‘DOING?’

It might have been a very young Ruby who used to say: "Doing?" as in "What are you doing?" Knitting, reading, and revising and submitting two stories and four poems. And working on the novel. You remember that? The book? I meant to take a break from the novel, slow down, get some rest, but …

UP HILL

Gary doesn't want to walk up hill to the rose garden this morning, especially with bears. (Probably just one black bear, but three sightings so far in Forest Park... not anywhere near the area we walk.) Climate change seems to be foremost in the news everywhere in the world but in our country. Recent heat …

HEARTS & CORDWOOD

Gary is filling the gap in his woodpile he so carefully straightened and vacuumed. He used to object if I called our cords of firewood "his" but no more. He has never allowed anyone to help him cut, clean, stack, or rearrange that pile. Photos follow. Back to from, left to right: rough quartz, basalt, …

MOHS SCALE

This post began, the idea of it, last month when I was supposed to be working on the novel. I left a stub and then folded the post away. I cannot believe it took me so long to actually look up the hardness of glass. It took Duck-Duck-Go all of two minutes to find everything …

THE BOOK: stirred words

When I was teaching high school English, I kept a Bible and the Qur’an on my shelves. I had the American stories collected by Erdoes and Ortiz. (Most of my books were free to borrow and generally came back, but that book and the side-by-side original Spanish and English translations of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda …

IT MIGHT BE BULL… or not

Fresco found in Knossos palace, Crete, Greece, dated 1600 - 1450 BCE. And generally referred to as the "Bull Leaping Fresco." It is substantially restored, repainted—much of the original painting had cracked off the wall. Johnbod has released this to the public domain. Even if you never took Art History, you might recognize this mural, a …

‘scared to death’

Ralph Yarl is home from the hospital and recovering, "a miracle" considering he was shot in the head before the "terrified" gun-owner shot him a second time as he lay bleeding on his front porch. He'd come to the porch to pick up siblings but rang the bell on a Street instead of an Avenue—or …

LIARS&ICE

Word count, dental visits, complaints about the weather, lies, and the lying liars who tell them. I hope I don't often complain about weather or climate, but any time the snow and hail wants to stop for the season is not too soon for me. It hailed off and on all day yesterday, and I …

GARY’S WOODPILE

I should have got a photo. I caught Gary vacuuming his woodpile. Somewhere in this photo is a hummingbird feeding off the rhododendron that began blooming a week or so ago. I can only spot it because I compared my photo to the view and spotted the smudge. We've had snow since, but the hummingbird …

NEXT?

Gary and I are working on our future. Eventually the upkeep and isolation of the Arch Cape house will be too much. Our sons do not seem attached to the coast—oh, they say they miss it, but they seldom come out to visit. Once a year, or twice. They lead busy lives. That means we’ll …