear of decent quality, but that did not strike me as a fitting gift for our birthday girl.
Doing my morning rounds, still frantically trying to come up with an emergency plan, I stumbled upon a lantern I had set outside and pretty much forgotten about. It was absolutely perfect, I could see it as part of Snooty’s interior already! So I picked it up, cleaned off some stains the outdoors had marked it with, and wrapped it in the paper that I had specially bought for the occasion. Feeling good about myself, I made my way to Snooty’s home, where I was welcomed by her and Piper and … a lantern identical to the one I had brought as a present! So without a word, I ran outside, slamming the door behind me. I know it was terribly rude, but I panicked.
On my way back to the store, I ran into Skye, which was the perfect chance to get rid of any evidence of me making the grave mistake of choosing an unsuitable gift. I handed her the carefully wrapped lantern, mumbling something along the lines of: ‘Gift … For you, Skye’, and forced a smile.
In the moment I did not consider that she has been here much longer than Snooty and chances are she passed by this cursed lantern several hundred times. It also doesn’t go with her décor at all, but I guess that was just another item of my ever-growing list of hastily choices I end up questioning. At least she pretended to be happy.
Long story short, I bought the teddy bear and I think Snooty hated it. We ended up having somewhat of a good time, but in the future I really need to step up my gift-giving-game.

 

[VelveteenCat]

8th entry - part 1/2

Well, hello, we have a boutique now and guess who looks stunning?!

My dearest diary, I was right! Nightshade has become a much more glowing, radiant place and while I’m certain that the fact that I can finally transform it into my vision plays a huge part in that, my former/ future best friend being here makes every little light in the night shine so much brighter.

Annalisa being willing to reconnect makes me think that I might just work up the courage to reach out to a few more old friends down the line, but for now, Nightshade has enough residents – we want it stay exclusive, after all.

The last person to move in for now was another anteater I met online.

His name is Antonio, he seems to be somewhat of a pretty boy and I applaud his choice of wallpaper.

Since Nightshade being fully populated for the very first time is a special occasion worthy of being remembered, I convinced my lovely neighbours to take our first group portrait.

For the most part, I’m happy with what our little community has become, although I am not yet sure about Zell. I know that I wrote down in here that I was wondering whether he could possibly be a permanent addition to Nightshade, but I’m not sure if we really click that well …

Take a look in the mirror, you f He seems like a bit of a nitwit.

Now Agnes on the other hand – I’m very glad I invited her. Her and I may have not connected back on Dollsgrave, but within the short time she has spent here, she has already become an essential part of the Nightshade community.

The other day I met her brushing up on her chess skills -

- but all that contemplating tired her out.

Poor thing fell asleep on the spot.

 

[VelveteenCat]

8th entry - part 2/2

Looking through my photos from the last few days, I’m either playing favourites (which I actually wanted to avoid), or there are always the same few faces out and about.
Snooty and Annalisa seem to be getting along splendidly:

(Who could resist snapping a quick photo of these two fluffies?!)

Don’t overlook Agnes punching Antonio’s equipment in the background.
Actually, Agnes and Snooty also seem to enjoy spending time together.
Here they are on a stroll through Nightshade town:

(We have the plaza to the left and the boutique to the right.)

And I think that my Annalisa is starting to like me again

She is just the most precious little darling. The other night I paid her a very late visit and found her frantically dusting her house.

I suppose we all have our own ways for dealing with insomnia.
(Luckily this is a personal diary; I don't think that Annalisa would appreciate a picture of herself in her night wear being out there.)

I took this lovely picture of Snooty just moments before rain started to pour:

And this scenic shot of Antonio makes me wonder what is going through his mind –

is he just admiring the detail on this splendid piece of art or is he aspiring to one day have a body as defined as that of the statue?
I sure hope he won't fall into the trap of unrealistic beauty ideals.

Piper always seems to know how to frame herself in order to look good in any photo.

(When this picture was taken, the area was by no means finished which is why it looks so bare.)

Piper is a bit of a special one. Since she’s been here, she has asked me to help her settle fights she’s had with Boots, Agnes, Boots again, Skye (how can one even get in a fight with Skye?), Annalisa (again – how?) and probably a few others I have lost track of. Whenever someone else came to confide in me after an altercation, Piper was most definitely involved. So when I see her contemplating something these days, I don’t even ask if there’s something wrong anymore. Instead, I ask right away: “Whom have you angered?”, and so far I have never been wrong that that was what’s going on.
Seriously though, is it even possible to stay angry at this?