2023-09-26 The narrow road to nowhere: Experimenting with haibun to sketch a walk through the woods on the cusp …
2023-09-24 Agalinis purpurea, purple false foxglove or gerardia, depending on which guide I use. It is too …
2023-09-24 Evening primrose, in the morning
2023-09-22 I have completely bailed on the photoblog challenge, but here is one for today anyway: Bayleaf …
2023-09-20 Okay, I have created a new about page and one of those all-my-links pages. If you want to know more …
2023-09-20 Another go at this carving, finished with milk paint, linseed oil and wax.
2023-09-12 (1) Hear sound outside. (2) Panic. (3) Run to door. (4) Forget why you are there.
2023-09-12 The time I walked 15 miles for a bologna sandwich
2023-09-11 My, what big buttons you have, grandmother! (The better to poison you with, my dear.)
2023-09-11 For photoblog challenge day 10/11 these little pines represent an early part of the forest cycle …
2023-09-09 More carving, this time in the Pennsylvania Dutch language, so we’ll call this photoblog challenge …
2023-09-09 A special gift is set aside for you. Explore a world of woodworking advice! We have been trying to …
2023-09-08 For photoblog challenge day 8 yonder had me stumped, but I needed to practice my letter carving, so…
2023-09-08 At this point in the year, most of the flowers are less interesting than the bumblebees they still …
2023-09-08 That the Wall Street Journal announced the new Rolling Stones studio album in its Business and …
2023-09-07 Photoblog challenge day 7: the panorama from the summit at Hanging Rock State Park earlier this …
2023-09-06 Photoblog challenge day 6. These arrived as a gift packaged with a kitchen tool I bought, but when I …
2023-09-05 Photoblog challenge day 5: forest reflected in Falls Lake.
2023-09-04 Photoblog challenge day 4: variegated orange marigolds with bumblebee photobomb
2023-09-03 I am going to take the fish in a barrel approach to today’s photoblog challenge and call this …
2023-09-02 Photoblog challenge day 2: A buildup of moss and leaf litter somewhere on Occaneechee Mountain.
2023-09-01 Photoblog challenge day 1: abstract.
2023-08-29 This week on The Road to Jockey’s Ridge, I learn some geology, explore a small patch of …
2023-08-23 View from my lunch.
2023-08-22 New on my Mountains-to-Sea Trail Substack: Ghosts above the Falls. Echoes of labor in the landscape, …
2023-08-18 Falls Dam again, this time from upstream. It is five miles of trail from the dam to get to this …
2023-08-16 The workshop has been blood-warm much of this month so I bought a chip carving knife and some …
2023-08-14 On my substack: I officially started hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls of the Neuse. …
2023-08-11 The trail into a not too recently burned patch of long leaf pine forest at Falls Lake. The bark is …
2023-08-07 Cursed with a nationwide shortage and blessed with a rampant garden, I made my own sriracha. It …
2023-08-07 Virginia day flowers growing by a utility pole.
2023-08-07 On looking down: Wildflowers along the Crabtree Creek and its tributaries
2023-08-05 Thanks to whoever it was recommended (or at least mentioned) Matsuo Basho’s The Narrow Road to …
2023-08-03 On the absurdity, and necessity, of walking in a technological age. Warning: This essay mentions …
2023-08-03 I have decided to start hiking the North Carolina Moutains-to-Sea Trail in stages over the next …
2023-07-03 Say hello to my little friend: or, contra myself on reference works and conviviality I always wanted …
2023-07-03 Hiked up to the high peak (2500 feet give or take) at Hanging Rock State Park last week with my …
2023-07-01 If you are grilling hot dogs this weekend, consider topping them with pimiento cheese, watermelon …
2023-06-30 On whether reference works can be “convivial” tools, a very bloggy attempt to pick at a …
2023-06-24 Cherry tomato time. This is half a week’s haul. If you want some, stop by!
