mastodon 4.6.8Permanent Fellow, Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies, The Ohio State University
Today is the sixth birthday of my 'pandemic puppy', Pippin.
(Six years going on six months. I am still waiting for mental maturity with this boy.)
Here he is this morning on the daybed on the enclosed porch, happy to be inside on a rather gloomy and dreich day.
Pippin will have to wait a week for his birthday party, which will take place during his next therapy dog visit to a nearby assisted-living facility.
Since folks were asking, I thought I'd share a couple of photos from Pippin's 6th birthday party a few days ago at the assisted-living facility he visits as a therapy dog.
At the party were decorated cupcakes (which were promoted to the residents as 'pupcakes') with a frosting design to look like Pippin's head.
I forgot to bring Pippin's birthday hat, so he was bare-headed this year, but everyone had an enjoyable time, and one of the residents also brought her dog along to wish Pippin happy birthday.
(Photos are verticals, so you may need to expand them to see the full image.)
Some of the native woodland flora I planted in a shaded area of the front garden are in bloom. Shooting stars (Primula meadia) made their first appearance in bloom in the garden, and, at least this particular plant has white blossoms. When I purchased the roots from Jung Seed, the photograph in the catalogue showed deep pink flowers, but the description noted that the flowers may appear in shades from deep pink to white. The wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) has become an old friend, and each year, the number of blooms increase, as well as the length of the flowering season. While shooting stars do not seem to last very long, the geranium flowers should hang around a few weeks. But well before summer, the floral display will be over.
#garden #gardening #NativePlants #ShootingStars #PrimulaMeadia #Geranium #GeraniumMaculatum
Pippin says, 'Welcome to March!'
Here in central Ohio, we are currently seeing 4 in/10 cm of snow that has been falling since shortly before daybreak, but the temperature will be rising above freezing later today, and with rain forecast tomorrow, the snow will be gone quite soon.
In the meantime, Pippin prefers to hang out indoors.
I have been quite swamped of late, so I failed to mark the exact date earlier this month of what would have been the 18th birthday of my Basset Hound Dermot.
Dermot was an amazing companion, and his interactions with everyone were always a joy. Just yesterday when I was walking Pippin, we ran into a woman who lives a few blocks away out on a walk of her own. While we chatted, the woman mentioned how special Dermot was. (No offense, Pippin. You have your charms, but Dermot was an especially charismatic dog.)
Dermot was also a very handsome example of a Basset Hound, and I showed him in competition, first as a young dog to earn his championship, and then as a veteran (age 7 and over) to earn his grand championship. The photo shows Dermot as a veteran back in 2015, with the ribbons he won that day. Later, he took an owner-handled group placement, which got him a rosette.
Dermot passed away nearly five years ago, and I still miss him every day.
When I was out and about yesterday, I found myself at a stop light behind a motorist whose personalised plate must reflect an interest in the 10th century and the final Carolingian king of West Francia. 😉
Tonight's dessert is apple pie. While my baking skills certainly lack the artistry of @NorcalGma2@sfba.social, I hope the taste is satisfactory.
BTW, the crust is a Crisco crust from a recipe given to my mother about 60 years ago by a next door neighbour at their first home. The filling recipe is basically Betty Crocker, with tapioca flour added to the wheat flour to improve thickening. The top crust has an egg wash and demerara sugar.
Marigolds, tomatoes, and an experiment to see whether I can get seeds from my blackberries to germinate.
I should be in good shape to get plants into the ground in two months' time.
Arriving in the post today is the latest issue of the North American Journal of Celtic Studies, a publication of the Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA). This issue contains the work of some 'heavy hitters' in Celtic studies, including Catherine McKenna, Robin Chapman Stacey, Charlene Eska, and Paul Russell.
I was president of CSANA when the journal launched, and this latest issue is volume 10, number 1. Much of the journal's success is due to the founding editor, Joe Eska. Joe will soon be stepping down as journal editor, and Charlene Eska will be succeeding him.
You can learn more about the journal (including information about submissions) on the website of The Ohio State University Press, the journal's publisher.
The Mexican plum (Prunus mexicana) in the back garden is just starting to bloom. I have had to do some serious pruning on the tree in recent years to keep it off the electricity wires to the house, to keep it from reaching the garage, and to keep it from shading too much of the (already rather shady) garden.
When I purchased the tree mail-order from a nursery in Louisiana (the tree was sourced from a Texas nursery) quite a few years ago now, I had been warned that the tree might not flourish in Ohio's colder climate. While my back garden is sheltered, the tree has had no problems with winter temperatures that occasionally dip below 0F/ -18C. Mexican plum had once been present in far southern Ohio, but it has not been seen in the wild in the state since the 1940s.
