2025-04-20 If it’s a symbol, to hell with it. But if you’re going to have a symbol, you may as well …
2025-04-16 Green man.
2025-04-10 If you don’t make a mess, how do you know you’ve done any work?
2025-04-09 We had no frost last night despite dire warnings, so the Reemay fabric has gone away for another …
2025-04-09 Herewith, the Haps: News for April '25
2025-04-04 Of course after not being used for 18 months my carving gouges, though having been wiped with oil …
2025-04-03 This is hard to photograph—you need to see detail and scale at the same time—but here it is anyhow. …
2025-03-29 Is it a salad if it has only one ingredient?
2025-03-28 Visions of a vegetarian diner
2025-03-28 The subject line for today’s email from The Dispatch, referring to Signalgate, is a quote: …
2025-03-25 Five birds on a branch, 8”x12”.
2025-03-22 Sometimes both sides are right. Plastic straws are an environmental menace. Paper straws are useless …
2025-03-19 Watching a junco make jerky little head bobs: do larger animals actually make smoother motions, or …
2025-03-14 Abba Anthony said, ‘A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is …
2025-03-14 Today’s Pennsylvania Dutch word of the day is Gaardengraabfiewer, literally …
2025-03-13 At my window feeder this morning: goldfinches, bluebirds, a white-throated sparrow, a brown-headed …
2025-03-06 March here and now is neither reliably in like a lion nor out like a lamb, but altogether like a …
2025-02-27 Can’t take any more news? Here’s a coping strategy from Zippy the Pinhead.
2025-02-27 I’d been wanting for some time to carve a clock… here it is. The difficulty, for me, …
2025-02-20 “As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame…” Though I admit this was …
2025-02-19 And this guy. I call him “Biggles.”
2025-02-19 Grey catbird. The snow has the birds so hungry they don’t wait for me to go inside but let me …
2025-02-13 I would dearly love to be able to blame a seven-point decline in children’s IQ scores on COVID …
2025-02-05 Sunflowers do not like to be chip-carved, but I’m getting there. I spent January drawing and …
2025-01-30 I am a teensy bit concerned about receiving a confirmation email for an online order the text of …
2025-01-30 Meant to post this yesterday. Happy lunar new year everyone.
2025-01-26 GO PHILLY!
2025-01-23 The other night I dreamt that the earth’s atmosphere spontaneously boiled away. Magnificent …
2025-01-22 Cozy studio, fresh pot of tea, birds at window, snow outside. What could be better? How about all of …
2025-01-22 Proper snow at last. Not much, but I’ll take it.
2025-01-17 I finally cleaned up and shared the high school environmental science curriculum I developed for …
2025-01-17 Here’s a little tip for all y’all thinking about staying in and cooking this weekend: lentil soup is …
2025-01-14 In Which the Morton Salt Girl Falls on Hard Times
2025-01-13 “All We Need Is Here,” December 2024.
2025-01-10 Digging through old unpublished writing this week. Here’s a little light verse for your …
2025-01-10 Sometimes when words shift meanings over time translation is needed to prevent confusion, and …
2025-01-10 Pink sky in the morning means wintry mix, like on the weather map, right?
2025-01-08 Behind bare trees A man and two dogs, taut Against their leashes and the cold, Go about their …
2025-01-02 Poem: “The Great Blue Heron” by Carolyn Kizer
2025-01-02 This heron started as a study in wing anatomy: I’m working through how realistic I can or …
2024-12-29 I added purple sweet potato to my sourdough loaf. The flavor is good. The texture is good. And it …
2024-12-23 Merry Christmas &c.!
2024-12-22 I wound up with a very large bag of dried mango that is so sticky it threatens to pull out my …
2024-12-12 Just read a 681-word article on the dangers to human health of dry-cleaning chemicals, in which a …
2024-12-12 If you’d like some historical perspective on the topic of political violence, I recommend the recent …
2024-12-10 In which the antique table apocalypse is strangely freeing
2024-12-08 First art show! All set up at the Boylan Heights Art Walk in Raleigh this afternoon.
