The birds are in the background now and the butterflies are busy. The green-breasted hummingbird comes to breakfast on the porch and tries to work up the courage to land on the purple petunias. This is the first year in a few that we have corn and summer phlox. I had to kill a raccoon […]
I drag my royal blue beach recliner around the yard like a cartoon caveman drags a woman. It’s like a clock that circles the yard, follows the orbit of the sun and tells of my recent whereabouts. It’s a heavy chair, but I have to find just the right spot, open but protected and private, […]
A fog has rolled in and settled. A lone pumpkin, pecked by the chickens, is the only color in my view. The lack of birdsong is eerie. Occasionally a lamenting hen, who has all but given up laying, will disrupt the overcast hush. A distant gunshot means meat in someone’s freezer. The ring of wind […]
I’m up too early, awakened by what sounded like a squirrel moving furniture on the roof and me fretting about a non-refundable plane ticket I booked late last night for a November wedding in Massachusetts. Still groggy, rocking in the kitchen rocking chair in my bathrobe, I remember a dream and tell it to Joe. […]
The Floydfest dust has settled. It’s too overcast to go the pool. I don’t feel like doing much because I didn’t get enough sleep last night after a storm knocked the power out, causing me to remember the movie Wait Until Dark and imagine that a prowler knew I was home alone, cut my electric […]
Nope. I don’t do yoga or tai chi on the beach (although I do like to photograph it). I’m more the beachcombing, bird watching type. I like to walk and people watch: the lovers holding hands, the surfers in wet suits stretching, the guy playing guitar, the other guy who just jumped on the seawall […]
Walking on the rows of our garden like an astronaut looking for life on the moon, I discover a few volunteer kale plants that have survived the morning frost. I transplant them into the cold frame, pick a batch of remay-covered Swiss chard and harvest what’s left of the parsnips with a shovel, soaking […]
These days I have to chase the sun further out into the yard to warm myself in the morning. There is barely a petal of purple left on my butterfly bush and my bare feet are covered with socks. I can’t tell the difference between cricket and grasshopper song, but I wonder when did they […]
Stuffy nose. New purple robe. Warm weather repose. I’m planted on the porch like a seed craving sun, with my weekend writings juxtaposed between the very real dangers of uranium mining in Virginia and sustainability through local food movement in Floyd. Joe and Jesse are in the kitchen brainstorming and planning to bring more social, […]
Stranded at home on Saturday by a truck with a dead battery, I missed the Christmas parade but got two stories nearly written, marinated the last of last year’s venison round steak, and spent all together too much time photographing a cup of tea illuminated by late afternoon sunlight. My son Josh and three of […]
Christmas carols at Logan airport are blaring so loudly that the imagined sound of my mother’s whistle calling for assistance is buried in the background. My hands smell of coffee, dried prunes and soap. It’s 9 a.m. and I’ve been up since 4. My mother is fragile and one of my brothers is still drinking. […]
Ripe tomatoes are falling off the vine. A single yellow swallowtail wings by, looking for zinnia and the last of the petunia. The rising breeze carries the scent of breakfast. The unlatched screen door squeaks open, then slams shut. Dirty onions are sprawled on the porch floor waiting to be to braided and hung. It’s […]
