Some Advice for Clearing Brush by Jeff Coomer Walk noisily to declare your presence. The rabbits and deer will leave as soon as they hear you coming, but the snakes need time to process your intentions. Take a moment to be certain of what you’re cutting. Many stems look alike down…
This is the reason I first subscribed to Cooks Illustrated. Chris Kimball's editor's note was always the first thing I read. And because of wanting access to his story telling, I became a better cook.
ROUND TOP — Daniel Hale looked around in amazement at the crowd that had given his grandfather a standing ovation when he entered the hall. “He’s like a rock star,” the 30-year-old said of Houston Chronicle columnist Leon Hale, who celebrated his 90th birthday Saturday at a party attended…
Oneness is not agreement. Like minds like to sleep at different room temperatures and take different approaches to entering meditation. What are the things we all need to agree to? What are the things we can be free to do differently? It’s important to agree about what we can disagree…
I'm not quite sure when it was I first stumbled upon Linda's blog at The Task At Hand where she writes under the name Shoreacres. It must have been about a year ago though because it was a post about the Christmas Snow of 2004 that first led me to…
Last week, there was a day I hesitate to call perfect only because I would hate it if the perfect day had already come and gone in my life. But when that perfect day comes at last it will probably resemble the one last week. Go...Read the rest. It'll help…
Reading note. As a responsible omnivore, I need to know where my food comes from and understand and respect the needs of the fellow creatures whose deaths make my life possible. The chickens that gave us eggs and went into the freezer were treated with care and concern; they had…
Instead of an "energy industry," I see a resource addiction that saps money and preserves self-destructive expectations. I see, instead of food and education "industries," an obesity epidemic and a debt-driven education crisis. Instead of a pharmaceutical industry, I see a new set of mental and physical discontents, like rates…
I caught Leon Hales latest in my feed reader last week and thought he had a lot of good points. After spending a quarter of a century posting columns from the porch of his place in Winedale, Leon Hale has come to some conclusions about the joys of a second home…
If it seems like I've vanished from the face of the world here lately, it's mostly because I have. At least the face of this world. I've been spending my time for the last two weeks lost in the world created by Stieg Larsson. It seems I finally made the mistake of…
A couple of weeks ago, I walked along a spring creek in the upper Madison Valley, just south of the town of Ennis, Mont. As my guide, Jeff Laszlo, explained, the creek is one of the unnamed tributaries of the Madison River, fed by innumerable springs along the valley’s rich…
Spring Gradual warming that began earlier this week is forecast to continue through the weekend, and by early next week high temperatures should climb into the mid-70s as warm, wet air flows inland from the Gulf of Mexico. No rain is forecast until late this weekend, according to the National…
A day isn’t just a standard measure, all the same size so each fits on a calendar page. A day is a period of light, an astronomical event. I felt that on the road that Kansas dawn. The broad swath of the sun’s light rolls upward from the darkness, morning…
A good book is a good book whatever the weather or temperature. But summer brings with it the illusion of more free time, and just about now — when the demise of August makes free time seem even more illusory — I can’t help looking around for the book I…
I was sitting here contemplating the books piled on my reading shelf the other day and noticed an remarkable thing has happened...What once was predominantly fiction has become almost entirely not. Now bear in mind, my reading shelf is actually the two shelves on the bakers rack above the microwave…
In the afternoon of summer, sounds come through the window: a tractor muttering to itself as it pivots at the corner of the hay field, stalled for a moment as the green row feeds into the baler. On some days I listen to Garrison on the radio, some days he…
After a dozen years on this farm, I can name most of the plants and nearly all the birds. But what’s the word for the wake the pileated woodpecker leaves as it dips, flying across the pasture? How can I imagine that land speaks in a language when I’m surrounded…
Once in a great while I get lucky and manage to string together the right words in the right order to tell a story of my own...I don't imagine its worth trying to winnow the chaff from the few gems in my backstory. But I'll keep trying to hit my head on that hammer of inspiration.
Philosopher Buckminster Fuller said that although we are all born geniuses, the process of living tends to de-genius us. That's the bad news. The good news is that 2009 is one of the best years ever for you to re-genius yourself, and the month of June is among the best…
But the real re-reading I mean is the savory re-reading, the books I have to be careful not to re-read too often so I can read them again with pleasure.
Saturday was another 90° day here in SE Texas...The past week has seen upper 80's every day. The weather prognosticators are trying to tease with hints of a "strong" cool front coming our way. I have even heard whispers of highs in the upper 70's...Personally, I think they are smoking…
Image via Wikipedia Back in my youth I discovered The Mother Earth News. It was probably sometime around 1971 that I first came across the magazine. I am sure I first found it at the old Space City News in downtown Houston where I spent a lot of time each…
"I know what grows in the warmth and the expanding light of spring. But I wonder tonight what grows in this stillness. Perhaps it’s only the mosquitoes hunting for the first time this year, or the Diptera that will be rising and falling along the river’s edge tomorrow morning."
Blueberry, by Diane Lockward Deep-blue hue of the body, silvery bloom on its skin. Undersized runt of a fruit, like something that failed to thrive, dented top a fontanel. Lopsided globe. A temperate zone. Tiny paradox, tart and sweet, homely but elegant afloat in sugar and cream, baked in a…
The cornbread I put aside for the next day...did not make it that long.
Thursday, June 22, 2006 Thoreau's Journal: 22-Jun-1851 As I walk the railroad causeway, I notice that the fields and meadows have acquired various tinges as the season advances, the sun gradually using all his paints. There is the rosaceous evening red tinge of red clover,—like an evening sky gone down…