2024-12-05 Cleaning out my study—sorry, _studio_— I found a bag of handcrafted items I seem to have purchased …
2024-11-27 Happy Thanksgiving! If you’re interested in foodways, folkways, and weird alleys of American …
2024-11-26 I love a hickory tree in November.
2024-11-20 Experimenting with more complex (and naturalistic) composition. At 8”x10” this is …
2024-11-15 Nine markets in thirty days starts tomorrow. Here’s the skinny if you’re local.
2024-11-14 Where is your Scrooge-Cratchit line?
2024-11-14 Farmers like Abebe Moliso, whose family land in the Ethiopian highlands became severely degraded …
2024-11-12 Work in progress
2024-11-10 You little electrons will go places I can only dream of
2024-11-07 Carving sale is now open, through next weekend!
2024-11-05 Somewhere in America, someone is waking up this morning and saying, “Wait, what? There’s an …
2024-11-04 Whatever good you may think you are doing for your community by voting, you can do far more simply …
2024-10-29 Two fishermen running down the beach trying to reel in a big one, hooting like Slim Pickens riding …
2024-10-29 And then this. It is one of the annoyances of my life that this happens every day and I almost never …
2024-10-29 The rising sun broke through the clouds this morning like the pulsing craquelure of dying firelogs. …
2024-10-27 Here is a proposition to ponder: the dog is both a living creature and a technology.
2024-10-25 Another view of the front yard. I thought about posting a campaign sign for the city election, but …
2024-10-25 Having survived (barely) the heat and drought of June, the front-yard flower meadow rebounded and is …
2024-10-24 In an effort to appear to be lighthearted, I’ll repost this from 2012: The angry poet lashes …
2024-10-18 Carving sale November 7–17 — I’ll post again the week of the 4th, but for those of you who …
2024-10-18 Something different this time. I wanted to do the tree; not sure how I feel about the rest.
2024-10-18 I would like to support my locally-owned bookstore, which is close enough to my house that I can …
2024-10-15 Where the Eno River empties into Falls Lake.
2024-10-15 I saw two white herons today, so either that’s good luck or I’m going to die soon. I …
2024-10-10 Basically yesterday I walked 22 miles to watch the sun set.
2024-10-10 He said I could set up camp wherever I wanted, so I picked this.
2024-09-29 Joshua Reynolds: “A great part of every man’s life must be employed in collecting …
2024-09-29 …and now there’s a hurricane heading for Iceland. I mean, why the heck not?
2024-09-20 A little more naturalistic this time. Also an odd size (6”x11”) for which I don’t …
2024-09-17 Color me a wet blanket, but I just don’t think that Bull Durham needs to be a musical. Nor …
2024-09-13 But what’s a conspiracy theory?
2024-09-11 A marbled orb weaver, I believe. I crashed through this little guy’s web Monday morning and …
2024-09-11 Nicholas Carr on Apple Rewrite: “So, if I’m getting this right, you’d use Professional mode …
2024-09-10 This week’s Positivity in Pedantry Award goes to Andrew Roberts for his correct use of the verb …
2024-09-05 Some thoughts on (alleged) cultural stasis
2024-09-05 Summer keeps its hold with such cupidity— It’s not the heat, you know, but the humidity.
2024-09-03 Stopped in the pet store this afternoon for dog food, and after I paid and was leaving the clerk …
2024-09-03 A touch of fall by Falls Lake.
2024-08-31 Idly flipping through Emily Dickinson today: I want to do a carving titled “Even for Death, a …
2024-08-30 Just a friendly reminder that it’s a good time to start researching your municipal elections.