2023-06-07 Soon there will be cucumbers galore— Twenty, thirty, forty, maybe more. I’ll slice them up and put …
2023-05-26 Every few years I reupholster a secondhand chair thinking it will be my chair. But it always belongs …
2023-04-18 Are you still boring? What if The snow leopard dream team is you? Don’t be a sweaty sleeper. …
2023-04-15 For you locals, I’ll be at Popup Raleigh today, Saturday, from 12–5, along with some other great …
2023-04-14 Spent a five-day weekend learning seventeenth-century carving and making this box at the …
2023-03-23 One of my spoons had babies! Kind of unexpected, but it’s always a joy when it happens.
2023-03-23 I enjoy a climate with four seasons. Just not all in the same week.
2023-03-17 It is a lovely thing to be up before dawn: to see the sky begin to color, hear the birds awake, know …
2023-03-17 For those of you near Raleigh, I’ll be at the State Farmers Market Spring Craft Fair today, tomorrow …
2023-03-16 Cold this morning, but it has the feeling of a cold morning that will turn into a pleasant day; …
2023-03-16 Is it possible to be combulated? And if so, could one undergo combobulation? Or recombobulation?
2023-03-15 From instructions for Form 1041: “The IRS can’t accept a single check (including a …
2023-03-10 The dog now has his own pill organizer, thanks to a persistent ear infection and the effects of …
2023-03-09 Got a new bench together.
2023-03-09 Little known fact: March 9 is International Monochrome Lunch Day.
2023-03-08 Spotted on a walk today through Haw River State Park, this tree that would not give up.
2023-03-07 Hildy, chilling on her third birthday.
2023-03-06 A few tools from the engineering side of making chairs.
2023-03-05 Fake inlay Penrose tiles on one of my first bits of woodworking, many years ago. Two rhombi that …
2023-03-03 It’s pretty much always solitude in the workshop. There isn’t really room for two, and nobody else …
2023-03-02 Started the spring garden this week (I figured my scrawled charts and notes make a better pic than …
2023-03-01 My comments on the news this week: I really would like to see someone eat a banana with chopsticks. …
2023-03-01 For the photoblogging challenge I would love to show you the lock I installed on my tool chest, but …
2023-02-17 After today, whenever things seem really bleak, I will tell myself: At least I am not a …
2023-02-11 Alas! The budding daffodil, The lenten rose, the crocus Augur need for Benadryl To curb the running …
2023-02-02 The One True Groundhog, Octararo Orphie of Kirkwood, Pennsylvania, did not see his shadow, thus …
2023-02-01 Anarchy, technology, and community: Some thoughts on The Dawn of Everything More than notes and less …
2022-12-31 As you ring the old year out, remember well my verse: Count your blessings every one—for next year …
2022-12-21 Canning the New Year’s sauerkraut and listening to medieval Christmas music.
2022-12-15 An AI researcher on the extreme difficulty of aligning AI with human values.
2022-12-14 Family portrait.
2022-12-14 Folks, I know we are all tired of hearing about supply-chain issues, but this one is serious: due to …
2022-12-13 Another batch of cherry spatulas. People keep buying them, so I keep making them. Vox populi, vox …
2022-12-09 Saved the fun part for Friday afternoon.
2022-12-09 Amid all the talk of index cards, here is how I keep my recipes… or rather receipts, to use the …
2022-12-08 Cooking up spoon butter in an old pickle jar. What do y’all use your old pickle jars for?
2022-12-06 Times like this I wish I had a bigger workshop, so I could have twice as much clutter.
2022-11-30 Just bought the version 2 suite of Affinity apps: Photo, Designer, and Publisher. I tend to be wary …
2022-11-30 Apparently whatever else I can do, I am incapable of using a calendar. The Pirate Panther Princess …
2022-11-29 Hey folks, my novel The Pirate Panther Princess comes out next Tuesday, December 6! It will be …
2022-11-28 At long last, the recipe for my famous fruitcake, for which people have been not asking for almost …
2022-11-26 If a lazy susan doesn’t turn, is it still lazy? Or is it lazier?
