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Kana's Chronicles

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Category: Travel

The Lost Map

watercolor map of the world, with pins in many countrires
November 15, 2025November 16, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 22 Comments

WordPress used to have a widget I loved. I love maps in any case---I'm a certifiable cartophile, and this map I loved in particular. A blogger could put this widget on the side of the page, and its map showed all the countries in which the blog had been read. SO cool. I can still … Continue reading The Lost Map

Better Than a Fairy Godmother

fairy godmother
November 12, 2025November 12, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 26 Comments

What could possibly be better than having a Fairy Godmother? Having a REAL one, of course! When my dad was in grad school and my parents lived in Married Student Housing, they lived upstairs or downstairs (I forget who was where) from Klaus & Karen Sitte, and they became fast friends. The kind of prank-playing … Continue reading Better Than a Fairy Godmother

Avoiding “Sketcher’s Block”

an open book of drawing prompt, with watercolor paintings for each prompt, and the open watercolor box
November 10, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 10 Comments

I have a weird relationship with drawing and painting. I'm utterly ignorant, have never taken so much as a weekend workshop, couldn't tell you if that Italian word describes a painting technique or a musical instruction. I've figured out some stuff, just playing---some stuff about light and shadow and perspective, at least. You can generally … Continue reading Avoiding “Sketcher’s Block”

Portofino

AI-generated image of Portofino---citrus-colored stucco buildings and anchored fishing boats.
November 9, 2025November 9, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 16 Comments

I've been revisiting old poetry, thinking of taking up the poet's quill again... It's poetry-writing in which I took my Master's degree, but I discovered "creative nonfiction" (the personal essay) late in the game, and it's that genre I really fell in love with. They didn't offer a degree in creative nonfiction, anyway, or I … Continue reading Portofino

A Ramble, and An Ode to my Frameo

drawing of a breakfast table on a patio on Maui at sunrise
November 5, 2025November 13, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 7 Comments

GoodReads tells me I'm "behind" by 9 books. It's measuring against the pace I have to average, in order to meet my reading goal of 310 books this year. I've spent the year playing leapfrog with that number---sometimes I'm a number of books ahead-of-pace, obviously sometimes the opposite. But we're coming up on that time … Continue reading A Ramble, and An Ode to my Frameo

Here AND There

photo of a sea turtle in Maui
November 1, 2025November 1, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 14 Comments

The last couple nights have dipped down below freezing, riming the fields beyond our house with frost. This morning a heavy skim of frozen fog at the foot of the distant mountains contrasted with the bold grapefruit of the pre-dawn clouds, like a painting of frost and fire. It feels like a fitting entree to … Continue reading Here AND There

Podcast Debrief

cartoon of a woman standing in a rowboat holding a fishing pole with a white whale on the other end, saying "NOW what?"
October 28, 2025November 6, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 3 Comments

For all my angst-ing ahead of time ("On the Subject of Being the Subject"), I very much enjoyed my conversation with Josh Pantalleresco of "Just Joshing". Although it occurs to me that I did rather deflect from being-the-subject by asking him questions... You would too, I think---he's literally walking and hitching across continents (Canada, then … Continue reading Podcast Debrief

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"As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts."

~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

  1. isabellaawentworth's avatar
    isabellaawentworth on The Accidental Cat LadyMarch 7, 2026

    Cats are the best! They're a lot of work, but they're still the best. I loved reading your story!

  2. ivythissmalllife's avatar
    ivythissmalllife on The Accidental Cat LadyFebruary 25, 2026

    I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this post. My daughter and I (both allergic, plus I'm also asthmatic) started…

  3. NEERAJ SINGH's avatar
    NEERAJ SINGH on The Accidental Cat LadyFebruary 23, 2026

    so beautiful ♥️

  4. yusefasabiyah's avatar
    yusefasabiyah on In Which We Don’t Sail Into the SunsetFebruary 16, 2026

    Owning the boat was associated with beautiful dreams of romance and adventure. If you sell the boat, you'll have a…

  5. judy thompson's avatar
    judy thompson on The Accidental Cat LadyFebruary 3, 2026

    I suspect we have a magic 'hobo' sign on our mailbox, for forty + years cats have wandered up our…

"It is not down on any map; true places never are"

~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

What is WRONG With People? A Pain in the Neck If the Present is a Gift, so is the Past Cow Physiology 101 The “Year in Books” On the Palm Tree as an Antidepressant Untitled Dragon Biography The Christmas-Tree Trade-In
  • Blogger Call to Action: Please Help Me Happy-Dance
  • Looking for YA Reading Recommendations
  • Mythbusters Edition: "Depression is Just in Your Head"
  • Pushed Over the Edge?
  • Cracking the Winter Chrysalis
  • Freelance Job Opportunity!
  • When you Assume... you make an ASS out of U & ME
  • One of My Very Bad Habits
  • Mother-in-Law or Fairy Godmother?
  • Tiaras and Carpet Tape

"Not all those who wander are lost."

~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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