February 2005 Archives

Arizona - Lichen or Something?

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arizona_lichen.jpg

Due to popular disgust with the spider photo, here is a file photo from the Grand Canyon. This is interesting orange stuff growing on the rocks at the observation platforms. The tour guide had an interesting name for it, which is long forgotten now. Anyway, I think it's lichen or perhaps moss or something.

Scary Spider

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This is a scary spider that has taken up residence outside my home office window. I have temporarily moved my office into the living room as a result. It is a sort of pretty orange color though, don't you think?

Pauline

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This is a file photo of Pauline, a goldfish Mary and I had. I think this photo may have been taken by Mary.

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And what would any chrishiggins.com blog sequence be without weird close-ups of mushrooms? The instructions indicate I can get many more 'crops' after this one. I'm not sure I relish the harvesting process.

Mushrooms - Part 3, MUSHROOMS

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A week ago I noticed little button mushrooms growing, maybe a half-inch wide. Today after forgetting to water them for a week, I opened their dank dark cupboard and found so many mushrooms, I had to remove a shelf to get the box out.

Mushrooms - Part 2, Compost

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mushrooms_2_pre_growth.jpg

This is a view of the compost inside the box. I then added the 'casing' which is French for 'gross mixture of dirt and fungus and water.' Then lots of gross mixing of the two, then put the box in a dark place and sprinkled water on it daily for about a month. Next up: mushrooms.

Mushrooms - Part 1, The Box

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So Mary gave me this Mushroom Adventure kit for Christmas. Using it, one can grow mushrooms in one's own home! Tasty fungus for the eating. I opened the box, took out the instructions and all the icky bits, and set to work. Also pictured in background: Seagram's gin industrial sized bottle: 'it's the smoothest.'

Contacting Chris Higgins

I'm a writer based in Portland, Oregon. I mostly write for Mental Floss magazine (and their website), though I just had a story on This American Life, and had a cover story a few weeks back in The Portland Mercury. You can follow me on Twitter for occasional jokes and complaints about the weather.

I'm also an iPhone developer. Working with Night & Day Studios, I helped create Peekaboo Barn, Peekaboo Wild, Big Fat Lies, Life in Short, Cocktail Compass, Nick Jr.'s A-Z With Moose and Zee, Quibble, Savage Love, and a bunch of other apps.

Need to contact me? Click the following link, follow the instructions, and you'll have my email address: get Chris's email address.

Note: I'm not the (apparently famous) hockey player with the same name! You'll have to find his homepage in order to contact him.