The Blog Farm - A Growing Blog Community

The Blooming Time

Tracy - Gypsy Summer — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:50:00 +0000

I used to be known as the black thumb of the family. Seriously. I outgrew it, just all of the sudden. I’m not sure what happened; my expertise with flowers and plants seemed to literally develop overnight. I think it started around the time I became a homeowner. Funny, isn’t it? That deed proved legal ownership of a dwelling, and a little carefully measured piece of Mother Earth- for a moment, anyway. I ...

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Painful Peace and Freedom

Leslie - Authentic Imperfection — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:47:28 +0000

Peace: cessation of or freedom from strife or dissention Strife: vigorous or bitter conflict, discord, or antagonism, a quarrel, struggle, or clash, competition or rivalry. Antagonism: an active hostility or opposition, an opposing force, tendency or action In my original family I’m the emotional scapegoat. I want to launch into a hundred examples of this so you will believe me, but I’m so bored by the whole thing I refuse to paint those ...

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Best Animated Short Film

Meredith Ann Rutter - Yours In Books — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:27:38 +0000

Have you seen “The Fantastic Flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”? It took the win last night at the Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film. A dear friend of mine just posted the YouTube link to her Facebook page for all her book-loving publisher friends, of which I am one. I pass the video along to you here (below). If you take the fifteen minutes required to watch it, you will be ...

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Fever 1793 and Mosquitoes

Shirley McLain - Writing, Musings, and Inspiration... — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:09:03 +0000

Today’s blog is abook review but mostly a commentary. I finished reading the book Fever 1793 by Laurie Halsey Anderson, and Lori Earley. It was a totally enjoyable read for me. I give it 5 stars. It is a story of a young girl in Philadelphia in 1793 when Yellow Fever attacked the City. It is based on a true event where over 30,000 people died of the sickness. Any time there is ...

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bathroom grief & nature stuff.

Laura - Forest Walk Art — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:50:00 +0000

milo. snoozing on the back porch. “The problem with cats is that they get the same exact look whether they see a moth or an axe murderer.” ~Paula Poundstone oOo and here is the tale of the little earring that ripped our bathtub out! well, not really. but…sort of. a few years ago, sam & i bought a pair of tiny gold celtic trinity knot stud earrings. we each wore ONE. always. about 10 days ...

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Dear Oscar Producers…

Brahm - alfred lives here — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:37:00 +0000

Dear Oscar Producers… Congratulations on coming through the mini-scandals of this year — Producer makes gay slur and quits! Host Eddie Murphy quits! Kodak sues to get their name off theatre! — and pulling off another big awards show! I love the Oscars (also known as the “Gay Superbowl”) and have been watching since I was a little kid and it was on way past my bedtime. Now it’s just so long it ...

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Goosie and Bonkers

Stephen - The Chubby Chatterbox — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:24:00 +0000

When CJ was five, I took him with me to pick up some dry cleaning. He asked if we could check out the pet store next door. He enjoyed having his little fingers licked by puppies and kittens when he stuck his fingers into their cages, but the goldfish captured his attention most. There was a big tank with ten goldfish for a buck. CJ begged for two fish. Since they were cheap, ...

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7 Possible Downton Abbey Spin-off Shows

Tor Constantino - The Daily Retort — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:22:53 +0000

According to recent media reports, the second season finale for the critically-acclaimed PBS series Downton Abbey commanded the largest television ratings for public broadcasting in years. For those of us with little reason to watch government-subsidized public broadcasting, Downton Abbey is akin to the soap opera Days of Our Lives only it airs once a week and is set in England during the early 1900′s. While I’ve never watched a single episode of ...

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All You Need To Know About Radical Right Wing Stupidity!

John Liming - The Liming Liberal Digest — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:24:00 +0000

Last night as I was sitting innocently at my computer looking for something to write a blog post about, I got a really disturbing e-mail from someone who lately has seemed to go off the deep end of politics. The e-mail was some inane garbage about whether or not President Obama is secretly a Muslim instead of a Christian. I immediately assumed that the e-mail was some of the same old trite and ...

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Musings: Nature Is Imagination…

Elizabeth - Mirth and Motivation — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:59:21 +0000

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” William Blake Musings: Nature Is Imagination… Musings: Nature Is Imagination… Danube delta river reeds The Tree and the Reed – Aesop‘s Fable “Well, ...

