Tomato!

My first tomato of the year! My, that ripened quickly. Just a few days ago it was barely blushing. Here it is fresh-picked for its trophy photo. There it goes, off to the kitchen. Bye-bye, tomato. Yum.

Coneflowers are buzzing

Coneflowers are buzzing. Buzzing with bumblebees. Buzzing with honeybees. Buzzing with … flies? That doesn’t even look like a syrphid fly. But you know what? There’s lots of coneflowers for everyone.

Readercon and facing the future–not

At the “So, What’s New?” panel at Readercon, Warren Lapine launched a salvo that current science fiction is doing a remarkably poor job of dealing with the future. As Paolo Balcigalupi said, SF set in the future needs to at least tip its hat to global warming. There’s story after story after story in global […]

Can it be?

Just because the honeybees are in the hostas doesn’t mean I believe. Just because some weeds are taller than the pear trees (not showing you that one) doesn’t mean I believe. Just because there’s more raspberries than ever doesn’t mean I believe. Even a breeze that promises thunder (can’t show you that either) doesn’t mean […]

Readercon Characters

I supposed I was primed to enjoy this year’s Readercon because I found the very first panel so interesting. The official title was “The Origin of Character in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,” and James Patrick Kelly led off with a quick precis of Julian Jaynes’s thesis that ancient people had a divided mind […]

Readercon and reviewing

Charles Brown always seemed like yet another éminence grise you get used to seeing every year at Readercon. No more. He gave us Locus Magazine and made sure it would keep going. Then he died on the way home from the con. All I can do is offer my respect and admiration.

Re: Just Before Recess

I still need to take a recess after Readercon, which makes me think of “Just Before Recess“, by James Van Pelt. Parker kept a sun in his desk.

Readercon: the recovery begins

Readercon was fun, but when all is said and done, it’s good to see the sun. I came home with my head buzzing, full of all sorts of ambitions of establishing my own place in the metaphorical sun, to find a yard full of bees, weeds, and red raspberries dropping off into my hand. The […]

Eric the half-a-garlic

The trouble with growing root crops is you can’t see what’s under the ground. The cool part of growing root crops is that things are happening underground unseen. Last fall, I pushed a half dozen garlic cloves into the soil. They sprouted and waved their stalks in the air. Then a couple days ago, I […]

Compost Happens

Every true blue organic believer is going to tell you that a steady supply of compost is the one best thing you can do for your soil. Soil too sandy? Compost. Soil too heavy? Compost. Not enough earthworms? Compost. And it’s all true. Compost even apologized to the hazelnut and mulberry trees I abused and […]