I'm a big James Herriot fan, and thanks to the JamesHerriot.org Twitter feed, I recently learned that there's a BBC 4 documentary -- a good one, with modern-day interviews with all the actors plus lots of behind-the-scenes footage -- available on YouTube about the making of the "All Creatures Great and Small" TV series. It's... Continue Reading →
Sewing in a straight line from 43,000 BC to the iPad
Sewing is, by some estimates, 45,000 years old. Sewing is older than cloth, but not as old as clothes: First we wrapped ourselves in hides, then we tied the hides around ourselves with cords or sinews, and eventually we poked holes in the hides and started running cords through to hold the pieces together. After another... Continue Reading →
Woohoo! “Black Adder” on Netflix streaming!
Watch just the first 1:03 of this video (actually you can jump in at 0:35, the first bit is the credits) and tell me if you don't want to watch the rest of this show. I can now retroactively complete my list of British TV on Netflix "Watch Instantly" (streaming video to your computer; free... Continue Reading →
For the discriminating egg painter
When I was a kid, we had plastic items called Decoreggers that held an Easter egg securely while you painted or drew on it. Last year, my family went on a major hunt for Decoreggers and couldn't find any in local stores. This year, I got out my saw and improvised. With a saw, a... Continue Reading →
Magical thinking: Hallway becomes library
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 →
The De Zavala Flag
Description and history of the De Zavala flag of the Republic of Texas, including facts about the design of my De Zavala t-shirt and a link to purchase the shirt.
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