2024-08-27 As I can’t get basswood wider than 8 inches this carving, at 8x10, is likely the largest one …
2024-08-26 I have to keep using Instagram for business purposes, not to mention it’s where all the …
2024-08-22 This is why I will never be able to make a living from crime. I once got distracted for nearly half …
2024-08-21 One supposes they grow beans?
2024-08-15 Designs for this year’s Christmas ornaments. Clockwise from upper left: hope, love, joy, and …
2024-08-09 Today’s listen: Haven by Apollo5.
2024-08-09 “Surprisingly, if you allow a base to be any real number, and not just an integer, then the most …
2024-08-07 New on The Road to Jockey’s Ridge: gems, flotsam, observations and coincidence from half a …
2024-08-07 Pro tip for making breakfast: Do not, in your coffee-still-a-slurping-in-the-machine early morning …
2024-08-01 Cantharellus minor, small chanterelles, in the very damp woods Tuesday morning.
2024-08-01 A scene from the garden, more or less
2024-07-31 As I listen for the whistle, lie awake and wait Wish the railroad didn’t run so near …
2024-07-31 Imagine that you are Dante, and Virgil points out to you a group of web developers who in life wrote …
2024-07-30 Practice carvings and a preliminary sketch. I have to carve new flower designs before I know how to …
2024-07-30 Just applied for my first art show. Fingers crossed and whatnot.
2024-07-28 How medievals designed spaces for storing and studying books.
2024-07-25 Took several tries to work out this design and I’m still not sure I’m fully happy with …
2024-07-25 Saw a reference to a “melted” flag at a protest. If you must burn a flag, please at …
2024-07-23 Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (But Still Not Soon) In case you didn’t have …
2024-07-22 Small (4x4) hummingbird.
2024-07-12 This bird is inspired by William Johnston’s drawing in Miss Ros(e?)lda Fowler’s book, …
2024-07-12 Another bird. More flowers. This bird is a little different, though; inspired by the one in this …
2024-07-01 Figured out how to stipple the sunflower: with a scribing awl and a slight twisting motion to avoid …
2024-07-01 Boots on wet pine straw Loud enough. A heron flies, Frightened into beauty.
2024-06-27 You—yes, you!—are one step away from becoming super.
2024-06-27 Unclog your liver For lightweight, breathable comfort. A long time before me… Three days …
2024-06-21 Since it was forecast to be 93 this afternoon, I finished my 10 mile hike by a quarter past eleven. …
2024-06-19 I have carved several versions of skinks and am still not 100% satisfied. Getting the lines to …
2024-06-15 Saw a sign that says Fight Hate. But if I’m a pacifist, shouldn’t I Hate Fight? It’s all so …
2024-06-14 “In the Garden.”
2024-06-14 Eggplant, mini bell pepper, cayenne, basil, and sun gold cherry tomatoes from the garden, plus the …
2024-06-14 Dreamt last night that I was looking through a rainy window. Slowly the background blurred and the …
2024-06-04 Bolted Japanese turnip. The ones that rooted up were long, purple, and mildly spicy; this one just …
2024-06-03 View from the bottom of the driveway
2024-06-03 And away we go
2024-06-03 I will take the primeval whine-roar of a trillion cicadas over the pathetic sci-fi fanboy whine-plea …
2024-05-29 My weekly newspaper, per a recent discussion around here.
2024-05-23 A little something for World Turtle Day.
2024-05-22 Hummingbirds. This one is larger than the others (6x8in.) so will have to wait for a frame until I …
2024-05-18 Steamed Chiogga beets, golden beets, and carrots with a pesto of fresh basil, green cayenne pepper, …
2024-05-10 Lovebirds again: as before, facing each other over an unopened blossom, suggesting that they wait …
2024-05-10 Appalling as it is, Apple’s new ad is perfectly on-brand, and makes a nice bookend with their …
2024-05-09 A mini-review: Henry Bosco, Malicroix by Henri Bosco, translated by Joyce Zonana (New York Review …
2024-05-08 Love-in-a-mist, another of those perennials I must have planted from seed last spring but is only …
2024-05-07 In the wide world I find Nothing but disturbance, war and strife. In my little garden Love, peace, …
2024-05-06 Zwei verliebten herzen / Haben einen schmertzen (Two beloved hearts have one pining)
2024-05-05 Blessed Pascha to the Orthodox in the room!
