Holy smokes. Which is just what this male cedar tree (Juniperus ashei) looks like when a breeze comes along, shakes these tiny reddish-colored male cones, and puffs cedar pollen into the air. The whole tree looks like it's smoking. But it's all part of the sex life of the Ashe juniper. All around this male tree, the female trees around are happily covered with tiny blue berry-like cones, just waiting for that pollen. There are some great closeups here. Luckily, neither Bill nor I are allergic to cedar pollen, but plenty of people are, and they can be plenty miserable along about now.
I've been forgetting to mention the writing conference that Paula Yost, Peggy Moody, and I have been working on. If you'll be in the Austin area in early June (the conference is June 7-9), and if you're interested in writing about place, you'll want to check this out. The workshop lineup will be available in a couple of weeks. I've been watching the proposals as they've been submitted, and they are absolutely terrific, so we're confident that this will be a wonderful conference. It's being held at the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University in San Marcos, to celebrate the publication of What Wildness is This, Story Circle's new anthology of women's writing about the Southwest. More later about this, so stay tuned.
Yesterday, I did a gig in Austin to launch The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood, out next week in paperback. Jo Virgil, the Barnes & Noble CRM, and I planned the event to coincide with the release of Miss Potter, the movie starring Rene Zellweger. But the movie's distributors have decided to delay wide release of the film until March. They're hoping that the film will do better when it isn't playing in the shadow of the Oscars. If you've been looking for this film locally and haven't found it, that's why. Also yesterday, a great lunch with Jo and Karen McInnerny, whose mystery, Dead and Berried, is just out. I'm one of Karen's biggest fans, and I was delighted when she gave me a copy of the new book!
My project today: podcasts. I'm working on a series of ten short podcasts on herbs. Two are done, eight more to go. Lots of fun to put together, especially since Becca Taylor is doing all the geeky stuff. All I have to do is write the script and read it, and Becca manages all the bells and whistles. Watch China's website for an announcement--or better yet, subscribe to All About Thyme, where you can read all about it.
Reading Notes. After ecstasy, the laundry.--Zen saying