art observations

Can I Just Say …

… that I love the theme of my blog? I have never been so enamored with the look of a blog as I have with this one. The theme is called Saga and, in case you don’t know, I’m using WordPress as my blogging platform. I have long adored WordPress’s ease of use, great statistics, and stylish themes, but the Saga theme seriously has me agog. I often call up my blog just to look…

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observations thought fodder

What’s Wrong with Being Defensive?

I’m sure you’ve heard this comment, or perhaps even said something like it yourself: “Why are you being so defensive?” This is normally said in a way that makes it very clear that defensiveness is a bad thing. I want to know why defensiveness is so awful. If someone is being a jerkface to you, what’s wrong with defending yourself? I asked my husband this question tonight. He said, “There’s nothing wrong with being defensive. Usually, the…

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observations

Peonies and Ants

The peonies have been blooming in central Minnesota. When I see peonies in bloom, I think of ants. My mom told me that ants are needed to open peony flowers. How cool! A symbiotic relationship, like little sucker fish on bigger fish. But, it’s not necessarily true. A little online research on a couple of websites (peonies.org and Iowa State University Extension) featuring an early-style web layout (which certainly helps date them) shows that peonies…

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