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An Almost Impossible Thing by Fiona Davison made it on to a number of Best Books of 2023 lists, but as most of them were in gardening publications with limited circulation, you’d be excused if you missed it. But what a sad miss that would be for anyone interested in not just garden history but women’s history. Davison, who has the envious job of Head of Libraries and Exhibitions at …

Happy Sunday, everyone! It’s been an action-packed week with plenty of travel, presenting lots of opportunities to explore and test new stuff. Apart from some fun gear, I really enjoyed reading Sebastiaan de With’s absolutely gorgeous review of the iPhone 16 cameras, discovering a new iOS app for making delightful QR codes, trying out a magic app for turning 2D photos and video into 3D material for the Apple Vision …

In this post, we’ll talk about how to make rice flour to use in various recipes. All you need is raw rice and a powerful blender! Why Make Your Own Rice Flour? Rice flour is an ingredient that we use often in recipes like Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Goh), Taro Cake, and Nian Gao (Chinese ... View Post

After the best part of a month spent reading Japanese literature, today I manage to pull myself away to try something a little different, and ‘different’ definitely fits the bill here. My latest choice is a book that’s literally out of this world, taking us into outer space and into the midst of a war. It’s not all conflict, though. You see, romance is just as important in space as …

Birdcage is about the machinations of a British intelligence agency, referred to as "Birdcage" because its offices are in Birdcage Walk in London. There is very little oversight of this covert security group and the agents are generally amoral, although they believe that their mission is important to the welfare of the country. In reality, the higher ups are just trying to protect the government in question which they serve …

Pruning boxwoods is a job that's easy, and easy to put off. A conundrum indeed. If you've put it off for years, believe it or not, you can bring your boxwoods back to their original charm with one or two terrifying hard prunings. Over the past 20 years or so since I planted them, these...Read More

WowHaus Limited edition Modernist Weekly Planner 2025 Limited edition Modernist Weekly Planner 2025 (image credit: Blue Crow Media) I was going to save this for the gift guide update, but the Modernist Weekly Planner 2025 might sell out. (image credit: Blue Crow Media) It might not—and if it is still around, it will make my gift guide. But I have been stung before with these things. The Brutalist Calendar by …

I had to come back from the West sadly as my liver was acting up. It drains me and I have no energy me especially after feeling a bit better over the last few weeks. I hardly sleep which is awful. Yet I have to live with this and the ups and downs. I am back home now it’s pouring but such is life. Kalies flowers from her garden I …

tanadrin:My copy of Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s by @70sscifiart just got here, and it’s gorgeous. A seriously impressive collation of work, with a wealth of information on individual artists and on trends in popular SF illustration in the period. Also nostalgic as hell to see some of my favorite cover illustrations from old paperback books I read as a teenager. Awesome! Glad you liked it!

Hope you had a blessed Sunday! Time for another Catholic Meme Monday. Happy Belated Feast of Saint Bruno! Saint Francis de Sales (patron saint of journalists) would have an interesting time editing this interview. I stepped outside for a few minutes to sweep my garage and I heard my kids yelling, ” Not Saint Francis!”.I guess my dog loved on the patron saint of animals too much. Sometimes new I …

Overview September is a fading memory, and it's time to do a round-up post for that month's IndieWeb Carnival. I had chosen a dark, heavy theme for the month, not recalling that September is Suicide Prevention Month in the US. The theme for the month was Power Underneath Despair, in which I had asked, In your darkest hour, what saved you? What helped you find the strength to carry on? …

Part I, Part II, Part III, and now Part IV: The debate moderators did not fact-check all of Trump’s lies. Can you imagine Trump or Vance sobbing with regret? I predict the adults in the room will prevail again, but if the government shuts down in two weeks, it’s because of Trump and his House MAGA minions. That word doesn’t mean what he thinks it does. He’s no fan of …

Original airdate: October 6, 2024 The premise: The Simpsons get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to stay at the luxurious Yellow Lotus resort, until their free pass is yanked out from under them and they’re forced to leave. Laying low in an empty room to avoid getting caught, they overhear a familiar guest next door: Sideshow Bob, there with his new wife and seemingly plotting to kill her to inherit her fortune. …