Yellow crocuses pushing up from a wintry brown soil.

What is a Victory Garden and do I need one to survive 2020?

Recently I’ve realized that the only thing worse for my mental health than Political Twitter is Coronavirus Twitter. To cheer myself up, I’ve started reading post-apocalyptic dystopian novels. I haven’t read that many yet, but I have read enough to notice that the just-in-time food supply rarely survives the first few chapters. That made me wonder… what if my best strategy for surviving an apocalypse is not merely to stockpile food, but to learn how to grow it?

50 States of Public Art: The Josephine Sculpture Garden in Frankfort, Kentucky

While watching the election returns out of Kentucky this past week, I found myself wondering what the public art looked like over there. Turns out, Frankfort, Kentucky boasts one of the world’s most interesting and kid-friendly open-air sculpture gardens.

Shar Pei dogs have dense but loose folds of skin all over their short-haired bodies.

Are dogs really descended from wolves?

I was shocked to learn that Darwin didn’t believe dogs were descended from wolves. I had just assumed that the idea came from him. Learning it didn’t has me questioning all kinds of things — like do scientists think dogs are related to wolves at all?

Wordless Wednesday: Public art you can run around in is the best kind of public art

Public art you can run around in is the best kind of public art. This week, my daughter explores Whiplash by Patrick Dougherty.

Cropped photo zooming in on a slice of a magnolia flower in bloom.

Wordless Wednesday: Magnolia

It’s getting to be that time of year again. Happy Wednesday, y’all.

small grey bird perched on a branch outside a window

Wordless Wednesday: Hi!

A little birdie told me this morning that it was past time for me to commit a random act of blogging. Happy Wednesday, y’all.

My daughter took this picture of the rodent digging up our yard. It shows his face and his very long, very yellow, and pretty snarly teeth.

“Is that weird beastie in my yard a mole, vole, or gopher?”

While swinging on the swing set one blissful afternoon, The Twelve-Year-Old noticed a furry beast with a rather fine set of long yellow teeth staring at her from his burrow. Naturally she wanted to know what was watching her. “Mommyo is that weird beastie a mole, vole, or gopher?”

Wordless Wednesday: Obligatory lizard post

It wouldn’t be summer if we didn’t post at least one lizard pic here on Caterpickles. With school starting this week, we cut it a bit close this year.

Photo of the top of the Rockies. It's mostly green, but there is some snow.

Wordless Wednesday: Scenes from Aspen

My husband and I will have been married for 20 years this summer. We celebrated by taking our family’s first trip to Aspen. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip.