A Bursting Spring Meadow of Links & Recs
My new favorite romper; my best friend's outdoor kid shoe hack; new wee mugs
As most of you read this, I’ll be running the Eugene Marathon — my fifth marathon and my second time running Eugene. The first time, I had a great race — but I also caught Covid and my beloved dog Peggy died pretty tragically immediately afterwards, so my goal with this race is to rewrite those memories of Eugene (a place I love from spending many years of my 20s here, broke and curious and figuring myself out) and run another marathon with Charlie (this will be his second, and no we don’t run together, he runs a solid minute-a-mile faster than me).
We’re ramping up to dahlia planting, which usually happens sometime in the first two weeks of May where live. My best friend and I added another good friend (with an excavator, who doesn’t want a good friend with an excavator!!) to our very novice collective this year and the plan is to grow around 1200 plants over our respective properties. It’s gonna be nuts and absolutely gorgeous and I cannot wait to get these babies in the ground. (If you want to follow along, I’ll soon be posting more on Lummi Island Dahlias).
But for now — I have a real backlog of recs and good reads to share in the monthly mega-round-up. It’s paywalled, because access to this sort of thing is somehow very motivating for people who’ve been meaning to subscribe, but if you haven’t subscribed and need further incentive, I’ll also dangle Tuesday’s Thread on Three Foundational Books, which I did not expect to incite so much gratitude (people *loved* thinking about this and reading others’ lists) and Friday’s Thread on The Smallest Hill You’d Die On (which just topped 2800 comments, making it the most commented thread in Culture Study History). And why wouldn’t it be successful, when you have elite small hills like this:
