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Usually when people find out what Matt and I do for a living they think we just get to hang out and draw stuff all day. I wish! Life at Boredwalk has a lot of stressful moments whether we're bouncing trolls, managing ads, wrestling with vendor headaches, or trying to fix production SNAFUs — the easy moments around here are mostly few and far between. To regroup our favorite thing to do is spend a few days in the desert. Communing with the cacti and gazing at the stars is our way to reset.

August may seem like a strange time of year to go to Joshua Tree, but we survive the heat with a few essentials, and we'd hate to miss our favorite meteor shower of the year. So what's on our list of must-haves for a successful summertime getaway to the desert?

1. Swimming pool
2. Frozen grapes + Sangria
3. Tons of sunscreen and shades
4. Iced coffee for an afternoon pick-me-up
5. A relaxing playlist that goes with the dreamy landscape once the sun sets and the breezes (and bats!) roll in.

Now we're back and refreshed, working on new designs and even some other exciting new products that we're just putting the finishing touches on!

Even if you missed the meteor shower last weekend, we hope our little playlist will bring a little of that stardust into your day. 

Peace, love, and shooting stars,

Meredith

It’s no secret that we love to chow down here at Boredwalk HQ. Even a cursory scroll through our products shows that we have a deep, abiding love for all things sweet & savory.

 Since August 15th is coming up fast, we couldn’t think of a better topic for this week’s blog post than an early birthday tribute to Julia Child, whose passion for French cuisine in books and on television made her a household name in the U.S. from the early 1960s through the 1990s. Let's dive into some fun facts, shall we?

• Julia didn’t learn how to cook until adulthood. During World War II, Julia joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and initially worked as a typist, but her education & experience led to her becoming a research assistant, eventually helping developers of a shark repellent that was needed to make sure that curious sharks wouldn’t accidentally explode sea mines intended for German U-boats. It’s no soufflé, but it’ll do for your first stab in the kitchen!

• It wasn’t until she met and married her husband Paul Child that Julia took an interest in food and cooking. It was her first meal in Rouen, France that so transfixed her that she enrolled in the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school soon thereafter and continued her studies with private instruction from master chefs. Looks like she could, uh, use a bit more...practice.

• Despite the way that Mastering the Art of French Cooking catapulted her to fame, Julia didn’t actually come up with the idea to write a French cookbook for the American market; it was her friends Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle who were already working on the classic and invited Julia to work with them on it. How do you say "eat my dust, chumps" in French? Ah, yes:

 

• Julia’s actual home kitchen was the set of three of her cooking shows: In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking With Julia, and Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home with Jacques Pépin. It was designed by her husband Paul and built in their Cambridge, Massachusetts home in 1961. We can’t say we’re not a little envious of that much counter space!

 

• Julia has her own rose! Known in the UK as the Absolutely Fabulous rose, the Julia Child rose was bred by Tom Carruth in 2004. The cultivar features a small round bush with glossy, bright green foliage and blooms in clusters of buttery, golden flowers all season long.

Happy birthday, Ms. Child!

That’s it for this week. We have some fun stuff in the works, so be sure to come back next week!

Peace, love, and noms,

Boredwalk

The Venus Fly Trap might be the most iconic of carnivorous plants, but it's certainly not the only plant that kills prey. Let's learn a little more about these badass botanicals in honor of our new Venus Flytrap shirt, shall we?

Besides the Venus Fly Trap, just how many of these carnivorous plants are out there?
OMG, so many — literally hundreds of varieties! There are at least 583 plant species that attract, trap, and kill prey. There are over 300 additional species that share some but not all of these characteristics. Nature is wild, yo!

via GIPHY

Why do they eat the living?
The most probable explanation is that these types of plants evolved in nutrient poor soil, so they evolved to eat mostly insects and arthropods to make up for what their soil lacks.

How exactly do these pernicious plants kill? They're stationary and bugs can move!
There are 5 different trap methodologies that carnivorous plants employ.

• The Venus Flytrap uses a "snap trap" which means its pods snap shut when it detects movement, ensnaring insects inside with no escape route.
• Pitcher plants trap prey in a rolled leaf that contains digestive enzymes.
• Some plants use "flypaper" traps, a sticky mucilage that traps their prey.
• There are also bladder traps, which suck prey with a bladder that generates an internal vacuum.
• Lastly, there are "lobster traps" which force prey to move towards a digestive organ with inward pointing hairs.

Since our badass botanicals don't really have the capacity to chew their food in the traditional sense they usually digest their prey alive with digestive enzymes. Creepy! That said, some of these plants drown their prey in digestive fluids before dissolving them completely.

via GIPHY

If I want to keep one of these plants do I have to feed it flesh?
Not necessarily; a carnivorous plant that catches no insects will rarely die on its own, though the deprivation may impair growth. People most often kill their carnivorous plants with under-watering or watering with tap water, though the second most common cause of death is prodding the Venus Flytrap to watch it open and close, or feeding it inappropriate items, such as bits of hamburger. These plants have a specific diet, so in most cases go bug or go home!

If you're going to keep a carnivorous plant know that they like bright light, nutrient poor soil, and high humidity. You'll also want to be sure to protect them from parasites and mold.

 

So what about the Audrey 2? Is she out there and will she eat my annoying neighbor who listens to world music at 3am?
The Audrey 2 of Little Shop of Horrors fame is a myth (as far as we know) but the largest observed carnivorous plant is the Nepenthes Rajah. This thug of the plant world is native to Borneo and employs a pitcher-like trap to hold water and digestive fluid. This plant has been observed even drowning and eating small vertebrates such as rats, frogs, lizards and birds, though insects are still its most common fare.

 

Tell me something naughty about these plants!
Although the most common name for the Venus Flytrap is "Dionaea muscipula," historically it went by the name of "tipitiwitchet" or "tippity twitchet". This is thought to be a reference to the plant's resemblance to human female genitalia. Georgia O'Keeffe would approve.

Bonus fun fact:

Matt briefly owned a Venus fly trap as a tween, but it didn't end very well for the plant since this was pre-internet and the care instructions it came with were about as wordy as IKEA assembly instructions. While he wasn't poking it incessantly or feeding it human food, he definitely transplanted it into nutrient-rich soil, tried feeding it already-dead flies he'd find around the house, and probably didn't give it as much sunlight as it needed, since he bought it at the tail end of summer right before the days got shorter. Sorry, green buddy!

Peace, love, and tacos,

Boredwalk