Do you know what these are? They are peonies. (This pic is from a year or two ago–this year’s batch hasn’t even leafed out yet.) Do you know what loves peonies? Ants. Ants adore peonies. If you look closely at peony buds, you’ll notice ants crawling over them like travelers over little white globes. …Read More
Amanda Stevens is a terrific writer, and an all-around sweetheart. Those are two great reasons to like her, but a close third is her subject matter: she knows how to thrill with her spooky, suspenseful tales. The Awakening, is her just-out new novel, the latest installment in her Graveyard Queen saga. She tells me it may …Read More
Sometimes I think that without my husband and kids, my non-literary entertainment would probably be limited to book research, playing the piano, watching endless reruns of Poirot, Midsomer Murders, and listening to whatever non-comedic random radio show is playing on Sirius XM’s Radio Classics (and I only have Sirius because it came with …Read More
Today, I looked up from my desk (which I hadn’t left all day) at 6:45 pm, and saw extreme magic outside my window. What does one do when one sees extreme magic? Why you must grab the fancy camera and shoot it. …Read More
Do you feel compelled to finish a book, even if you’re not enjoying it? I used to, but no longer. I got angry with books I didn’t like because I felt that once I started reading, I was committed to reading until the bitter end. Talk about pressure–pressure on myself, and pressure on the poor …Read More
There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about. –Helen Frankenthaler In describing this piece, Gen said that the figures are a man and a woman, but do not represent any particular country or race. Our …Read More
Lots of critter stories this week, and the dress search continues… Cancer-sniffing dogs are so amazing: a study with a 100% accuracy rate. Literature by the Numbers: No surprise that James Patterson is an overachiever when it comes to clichés, and James Joyce loved exclamation points. Fun with lit statistics. If you attach …Read More
Time for a bit of a ramble: Sometimes I think I got a double dose of the Mom Gene. Or maybe it’s that touch of co-dependency that I’ve been working so hard to divest–but I feel compelled to get up and see my 17 year-old off to school each morning. As an ADHD mom with …Read More
Around here, we had winter back in November, spring last week, a brief reappearance of winter over the weekend, and summer on Monday. I’m not sure where that leaves us here at the end of March. But I do know that chili season is quickly slipping away. At least until next November, anyway. It’s not …Read More
I can’t grow an orchid to save my life. A good friend sent me one a couple of years ago, and I kept it alive for six months. At least it gave every sign of being alive. In the seventh month, it started looking a bit petrified. Plus the cat thought it was a …Read More