2024-05-05 For those of you in NC, I’m at the Greensboro Curb Farmers Market spring craft fair today from 11-4. …
2024-05-04 From the front yard
2024-05-04 Greetings to thee, Heavenly May of Eternal Wisdom, wherein there has grown the fruit of Eternal …
2024-05-04 Framed version of the carving I wrote about last week. After reading more about the origins and …
2024-04-30 Pinkladies.
2024-04-24 A crowned bird and flower, from inspiration to carving
2024-04-23 We have reached the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel season for photography along the Eno River. I …
2024-04-23 Time for mountain laurel in the Piedmont.
2024-04-22 There is something incomparably stupid about struggling to sketch distelfink-and-flower designs out …
2024-04-22 Sometimes in designing furniture you use classical proportions and the golden ratio. And then …
2024-04-19 According to Wikipedia, the genome of the loblolly pine is seven times as large as that of humans. …
2024-04-18 Five-lined skink. I tried highlighting the tail with blue paint but could not keep the edges clean, …
2024-04-17 Apparently I have bachelor buttons in my yard! The seed mixes I scattered last year included some …
2024-04-17 Today, Haiku Day The sun rises, the sun sets. Who decides this stuff?
2024-04-16 I was asked recently whether a stool like the one I just posted takes a long time to make. The …
2024-04-16 Three-legged stool, green over gold layered milk paint.
2024-04-11 A little distelfink for your day. I’ve been playing for awhile with carving designs for …
2024-04-11 Brown-headed cowbird at my window feeder. I didn’t take a picture, so you will just have to …
2024-04-08 Trying to describe and remember the eclipse of 2017, I wrote this poem but never published it, and …
2024-04-08 80 percent totality was apparently enough to fool a barred owl in the neighborhood, who called out …
2024-04-03 On top of all those stresses, (County Judge Ruben) Becerra has also had to manage warnings from his …
2024-04-02 Weeds or flowers—it’s only nomenclature. Granted beauty by changeable nature Best embrace it …
2024-04-01 Don’t mistake her ‘cause she’s small. You want a toy, go buy a doll.
2024-03-19 This is… mostly what I want. I haven’t come up with a way to do the texturing of the sunflower; the …
2024-03-13 In an attempt to be positive, if you positively detest Daylight Savings Time as much as I do, …
2024-03-12 Meanwhile, here are some flowers. Actually there were so many blooming along the Eno River today …
2024-03-08 There’s a project in there somewhere… if I just keep planing maybe I will find it
2024-03-08 Time to harvest some spinach.
2024-03-01 I enjoyed my Leap Day hike yesterday… thinking I will make it an annual tradition!
2024-02-27 O to walk the greenway fair When meadows all are grassing— The birds singing their morning air, And …
2024-02-27 I think that we should all strive to swear more colorfully. The trouble with the casual use of …
2024-02-27 Currently reading: Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman. It is about the Battle of Stalingrad in the sense …
2024-02-24 Bought these from a guy who looked oddly like Harvey Korman.
2024-02-21 The Met is hyping a new opera that is a “searing exploration of the psychological pressures of …
2024-02-21 At long last, a new post on The Road to Jockey’s Ridge: The Greenway in Winter. A mostly …
2024-02-20 When I search the internet for images of bumblebees (looking for reference photos for potential …
2024-02-19 The maples are blooming in Johnston County. (The horizon was level in real life, but it’s hard to …
2024-02-18 Speaking of trout lilies…
2024-01-31 I dropped this in a comment Sunday evening but would like to say again that the Morgan State U. …
2024-01-31 Southeast of Raleigh, Tuesday afternoon, about an hour after the frogs started singing.
