I changed the soil and the leaves came back up again after pointing downwards for a long time now, but other than that it looks more dead every day. I’m becoming pretty pessimistic.

Then again, it sounds like I would have killed it eventually anyway. I’m not great with plants, and this one sounds like it’s above my level.

That’s a great trick, thanks!

Some people have mentioned elsewhere that this specific plant might have trouble with cold temperatures, so I think I might be a bit careful about giving it ice cubes. But I’ll keep it in mind, and consider trying it if I find myself struggling to hit a good balance!

That’s brilliant, thank you so much!!

I’ll change the soil, take a new cutting for good measure, and buy some bottled water after careful inspection in the local supermarket. The water here is indeed quite hard, and this explanation fits perfectly with how the plant has been behaving - doing really well in the beginning, and then gradually terrible as the soil deteriorated.

I have also moved it to a corner of the brightest room of the appartement. It used to stay in the bedroom, which is probably the darkest place I could have found, and then I would give it direct light in the window sill whenever I wondered if it was not getting enough light. Mistakes mistakes.

Thanks again! I’m feeling mildly optimistic now. :)

It does look like a maranta! And the fact that it stayed alive at my friend’s place despite a lot of neglect would indicate that it shoudn’t be a famously tricky plant. That might give me some more hope, but also makes it even worse that I’m managing to kill it.

I’ll follow the advise given for the calathea then, if they want roughly the same thing. Thank you so much! :)

That’s uplifting!

I guess I’ll have to make more effort to give it less water more frequently to keep some stability in the soil. Probably that’s where I messed up.

I also put it in in a corner of the apartment that’s a bit brighter but with indirect light. Hopefully it’ll do better there.

Thank you!

Oh my - it’s a wonder it ever felt comfortable here in the first place.

Thank you so much! I’ll do what I can, though it’s clearly in Bad shape for entering a season where both heat and sunlight are sin short supply.

No need to apologize!

It’s not an easy question, and it’s something I think it’s good to reflect on. I think it’s fair to say that pornography has a huge impact on society, and one that is not often talked about. One such effect might be that people start seeing nudity and art differently. The public debate seems to be lagging behind, maybe as people find it uncomfortable. The ambiguous category “not safe for work” certainly doesn’t help.

At the end of the day the line of what one is comfortable is drawn on a personal level, yet on a platform such as this it is shared internationally with no centralized authority. It’s not an easy question.

Feel free to elaborate! I’m genuinely curious.

Reasonable people might disagree, but I think hiding art like this behind NSFW tags is an absolutely ridiculous idea brought about by hypocritical censorship policies in mainstream social media.

Public spaces are full of naked statues. Art pieces like the birth of Venus has been accepted into the public space since forever. And now Instagram is shadow banning museums for posting pictures of traditional art? Who exactly are they trying to protect?

At least personally, when I filter NSFW content, it’s to avoid pornography. Not to filter out art that has been accepted in the public space for centuries, if not millennia.

I love this rendition - the finns at her legs are just subtle enough that he would not have seen them when jumping off the boat, but enough that he’s just about now realising that something is seriously wrong.

They look amazing! Good luck keeping them alive and healthy!

The picture appears a bit broken to me, so here it is in case anyone else experiences the same!

That’s an interesting point. I guess the mental trauma soldiers faced on the battlefield didn’t really gain attention before Vietnam, maybe because of the general agreement that their sacrifice was worth it no matter how terrible.

I would love to learn more about all of it. It seems PTSD was not really understood back then, with shell shock being the preferred diagnosis. But what about war zones before shelling? Were they so much less traumatizing? How was PTSD understood before the modern era, and why were we so unprepared for it following the advance of modern warfare?

I don’t care how tacky certain people think it is - I just love paintings of ships at sea.

The light in the water in this one is particularly amazing.

I think that’s mostly food regulations, but I’m not an expert of the field. Might apply more broadly as well.

Yeah, just don’t set up a competing business and you’re fine.

I half expect him to start shouting in a similar fashion to Bureau Chief Gordon Cole in Twin Peaks.