Spent the afternoon in the woods clearing a trail to our campsite. Now just boiling water on the BioLite homestove and drinking a Fullsteam Paycheck Pilsner.
To mark the arrival of the Mark One Apollo Edition pen, a Kickstarter from Studio Neat, I made an Old Fashioned using the Neat Ice Kit.
Elephants in Cleveland
Wildlife photographer Peter Beard has “died where he lived: in nature.” The NYTimes has a long obituary about Beard’s art and life.
A good friend of mine in Cleveland had two large Beard prints, of elephants, hanging in his apartment. Whenever I visited him, I used to lean in until the rest of the jumbled apartment receded from my peripheral vision and I could almost feel the earth shake as the elephants marched past the camera.
Just lost another hen to a hawk. It was the buffed lace Polish that looks cool but can’t see well. Bummed.
A cooler morning still wet from rain in the night. I went for a run on a nearby trail. Now settled into my chair at my desk in my bedroom, coffee in hand. The Zoom LiveTrak L-8 is on my desk, begging to be used, so maybe a microcast later.
Was on a few Zoom meetings for work today, now in Google hangouts for cocktail mixology with Chapel Hill’s Gary Crunkleton, later will tune into YouTube for live music feom Josh Ritter.
All five of us gathered in the kitchen to make brunch - crepes with mushrooms and goat cheese or bananas and Nutella, bacon and eggs, fruit - and sat, ate, talked about faith traditions and actions for good. Now we’re watching Andrea Bocelli sing live from Duomo di Milano.
Needed a break from the laptop so I came outside to sit on a log, read the New Yorker, boil water on the BioLite CampStove, and watch the sun set down the lane.
Erin and Malia stopped by the farm store and now we have four chicks chirping in the living room. The seven hens outside continue to give us eggs for breakfast. Got our second double-yoke egg this week.
Major cyclone Harold hitting Vanuatu right now, will be going across some of the bigger islands and Paama (where I lived) will be hit hard. Worried for our family and friends in Liro Village.
Delighted to discover the Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodroot) I planted at trhe base of the big white oak last year has survived and will be flowering soon.
Determined to make a grape trellis for a muscadine vine I bought last year. Will use cedar from our land. Found a perfect tree for one of the posts. Just can’t decide best location in yard.
New blog post to mark this special day that’s turned out very differently than I had planned - was supposed to be in New Orleans, then on St. Croix in the USVI. But, with health and a job and family, I feel fortunate: Fifty
Oliver giving me a report about the various buildings represented in the LEGO Architecture series he’s been building (Shanghai and Sydney).
I’m reading Apeirogon by Colum McCann, intense story that, combined with the pandemic chaos, has had me near tears often.
Sitting at the dining table, looking out the windows at the flowering dogwood dwarfed by the awakening, towering oaks. Solitude up here, reminder of how grateful I am to all builders of community, including @manton @macgenie @cheesemaker
Hoping to learn why MarsEdit (awesome app) is giving me ‘Unexpected response code 500’ but log shows it is retrieving my blog posts. Textpattern upgrade and OpalStack server switch possible culprits. @danielpunkass
I’m taking the day off to run, blog, bake, read and eat cake; family are in their respective spaces working or studying.
Working from home, desk at foot of bed, door to back deck open, mourning dove cooing and coffee helping to mask the undercurrent of stress. But garden boxes planted last night, and first double-yoke egg for breakfast, life going on.
Playing ‘Name that tune’ and making s’mores around the firepit, an evening of normal amidst these extraordinary times.
Snapshots in Idaho
Wednesday
Tuesday
Monday
Sunday
I am in Boise, Idaho 37 years after I left with my family (for the US Virgin Islands). Good to be back. Today skiing Bogus Basin.
Yesterday I stopped by the local book store on my way home from work, walked out with a copy of Colum McCann’s new novel, Apeirogon.