K.A. Ashcomb's Blog, page 28

Book Review: Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps by Seirian Sumner

This is a book to bring wasps out of the shadows of honeybees and bumblebees. We tend to glorify bees and see wasps as villains. The insects that sting, are aggressive, and eat other insects. I’m no exception to this statement. I get more scared when I see a wasp fly indoors than honeybees and bumblebees. After finishing this book, I felt ashamed to maintain these insects’ lousy rep through my behavior. But out in nature, when I’m taking my macro photos of insects, I see wasps all the time, and ...

Book Review: Nature Obscura: A City’s Hidden Natural World by Kelly Brenner

This was a perfect read for now. It was light, humorous, informative, and beautifully written. I loved every moment of it. Even the parts which I knew about lichens and what makes them. The funniest bits were Kelly Brenner’s notes about her life and how she engages with nature around her. Her quick, informative humor made me smile. But what got me most was her love for nature. She knows that it is what keeps us going, makes us shine, and is an essential part of our physical and mental health.

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Just a Passing Thought

I have always viewed taking macros as a way to play and be like a child, discovering the world and its complexity through my lens. Also, it is a perfect way to immerse with nature.

Yesterday I went into the woods and I could breathe just for a moment longer as I watched the deer, fox, and rabbit prints on the snow. They felt liberating, natural, and real, giving me perspective on how things will forever be in flux, how entropy is always present, and how we just have to accept the uncontrollab...

Choosing a Path

I discussed with a friend yesterday who wondered what he wanted out of life and where he should put his focus. He needed to figure out what the right call would be, as you can’t tell where the future leads. And you can’t. We can only make the most sophisticated bet, and even then, it won’t be up to us, especially if we share our lives with others. Life is full of variables, which can go one way or another. Add in the fact that, if one’s dreams and wishes are about something other than the usual ...

Me, I, and You

I keep wondering what my friend said about reading a book. That it is like peeking into the writer’s inner world. And to some extent I agree, yes, but then I disagree and fully. How can we think we know anything, that our assesments are real if we are restricted by our views? We make assumptions so easily and think them to be true. We seldom ask people what they think, meant, or are. And I think a good writer can borrow others’ worldviews and run with them without letting themselves enter the pi...

Time

Time stealing elves came back

It sucks to be an adult. The neuroscientists say that time in a sense move slower when we were children. I’m pretty sure that it is some sort of cosmic joke. All you ever wanted back then was to be bigger, and now everywhere there is time stealing eleves and you notice that a year has come and gone.

I feel like there is no enough hours in a day to get all done. I was meant to publish my fourth book at the end of this year, but here I am still at my first edit...

Breathe

Sometimes I think I forgot to breathe and my mind gets stuck. I have been feeling lately so. Thoughts scattered allover the place, circling around never finding a way to that serenity that was once there. I fear that is nothing new under the sky. A human condition so many of us find looping around. The silly thing is that I would love to get lost in there, in my thoughts, but this reality we have build pulls me back to perform, and I let it. I wish we all could just lose ourselves every now and ...

Living in a Series of Little Moments

That one surreal moment when you float and the birds take over the sky

The Ladybug Came Back

She came back! Yesterday I found her on the floor, making her way to somewhere. I took her into my hands so the cats wouldn’t get any ideas to play with her. I lowered her on one of my flowerpots and off she went. So all of you who contacted me telling that all hope is not lost, that they live up to two years and hypernate, you were right!

Lost Ladybug

I fear that the ladybug that lived with us has died. All the signs point to it. She lived with us over a week, sneaking in just before the snow came. I didn’t want to take it out as it would have died. It lived eating my hoverflies. Now they are back. My husband is puzzled why I don’t let him kill them, the hoverflies I mean. Maybe I should have a wake for the ladybug