PicoBlog

A Look Inside the Abandoned Glass Mansion of Leesburg, Virginia The abandoned glass mansion of Leesburg, Virginia is one of the most fascinating stories of real estate and land development, mixed with a little international intrigue. The mansion is a stunning architectural feat of wood and glass, featuring three stories of windows overlooking what used to be a vast estate.  Luxury Retreat Turned Abandoned Mansion Built in the 1980’s, the mansion was obviously a showpiece for entertaining before it became abandoned.

Recently, Alistair Begg caused an earthquake in the Christian world. The Scottish preacher shared on his radio program that he had been asked by a godly grandmother about what to do regarding a “transgender” wedding. Her question: should she attend it, or stay away? On his Truth for Life program (audio interview here), Begg rightly made sure to check that she saw “transgender” identity as unbiblical, which his many followers would expect.

The Pittsburgh pizza world continues to expand. Much like the universe itself, there’s no end in sight. New shops, new pizza, new experiences appearing in the cosmos. Let’s talk about one of my new faves. Daniele Brenci is a local bread wizard that has complete control over the formation of gluten networks, crispiness and flavor profile. He may be the Yen Sid of pizza, commanding it to take shape and forms that seem impossible, but the way he molds and creates bread is a sight to behold.

HRH Priyadarshini Raje Scindia is the Maharani or Royal Queen of Gwalior, a historic and major princely city-state in Madhya Pradesh located about 320 kilometres south of India’s capital, New Delhi.   I was captivated and held captive by her sweet fresh young face when she was first introduced to me - she was just 17 years old, a Princess from the Royal house of Baroda and destined to marry my husband’s God-Son, the then Crown-Prince of Gwalior, HRH Jyotiraditya Rao Scindia, later the Maharaja of Gwalior and who is now the Minister of Civil Aviation and MP.

So this is where most of the events of the Hatfield McCoy took place. This map does a good job of giving readers the birds-eye view. The Tug River runs from lower right to upper left. Eventually, downstream, the Tug runs into the Big Sandy, which in turns runs into the Ohio River at Ashland, KY. In the Tug Valley, we define ourselves by the creek we live on. I grew up on Blackberry Creek, farther down in the lower left corner than the map goes.

NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — On a jog up Napa’s Dry Creek Road recently I saw a magnificent sight: thousands of ladybugs clumped together on fences (even barbed wire) and on old mossy tree stumps. The most unusual ladybug sighting was on a roadside reflective marker. Being a first-year Master Gardener, I was determined to find out why they were all huddled together and what kind of ladybug loves to mass like this.

In episode 83 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Peli Grietzer. Peli is a scholar whose work borrows mathematical ideas from machine learning theory to think through “ambient” and ineffable phenomena like moods, vibes, cultural logics, and structures of feeling. He is working on a book titled Big Mood: A Transcendental-Computational Essay in Art and contributes to the experimental literature collective Gauss PDF. Peli has a PhD in mathematically informed literary theory from Harvard Comparative Literature in collaboration with the HUJI Einstein Institute of Mathematics.

Sometimes things are not as they appear. After seeing this bright little flower gracing the edge of the stream we cross in early spring for many years now, I finally went to the effort of looking it up. Typing in “native yellow wildflower march blooming wet” I only found the marsh marigold, which is indeed a lovely little native perennial but the flowers gave away that it was not the same plant.

Hey, subscribers, A few of you have asked about when I’ll publish new books. Three are on the way, including a book of poetry from Hanging Loose Press in 2025. But I thought you might like to know about my chapook. Letterpress printed in a limited edition of only 500 copies during the COVID-19 summer of 2020, A Memory of Elephants is a deeply reflective, introspective and confessional collection of poems that explore the mysteries of a mental disorder, regret for things left unsaid to parents before their passing, tribal identity, raising sons in the urban world, the power of love, questions to God.