Fall is here and so begins a few months of holidays that many people celebrate: Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Winter’s Solstice, Christmas and Kwanzaa to name a few. Besides the busyness of this period, memories of the year also come to mind. Some are happy, some are difficult and others are thought-provoking. This year, I decided to make a memory jar to hold my thoughts and feelings. Our Crafternoon-To-Go kit this month is designed just for that. The kit will provide the supplies needed to create a beautiful, colorful jar to hold your memories. Important: Do not use these jars for edibles or for burning a real candle. Continue reading “Crafternoon-To-Go: Memory Jars”
Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 by Jason Delpire
Bolognese
Fresh pasta with the classic Bolognese sauce, topped with freshly grated Parmesan.
I started this blog post with the intention of focusing on pasta dishes. I have a small amount of experience making fresh pasta and wanted to expand on that for this post. While deciding between “Mastering Pasta” by Marc Vetri or “Flour + Water” by Thomas McNoughton, my interest was piqued by a Bolognese recipe in “Mastering Pasta.” I fell into a rabbit hole, researching the thousands (okay, maybe it was dozens) of variations on this one idea. For example, just in my personal cookbook collection I found no fewer than six different recipes.
I know, you’re thinking, “But, Jason, it’s just a meat sauce, like you’d put on spaghetti. You know, spaghetti sauce. A company was even named after the Italian term for meat sauce. Of course there are many varieties, this is not worthy of a blog post.” I am taking the stance that Bolognese is so much more than, and so much better than, what we think of as spaghetti sauce. Continue reading “Read The Recipe! Vol. 2”
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2021 by The Biblio-Buckaroo
The field of urban, or city planning covers all aspects of a city, including housing, economic development, infrastructure, land use, environmental policy and transportation. And a lot goes into planning a well-functioning city. For example, a simple decision to plant trees along streets can increase property value, decrease air pollution, cool streets and sidewalks and decrease rainwater run-off. Many cities now are finding innovative ways to improve the lives of their citizens. Continue reading “Literary Links: Urban Planning”
Posted on Monday, September 27, 2021 by Reading Addict
“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.” ~Mary Jo Godwin, Librarian
It’s fall again and another Banned Books Week is here, September 26 to October 2. This year’s theme is Books Unite Us: Censorship Divides Us. I have written several posts about banned books in the past detailing why various books are banned or challenged. This year, I would like to take a different approach and talk more generally about censorship, how libraries build collections to serve communities, and how our library system approaches challenges. Continue reading “Books Unite Us: Censorship Divides Us”
Posted on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 by Jason Delpire
This is the first of a new blog series, Read the Recipe! Each month, I will review a cookbook that interests me. Sometimes, these will be new titles in our collection, others will be classics that may deserve another look. Each review will be from the view of a competent cook, but I hope to show the achievability of each chosen recipe. Full disclosure: in my former life, I spent some time in professional kitchens, but I am by no means a chef. I plan to make a few dishes from each book, preferably an entire meal, share photos of my process or finished products.
My first title is “The Family Meal” by Ferran Adria & Eugeni de Diego. Ferran Adria ran arguably the best restaurant in the world, El Bulli, from the mid-1980s to 2011. Eugeni de Diego was a chef at El Bulli, and after the restaurant’s closing, he moved on to his own restaurant chain, A Pluma in Barcelona. Continue reading “Read The Recipe!”
The mornings last week had the feeling of fall with cooler air and a sprinkling of early leaves floating down. All summer long, I’ve been thinking about what changes and additions I want to make to our gardens for next year. I’ve been waiting for the cooler weather to get to work on a vegetable garden, so I’m excited to move forward in sub 90 degree temperatures. Continue reading “Garden Dreams”
Finally! We can welcome the first day of fall next week. I am hoping for many clear, crisp days with chilly nights, a fire in my chimenea and a candle to complete the scene. While there are no promises on the weather, we can help your fall ambiance with our next crafternoon kit for adults: beeswax candles. It is super easy, as we have beeswax sheets that can be rolled around the wick. These kits will be available while they last in all of our branches on Friday, September 17. You may pick them up at the second floor reference desk at the Columbia library and near the service desks at our other branches.
There are instructions and supplies in your kit to make two small candles or one larger one. If you find the written instructions difficult, check out this video for more assistance. This is an inexpensive craft that can be done with friends and family and we have many more library resources if you want to expand your candle-making skills.
I started working at the Columbia branch of the Daniel Boone Regional library earlier this year. During the whirlwind of training I’ve learned about a variety of helpful, charming, surprising and useful resources of which I was previously unaware.Continue reading “A Few of My Favorite Things”
A Parsnip Swallowtail butterfly sips nectar from a coneflower. Photo credit Maggie_M
August is not usually considered a great time to be outside in Missouri. The weather is hot and humid. Except for a few wildflowers blooming many plants seem to give up this time of year and wait for cooler weather — not a bad strategy if you ask me. But this August, I’ve noticed a couple bright spots in my outside observations that are worth sharing
Just this morning I saw several species of large, vibrant butterflies on my morning dog walk. The Monarch butterflies are suddenly plentiful, floating around on their orange and black stained-glass wings. There were also Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), Parsnip Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) and Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) and many smaller species that I don’t know at a glance. Other insect life is plentiful as well. I frequently see a variety of wasps collecting spiders and other quarry as food for their larvae. An iridescent Rainbow Beetle (Phanaenusvindex), a type of dung beetle, lumbered across the road. The next generation of carpenter bees are emerging and buzzing around, as are many other species of bees (I need to learn more of these). A hawk moth, which imitates hummingbirds and forages during the day, darted between and hovered over flowers. My short walk up the road with my dogs was full of bright surprises. Continue reading “Bright Spots in August”
I was one of the thousands who adopted a dog during the pandemic. Our new dog, Freya, is an intelligent, sweet and motivated young German Shepherd mix. We had a bit of a bumpy ride integrating her into the family back in March 2020, so I had already been working with a local trainer on obedience when I saw “The Art of Training Your Dog, How to Gently Teach Good Behavior Using an E-Collar” by the Monks of New Skete and Marc Goldberg in our new books collection and knew that I wanted to check it out. Continue reading “Pandemic Dogs”
Fall is here and so begins a few months of holidays that many people celebrate: Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Winter’s Solstice, Christmas and Kwanzaa to name a few. Besides the busyness of this period, memories of the year also come to mind. Some are happy, some are difficult and others are thought-provoking. This year, I decided to make a memory jar to hold my thoughts and feelings. Our Crafternoon-To-Go kit this month is designed just for that. The kit will provide the supplies needed to create a beautiful, colorful jar to hold your memories. Important: Do not use these jars for edibles or for burning a real candle. Continue reading “Crafternoon-To-Go: Memory Jars”
The mornings last week had the feeling of fall with cooler air and a sprinkling of early leaves floating down. All summer long, I’ve been thinking about what changes and additions I want to make to our gardens for next year. I’ve been waiting for the cooler weather to get to work on a vegetable garden, so I’m excited to move forward in sub 90 degree temperatures. 
the scene. While there are no promises on the weather, we can help your fall ambiance with our next crafternoon kit for adults: beeswax candles. It is super easy, as we have beeswax sheets that can be rolled around the wick. These kits will be available while they last in all of our branches on Friday, September 17. You may pick them up at the second floor reference desk at the Columbia library and near the service desks at our other branches.
