A collage of the books I planned to read in October, with the books I've read so far flagged. The next paragraph of the post lists them, so I won't list them here. No need to make you list to that twice.

My OcTBR Reading Challenge – Update

The more targeted approach to tackling my To-Read pile inspired by the folks at The OcTBR Challenge has resulted in me reading a ton of great books this month. In today’s post, I’ll tell you about four of them.

Introducing the Caterpickles Bookstore and a word about affiliate links on Caterpickles

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it came to my attention that while Amazon continues to be fine, independent booksellers are suffering. That’s why I decided to become a Bookshop.org affiliate. Starting today, my book reviews may contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that provides financial support to independent bookstores nationwide. I’ve also added a new Caterpickles Bookstore Learn more about Bookshop.org, affiliate links on Caterpickles, and the new Caterpickles Bookstore.

What are we going to do about Halloween?

Last week our local public health office released official guidance for how to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19 during Halloween and Día de Los Muertos celebrations. I wanted to share it with you here, in case your family is also trying to figure out what those celebrations will look like this year.

My OcTBR Reading Challenge

Eighty-seven years ago, I decided that my resolution for 2020 would be to deal with my 45-book high Currently Reading tower. Good news? I’ve gotten the pile down to a mere 28 books. Bad news? It’s October. Time to kick it into high gear. Enter the #OcTBRChallenge.

Wordless Wednesday: Donkeys need walks too

I spotted a couple of women walking their donkeys on one of my walks this week. Could this be the most California thing ever?

scrap from a handwritten page. Written in copperplate is the date February 2, 1910

What was Dr. Hess’s Poultry Panacea?

One of the side effects of having wildfires reach within a dozen miles of your home is that it tends to focus your mind on completing…

black t-shirt with words "Vote: Declare yourself" on it

Election 2020 is upon us. Do you have a plan to vote?

I promise not to make political posts a regular event on this blog, but voting is a civic duty, not simply a political one. In this post, I’ll tell you about some resources that can help you make voting as easy as possible for you and the other voters in your family.

A long green tube with a bulb on the end used to slowly dispense water for potted plants lies in the middle of my back deck.

Wordless Wednesday: The curious incident of the squirrel in the night-time

The squirrels appear to have had a good night.

Wordless Wednesday: Behold the fierce predator

My cat’s (planned and much needed) weight loss has stalled, so this week I tried adding morning exercise into the mix. It did not go well.

My (@shalahowell) tweet from August 21: "There's a squirrel in my backyard frantically digging a hole to stash an emergency horde of nuts and all I can think is "Same Dude Same"

What a difference air quality makes

The wildfires in Northern California have sent a ton of smoke our way this week. While talking to my uncle this week, I found myself unable to explain adequately how weird the light has been as a result. Fortunately, my habit of taking multiple pictures of every flower I manage to grow means that I have a couple of photos that capture it.