2022-11-26 A girl walked up to my booth and said, oh, what kind of wood is all this? It smells so good! I told …
2022-11-25 I fear I have made a dangerous mistake: I started watching old episodes of The Great British Baking …
2022-11-25 Finished reading: Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy (New York Review Books …
2022-11-24 Bottomless apple pie. Technically a cobbler, I suppose.
2022-11-15 Sometimes a pair of chopsticks is just a pair of chopsticks
2022-11-15 Walking the dog Sunday afternoon in my tweed jacket I realized that what divides me from nearly all …
2022-11-14 Meanwhile, a pizza. There has been a lot of pizza this fall, in part because with the kids off to …
2022-11-14 Some days this is what the wood gives you.
2022-11-07 New “desk sleigh” of a design I make occasionally, when I find the right size antique …
2022-11-03 I had good intentions for mbnov, but I am giving myself license to bail on it early. Oh, wait…
2022-11-03 So, this idea of pitchers “combining for a no-hitter.” It seems to me like running a marathon as a …
2022-11-03 I know this isn’t a word, but it would make a great brand name for a short-lived 1890s brand of …
2022-11-02 Bought a half bushel of Macintosh apples from the farmers’ market Monday, canned 13 pints of …
2022-11-01 The figure in the mind remains elusive, The seat-shape here and there a tad obtrusive, But were a …
2022-11-01 Upon an eve so dreary, damp, and gray As Jack o’ lanterns left Thanksgiving Day, …
2022-10-26 Seriously, it just doesn’t get old.
2022-10-24 Another day, another sunset. (yawn)
2022-10-12 The view from my workshop.
2022-09-10 Hummingbird moth at the lantana.
2022-09-01 Current reading.
2022-08-30 For several minutes this afternoon a hawk sat on the edge of my bird bath, scanning the yard. Alone …
2022-08-27 New lazy susan.
2022-08-25 Score one for traditionalist woodworkers.
2022-08-16 Every morning when I come outside I take a minute to watch the bees on the bush sage. This morning …
2022-08-16 Last week it was 95 degrees. Today it is supposed to be… 77? Did I flee to Canada and forget I had …
2022-08-15 If you had a sort of time traveling music bomb and could eradicate any one song from human history, …
2022-08-13 Common Green June Beetle joining us for dinner. I disagree with “common,” but I’m not an …
2022-08-06 Finished reading: Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada 📚Fictionalized account of ordinary …
2022-08-05 On the occasion of Wendell Berry’s birthday, I‘ll repost the picture my daughter drew the day …
2022-08-05 I just want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy birthday who has had a birthday this …
2022-07-27 Flowers along the greenway where I walked yesterday. Much as I like the idea of greenways, except …
2022-07-26 Salsa verde from the garden. (Or more accurately from tomatillos and chiles from the garden.) 🌱
2022-07-13 What do you call a group of house finches? A condominium?
2022-07-12 Right now
2022-07-06 A few pics of the little fan back side chair I was finishing up last month.
2022-07-04 Attempting to make green walnut liqueur (aka nocino, aka liqueur de noix).
2022-07-01 Cherry tomatoes II: The Lunching. Cook garlic and scallion in a bit of olive oil, add a can of …
2022-07-01 This morning’s harvest.
2022-06-30 O when the world’s at peace and every one is free, then will I make half-sour pickles, but I figure …
2022-06-09 “Our ever expanding vocabulary gives us more and finer pens to draw our world, but our …
2022-06-09 A whole family of beautiful little goldfinches at the feeder, freshly feathered out for summer, …
2022-06-09 Finished this new footstool in red grandis and ebonized white oak. Love the way the ebonizing brings …
2022-06-08 Currently reading: Poppleton in Fall: An Acorn Book (Poppleton #4) by Cynthia Rylant 📚 After …
2022-06-08 Homeschooling: A Valediction Take the work seriously, but do not take yourself too seriously.
