Today in soothing stop-motion video:
Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways2022’
Looks So Easy
Posted in Likes, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, inspiration, woodworking on June 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Ten? Ten.
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022 on June 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This morning my computer helpfully informed me that it has been ten years since I started this site.
Seriously? That can’t be true… It is true!
I also passed 1,000 posts a few weeks ago, which felt like a fun milestone.
So, happy site birthday! Any excuse for cake, right? In honor of this week’s Super Strawberry full moon, let’s go with strawberry.
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Treasure Unending
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on June 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
— Maya Angelou
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The Road Now Taken
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, adventure, home on June 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
We didn’t go far today but we did have an adventure. A walk on a beautiful sunny day turned into a hike through a wooded ravine that could have been miles away from human settlements. Slick, steep trails, flocks of mosquitoes that chased us a kilometer or more, and the kind of quiet that is hard to come by in a city. All within a few minutes of the house.
It was hot and sticky and itchy and downright delightful.
I celebrated with a new version of a drink I remember from childhood, the lime freeze. Lime juice, ice cubes, simple syrup, cream, and a touch of rose water, garnished with basil from the back garden.
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How to Predict the Future
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on June 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The title on this post is not quite fair; the actual article I’m sharing with you today is perhaps better categorized as how to think about the future. Still, as a reader and writer of speculative fiction I like the concept.
Will this approach help you to predict the next Stanley Cup winner? Maybe not, but it does seem helpful for building plausible alternate, slipstream and near-future worlds.
Last year, some colleagues and I invited people from around the world to compete in a tournament to predict the future. Over the course of seven months, more than 2,000 participants registered over 20,000 predictions… here are their key principles and practices…
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Son of Bun
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, home, wildlife on June 9, 2022| 1 Comment »
We are working on an alternative lawn that contains clover, so it was not a huge surprise to see a happy rabbit bouncing its way through the yard. What was a surprise was discovering the teeniest tiniest cutest little bunny in the back yard, munching on dandelions.
I shall name him Son of Bun!
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Finishing
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on June 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
George Saunders, celebrated American writer, journalist and teacher, was asked for his thoughts on story endings. Here’s what he had to say:
Ten Ways of Thinking About Endings
I once defined “ending” as “stopping without sucking.” And I’m going to stand by that…
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While We Wait
Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, birds, Thoughts on June 7, 2022| Leave a Comment »
While I engage in the joy that is Tuesday and also wait for a bit of family news, here’s a window into the happy, hyperactive world of the West Texas hummingbird.
For more live bird cams (including some involving things you shouldn’t do with a squirrel!), visit Cornell Lab Bird Cams.
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History, Today
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, history, inspiration, Thoughts on June 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.”
— From President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s official address announcing the D-Day invasion
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When the Best Thing Is No Thing
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, #WildBirdOttawa, birds, home, Thoughts on June 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I woke to a robin.
First thing this morning, I glanced out the window and frowned. An odd little lump sat by the back tire of Mr Man’s car. My eyes aren’t great on the best of days and less so at 6:30 in the a.m., so I had to squint a little before I understood what I was seeing.
Juvenile robin. Not moving. Or… scratch that. Moving oddly.
Hop, shuffle, hop. Shuffle, hop, shuffle. Not going anywhere fast.
It looked like a wing problem, then I realized that it could be a leg problem and the wing was extended for balance.
I conducted a bit of research via the Ottawa Valley Wild Bird Care Centre, a great place that has been helping birds in the area for decades. They took in a mourning dove that hit our back window about a week after we moved in. (Turns out that spring sun renders the living room windows effectively transparent unless you add little stickers to the panes. The Center even gave us a number so we could track the bird’s progress. You’ll be happy to know that while it had a broken wing and pelvis, after months of treatment it recovered and was released with a flock of other doves. So it wouldn’t be lonely.)
Since we’re on the topic, here’s my related story about birds and window strikes: Things I Learned Today, or, Sometimes They Fly Away
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Fledgling birds, including robins, often find themselves out of the nest and still learning to fly. That is to be expected.
If you are unsure if a fledgling is being cared for by its parents, watch from a distance for at least two hours…
The Center was closed anyway so we waited. The bird moved a little, then a little more. The leg still looked odd, though, so we decided it might be time to try to coax it into a comfortable and well-ventilated box and go visit the doctor.
Um, no.
The bird’s wings were working just fine. It wasn’t flying very far but it was flying, and not at all interested in taking a ride to our friendly neighborhood wildlife rehabbers.
The activity was encouraging, actually. The robin flitted. It hopped. It hid under a giant bush. What to do?
Not much. Short a Wile E. Coyote-style net and lots of dramatic, stress-inducing flailing around, there weren’t a lot of alternatives. I edged a little dish of water under the bush and backed away.
We’ll keep an eye out for the bird and try again if it appears to be in distress, but for now, nothing more.
Sometimes there aren’t many options, and while I lean toward action, sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all.
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