Blog de Puree

The state bird of Massachusetts, the black-capped chickadee, has finally made an appearance in our yard.
Having never made an appearance at any of our feeders until yesterday, we think that the recent addition of our thistle feeder is what attracted it. Typically, the chickadee mostly eats insects but can be found to eat a variety [...]

I was flipping through Dwell, one of Randye’s favorite architecture and design magazines, and came across a one page article about an Oregon Army National Guard officer serving in Afghanistan. The article was about how Major Arnold Strong epitomized soldierly field expediency by using some simple furniture construction and design concepts to make his eight-by-eight [...]

Paul writes most of the posts ’round here, especially the bird sighting ones. But since he wasn’t privy to the latest visitor, it’s incumbent on me to write this one up.
We got our first GOLDFINCH! Despite the rain, he was happily chomping away at the finch feeder, which is hanging from the new [...]

Transplanting young trees can be a tricky business. There’s a relatively small window of nice weather in the spring when the trees haven’t quite come out of dormancy and when you’re not freezing your keester off while hacking away through inches upon inches of frozen ground. And a certain degree of finesse is needed so [...]

According to Space.com and scads of blogs, a planet that is 50 percent bigger and five times as massive as planet Earth has been discovered, which could support liquid water and life as we know it.
The planet is named Gliese 581 C, after its star Gliese 581, which is a small red star that is [...]

Thank god for comic books! And for Joss Whedon’s continuation of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer storyline with Dark Horse Comics.
In march, the story of Buffy, her watcher Giles, and the rest of the Scooby gang lives on to season eight, but in comic book format. (The television series ended with season 7.) Dark Horse [...]

We’ve been rather busy over the winter, collecting rocks in our travels. At the rate we’re going, we might even be finished in a few years.
Here’s a shot of what we have so far.

Here’s a link to a previous post, when we first started the rock wall. (Dec. 4, 2006)

It was another great Roller Derby night this past Saturday as the Boston Derby Dames traveling team, the Boston Massacre, eeked out a 112 to 110 win over the Baltimore’s Charm City Roller Girls.
It was a see-saw bout, with the lead exchanging hands a number of times throughout the night. The massacre competed with a [...]

I’ve got an eight mile hike on Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire coming up in May with some friends. Thanks to my “Army” knees, I have to put in some training time to get them accustomed to hills. And it doesn’t help that I sit on my arse in front of a computer all day [...]

As most folks know, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. passed away this week. He’ll be long remembered for his classic books such as Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle and Hocus Pocus.
Naturally, I was saddened by the news. But as a writer, I felt guilty for wondering what his secret to success was as thousands mourned his passing. It’s [...]