a good book Archives - Curiosity & Collectanea

Alice in Oxford

December 20, 2021 a good book a-roving the eye of the beholder

This is the second of two posts recounting my encounters with Alice in Wonderland during a ten-day visit to the UK in October 2021. (A link to the first post may be found at the bottom of this page.) Locks and keys In October 2021, after several days (and two…

Alice in London

December 13, 2021 a good book a-roving eating well the eye of the beholder

This is the first of two posts recounting my encounters with Alice in Wonderland during a ten-day visit to the UK in October. (A link to the second post may be found at the bottom of this page.) When you hear the name “Alice,” you immediately know whom we’re talking…

The Dormouse, literary and culinary

July 16, 2021 a good book around the table rhymes the birds and the trees

When I was a very little girl, my mother often read to me from A.A. Milne’s books of rhymes for children: When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. Less familiar to most than Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, these books are filled with humorous and whimsical and sometimes lyrical…

Ring in the New Year!

January 8, 2021 a good book musical notes rhymes

Happy 2021! May this new year bless us with hope and health, truth and light and peace. I have often heard the expression “to ring in the New Year” without giving much thought to what it meant — aside from churches ringing their bells on New Year’s Eve. But this…

A secret garden

February 14, 2020 a good book musings out and about the birds and the trees

Somewhere in the woods not far away, a minor path leads off a well-traveled trail to a vernal pool. There, more than two decades ago, someone planted narcissus. Once established, the plants spread into thick clumps around the perimeter of the pool, and a few brave clusters still hide in…

Bird by bird

February 7, 2020 a good book creative endeavors musings out and about the birds and the trees

I listen to a podcast on my morning walk, and I often let the length of the show dictate the length of the walk. On a recent morning the podcast was On Being; Krista Tippett was interviewing Brené Brown. I was engrossed — Brené (she seems like a first-name sort…

Miracles, minor and mundane

January 5, 2019 a good book musings the birds and the trees

One of my personal maxims is “Begin as you mean to continue,” and in keeping with this intention, I proposed to Craig that we start off the New Year with our favorite local hike in Chabot Regional Park, up in the Oakland Hills. Craig has been hiking the Goldenrod and…

Great-Granddaddy Wise

August 17, 2018 a good book family matters rhymes

One of my most prized possessions is a book of poetry written by my great-grandfather — my mother’s mother’s father. His first name was Stidger, but I don’t know whether anyone actually used it. Mom and her sisters called him “Granddaddy Wise” (Wise was his last name), and they adored…

All things bright and beautiful

August 7, 2018 a good book the birds and the trees

In the same week, Krista Tippett and Maria Popova both discussed Michael McCarthy’s memoir cum manifesto, The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy. Or perhaps I just happened on these two conversations in the same week? I’m not sure — and it doesn’t matter, of course, except that the dual mention felt like a…

Marginalia as interpretation and liberation

August 3, 2018 a good book life lessons musings the eye of the beholder

I learned about florilegia from the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast. This practice — “the gathering of literary flowers,” as I described it earlier — involves assembling several texts and then examining them, singly and in relationship, to see what meanings emerge. The so-called “sparklets” that you collect…