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The work of grief

Cecelia - Too Young A Widow — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 03:31:06 +0000

Grieving is hard work. Wait. Let me say that again. Grieving is hard work. It demands all of your attention, and takes a heavy toll on your physical and emotional resources. As I said, I go where it takes me…which leaves very little for anything else. I just don’t have the emotional energy to invest in anything besides this work I’m doing. Doing the dishes, doing the laundry – I have to marshal ...

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Dominance Games / Politics: All poor rational babies hate the fire breathers

B Schiff - Dominance Games — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:04:33 +0000

Dominance Games / Politics Traction comes to the simplistic, the dull, those of abbreviated scope of interest or fields of vision turned inward and away from anything resembling a distant thought or experience done by a free thinker, a non thinking mirror image troll or a serial subverter. Traction comes to the fiery wretched and pumped up chest thumpers when they have the advantages of free rides and no costs as any and all ...

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Out And About

Roger & Heidi - Zombie Apocalypse 2014 — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:46:00 +0000

Roger and some of the others left for CVS today and are hoping to be back later tonight. The weather has been really nice and the snow is continuing to melt so Roger figured now would be a good time to get stuff. The plan is, once he gets back, to go back to Hoffman Estates and pick up the ammo that was hidden there. The rest of us have been busy – we ...

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On the Other Characters

CC Cole - Gastar — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:25:00 +0000

Erika in “Underworld” Some of my early critiques of my novellas were about my supporting characters; that they didn’t stand out enough as individuals and didn’t have enough to do. I don’t argue with this; my stories are not epics; therefore, the cast of developed characters is tight. But what is the function of supporting characters? Supporting characters, by definition “support” the main character, to state the obvious. Sometimes supporting characters steal the ...

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Live Radio Show on Teens & Dating: Monday February 27 1pm PST

Ronae Jull - Hope Coaching — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:33:15 +0000

HOPE Coaching live radio show! Parenting teens who are exploring romance can be frustrating, confusing, and can challenge your ability to be flexible. With teenagers hitting puberty at younger ages, their hormones are getting turned “on” earlier, and they’re likely interested in dating before they have the emotional resources in place to handle it. Recently I wrote a blog post “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” where we talked about the challenges ...

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Traveling To Someplace Else

Leah Griffith - Eating Life Raw — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:14:00 +0000

As most of you know I lost my father-in-law on the 23rd of February. There’s really nothing we can say or do when somebody we love dies. We must adjust and move on. This is life. And miraculously we do move on, putting one shaky foot in front of the other until we’re someplace else. I’ve resurrected this post on mortality. It seems appropriate in light of recent events. It is my attempt ...

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Indulge – Weekly Photo Challenge

Dee - 40 Again — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:21:22 +0000

My first thoughts were of chocolate or a long laze in a bath full of soft scented bubbles…… Then I looked through my photographs to see what indulgences I could find there and it’s not always what you have in mind that jumps out at you from the screen. So, here are my photos for this week: I love Sushi and I have never seen so much in one place at one time……. I ...

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The Oscars: The 84th Academy Awards Are Upon Us…

Elizabeth - Mirth and Motivation — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 07:59:36 +0000

“When the Academy called, I panicked. I thought they might want their Oscars back and the pawn shop has been out of business for awhile.” Woody Allen The Oscars: The 84th Academy Awards Are Upon Us… For starters, Billy Crystal, the host with the most, will keep us watching and laughing Sunday night. It seems like only yesterday when we celebrated the winners and losers of the 83rd Oscar awards… right? Anyway, like an ...

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Sketching: Ball Of String

Jenn - Just Add Water Silly — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:46:00 +0000

So I was hemming and hawing about doing a drawing for an art challenge given by Inspiration Avenue. You see, I’m a new member there (I’ve been a member for about a month). Embarrassingly, I haven’t done a challenge to date and we put a new one up every Monday morning. I decided that this week I would definitely get my butt in gear and do whatever challenge given this week. Then I read ...

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How I Learned To Subordinate Myself To The Republic!

John Liming - The Liming Liberal Digest — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 01:48:00 +0000

America is a diverse nation and I think that is a good thing. There are those who really love their country and who are happy and true Patriots and there are some who live in imagined fears and paranoia that something or someone is always “Out To Get Them” and to take their freedoms away from them. Yes, there is every shade, degree, flavor and level of human perspective in The great fabric ...

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