Larisa A. White
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larisa-a-white.com
Larisa A. White
@larisa-a-white.com
5.9K followers 1.2K following 1.5K posts
M.S.Ed., Ph.D. • Indie scholar • Author • Teaching the power & joy of learning • Ecosystem restorationist (California) • Celebrating nature • Advocating stewardship • Weaving tales of cross-cultural & inter-species relations.

https://larisa-a-white.com
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California's annual battle between sunshine and cloudbursts has begun.

Welcome, Rainbow Season!!!

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A brightly colored rainbow arcs across grey skies, between two wet, green trees.
January 5, 2026 at 6:27 PM
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Ooof! Forgot how much focus is required to learn a new craft! Just took 30 min to stitch this guide line for my first counted cross-stitch pattern. Can barely see the threads, or reach around the frame. Must learn to work 2-handed & by feel. But the goal will be worth the struggle, I deem:

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A single row of 80 half cross-stitches worked in bright yellow on black 22-count Aida fabric. The stitches are worked in groups of ten, with ten empty stitches between each group, to serve as a measuring/counting guide for a counted cross-stitch pattern. My goal: a 300x300 stitch counted cross-stitch pattern for a stained glass styled tree of life!
January 3, 2026 at 5:06 AM
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Bob the Minion, my long-time writing companion, is excited to have made the cut to be pictured in my upcoming book on human learning — when you practice explaining things to others (especially to a very simple-minded & enthusiastic rubber duck), it really can help you learn!

#amwriting #education
A rubber duck in the shape of "Bob" the Minion sits on a wooden desk next to a computer keyboard and mouse. A book manuscript is shown on a computer screen in the background.
December 28, 2025 at 12:31 AM
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Just enjoyed our family's heartwarming holiday movie tradition, celebrating the shift from darkness toward light, and our love of Nature by watching, "Fly Away Home."

(A girl & her father teach orphaned goslings to fly south for the winter, using a pair of ultralight planes.)
A girl and her father holding orphaned goslings, on a Canadian farm. A pair of ultralight planes lead a string of geese south across a deeply colored autumn sunset.
December 26, 2025 at 2:10 AM
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Ooooh! Look what my family gave me as a Yule gift. Needlework stand and three yards of muslin. Like a beautiful new notebook with nothing written in it yet. So many possibilities. Whatever shall I embroider, first?
A birch wood, floor stand with an embroidery frame, and a blank piece of muslin await the artist, next to a bentwood rocking chair, on a Persian carpet.
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
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Wishing one and all a blessed Yule weekend, and joy of the returning light!

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#pagansky #druidsky
A Yule tree, decorated with acorns, mushrooms, birch logs, butterflies, and birds, shines in the night, with a reflection in the windowpane behind it.
December 20, 2025 at 5:55 AM
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In other parts of the world, winter snow brings the blessed peace and quiet of the season; here in CA, we just have quiet drifts of fog.
Heavy fog obliterates the view of nearby hills, and adorns the trees with dripping mist.
December 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
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DaD has been properly memorialized and laid to rest...

The eulogy I wrote for his memorial can be read on his Tribute Wall at:
www.walkerfuneralhomeofqueens.com/obituaries/E...

Time to return to the land of the living.

Thanks to all my kind followers for your support during this difficult time!
A burial niche at Maple Grove Cemetery in Queens, NYC. Displayed behind a crystal pane of glass: a burial urn made of finely crafted natural wood, a portrait of Ernest J. Naples, a crystal sailboat, architect's slide-rule, and brass plane for fine woodworking.
December 12, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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My DaD.
My DaD.
November 25, 2025 at 3:32 AM
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A soul-soothing afternoon at Purissima Creek Redwoods, in Half Moon Bay, CA: the quiet, the woodland aromas, the soft, spongy forest floor -- just what the doctor ordered!

(Photo courtesy of my 14 y.o. son, Steven.)

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Golden afternoon sunlight filters down through the canopy of a redwood forest.
November 22, 2025 at 11:53 PM
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What's wrong with this picture?

A giant, deep-dish pizza pan serving as our new bird bath because the critters flipped and broke the old (pale yellow) pottery bird bath. Birds do not seem to recognize this as a bird-bath, and the other critters are not drinking at it, either.

Any ideas why?
A giant, dark metal, deep-dish-pizza pan filled with water and a few flat rocks sits atop a terra-cotta planter, creating a bird bath nestled among blueberry bushes.
November 15, 2025 at 9:22 PM
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The IngramSpark presses are getting flooded with holiday orders. If you'd like to gift/receive a print copy of "World Druidry" this holiday season, order by Nov. 22!

Discounted, author-direct copies can now be purchased via
larisa-a-white.com/worlddruidry...

/|\ #druidsky #pagansky 🎁
A hardbound copy of "World Druidry: A Globalizing Path of Nature Spirituality" by Larisa A. White, on an oak coffee table, surrounded by flowers and a dish of candy.
November 13, 2025 at 11:55 PM
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Another seasonal gift from my young photographer, Steven White...

