Re: All Flee The Vocab Quiz

So, let’s see. “Shoggoths in Bloom” cast an admiring eye on squamous creatures. “Dark Heaven” offered mystical squamous creatures. Well, actually, neither of them were really squamous even if they were creatures. No, for real squamous horror, you need to go back to a Podcastle miniature form last fall called “All Flee the Vocab Quiz,” […]

Behold the army

Oh, hell. All my earlier optimism about defeating the Black Swallow-wort this year evaporated when I saw this. This is the side of the hill where I haven’t done much digging and uprooting last year or the years before. Sure, the parts where I have been on the offensive are looking pretty good, but it’s […]

Fruits?

Ah, spring! Nothing but a parade of flowers, like these azaleas. And maybe even some fruit.

preFruits?

I was elated to find this teeny white fuzzy buds on the peach. It’s not even as tall as I am, and it set fruit! I never saw which bees did the pollination, but thank you, little bees. And it’s really too early to get excited about a tomato flower, but there’s a tomato flower! […]

Night in the garden

I’m out looking for the cat. It’s late. It’s dark. The world is full of strange sounds, from the occasional crinkle of leaves, to the piping of birds, to half-heard talk and laughter. The cat is nowhere is sight.

Re: Apologies All Around

I’ve discovered another podcast I like, the Drabblecast. It’s a mix of 100 word drabbles and flash fiction. While I work my way through the archives, my first favorite episode is the outstanding “Apologies All Around” by Jeff Soesbe. Winston Sinclair receives an apology from a man who crossed him many years ago–delivered by a […]

Sons of Sue

My guppy named Sue is turning out to be quite beautiful, if I may say so. I love his flowing flaming tail, the rainbow shimmer on his sides, and the blue-white flags of his fins. If you can believe these blurry pictures. Despite my earlier fears, the tank hasn’t filled with baby guppies yet.There’s still […]

Collards in flower

Have you ever bought some bok choy and left it in the fridge while you figured out what to do with it until it opened up bright yellow flowers? That’s why my collard plants did, only six feet tall. Tall, outspread candelabrae of flat yellow flowers just begging for big fat bees. It’s covered in […]

Re: Dark Heaven

I managed to track down one more Nebula reading: “Dark Heaven”, by Gregory Benford, which is collected in The Year’s Best Science Fiction 25th Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois. Like most of the others, it’s a pretty good story.

Leafcutters?

I do believe the leafcutter bees are active. When I leaned closer to admire all the blueberry blossoms, I spotted this precise little circle cut. It’s a good sign for blueberries, as leafcutter bees are good berry pollinators. And I saw similar signs last year, but I haven’t quite spotted the bees themselves yet.