Weed patrol: Mullein

This is a rosette of Common Mullein, just before I dug it up.

Re: The Trade of Queens

Just as I suspected, the first 2010 book I read was The Trade of Queens, by Charles Stross. I picked it up expecting a quick, trashy read. What I didn’t expect was just how trashy it would be.

Bookreading Bookkeeping

Well, I’ve read (all but one of) the books on my reading lists, but they were so interesting, it’s going to take me a while to sort out my notes. So that’s enough non-fiction for a while. It’s time to read more fictionlike, say, maybe the Hugo nominees. Which means my 2009 list just got […]

Blueberry blossoms (say that three times fast)

The blueberries aren’t as easy to see as the fruit trees, being lowbush berries, but they’re picking up the pace of flowering. Lots of little white blossoms hanging close to the ground. Here we are, little miner bees, here we are!

Re: The Voyage of the Beagle

It took the Beagle five years to sail around the world, and it only took me just over one year for me to get through Darwin’s book about it, The Voyage of the Beagle. It’s basically a travelogue with forays inland to describe the various geologies and curious animals, in short the 19th century equivalent […]

Re: Genesis Illustrated

The Book of Genesis, illustrated by Robert Crumb by R. Crumb has got to be the most repetitive title I’ve ever seen, almost as repetitive as the “begats” Crumb had to tackle when he decided to illustrate the full text of Genesis. When I heard about this book, I was intrigued because R. Crumb is […]

So much for orchid flowers

My moth orchid does not do multitasking. It will send up a flower stem. It will send up a new leaf. But not both.

Armies of bulbs

The bulbs are massing into sweeps of color. From this angle, it looks like the blue grape hyacinth are planning to go after the tulips. And that daffodil might get caught in the middle. But standing there what I really noticed was the sweet, soapy scent of lots and lots of flowers. Okay, bees. Come […]

Pear blossoms

The pear trees are in flower, too ,though not as extragantly as the plum tree. I like how they hold up white clusters to the sky. That means all my fruit trees are in flower.

Weed patrol: Bittersweet nightshade

Spring is entering the “Holy Crap look how fast everything is coming up” phase. As in, all of a sudden, there’s a huge vining tangle of Bittersweet nightshade up on the hill. Well, it’s a much smaller clump now, and I’ll be back to pull up more.