Truly a road gypsy dreamhouse.

I won’t even try to describe this big beauty.  See the write up from the Bedford Rally here on the Flying Tortoise.

Not if you want to do it with a bit of style and class. Anyone can go get a pencil and a legal pad, but some people want more. Or to spend more.

This is the tale of three writing desks that are unique and tasteful. And expensive relatively speaking.

First up this the full-blown classy English writing box available slightly used for a mere $2400:

As classy as it gets.

If you close it, it looks like this. Burl adds to the cost/value.

An interior view showing storage and the perpetual calendar.

The calendar is three paper scrolls.Use the small knobs to change the displayed day/date/month.

These people made it. From London. The one in England.

Secret compartments, there are two that I found.

The calendar lifts out revealing more storage.

And a drawer in the front.

Next, in the same shop, is this simpler yet elegant writing box.

Again…

Here are a few wildlife photos from around the Landmark.  Being surrounded on three sides by industrial agriculture has created an island refuge on the property.  Having the most topography in the county creates some micro-climates and environments not found elsewhere.  In the past weeks we have spotted coyote, gray fox, eastern and western bluejays, barn owls, a slew of various hawks, kangaroo rats, mice, deer, rattle snakes, gopher snakes, coachwhip snakes, roadrunners, and probably a dozen other things I am forgetting.  Enjoy.

Another gopher snake. Some of these get remarkably large on a diet of wood rat, mice, and other rodents.

Coachwhip in the garden.

Roadrunner hatchling. I snatched this photo while the parents were away scooping up horned lizards to feed the little ones.

The ubiquitous gopher snake. It’s a miracle that more of them don’t get run over as they haunt the parking lots throughout the day.

we seem to be in the minority among those we follow on twitter in not attending fincon, though we hope everyone who is going has a wonderful time and learns a ton (all the better if you want to share what you learn!). we wouldn’t rule out going to a future fincon, but still don’t see ourselves as “real bloggers,” and so the idea of spending big travel bucks for a blogging conference is just not where we are right now. for those of you who are attending, what got you over the hump and let you see what you’re doing as real blogging, and made it feel like something worth investing in? we’d love to know! along the lines of investing in your blog, something we are considering is a new layout for the blog, to make it more easily skimmable, and we’d love your feedback here or on…

Finally I have carved my own wooden cup! I have made it without a defined project and without the textbook step-by-step instruction.

“ Without Wodehouse I am not sure that I would be a tenth of what I am today — whatever that may be. In my teenage years, his writings awoke me to the possibilities of language. His rhythms, tropes, tricks and mannerisms are deep within me.

But more than that, he taught me something about good nature. It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind.”