Blog
As a curious observer of life, I blog on writing, marketing, my prairie - anything that interests me in the moment. I like to have conversations with readers, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment. I'll respond.
I just returned from a week at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Reveling in the energy and inspiration of spending an entire week with people who think about writing, talk about writing, love writing, and…
Read More“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone …” Joni Mitchell captured the universal truth in “Big Yellow Taxi.” I found myself humming the tune as I…
Read MoreNot quackgrass! That’s the judgment of the Iowa State University Extension Service who took a look at the pictures I sent and responded in a couple of hours. Crab grass and barnyard grass. Both annuals…
Read MoreMy brother-in-law Ken who lives in Anchorage sent this picture yesterday. He goes to a local cafe for coffee with friends in the morning and saw these visitors near his house. Now he doesn’t see…
Read MoreIt’s been almost a month since I sowed the seeds of my prairie garden. (This picture shows the spot before planting.) The last four weeks have been a good news/bad news story. Good news: It’s…
Read MoreI spend far more time complaining about TV ads than praising them, but I just saw a new Intel ad I must applaud. The ad spotlights Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB, and uses the…
Read MoreReturning part of our acreage to native flowers and grasses has been on my mind since we moved to this acreage four years ago. Interviewing sources for the article I wrote recently on Iowa’s endangered…
Read More“Carol! Look out in the horse pasture!” my husband yelled one morning last month. “I think that’s a coyote.” I scrambled to the window just in time to catch a clear glimpse of what was…
Read More“You have to make your own fun,” Dad told me. His comment embodied both a life philosophy and the financial reality of our eastern Iowa dairy farm in the 1950s. So as often as not,…
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