All Purls. No Swine.
December 21, 2025 Dear Chickens, I know it's the shortest day of the year. And that, lately, it's generally been cold, overcast and gloomy. The worst laying conditions possible. Still--in the circumstances and all--you're giving me an egg or so a day when all the experts say the four of you should be molting and… Continue reading Winter Solstice, 2025–Yesterday
Happy 127th birthday, darling Granny. (Some lightly-edited content from a few years ago, together with some more recent and raw reflections): I had my last conversation with Granny (my mother’s mother) not too long before she died. She was in her late-eighties at the time, almost bedridden from the terrible arthritis that had plagued her… Continue reading Wisdom from My Granny, 2025
The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference; for at a minimum, to love or hate someone is to have intense emotions toward them.--Elie Wiesel He would know. Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust victim who survived imprisonment in Auschwitz and Buchenwald before the latter camp was liberated by the the US Army in April,… Continue reading Quote of the Day: Elie Wiesel on Love, Hate, and Indifference
Into each life, some rain must fall. But not into ours. Our lives are where the garbage is delivered. — Jenny Today (June 10) is Jenny's birthday, and it's been three years since I first posted this here. In her honor, I'm proud to do so again: Ever have one of those days, weeks, months,… Continue reading Quote of the Day, June 10, 2024: On Life’s Vicissitudes
Those words were spoken by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, to the family members of those who perished on September 11, 2001. And I’ve often thought she must have been channeling C.S. Lewis at the time: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.… Continue reading “Grief is the price we pay for love”–September 11, 2022
Sundials. I have one. Carefully adjusted so that it tells the approximate time based on the position of the sun showing in the sky. (When there is sun showing in the sky.) It's kinda fun, because, simply by moving the dish, I can tell the time in any part of the world; anywhere that's important… Continue reading Counting Only the Sunny Hours–From Now On, Of Course
Oh well. Lord only knows, when you're as old as I am, somewhere on the shady side of your seventh decade on this earth (for those of you in Rio Linda, that means I'm in my mid-to-late 60s--deal with it), you must take life as you find it, and celebrate your victories--no matter how minor… Continue reading Adventures in Chicken Brain
“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” — Lucy Maud Montgomery Eventually, quite boring, I expect. But I do understand the sentiment. Even though we’re sweltering here in the mid-90s at the moment, with humidity almost as high, and I’ve assumed my English “summer privilege,” which… Continue reading Summer Daze
Into each life, some rain must fall. But not into ours. Our lives are where the garbage is delivered. — Jenny Today (June 10) is Jenny's birthday. And so I repost this, in her honor, and that of the occasion. Ever have one of those days, weeks, months, years, decades, when it seems as though… Continue reading Family Matters: On Life’s Vicissitudes
The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference; for at a minimum, to love or hate someone is to have intense emotions toward them.--Elie Wiesel He would know. Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust victim who survived imprisonment in Auschwitz and Buchenwald before the latter camp was liberated by the the US Army in April,… Continue reading On Love, Hate, and Indifference