2022-06-07 The subject of biodiesel came up last week, and in explaining the concept to my daughter I …
2022-06-07 Baby tomatillos! 🌱
2022-06-07 At the feeder outside my window a bluebird has brought its fledgling to learn to forage for itself. …
2022-06-06 The new chair is finally ready for paint!
2022-06-03 In Which the Poet Fails to Grasp His Meaning
2022-06-02 Meanwhile, “Barry’s Crazy” cherry tomato is living up to its name. (I forget the names of flowers, …
2022-06-01 Can’t remember what this is called, but it’s pretty. 🌱
2022-05-31 Currently reading: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West 📚
2022-05-31 Photoblog challenge 5/31. Endurance. Dashiell had to endure another trip to the vet for his ear …
2022-05-30 Photoblog challenge 5/30. Fish. There are minnows in there somewhere, but you can only see them when …
2022-05-29 Photoblog challenge 5/28, a day late. Fair. French curves make it easy to draw a fair curve. Easier, …
2022-05-29 Photoblog challenge 5/29. Stripes. Underneath the umbrella on our outdoor table.
2022-05-27 Photoblog challenge 5/27. Written. This from my daughter in 2014. I can neither confirm nor deny …
2022-05-27 On “good work” and the Tao
2022-05-26 Photoblog challenge 5/26. Schedule. The dog has an ear infection.
2022-05-25 Photoblog challenge 5/25. Mountain. A year ago this week, in the Roan Mountain highlands in …
2022-05-24 I keep forgetting to take a picture for the photoblog challenge until evening is getting on, and …
2022-05-24 Photoblog challenge 5/24. Intricate. At least I think so: I actually cannot make any of this out …
2022-05-23 Photoblog challenge 5/23. Plain. I am not normally into the ethnic doll thing, but I was writing a …
2022-05-22 Photoblog challenge 5/22. Textile. New napkins bought at an art and craft fair yesterday. A cloth …
2022-05-21 Photoblog challenge 5/21. Symmetry. (I ran out of A’s.)
2022-05-21 It was twenty years ago today… I do miss having ducks around.
2022-05-20 Photoblog challenge 5/20. Beverage. On a hot day, from a glass bottle, in a pickup truck with the …
2022-05-19 Photoblog challenge 5/19. Indulgence. I haven’t particularly indulged myself today, but in …
2022-05-18 Photoblog challenge 5/18. Random.
2022-05-17 Photoblog challenge 5/17. Hold. Wedged tenon holding a leg in a chair seat.
2022-05-17 Sketching possible shapes for the crest directly on the dry-fit chair with a 6B pencil. In two …
2022-05-16 Photoblog challenge 5/16. Time. I inherited this pocket watch recently and would like to make use of …
2022-05-15 Photoblog challenge 5/15. Clouds. (You probably think this post is about you.)
2022-05-14 Photoblog challenge 5/14. I tried growing sweet pea flowers along the fence this year, but they were …
2022-05-13 Photoblog challenge 5/13. Community. For homeschool environmental science in 2019–20 my daughter and …
2022-05-13 Yesterday’s photoblog prompt, tranquility, nearly stumped me. Of course one can’t …
2022-05-12 Photoblog challenge 5/12. There can be tranquility in work, and perhaps ought to be.
2022-05-11 Photoblogging challenge 5/11. Maroon (I think… I haven’t checked it against my crayolas.)
2022-05-10 Photoblog challenge 5/10. There used to be a pot under there somewhere!
2022-05-09 Photoblog challenge 5/9. Bloom. Nasturtiums in the herb garden.
