Hello and welcome! 

A Stone in the River is a personal blog with a particular focus on the Climate Emergency, transitioning to post-fossil fuel zero carbon life, bicycling, gardening, books, community, interbeing, wonder and joy. 

The title of this blog is inspired by Kathleen Dean Moore in her book Great Tide Rising. What does a stone in the river do?

to make one deflection in complacency, one obstruction to profits, one blockage to business-as-usual, then another, and another, to change the energy of the flood. As it swirls around these snags and subversions, the current will slow, lose power, eddy in new directions, and create new systems and structures that change its course forever…Those disruptions can turn destructive energy into a new dynamic that finally reverses the forces that would wreck the world.

I am but one stone and alone will not stop the river. But many stones together can change the course of the river and remake the landscape into something new, creative, and life affirming.

About Me

My name is Stefanie Hollmichel and I live on Dakota land in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. 

I have been blogging since October, 2003 at So Many Books. In 2018 I shifted my focus away from books and changed the name to Weeds at the same URL. I continue to be a voracious reader but no longer a book blogger. And now, with A Stone in the River, I am making the final separation from my former blog.

Sometimes I think I missed my calling as a farmer, but I do my best with my small urban yard farm I call Arugula Meadow because the seeds I planted several years ago have sown themselves everywhere, and in summer the bright yellow flowers bob up and down with happy bees. Besides arugula, I grow fruit, vegetables, herbs, and native prairie plants. I have a hazelnut tree too but have never eaten a nut from it because the squirrels get them before I do.

I also have a small flock of chickens comprised of Elinor and Mrs. Dashwood, collectively called the Dashwoods after the Dashwood women in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. They are in their elderly years and the remaining two from the original flock. But there are new girls in the coop: Lucy, Ethel, and Sia, collectively known as “The Nuggets.” They hatched July 6th, 2021 and have brought some fresh silliness to the stately existence of the Dashwoods.

In addition to reading and gardening, I am a year-round cyclist. I bike commute to work rain or snow, hot or cold as well as participate in local cycling rides and races or just riding around for fun. My favorite riding is road and gravel at distances of 100 miles or more. I train on Zwift, a virtual cycling platform.

I have a husband named James who does all the cooking. We follow a whole foods plant based diet. James works at a local independent bookstore. And my alter ego is circulation and interlibrary loan librarian at a university law library.

This blog is hosted by Green Geeks, a carbon neutral company. 

I welcome your thoughts and comments. I encourage respectful disagreement and discussion, but reserve the right to edit or delete inappropriate, rude, or hateful comments without notice.

Thanks for visiting!