As I Was Going to Cornwall…
As I was going to Cornwall1 I found a hedgerow, dense and tall After the hike a windy theatre With cliffside seats and comedy feature2 Then on to biomes full of plants, An indoor rainforest, birds and ants3 Fields of flowers, the best bouquet And one to take back home, in gray4 Gates, plays, plants and all How many days was I in Cornwall?5 And finally, some bonus ones Just a few, since I took tons This rhyme is based, as you may know / On one written long ago [↩]The protagonist, a real sad sack / Was Moliere’s hypochondriac...
read more ->Ginormous Ginger Stir-Fry
Ginger. I don’t quite know what to say about ginger. It is one of those elusive ingredients that is easy to find when you don’t need it for anything, and difficult to locate when you do. At least in Morocco. So when I bought a half-kilo of the stuff on a whim, I found myself struggling to find enough recipes to justify the sheer amount of ginger I’d purchased.1 And then it hit me.2 Stir-fry. Killing two birds with one heavy lump of ginger, I justified the impulse buy and satisfied my ever-present Asian food craving at the...
read more ->Weekend in Italy
Two months ago, I ended up in Italy for a conference. (You know, my glamorous librarian lifestyle.) In a misguided effort to save money, I flew a discount airline to Bergamo, rather than straight to Milan where the conference was. And you know what? That ended up being one of my best travel decisions ever. The trip was off to an excellent start with the continuation of my favorite Madrid airport tradition. (Favorite tradition, not favorite airport. Madrid-Barajas is a soulless warehouse of an airport, with vast, fluorescent-lit hallways and...
read more ->Forty-Eight Hours in Glacier Park
Last week my camera and I took a trip into rural Montana and the mountains of Glacier National Park. A storm rolled in as we walked down the country road. But cleared up in time for a great sunset. We hiked through a forest of dead trees. Surprised a marmot. And watched a second sunset over snow. Woke up to these clouds. Hiking down, found several varieties of moss in only four square inches. And three waterfalls into a lake. And then a moth posed for me. Share...
read more ->San Francisco 2011, Day Eight
We woke up at the crack o’ dawn on Sunday1 to drive down to Muir Woods as soon as the park opened, and before all the tourists arrived. Choosing the path less taken every time, we found ourselves on a beautiful two-hour hike through the woods, culminating in a spectacular view across the park. Mist was still blowing through the trees, so the landscape changed every couple of minutes. Spotted some cute banana slugs,2 a gaggle of chipmunks,3 and a couple of hawks. I also made friends with a lizard and he allowed me to get within a few...
read more ->San Francisco 2011, Day Two
Because day two was our Japantown day, not many photographs were taken. A lot of Japantown is indoors, with some really wonderful shops selling things like earthenware, bonsai trees, Japanese-language books, knick-knacks, clothing, unusual groceries, and–of course–fresh noodles. When I wasn’t eating noodles or chatting with Japanese shopkeepers, I took photos of succulents. Many photos of succulents.1 The thing that always astonishes me when I travel to the west coast is how easily succulents grow in the wild, on...
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