I’ve been fascinated with bonsai for as long as I can remember, along with my affection for orchids, and horticulture in general. Unlike the orchids (looking around at my office window at my happy plants there) I’ve never been able to keep a bonsai alive. Too scattered, insufficient time, and too many moves where there… Read More Bonsai of the Soul
Phiddipus audax, the Bold Jumping Spider, on a Prickly Pear pad. He was doing a threat display for me as I leaned in to take his portrait. The audacity of the wee beast! To take on a human thousands of times his size! You have to respect the unflagging courage of it. It’s no wonder… Read More Inimitable Spider
A friend and I were talking, and she was telling me her planned technique for wrangling a young steer. Farmgirl is using a variant on the Johnson method for horsebreaking, at least as I understand it, to get the steer used to her being on the end of the line, and in time and with… Read More You can’t tell a horse
It’s funny, the little things that parenting entails. I was talking to the Little Man the other day, about when he really was my little man. “I used to make airplane noises to get you to eat.” I told him. “Really?” He’s sitting next to me in the car, and out of the corner of… Read More Mae Ploy
And it’s out now, in paper and cool flowable ebook format! Get your copy today and you won’t regret it. Perfect for the young friends who like their entertainment a little spooky and a bit silly. One Hungry Werewolf: and Other Monstrous Rhymes Poems by Jimmie Bise Jr. and illustrations by Cedar Sanderson. When… Read More New Release: One Hungry Werewolf and Other Monstrous Rhymes!
Nope, it’s not even close to an antique book. As a matter of fact, this may be the third copy I’ve owned of this particular book and it’s original copyright is… (checks in extant copy) 1988. However, in the criteria of a book adding more to the world than could possibly have been measured… Read More Bibliophilia: The Essential Calvin and Hobbes
One of the benefits of having been a military brat is having been there, done that. I was chatting with a colleague about the vagaries of military life, and assuring her that it had done me no harm to move while I was young. She is waiting for her husband’s first orders, packing house,… Read More Scorpions and Cherries
The First Reader and I were talking about ponies. I don’t recall how it came up, but we were sitting on the porch sipping coffee and blathering about nothing and everything, as you do. Now, I grew up with horses. Mom loved the big brutes, and I think I was six when she got… Read More Pony Memories
This morning as I was sitting here looking up a recipe for crystallized violets I was thinking about the way children grow. I should elucidate. The Jr Mad Scientist is turning 18 in a few short weeks. For her sixth birthday, I believe, I decorated her birthday cake with violets from the garden. That… Read More Violets in a Storm
No, not me. Yes, I’m planning on doing grad school. But that’s another time, another post… this is about my baby who just started highschool. He was sitting on my bed last night while I was working on paying bills and sorting paperwork, and he was talking excitedly to me about the extra credit his… Read More Back to School
August is trembling on the brink of existence, and with it comes the end of summer. The Little Man goes to high school, the Junior Mad Scientist is already planning her curriculum for her senior year of homeschool, and the Ginja Ninja is working like a fiend to save up and move out. The First… Read More Parenting is Hard
This is something a little different for me. Fans of my Book Lists know that usually I’m all about the printed word, on paper or electronic. My personal preference is to read, since most audio fiction makes me feel like I’m drowning in molasses. I just read too quickly to listen to fiction in audio.… Read More Fairy Tales Around the World: An Audiobook List