more NaNo-babble

[lesyeuxverts]

Eeep! It's winter already ... I need a hat, and possibly to give in and switch to my winter coat. I'm such a baby. :(

I've discovered a new character in my NaNo ... Anoinette's ex-bf, he's the occultist. I like him rather a lot already.





So, these are the leaves I was talking about. I'm clearly not a botanist but they look rather like the pic of locust leaves that Mord showed me. Are they from a locust? Who ever knew that tree identification was so confusing?

Also, how long does it take for a human body (female) to decompose? I assume it makes a difference if she had been buried in a coffin/buried in the earth/left in the river (where she drowned)? ...I know it's a really weird question, and I do not need gruesome details, just a general time scale, i.e. years/decades/centuries.



*snuggles you all, because y'all are fabulous*

Comments

On Decomposition

[r_grayjoy.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, it depends upon the manner of burial, and particularly, the type of environment.

In a river? Probably a matter of days -- fish and critters would munch away all the moist bits rather quickly.

In a really wet environment? Probably also a matter of days. The bones would take a little longer, but would still degrade pretty quickly. (There's a reason we don't find fossils in tropical environments...)

In a modern coffin/cemetery? Years. Centuries. Those things are sealed so tight, the bodies are prone to great preservation and mummification, even.

Give me more specific details about the type of burial and the environment, and to what extent you mean when you say "decompose", and I can probably give you a more precise answer.

[fleurdeliser.insanejournal.com]

*hugs*

I have no idea about any of it, but I adore you.

[gin_tonic.insanejournal.com]

You have a murder in your story? :O *jealous* Sadly enough I have no clue about decomposing. XD
I fear my whole story sucks. Okay, not the whole, but the last few thousand words. Not that I'm going to delete them. I am still 15,000 words away from the goal, still don't know what to write.
One of the characters is too nice and normal, but I don't want to make him a control freak (which would kinda fit), because he's with another character, who just deserves a good and nice boyfriend.
Waaaah.

[svartalfur.insanejournal.com]

Decomposition: After three or four weeks the skin will skip off like a glove.

Decomposition in drowning victims:

The rate of decomposition is slower than if the person died on land.

Water temperature is the most important factor.

The first sign of decomposition is green discoloration of the skin.

As decomposition advances, gas is formed, increasing the buoyancy of the body, which will then begin to resurface (often after seven to fourteen days).

After resurfacing, the body will usually float, belly up.

Decomposition and putrefaction proceed at a rate determined by the water temperature. Cold and swiftly moving water preserves bodies; whereas heavy clothing and stagnant water hastens the rate of decomposition. Cold water retards rigor.

See here (http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:II0-UZs9nAcJ:www.moval.edu/faculty/simmermanj/homicide/chapter_13.htm+decompose+drowned+body&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1), but be aware that there's an image of an ugly eye on that page.

[angela_snape.insanejournal.com]

I forgot about locust! That looks like the locust from my parents' backyard. Does your tree make big bean pods that dry out & rattle in the autumn?

[jennfic.insanejournal.com]

Those really look like the tree that we always called a honey locust. Are there great honking thorns on the larger branches? If so, then it's a thorny locust. Black locusts are the ones with the big noisy seed pods.

Huh. upon further investigation (here (http://www.oplin.org/tree/)), I discover that they're all the same species, but some subspecies have the thorns and seedpod bred out of them. Learn something new every day....

But then, this site (http://www.fw.vt.edu/dendro/forsite/key/compound.htm) says that black locust and honey locust are entirely different trees.

Whatever. You've got a locust.

[snapesgirl_62.insanejournal.com]

honey locust

Kentucky Coffee

Black locust

ash

and more Germanic last names:
Esch
Yoder
Hostettler
Gott
Tressler
Mueller
Schmidt