Sharry Miller

Gold Creek Hike

As we set out on the Shoup Bay trail, I commented to Rowan, “Isn’t it nice that we don’t have to worry about poison ivy when we hike in Alaska?” We’d just seen our first poison ivy while on our rafting trip in Idaho, happily only from a no-contact distance. Then, just a mile or so down the trail, we met Urtica dioica. According to The Boreal Herbal by Beverly Gray (a fascinating book I... Read more →

Armchair Adventure Book - Yours?

Soaring on the success of passing on my knitting-themed books, I'm hoping to be equally successful with this one. If, like me, you're a armchair world adventurer, you'll like Wendy Dale's travelogue/memoir. She's managed to find herself in ridiculous situations around the globe and tells her stories in this short, amusing book. Comment on this post if you want this book! Read more →

Free Knitting Novels

I decided that I have too many books to just post one a day; I'm going with themed sets instead. Today I have three novels with knitting themes, all of them quite good. As you might expect from the title, this one's quite funny. Somehow, this 30-something newly single woman picks up knitting and finds it to be the perfect post-divorce therapy, along with a bottle of wine. Along with witticism, you also get a... Read more →

Alpine Dinner

Armed with a foot-long Subway ham sandwich and bottles of water, Rowan and I headed for Thompson Pass after work to take advantage of Friday night sunshine. What a fabulous evening for a picnic! By the time we'd changed clothes and shoes, it was 7:00 before we reached the top of the pass, later than I'm usually doing anything other than settling down on the couch with a good book. It felt good, though, to... Read more →

Free Book of Bizarre Trivia

So far, my plan to foist books off on other who might enjoy them is failing miserably. If I'm not successful soon, I'll give up and take the whole box to the library. Today's another day, however, and here's another book. My copy of this hardback book is missing this colorful cover, but the contents remain the same. I bought it as a gift for Thane and he enjoyed it as his bedtime reader for... Read more →

Audiobooks to a Good Home

Hmm,apparently everyone's already read The DaVinci Code since no one's expressed any interest in those books. Maybe I'll have better luck today with two audiobooks on CDs. Jennifer Weiner's Certain Girls is the sequel to a book I haven't read (Good in Bed), but I enjoyed listening to it nonetheless. It's about a mom and daughter (read by different women) coming to grips with their relationship as the daughter reaches her teen years. Yes, there's... Read more →

Free Books!

I was following a winding path through a variety of writing-related blogs today and came across one in which the author was giving away a couple of books she no longer needed. "Aha!" I thought. I have a whole box of books I need to get rid of. You see, I never reread books. I have whole collections on a variety of art/craft topics that I use for reference, but novels and the like I... Read more →

On Mules and Self-Destruction

We watched four mules die that morning. The morning started innocently enough under a bright Idaho sun. Just upriver from our camp at Mackey Bar was a footbridge over the Salmon River. It provided the perfect combination of height above water, a relatively calm spot in the river and deep-enough water for jumping. The evening before, the kids (and a couple of dads) in our group had fun jumping into the river. After breakfast, the... Read more →

Pali's First Ride

Mud splattered legs. Jostled arms. Paste-a-grin. It was a fabulous first ride on Pali. (I know, I know, I just got back from a fabulous float down the Salmon River in Idaho; I'm supposed to be writing about that. Unfortunately, I left my journal at Thane's Aunt Ruth's house. Until I get it back, I'm stymied.) Back to bike riding.... It'd been two weeks since I purchased Pali (see this post) and I was eager... Read more →

Madeleine Has a New Sister!

With Mandy, my devil anti-conscience, standing next to me whispering, "Buy it, buy it...." I took the plunge and bought another baby at Backcountry Bicycles in Palmer. Of course, it didn't hurt that I had a huge grin after taking her for a short test ride. Please meet Pali, my new mountain bike: Since she's a Kona Nunu, I decided she needed a Hawaiian name. I spent a great deal of time entering words related... Read more →