Recommendation: Distilling Thoughts

Distilling Thoughts You must visit here. I do not usually add "must" to my recommendations but I earnestly mean it in this case. Totomai's photography is magnificent. It is not often that I discover a blog that moves me with its pictures alone.I love photography. I suck at it. It's my camera. It isn't meant for quality work but rather for happy photographs of family, friends, pets and scenes. When I stumble across a photographer's blog (with pictures that remind me of snapshots that usually grace the covers and pages of National Geographic, Time or other renowned magazines)...

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Bragging

Sunday Scribblings (a weekly writers forum) listed bragging as a theme. “I don’t like myself. I’m crazy about myself!” – Mae West.Research the word “bragging”. It is synonymous with: arrogant, bigheaded, conceited, full of yourself, immodest, vain, self-important. It is akin to: overweening, high and mighty, egotistical, presumptuous, stuck-up, pompous, snobbish, portentous, ostentatious,...

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Mid Month Thoughts

We’ve had a fairly quiet month. Last Monday was Columbus Day. It was also Thanksgiving in Canada and I thought it would be amusing to celebrate a foreign holiday; my health kept me from getting the game hens stuffed and into the roaster. Suffice to say, we celebrated a day later.My motivation stems from Better Half’s desire to break away from the norm this holiday season; rabbit...

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Linda May

I discovered a lovely blog today, linda may. She chanced upon one of my Sunday Scribblings posts and I thought I’d stop by and read hers.What a charming woman! Reading her entries is much like sitting down and chatting over a cup of coffee. She has many wonderful pictures from her garden as well....

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My Autumn Wildlife Habitat Eco-Style

Fall is my favorite season. I enjoy winter with her blustering snow; spring and summer treat us to a riot of green dotted with a rainbow of bee-attracting colors. Autumn provides fabulous opportunity to study nature before the snow comes.“Fall! Oh Halloween and Thanksgiving! Oh and then we have Christmas and the New Year! I can smell all the good cooking, and I’m thinking of silver...

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Wellsburg Apple Festival, 2008

Wellsburg is a charming small town along Highway 2 in West Virginia. It has been around for quite a long time, sitting placidly alongside the Ohio River. Better Half and I discovered the Wellsburg Apple Festival last Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon.My first objet de plaisir was this odd little house tucked against a heavy brick building. I love old things. I married...

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History Time Capsule (Mingo, Wellsburg)

A bit of history in the Ohio Valley. The Wells Log House, mentioned below, still stands to this day.The following information was written in 1906 and was found in the cornerstone of Jefferson School, June 23, 1967. Some of the landmarks have been updated to reflect current locations for better reference.In the year 1749, the French inaugurated the trading system with the Indians...

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Writers, Revisions and Woes

Is it Friday yet?Of course not.Today is the pre-Friday show. It’s a teasing sort of day where one wishes so badly for it to be Friday yet dreads Friday itself because it will quickly turn into Saturday, then Sunday and then Monday. I, unlike most, do not worry about Friday or weekends in general. Every week is a weekend. Yes, today is Friday. It only feels like a Thursday.Mum sent...

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An old quote, by any other name, is still enjoyable

Be kind to colleagues, ruthless with theories, is a good rule. A scientific theory isn’t merely idle speculation, it’s a verbal picture of how things might work, how a system in nature might organize things – atom and molecules, species and ecosystems. But old paleontological theories too often aren’t treated roughly enough. Old theories – like the reptilian nature of dinosaurs – are accepted like old friends of the family. You don’t yell at old Aunt Cecilia. So hundred-year-old dinosaur theories live on without being questioned, and too often they are assumed to be totally...

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Red Peppers, a Quest for Noel Coward's script

I woke up with Red Peppers on the brain. Not the kind suitable for eating, dear Readers; the play.I recall my mother telling me about performing in Red Peppers. It is a warm, fuzzy memory, the likes of which make you immediately think, “wow, why in the hell did I grow up?” The topic came up during some sort of play that I was working (or perhaps it was one of her productions that...

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I recomment that you try the Toast

Toast a most extraordinary bl...

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VA, zombies and shopping - oh my!

Nothing brings greater domestic ecstasy than stocking our larder with all the premium bits and pieces needed to create magnificent meals (unless you count the sheer pleasure of cooking and consuming said meals.)Better Half and I journeyed to Pittsburgh today. The lab vampires gorged themselves upon his blood; the LPN, scrying his medical records, decreed him to be a corporally...

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Papikosh Virginia Spot (or how I made Leiostomus xanthurus tasty)

I did not bring my camera with me today so I do not have a picture of a Virginia Spot while at Wholey's. I did travel around the web in search of one (finding a fantastic blog called Toast in the process.) The picture above is some generic thing I pulled off of the 'net.Virginia Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) is a smallish fish with a sweet flavor. I am providing a basic recipe below....

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Must Do lists and other musings

Fall is out there. I saw it, albeit briefly. My “window tree” treats me to brilliant red foliage on the outermost branches. The air is cooler and much crisper. Dead leaves frolic along the ground, whispering, “ware, pay heed, winter approaches.”I have a large autumn “MUST DO” list. I must get the downstairs cleaned for the holidays. I must get the upstairs cleaned for my own sanity....

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Partial Birth Abortion

The interview that left O'Reilly speechless:CNN story:It's Faux News but it does echo CNN's report:Finally, a rather shoddy video but it does contain the bills in question and any and all "changes" to th...

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