2022-05-08 Photoblogging challenge 5/8. Union. Hildy and Dashiell have been inseparable since we brought her …
2022-05-07 Photoblogging challenge 5/7. Craft market today, and downtown was a zoo when I got there to unload, …
2022-05-06 Photoblogging challenge 5/6. Silhouette. For this challenge I have been trying to take photos of …
2022-05-05 Photoblog challenge 5/5. The wood shavings from my workshop are composted and return to the earth, …
2022-05-05 The chair I’m working on this week, in progress. Experimenting with design elements. We shall see.
2022-05-04 Photoblog challenge 5/4. Thorny. In principle I don’t mind the catbrier, as it makes lovely blue …
2022-05-04 (1) If time is not money, what is it? (2) If you really believed your answer, how would that change …
2022-05-03 Photoblogging challenge 5/3. Experimental, a view from 7th grade homeschool science back in 2016.
2022-05-02 Photoblogging challenge 5/2. Photo of my great-grandfather (at right) helping himself to another …
2022-05-02 In Which the Poet Espies a Yellow House
2022-05-01 Photoblogging challenge 5/1. Switch
2022-04-20 A woodpecker flew up to an old 2x4 I leaned against the side of the workshop. Discovered it was not …
2022-03-28 I made a solar clock that marks 12 hours from sunrise to sunset at any latitude and longitude, after …
2022-03-22 Finished reading: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. Actually finished listening: Dickens in the …
2022-03-14 The Sexton: A poem after a painting by William Merritt Chase, written some years ago on a bench in …
2022-03-04 Decided to try a warming mat for my seeds this year. Clearly it works. This is three days in. Which …
2022-03-01 Starting seeds.
2022-02-27 ”‘Twas a grey day in February, and evening fell like a dead canary…” Thus …
2022-01-10 If the Lenten roses are blooming on Epiphany, do I have to go ahead and start fasting?
2021-12-26 En freehlicher (zwedde) Grischtdaag!
2021-12-23 Have Yourself a Medieval Christmas. Ten years since I wrote this piece, and I wouldn’t write …
2021-12-15 I want someone to record an album of cheeseball “Christmas” songs of the 20th century in historical …
2021-12-14 Each task that I address begets precursors / As if work’s genealogy reverses, / And so another …
2021-12-13 Once again this year my daughter and I are really enjoying Matthew Scroggs’ math puzzle advent …
2021-12-08 Of useful work and community: Some thoughts on a barn raising managed by my great-grandfather.
2021-12-08 View of my workshop, by my daughter Ivy, sometime last year. If you look closely it appears that I …
2019-08-15 Please tell me they see the irony in this. The Arch Mission Foundation sent its first archive to …
2019-06-14 Anybody else ever seen a dog purse his lips? I have always had basset hounds, who would require …
2019-06-12 Kitchen counter stool is finished. Bit of an odd design but I think the shape of the stretchers and …
2019-06-06 Moment of truth for the kitchen counter stool: all the parts fit; it doesn’t look like a drunken …
2019-02-15 I know this is crazy talk to people up north but when spring comes this early I feel cheated out of …
2019-02-14 This is Dashiell, my new canine overlord. He enjoys listening to Peter and the Wolf and is a …
2019-02-14 I would love to have a way to avoid gas stations where a screen flashes and yaps at me while I pump …
2019-02-01 I prefer to wake up my books by playing the “Good Morning” song for them. But sometimes …
2019-02-01 the daffodils I buried now knife blades slicing flaccid earth stretching reaching soon they will …
2019-01-12 No matter how many chairs I reupholster, I always have this moment of hesitation before I start …
2019-01-10 The cardinals are beatniks, with shades and goatees / Reciting bad poetry out in the trees.
2018-12-27 A steel-haired couple dining out with his shrunken mother. The man’s posture rigid, …
2018-12-26 Left to right: blade mace, split vanilla bean, cardamom seed, peeled lemon zest. Steep in freshly …
2018-12-26 So computer scientists want to design a machine that is more complex and intelligent than a human …