• Home
  • Blog
  • Me. Me. Me.
  • Publications
  • That 1st Novel
  • More!
  • Contact
AMY SMITH LINTON

Would-Be Farm Porcupine Sighting

8/31/2016

2 Comments

 
With the Bobcat and the tractor both roaring away a few yards away, this porcupine was sound asleep in a tree.
​When I crashed around the base of her tree, she barely lifted her eyelids. I imagine she's a teenager, probably lazing her way through yet another sunny day to the despair of her folks.


As we were closing up Base Camp later in the summer, Jeff spotted something at the other end of the field. Instead of reaching for the field glasses, we just hustled off to investigate.  

It was a windy day, which meant a lot of leaves rustling and a strong breeze carrying our scent away from the slow-moving blob on the horizon. ​
Of course it turned out to be a porcupine. Who else in our animal kingdom is going to be ambling along in broad daylight in the middle of an open field? Only a few predators –– at their hungriest and most desperate –– will take this rodent.
No, they DON'T shoot their quills when threatened.  And though I did really really want to pet his furry little snout, I kept my hands to myself.
2 Comments

Favored Numbers

8/31/2016

0 Comments

 
For many of us, there are lucky numbers.

Unlucky numbers.

A favorite.

​Or a feeling that a specific number is simply more interesting than another.  

An indulgent example: I like the number 9. I picture it as both a square and a triangle, being the square of 3.   When you multiply 9 by any number, the resulting sum reduces down to 9.

For instance, 9x9=81, and 8+1=9. It goes along unendingly: 9x55=495; 4+9+5=18 and 1+8=9.

Allakazam! 
But 11 is also pretty cool. It's a prime number (divisible only by itself and 1). But it's simply two ones standing together (it should be two, right? But it's not), which gives me the exact internal frisson of confusion that I feel while arriving at the airport and heading toward "Departures."

Anyway, cognitive dissonance aside, eleven elevens make 121, which seems mystical. Twenty-two of them is 242, while thirty-three of them is 363. Et cetera. 
​
The possibility of deep nerdishness exists around any topic.

All this by way of introduction, really, to a couple of my favorite enthusiasts who dive into human perception of numbers (is 2 a masculine number or a feminine one?). Give yourself an hour of cool information and entertainment with Jad and Robert on this link to the...​Radiolab podcast.

0 Comments

Fiction Prompts

8/29/2016

4 Comments

 
I like a good mystery. An overactive imagination is kind of my stock in trade. People-watching is an exercise in making up fictional histories for strangers. ​
Picture
This sign, however, stymies my every fictional effort.

I find nothing to add to this text to make a more vivid, surprising, or funny bit of narrative. It's already there: the stereotype and the inverted stereotype, the frustration and the showmanship, the transgression and the possibility of forgiveness.

I mean, dam, it's a zen koan of a story. Plus two mungrel dogs.
4 Comments

Hello

8/16/2016

2 Comments

 
The game camera gives us a nice peep into life on the Would-Be Farm when we are not there to see it.  
This summer may have brought a few sad changes, as it looks as if the beavers may have moved on.

Their lodge is overgrown with weeds and the slide (shown in these photos) has become overgrown.

We can hope it's just a bit of summer vacation, but according to the National Geographic special we watched with great interest, these large rodents stay in residence only for a dozen years or so. They eventually gobble up all the available food and are forced to move along. Probably just as soon as they finally got that living room set up just the way they like. 

​
​
2 Comments

Angry Birds?

8/11/2016

2 Comments

 
These sweet, personable young pigs swim right up to any passing tourist. We encountered them in the Abacos, in the Bahamas, a few years ago. 
Picture
What an unsettling surprise to see them in the trailer for the Angry Birds II movie. 
2 Comments

Contest: John McEnroe's Favorite Flower...

8/9/2016

4 Comments

 
For the past three year's worth of blogs, I have been waiting patiently to try to capture an image of one of these. Just so I can wring just a smidge more mileage out of this joke.  
Picture
Oh, I slay myself.  

First "correct" answer in the comments below might just earn a sparkly plastic prize!
Picture
4 Comments

Refining Spawn

8/5/2016

1 Comment

 
Shoehorning a bit of boat-work into the summer, my favorite skipper continues the construction and refinement of Spawn ​the adventure boat.  

​Despite the onslaught of mosquitoes and biting gnats, and undaunted by what he describes as 1000% humidity, he's made improvements and tweaks in preparation for the next adventure*.

There's some cleverly thought-out modifications to block placement and chafe-plates on the rudder control system. Plus a new metal rowing seat that will be semi-permanently bolted in place. Thanks, Derek Dudinsky at JTR!
Picture
Picture
Modifying where the oarlocks will be placed and some height adjustments (hello Sir Hacksaw!) to the rowing seat follow after an afternoon of on-the-water testing. 

And then we are off again on more travels. Spawn will be waiting when we get back...


​* Which next adventure race? Well, there's the Black Beard Challenge, possibly.  It's 300 miles that include active gunnery ranges (avoid!), unlit fish traps (avoid!), unavoidable low bridges, black bears and skeeters, all on a challenging loop past Pamlico Sound and Beaufort (Bo-furt!).  

​Shore duty is looking sweet on that one. 
1 Comment

Alert! Sharks Have No Bones!*

8/2/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
In a blithe hunter-provider mood, my favorite skipper once yanked a yard-foot-long shark right onto the 24-foot-long sailboat we were cruising.

Three muscular feet of dove-gray anger thrashing about, in what turns out to be a –– maybe –– six-foot long cockpit.  

At every thrash, those blank yellow cat-eyes not blinking and that grabby mouth with the stadium-seating rows of triangular serrated teeth snap snap snapping...


 

We weren't wearing shoes, and we had neglected to arm ourselves with a winch handle or any other species of bludgeon.

Forced to retreat to the cabin top, we were obliged to wait for the fish to, as the captain put it, "simmer down."
Picture
Oh, we ate shark nuggets that evening, of course we did.  

As my hunter-provider often remarks about the swimmer vs. Jaws issue: he's eaten a lot more of them than they have of him.  ​


(*"Alert! Sharks have no bones!" is the most awesome Archie McPhee catalog headline of all time.)
0 Comments

    About the Blog

    A lot of ground gets covered on this blog -- from sailboat racing to book suggestions to plain old piffle. 

    To narrow the focus, select one of the  Categories below.

    Follow

    Trying to keep track? Follow me on Facebook or Twitter or if you use an aggregator, click the RSS option below.

    RSS Feed

    Old school? Sign up for the newsletter and I'll shoot you a short e-mail when there's something new.

      Newsletter

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Beauty Products
    Big Parks Trip
    Birds
    Boatbuilding
    Books
    Brains
    Contest & Prize
    Dogs
    Everglades Challenge
    Family Stories
    Farming
    Fashion
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Fish
    Flowers
    Flying Scot Sailboat
    Food
    Genealogy
    Handwork
    Health
    History
    Horses
    I
    International Lightning Class
    Mechanical Toys
    Migraine
    Movie References
    Music
    Piffle
    Pigs And Pork
    Poems
    Sailboat Racing
    Sculpture
    Social Media
    Song
    Subconscious Messages And Dream
    Travel
    Wildlife
    Writing

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Me. Me. Me.
  • Publications
  • That 1st Novel
  • More!
  • Contact