Author's posts
Feb 14
International Book Giving Day
Some of you may know that I’m involved in Little Free Library (LFL) and is a library on my street under the auspices of the O’Connor Music Studio. When our son is home for a visit, we always go out on a hiking trail with the dog, Mimi, and sometimes my mom. On one …
Feb 12
Happy Chinese New Year!
Our wonderful daughter-in-law is Chinese, so we are celebrating, too. This is the Year of the Ox. The Ox (牛) is the second of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar, and also appears in related calendar systems. Countries that observe Lunar New Year often offer three to seven days of …
Feb 11
Washington Pipe Band Plays For Sean Connery
Washington Pipe Band Plays For Sean Connery from Toby Dodd on Vimeo. This video just came up on my Facebook feed this morning but I hadn’t seen it before. Even though Washington is misspelled, this is still a fantastic performance for Sean Connery in 1999. Sean Connery was honored at the Kennedy …
Jan 20
Fun with Palindromes
Jan 06
Yummy! National Shortbread Day!
Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert traditionally made with: 1 part white sugar (I use powdered) 2 parts butter 3 parts flour (I usually use rice flour) And a bit of salt Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture which is caused by its high-fat content, provided by the butter. “Shortening” is …
Dec 31
From Scotland: The First Foot
In Scottish folklore, the first-foot is the first person to enter the home of a household on New Year’s Day and a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. Although it is acceptable in many places for the first-footer to be a resident of the house, they must not be in the house at …
Dec 31
Hogmanay Fireballs!
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year’s Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. The …
Dec 21
Lockerbie
The Lockerbie Cairn, through its 270 blocks of red Scottish sandstone, memorializes the 270 lives lost in the terrorist attack on the United States when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. It is a gift of the people of Scotland to the people of the United States, financed …