Loose Leaf Notes

A Dogwood Downpour A Boom of Bloom A Shower of Flower A Sun Salute Two for Tulips A Robin Red Breast at Rest / Our World Tuesday

We followed a butterfly down the trail at the I.C. DeHart Memorial Park in Woolwine that Joe discovered while mountain biking with a friend (just 8 miles from our house). It was weekend two of hiking our way through the social distancing of COVID-19 looking for wildflowers. Joe explained that the single track for mountain […]

I’m turning into that woman in Norwood Massachusetts who lived in the apartment next to my friend Eugene She cooked garlic in the skillet every day at lunchtime It wafted through the neighborhood and smelled like Little Italy And we wondered why she didn’t have something better to do or something different to cook I […]

And your redbud is pink. When the Golden Girls are boys And your pets look like parakeets.

The last few weeks of my brother’s lives played out like the conclusion of a dramatic Hollywood script, a plot with a twist.  The road trip they took, two weeks before the first death, became the beginning of a larger journey, the one in which they would both leave this world. I have decided to […]

1. My husband Joe, a counselor who runs an addiction day program, is working at home. 2. Last week I went to a webinar birthday celebration for his mom, who just turned 91. 3. The birds are my entertainment. The garden is my work. 4. Last week the song Can’t Touch This was going round […]

What’s the difference between a walk and a hike? Is it just about what boots you wear? Ours was more of a walk than a hike because we ambled and stopped frequently, Joe to seek out fallen limbs to balance over the rushing creek on and me to hunt for wildflowers. “A division of labor,” […]

The new girls in town already have names. The boys named them. Big Fat and Black Jack are New Jersey Giants, Mrs. Peck and Chicken Nugget are Salmon Faverolle, and Ostrich is a Turken, which is named from the word turkey and hen because it is a chicken that looks like a turkey. We didn’t […]

Living your true life is like waiting for a bus without a schedule or a designated stop You bought a ticket but don’t know to where You hope you’ll know it when you see it Sometimes you have to run for it or take one to get to another Once you’re on board you have […]

1. I’ve heard that a lot of babies will be conceived and a lot divorces will follow this time of sheltering in place. 2. Not to mention that a lot of us will be having regular daily bad hair days. I need a haircut right now. 3. Cropping my photographs is like cutting my bangs. […]