Rain chains flowing. Gotta love November in the Coast Range Mountains of California!
November 13, 2025 at 11:39 PM
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First batch complete: 8 cups of joy, awaiting fresh-baked bread.
Four jars of fresh-made firethorn jelly cooling on a cookie rack. Two of the jars are back-lit by a flashlight, to show off the ruby- red color.
November 7, 2025 at 1:28 AM
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10 cups of firethorn tea, waiting to be processed into jelly, tomorrow.

I always love the rich color of this jelly - almost fluoresces.
10 cups of firethorn tea, stored in two half-gallon mason jars.
November 4, 2025 at 3:26 AM
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My favorite part of November: pruning the neighbor's thorny pyracantha bushes & harvesting the berries for firethorn jelly!
Giant pot of pyracantha berries, washed and ready for jelly-making.
November 4, 2025 at 1:16 AM
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When tired and stressed with grown-up worries, picking up an old hardcover edition of "The World of Christopher Robin,” and reading a few poems is like medicine; it makes everything seem alright again.
Photo of the NYC 5th Ave Public Library exhibit of the stuffed animals that inspired the original tales of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.
October 22, 2025 at 2:11 AM
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An Autumn Break gift from my boy, taken while visiting Grandma's house at Lake Tahoe...

Back to school on Monday, so we'll have to hold this beauty in memory.

Teen #nature #photography
Sunrise seen through towering pines, growing on the mountain slopes above Lake Tahoe
October 5, 2025 at 4:33 AM
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Sunset at the Autumn Equinox, in Half Moon Bay, California.
A golden sun sinks into the Pacific Ocean, seen from a cliff top path overlooking the sandy beach. Backlit seed heads glow white in the foreground.
September 23, 2025 at 4:21 AM
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The Fire Season heat is on! Time for an...

AUTUMN EQUINOX FLASH SALE • Sept. 15-28, 2025
25% off on all hardcover, paperback, and ePub editions of "World Druidry: A Globalizing Path of Nature Spirituality"
purchased author-direct from:

larisa-a-white.com/worlddruidry...

/|\ #druidsky #pagansky 🎁
A hardbound copy of the book, "World Druidry: A Globalizing Path of Nature Spirituality" by Larisa A. White, M.S.Ed., Ph.D., sits on an oak table surrounded by dried lavender flowers and a dish of candy.
September 15, 2025 at 11:50 PM
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#Crocheted, native California wildflowers. Elegant Clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) v.1

Comments/critiques?

🧶 #nativeplants
Close-up of a real Elegant Clarkia blossom Crocheted rendition of an Elegant Clarkia flower. An array of three native California wildflowers in crocheted form: an elegant clarkia alongside a blue flax flower and a tidy tips flower. The beginning of a crochet meadow.
August 24, 2025 at 1:54 AM
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Another stunning photo (iPhone SE; no edits; no AI) by my 14 y.o. son, Steven.

#nature #photography
A birch leaf, back-lit and haloed by the sun, showing details of leaf veining in sharp contrast to blurred branches, twigs, and distant foliage.
August 18, 2025 at 6:27 PM
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#Crocheted, native California wildflowers. Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) v.1

Comments/critiques?

🧶 #nativeplants
A crochet lace rendering of a blue flax flower. Blue flax flowers in a California native plants garden.
August 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM
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#Crocheted, native California wildflowers. Tidy Tips, FINAL:

Moving on to Blue Flax flowers...
A lace crochet rendition of the native California wildflower known as Tidy Tips. The final version of the pattern I created for crocheted Tidy Tips flowers: Worked in DMC Embroidery Floss, using a #4 sized crochet hook. Colors used: #742(center); #743(petals); BLANC(tips); #300(central brown flecks) Flower Center: Form a magic ring. 1st rnd: 8 sc in magic ring. Tighten magic ring to close center. 2nd rnd: 2sc in each sc. 3rd rnd: 1sc in each sc. Tie off. Flower Petals: 4th rnd: (begin back-loop petals): Work around the center, in back loops: (ch3, 3dc in same stitch, sl st down side of petal to its base, sl st in next 4 sc); repeat 3X to make 4 petals in back loops, and return to starting point. 5th rnd: (2nd row on back-loop petals) Work around the center, in back loops: (sl st up side of petal, ch3, 1dc in each of next 3 dc, sl st down side of petal, sl st in base; sl st in 4 back loops to reach next back-loop petal); repeat 3X to add 2nd row to 4 back-loop petals, and return to starting point. Work around center, in front loops: sl st in first 4 front loops of central sc stitches, to reach center of gap between back-loop petals. Repeat rnds 4 & 5, working in front loops. Tie off. White Tips: [Join White to top of petal. (sc, ch, dc, ch, sc) in each dc of petal, to make 3 lobed tips. Tie off.] Repeat 7X to add white tips to 8 petals. Brown Flecks: Work random sewn stitches into flower center to create brown flecks. A real-world photograph of the native California wildflower, Tidy Tips.
August 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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Better than therapy for what ails you:

1. Calming ambient music by Ron Alan Cohen

2. Quiet work on nature-reverent art (crocheting native wildflowers here)

3. A reminder to "Be a goldfish," and forget any worries outside your immediate locus of control.

Wishing all a blessed day.

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A crochet hook with colorful embroidery floss and a half-finished Tidy Tips flower, and a mug with the phrase "Be a goldfish/Ted Lasso" sit on a wooden table. In the background: a computer screen showing ocean waves.
August 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM