Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s the season of romance—yesterday was our wedding anniversary (we chose to get married on Charles Darwin’s birthday—I was a biology grad student…), today(ish)—Feb. 13th—is/was George Washington’s birthday <g>, and so (with all this exciting lead-up)—it seems the perfect time to mention my friend Julia Brannen’s new Regency Romance novels about the Summersley Family.
“Escape into a world where wit, desire and history intertwine. Meet the Summersley Family, where hearts race, secrets smoulder, and love always finds a way.”
Julia writes wonderful historical novels, several of which are mentioned on the Methadone List (i.e., books I can recommend to people who keep asking me what they’re supposed to read while waiting for Book Ten…) here on my website.
But now she’s launched into new and sparkling waters as Charlotte Applewhite (which strikes me as a Very Appropriate name for a writer of Regency romances, I must say <g>). I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I have!
https://charlotteapplewhite.com/
First Snake Sighting of 2026!
Well, we have new snake photos…behold! The first snake sighting of 2026!
Came across this scaly person yesterday, while herding dogs in the Back Forty. He/she/it either saw me coming or felt the vibration of my footsteps, because it had frozen before I saw it, and had I not been looking at the ground (which I always am, out there, owing to Arby’s propensity for digging Large Holes, at left), I might have walked into it or stepped on it (I did have such an encounter with a red racer in that same field, several years ago—just walked right into it and didn’t notice until I felt something tangled round my lower leg. Both snake and I panicked, and it took a minute to become disassociated, but all ended well…)
The second snake photo above is the head (still attached <g>) of the snake in the top wide photo; it was pretending to be dead.
And the photo below is of the aforementioned red racer—it was taken with a much inferior camera, several years ago, but you can still see what he is.
All photos on this webpage were taken and are copyright © by me, Diana Gabaldon.
Click on photos to see the full-sized images, which will each open in a new tab or window in your browser.
On February 14, 2026, these posts were also added to my official Facebook page.
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