Like most things about this planet, the smell of a controlled burn makes you realize the sheer size of nature, the immense number of living things surrounding us, and the power of an element like fire to transform.
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I go to St. Pete Beach for the Novelists Inc. conference, but I love the nature scene there, too. My husband and I walk on the shore every morning, hoping to spot dolphins. This year, because of winds, tide, the … Continue reading
Where I come from, under the wing of the Orthodox Christian church, birthdays have long been secondary in importance to one’s “Imendan” (name-day) which is celebrated on the day that belongs to the saint after whom one is named. It … Continue reading
I spent a week doing Tai Chi at the Rigdzin Ling retreat center of the Chagdud Gompa Tibetan Buddhist association in the Trinity Alps in Northern California. On the sunny days, when we did some of our practice outdoors, we … Continue reading
This summer has been good for fungi in northern Illinois because it was wet, then dry, then wet, then dry, and mostly cool. On our walks through woods in the Chicago metropolitan area my husband and I have seen a lot of fun fungi. Here are some samples, sortakinda identified.
Continue readingCrows will hang around and harrass anything up to and including a bulldozer, if they think they know something to itseak-fungus-on-log dispraise that they can repeat at the top of their lungs. Think fourth-graders on a playground. These guys hadn’t a hope of budging the eagle, but you can see this one is determined to keep an eye on it.
Continue readingToward the end of my last year in high school, my speech teacher gave us copies of a textbook the district was considering adopting. I only remember one thing about it: in the front was an errata page that said … Continue reading
So I was reading for review a recent publication of Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction. I realize that a great many (if not most) of the people I know in the sf/f world roll their eyes out of their heads … Continue reading
I want to state at the outset that this article is not about political points of view. It’s about the way we communicate or fail to communicate ideas. I have been without political affiliation my entire adult life, but am … Continue reading
I found this enchanting. The creature weighed only a few ounces, but it was challenging monsters thousands of times bigger and heavier. There was something magical, even holy, in its valor and determination.
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