Our family is sitting on the edge of Mallet Pond just before sunset. Dusky Doodles is beside the water, a look of perplexed consternation on her furry face. The September air is clear, and we’ve found a sweet spot, where if we call out across the way, our echoes return over the water as clearly […]
Must we eat the children?
I’m losing track of how many winters I’ve spent working on this novel. I think 2017 marked the fourth. And while that manuscript sits on my computer awaiting my attention, an outline for a new book is growing like a fungus on my desk, taking shape regardless of the lack of time and sunlight I’m […]
August
I remember when August was defined by crickets pulsing through the day and night; by goldenrods stretching tall to meet the deep blue sky; by the blackberries that lured me off the roadsides, slicing my legs and arms as payment for their plump fruit. I remember how August was the calm before the storm of […]
How to prepare a hot dog
“Can we play Percy Jackson?” Ula’s voice rises up, tentative, from the back of the car. Saoirse’s best friend Ania is back east from California. Saoirse and Ania turn 14 this month, and I have them here with me for only a few short days, as they are headed out on a back packing trip […]
Adventures in Shopping
“We’re at a store called Pink. Did you know you can try on thongs over your shorts?” This is a week of many firsts: Saoirse’s first “hang out” at the mall with Martina, our foreign exchange student from Madrid; her first siting of a Wendy’s restaurant; her first exposure to the makeup aisle at Wal-Mart, […]
Heart-Vision
“She needs to learn to advocate for herself, Mom.” I say it with such an air of authority. It’s Ula’s second day of Circus Camp down at the Panther Creek Arts Center. Cornelia organized it for all the local kids, and Ula, with her own passion for the circus, was especially excited. But she had […]
The Other America
Going to watch fireworks is the last thing I want to do on the Fourth of July. I’m mulling over the possible excuses and reasons I can present to get out of it as Bob and I walk the dirt road, scanning the blossoms on the elderberry bushes. We’re checking to see if any of […]
Slow. (Not stupid.)
Bob and I are on our morning walk, our ears tuned in to the new warblers that have come into the area this week, our eyes honed to catch glimpses of them along the side of the dirt road. This has become a deeply pleasurable ritual for us: the girls get their own breakfasts and […]
The $4000.00 Cartwheel
I should have pruned my blueberries months ago, when the winter sun was just starting to rise higher in the sky. I should have broadforked my cut flower bed last fall, then seeded it to a winter cover crop so the soil would be nourished and easier to work this spring. I should have kept […]
Peepers
Welcome back! The long winter’s rest if officially over, and I’m so happy to be back to blogging. It’s been a long and strange winter, but beautiful nonetheless….Thanks for joining the blog for another season! According to one of my college literature professors, the song of the dangerous sirens Oddyseus so longed to hear harkened to […]
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