It’s nearly over. The weather is changing and we’re getting our first frosts this week. The leaves are changing and the squirrels are busy all day. It’s time to look over the vegetable garden and see what needs to be picked and what may survive a few more weeks. Our annual vacation always seems to […]
Category Archives: family
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare We called them ‘doodle bugs,’ but a girl I knew called them ‘rolly-pollys.’ When in college, I learned they were actually ‘wood lice’ or the singular, ‘woodlouse.’ Wikipedia lists about fifty other names for these guys, not including […]
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? ~ English Nursery Rhyme Well, the hot weather here has been both good and bad for our vegetable garden. The heat, and maybe my ineffective watering, has hindered the snow peas, Big Boy tomatoes and the spinach, but it does seem to have helped the […]
I think I’m getting older. Not the ‘growing up and getting wiser’ aging that we hear about, but the actual getting old. Somehow my blond hair turned white without me noticing. With my 72nd birthday this week, I’m creakier in the mornings, and if I sit very long, that creakiness doesn’t really go away during […]
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happySunshine in my eyes can make me crySunshine on the water looks so lovelySunshine almost always makes me high ~ Sunshine, John Denver We sat on the patio in the sun, soaking up the warmth after a day or two of rain. It felt nice to be outside […]
I was always a scared kid. When my older brother and I watched the Saturday night monster movies on TV, I usually ended up behind a chair peeking through my fingers as the vampire or monster threatened the damsel in distress. My brother and I often went to the Saturday matinees downtown where he was […]
We would sit on the ground or on the pickup tailgate taking a break from following the dogs to hunt quail. Even though it was fall, the Texas heat and humidity were still high, and pushing through the brush and weeds over rough terrain required some effort. Our gear was heavy, and the thick brush-resistant […]
Our young dog, Rosie, is timid, and it takes a long while for her to get used to “new” people. She is unlike dogs who have owned me in the past — usually very eager to interact with people, sometimes to the point of annoyance. Rosie is a medium sized white pup with a charming […]
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, […]
Empathy — em·pa·thy, noun, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Back in the early seventies, I read somewhere that you should talk to your house plants to help them grow better. It wasn’t a stretch for me, since I already talked with my dog, and often with my first wife. The plants […]
Writes of Nature 