2024-01-27 A little tech for your Saturday: Barber & Genn sash saw, made somewhere between 1787 and 1817. …
2024-01-25 New sticker design for 2024. I am hedging on the color. What do y’all think?
2024-01-25 Today, January 25th, the city is picking up the leaves my neighbors started dumping in the street in …
2024-01-25 Two email subject lines from nonprofits seeking donations: (1) “Our oceans will never …
2024-01-16 I’ve been saving this for two years hoping for another snow day in Raleigh, but it is just as …
2024-01-13 Saw a headline this morning “Dramatic Plane Rescue” and was disappointed to learn that …
2024-01-02 Does anyone else out there sing the Wells Fargo Wagon song from The Music Man when the UPS truck …
2023-12-22 A pale furrow on the water, the plow too distant to be seen; then it disappears. I wish the duck …
2023-12-13 Looking for a ten-year-old blog entry just now and paging backward and forward from it, I am …
2023-12-01 Here’s my annual plug for Matthew Scroggs’ wonderful math puzzle advent calendar. This was how my …
2023-12-01 New batch of sugar spoons… finished Tuesday and already sold seven of eight. I never quite know what …
2023-11-25 If you find a wheat penny it’s still good luck, right?
2023-11-18 Can someone please explain to me why pachelbel’s canon is Christmas music
2023-11-16 New on the Mountains-to-Sea ‘stack: Yee, Haw! Don’t drink the water. Lovely autumn days …
2023-11-16 Interesting essay about mini-trucks, which I have considered buying when my ancient Ranger …
2023-11-11 Well, it has been thirty-six hours now and the American Ornithological Society still has not …
2023-11-09 Forget racism and misogyny: The fact that we allow “societies” of “experts” …
2023-11-08 The Haw River was just begging to be a jigsaw puzzle this morning.
2023-11-06 Carved ornament #3: Noel With Miscellaneous Random Motifs. (Why “Noel”? Because it has …
2023-11-06 Carved ornament #2: 8-point star.
2023-11-06 Carved ornament #1: snowflake rosette pattern. Practicing detail carving by making lots of these for …
2023-10-31 Consider livening up your Hallowe’en party: “As to apples, there is an old custom, …
2023-10-31 Today in headlines I won’t be bothered to click on: “I Can Hear You Fine. Is It Rude …
2023-10-26 New on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail ‘stack: Hidden gems of Guilford County, in which I pause on …
2023-10-25 On the Banks of Plum Creek… in Alamance County, North Carolina.
2023-10-19 What is it called when you need two letters to represent a single consonant sound, like ch or th? …
2023-10-17 Everyone is all upset about the effect that Twitter’s decline is going to have on journalism, but …
2023-10-17 In Martinsburg, West Virginia, the on-street parking is all metered, but the meters are still coin …
2023-10-16 He had always considered himself a peaceful man. Until, one day, came the leaf blowers.
2023-10-16 The Joys of the Open Road: Thinking about why country roads and pretty landscape lose their charm on …
2023-10-15 Also from Seven Bends State Park.
2023-10-14 Driving to Pennsylvania Thursday I went through the Shenandoah Valley and stopped for lunch at Seven …
2023-10-10 New carved plaque. The little chip carving knife to the right is the only tool I used on this one. …
2023-10-06 A jaunty little set of smallish (9-inch) cooking spoons. Or as I like to think of them, insouciant …
2023-10-05 New on the ’stack: Between imagination and logistics. The difficulties of planning a 1200-mile hike, …
2023-10-04 Looking forward to reading this: Sown in the Stars (by Sarah Hall) brings together the collective …
2023-10-03 Given that I was crouching by the side of the road 18 inches from traffic and trying not to fall …
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 …