If I ever get to design a house for myself, or just remodel a hallway, I'm totally doing this: Brilliant use of space in this very wide hall gave the owners their own mini-library. It even has a sliding-ladder contraption, a thing I have coveted for years, as I am teensy. Big bookcases can really... Continue Reading →
Shakespeare’s love-in-idleness: A blackberry ice-cream viola
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. -- A Midsummer Night's Dream This is the lovely Viola cornuta, a modern cousin of the deep purple violet Shakespeare knew and used in his play --... Continue Reading →
Holy Chihuly*, somebody found what CQ means
I've been a copy editor for more than 15 years, and in all that time, none of my coworkers nor anybody I've asked has been able to say where we get the dorky abbreviation CQ, which we use every day. These are copy editors, mind you. People who will cheerfully spend half an hour tracking down... Continue Reading →
Candles in the garden: Teahouse Fox is up late, too
At about 1:20 a.m., if you're up late writing, you're not alone. Google's Teahouse Fox is doing brushwork by candlelight. She has apparently been outside, as there is a taper still lit in the garden. And fireflies hover over her birdbath. These images I've been discovering recently are at the bottom of the Gmail Inbox... Continue Reading →
More tales from the kindly, warm world of James Herriot
Having been a fan of the James Herriot books since I was a little girl, I recently did myself a huge favor: I ordered the biography of him that his son wrote, "The Real James Herriot," as well as the photo book with his essays on "James Herriot's Yorkshire." (Herriot was the pen name adopted by... Continue Reading →