mjchamie.blogspot.com
Simple Living for Complicated People: May 2015
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Simple Living for Complicated People. Tuesday, May 5, 2015. We'll All Become Stories. Picking up a Romance Writers Report. Dated May 2015, I scanned through and saw an announcement on page 15 listing romance writers who had died between March 2014 and March 2015 and it included on the list, Gwynne Forster. A demographer who was formerly a chief of section in the United Nations Population Division. I asked, what were her plans? She ended up merging these seemingly disparate experiences by using her resear...
mjchamie.blogspot.com
Simple Living for Complicated People: February 2015
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Simple Living for Complicated People. Sunday, February 1, 2015. The Art of Knowing When to Hold and When to Fold. A friend of mine told me he asked his brother if he had prepared a will and his brother replied, "What do I need that for? I'm not dead yet! A recent article by Elizabeth O'Brian called The Power of Positive Purging Your Stuff. Says that "while a monetary gift is sure to please heirs, an overstuffed house presents a more complicated inheritance". Giving someone a streamlined, well-prepared tr...
mjchamie.blogspot.com
Simple Living for Complicated People: January 2014
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Simple Living for Complicated People. Monday, January 13, 2014. Did I tell you That It's Always Raining in Portland, Oregon? Just about everybody plans to move to Portland Oregon. So it seems. But I must tell you something up front, from the beginning. Carefully think about this before you start packing. Remember that it is always raining in Portland, Oregon. Some of the new developments that transitioned old industrial areas to new living and shopping arrangements are truly marvelous. They are archi...
mjchamie.blogspot.com
Simple Living for Complicated People: Winter Rose Garden
http://mjchamie.blogspot.com/2014/11/winter-rose-garden.html
Simple Living for Complicated People. Tuesday, November 11, 2014. Yes, it is winter in Portland, but the flowers are still beautiful. We walk for seven blocks through the city and suddenly we are on the edge of Washington Park. A 40 acre park we walk through to get to the Rose Garden. Today we hiked up the 220 steps to the top of a big hill on the way to the gardens. The walk through the woods is so peaceful. It is hard to believe we just crossed Burnside Street in heavy traffic to get here.
hdpphd.blogspot.com
HarPer’s bizarre - a naturalist's miscellany: August 2014
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HarPer’s bizarre - a naturalist's miscellany. Sunday, 17 August 2014. The Bee and the Wasp. Back in November 2012, the bird-banding at our regular site at The Charcoal Tank Nature Reserve, not far from West Wyalong in central-west New South Wales, was keeping us occupied if not busy, and I had time to follow the activities of several solitary bees that I was not aware of having noticed on any previous trips. A solitary bee hovering just above the ground, looking to excavate a burrow. I spent several minu...
mjchamie.blogspot.com
Simple Living for Complicated People: We'll All Become Stories
http://mjchamie.blogspot.com/2015/05/well-all-become-stories.html
Simple Living for Complicated People. Tuesday, May 5, 2015. We'll All Become Stories. Picking up a Romance Writers Report. Dated May 2015, I scanned through and saw an announcement on page 15 listing romance writers who had died between March 2014 and March 2015 and it included on the list, Gwynne Forster. A demographer who was formerly a chief of section in the United Nations Population Division. I asked, what were her plans? She ended up merging these seemingly disparate experiences by using her resear...
hdpphd.blogspot.com
HarPer’s bizarre - a naturalist's miscellany: Countdown to 600 - Top End Birds
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HarPer’s bizarre - a naturalist's miscellany. Wednesday, 12 August 2015. Countdown to 600 - Top End Birds. 600 is a landmark number for a birdwatcher in Australia. Enough to warrant the creation, quite a while ago now, of the 600 Club. This was apparently the invention of the late John McKean, an eminent Australian ornithologist and birdwatcher, who was supposedly the first to see 600 species of Australian birds. And I had a target list of some 15 or so birds that I wanted to try for. I wasn’t expe...
mjchamie.blogspot.com
Simple Living for Complicated People: September 2013
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Simple Living for Complicated People. Sunday, September 1, 2013. Schizophrenic Lake near New York City. Our lake is of two minds. On the weekends it is a party place,roaring with motor boats and groaning with jet skis, people shouting and laughing sometimes in the middle of the night in the middle of the lake not realizing all of us can hear every word they say, radios blaring. On Monday through Friday, the lake is characterized by peacefulness and silence, where birds fishing and people kayaking prevail.
mjchamie.blogspot.com
Simple Living for Complicated People: Our Concentric Circles Discovery Program
http://mjchamie.blogspot.com/2014/11/our-concentric-circles-discovery-program.html
Simple Living for Complicated People. Sunday, November 9, 2014. Our Concentric Circles Discovery Program. Since we arrived in Portland we have been working on a Concentric Circles Discovery Program. We start from our home with the closest possible restaurants, parks, stores, and places to visit and then slowly work our way outwards, in a circular fashion. Less than a mile from our place we have discovered the Rose Gardens. We have also visited the Japanese Gardens. This week, we discovered Pittock Mansion.
hdpphd.blogspot.com
HarPer’s bizarre - a naturalist's miscellany: April 2015
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HarPer’s bizarre - a naturalist's miscellany. Sunday, 26 April 2015. Tarago is a small village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. At the time of the last census (2011) it had a population of 351 - and falling. It has a beautiful little railway station. Tarago railway station has an 84 metre platform, with a dock at the down end of the station. And a stock siding at the up end. I like old railway stations for some reason (see an earlier post on derelict Girilambone railway station. The area ar...