Although the tree is reckoned self-fertile, it has never set fruit for me.
I am one of those folks who had a BlackBerry and LOVED the physical keyboard. After BlackBerry ended phone production, I stayed with the BlackBerry-branded phones for that physical keyboard. My current phone (which does not have a physical keyboard) is nearing the end of its planned obsolescence, and I definitely want to look into this new physical-keyboard phone.
The University of Oxford plans to appoint a part-time (80%) fixed-term Departmental Lecturer in Medieval Irish Language and Literature. The successful candidate will be appointed from 1st October 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter, for a period of up to four years. Applications close at noon BST on Monday 15 June 2026. Interviews are expected to take place during the week of 6 July 2026.
Full information is available at the link below.
The scene may look frigid, but it is actually 50F/10C right now, and high temperatures are forecast to remain above freezing for at least the next two weeks. The snow will not last long under these conditions.
We have had snow cover for the past two and a half weeks, which seemed typical for a central Ohio winter when I was a child, though it has not been typical in recent decades. We had some bitter cold before the snow cover, and how that affected the garden is what worries me. But I shall discover soon enough whether any perennials were lost.
Academic publisher Boydell & Brewer are holding a 60% off sale on selected hardback books on all sorts of subjects (but with an especially large selection in medieval studies) through 5 May.
No special codes or coupons required.
After nearly a month covered with newspaper and black plastic trash bags amid temperatures well below freezing and then more than a foot (30 cm) of snow, the Japanese false holly (Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Goshiki') plants are now exposed to the much warmer air and precipitation.
The plants appear to have survived the cold, which is reassuring. If there is damage, however, the leaves and stems will gradually turn brown and die down to the point where a plant is undamaged. So it may be a few weeks before I can definitely say that all is well.
(The photo is a vertical. You may need to click on it to see the full image.)
#garden #gardening #WinterProtection #Osmanthus #OsmanthusGoshiki
The warm temperatures up to two days ago caused the rhododendron x azalea cross to start opening its buds. But today the temperature is below freezing with a dusting of snow on the ground.
#garden #gardening #rhododendron #azalea #WinterWeather #spring
I follow some bridged Bluesky accounts, though I have chosen not to bridge my Mastodon account and try not to boost Bluesky content. But I did want to share the notice of a job at the University of Galway, as promoted by my friend David Stifter, professor of Old Irish at Maynooth.
(FYI, 'Druid' refers to a theatre company in Galway. The link to the job post is below.)
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRK335/druid-lecturer-in-residence-05-fte
I reckon that some visitors to Glasgow might well be intrigued by this accommodation option (though I would not be one of them).
Does @thisismyglasgow@mastodon.scot happen to have more history on this structure?
https://news.stv.tv/west-central/former-public-toilets-to-be-turned-into-windowless-holiday-let
Assistant professor in Celtic search at Cambridge:
The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge wishes to appoint an Assistant Professor in Celtic from 1 September 2026. Applicants who have research and teaching interests in any aspect of medieval Celtic languages and literatures are encouraged to apply. The details for the post, including the link to apply online can be found at https://www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assistant-professor-in-celtic-gh48210. The closing date for applications is NEXT WEDNESDAY, 11 February 2026.
#Celtic #CelticStudies #Medieval #Cambridge #UniversityOfCambridge #AcademicJobs
I am certainly among those saddened by the demise tomorrow of CBS News Radio. I had extensive interactions with radio personnel at CBS News when I worked for WWJ Radio (which was owned by CBS at the time) in the early 1990s, and the folks at CBS News Radio have always taken very seriously the legacy of Edward R. Murrow.
(I should point out that the radio stations were in a different corporate division — CBS Radio — from the network's radio news, which was under CBS News, although we had very frequent interactions, with CBS News providing coverage of stories to CBS radio stations, and the stations providing reports for the CBS News Radio network.)
Peter King has worked for three decades at CBS News, covering the U.S. space program and anchoring regular newscasts. He wrote a two-part reminiscence of his time at CBS for online trade newsletter RadioInsight, and the link is below.
Oliver Goldsmith as interpreted by Mel Brooks? This might have happened had Brooks' plans for his own film version of 'She Stoops to Conquer' been greenlighted.
That is one of the wonderful tidbits from Brooks' recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter (not to overlook mention of a Myron Cohen joke).