Bikes 23 Jul 2008 07:01 pm
Sweet. It took me less than 48 hours to recover fully from our 34-mile bike trip. It was a nice slow 34-mile trip (except for bombing down 25th, whee!) but still, for me, that’s outstanding. Josh looks pretty well recovered himself. At this rate, we’ll be randonneuring in no time. Right, Josh?
The Weird Wide Web 08 Jul 2008 03:17 pm
From the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “The rejection of moral rebels: Resenting those who do the right thing.” (pdf), by Monin, Sawyer, and Marquez (2008):
Four studies document the rejection of moral rebels. In Study 1, participants who made a counterattitudinal speech disliked a person who refused on principle to do so, but uninvolved observers preferred this rebel to an obedient other. In Study 2, participants taking part in a racist task disliked a rebel who refused to go along, but mere observers did not. This rejection was mediated by the perception that rebels would reject obedient participants (Study 3), but did not occur when participants described an important trait or value beforehand (Study 4). Together, these studies suggest that rebels are resented when their implicit reproach threatens the positive self-image of individuals who did not rebel.
See also the venomous freakouts in the Seattle P-I’s Soundoff pages any time that bicycles or farmers’ markets are in the news.
(Thanks, Siderea!)
Food 05 Jul 2008 11:25 pm
You know what works well together? Strawberries and rosewater. I’m having some homegrown strawberries with Port Madison Farm yogurt, lightly scented with rosewater and sweetened with a dash of turbinado sugar. It’s killer. I’ll have to try this with blackberries or raspberries.
Garden 16 Jun 2008 10:30 am
I do occasionally wonder what the neighbors think. As when, for instance, I open the back door and rush out shouting, “Grawrr!! I kill you with my mind!”
Stupid squirrels, digging where they ought not be digging. Grawrr.
Home 13 Jun 2008 07:56 pm
I need to get some falconry gauntlets, or at least break out the welder’s gloves. One of our chickens, the Delaware — we’re calling her “Trouble” — likes to hop up on your arm. And when Trouble wants something, she’s hard to stop; “want” hardly covers the ferocity of her desires. It’s not so much because she loves you. (Chickens, as far as I can tell, are not cuddly. At most, they’re docile.) It’s because she wants out of the box, and you are her ticket out of the box.
I haven’t seen any physical signs of her being a rooster, though I’ve wondered. As far as I can tell, she’s just a hen with an oversized personality.
So every time I reach into the chick box for something, there she is, running for my arm at top speed. This was adorable at week 1 or so, but now that the chicks are almost four weeks old, it’s beginning to become a problem. And when she reaches her full six pounds or so, it’s going to be a problem indeed. Chickens, it happens, are sharp. My forearms are covered in scratches; it looks like I’ve been raising a dozen kittens. Which is to say, it looks like I’ve been sticking my arm in a food processor.
I bet Trouble would be a good trained attack chicken: very aggressive, extremely fast and agile, tremendously food-motivated, an excellent flyer. Perhaps I should consider taking up chicken falconry.
The Weird Wide Web 08 Jun 2008 05:31 pm
These are my links for May 26th through June 8th:
Garden 06 Jun 2008 03:51 pm
Josh just went outside to work on the bikes. His ensemble includes a wool hat, wool socks, and a thick wool overshirt. This is not my idea of June. We didn’t move into the southern hemisphere while I wasn’t looking, right?
It’s a lucky Seattle gardener who’s doing well this spring, and I’m not one of them. I’ve yet to catch much of a break in the seed-planting department. Planted cilantro and it snowed; planted basil and we got unusually cold, wet June weather. I’m rethinking this whole business of direct seeding. At least the chard seedlings have come through like champs. My new favorite plant, right there.
The chickens are almost three weeks old now. In theory, they should be ready to go investigate their new home very soon, and I’m becoming very ready to see them leave their corner of my office. Chicks do create a lot of dust and sometimes a lot of racket. But unless this weather straightens out, they’re going to be in the brooder a good long while.
Food 02 Jun 2008 04:16 pm
Strawberry season is almost here! Last year’s strawberry-rhubarb jam was fantastic; I thought I’d can some plain strawberry jam this year.
If any of you would like to come over and learn to can, you’re more than welcome; let me know and I’ll drop you a line when it’s getting to be canning time.
Uncategorized 30 May 2008 11:01 pm
Pansy was not my dog, but she was a famously good dog. I can’t make it to her wake this weekend, so I offer this poem by William Stafford instead. I ran across it the other day and thought of her.
Choosing A Dog
“It’s love,” they say. You touch
the right one and a whole half of the universe
wakes up, a new half.
Some people never find
that half, or they neglect it or trade it
for money or success and it dies.
The faces of big dogs tell, over the years,
that size is a burden: you enjoy it for awhile
but then maintenance gets to you.
When I get old I think I’ll keep, not a little
dog, but a serious dog,
for the casual, drop-in criminal –
My kind of dog, unimpressed by
dress or manner, just knowing
what’s really there by the smell.
Your good dogs, some things that they hear
they don’t really want you to know –
it’s too grim or ethereal.
And sometimes when they look in the fire
they see time going on and someone alone,
but they don’t say anything.
