Gather 'round…
It's fall in Wisconsin. And once again the seasons take me by the hand and calm my soul. It happens every year. Summer comes, and I am filled with hope at the coming adventures. We saturate the months with more than the suspension can comfortably hold. There is down time, but it is barely enough... Continue Reading →
I'm home. Again. Pulled in late last night from driving home with Rachel from Oregon. I have crossed the bulk of this country three times this year, something I never thought might happen. I am more of a slow traveler, and until now, a 35+ hour drive to get to any destination, even one as... Continue Reading →
There are sunflowers out my window. Not because I am a sunflower farmer, but simply because I planted hostas beneath my birdfeeder. You see, the resident chickens really like to scratch there under that feeder in the spring, for no matter how many birds we have, even of the ground-feeding junco variety, the intended beneficiaries... Continue Reading →
There are airbeds everywhere. I'm in the throws of packing for a particularly ambitious three-week camping trip out West, a whirlwind tour of National Parks and wayward children. It is May. The camping gear emerges slowly from its slumber, and with each unearthing, there is fear and trepidation. For you never know what you'll find...... Continue Reading →
I have just been buzzed by a pileated woodpecker. When I say buzzed, what I mean, specifically, is that I felt the push of his enormous wings. Lingering on the flash of memory burned into the back of my brain, I can count the barbs on his feathers. In more concrete terms, that sixteen-inch beast... Continue Reading →
Dare I even ask? The birds have already made their predictions, and have made the journeys that accompany them, and I hope for their sakes that it is indeed. For almost a month we've had strangers at the feeders. Dozens of redwing blackbirds blackening the trees outside my window, trying their hands at sunflower seeds. European... Continue Reading →
It’s day five of my five-day writing retreat, and I am winding down my time here in this Northwoods cottage with some of my writer buds. Two hours and counting, if you should want to keep track. The place we have this year is great. Spacious, warm, clean, and cozy. I don't have a lot... Continue Reading →
The fan attached to our bargain model fireplace unit is dying. It’s a small miracle that it has gotten us this far, and it’ll be a large one if it fires up this fall when we call it back into service. You know how things on the brink of death get after a season of... Continue Reading →
The Manifestation of God. This is what we’re celebrating today. Just a few little words, loaded well over the safety line. Theophany is here, and Christ is baptized in the Jordan, by none other than John the Baptizer himself, who--I dare say--has no interest in baptizing the Messiah himself. I imagine he was feeling a... Continue Reading →
The latest installment of the Ottinger Christmas Letter: Christmas Letter 2017 (Past Years: Christmas Letters from the Nexus of the Universe) Christ is Born! Glorify Him! KJ
“The snow looks light and the sky dark, but in fact the sky is lighter than the snow. Obviously the thing illumined cannot be lighter than its illuminator. The classical demonstration of this point involves simply laying a mirror flat on the snow so that it reflects in its surface the sky, and comparing by... Continue Reading →
Last summer we had this crazed cardinal. He appeared one day on the back deck, chipping like a wild man. Incessantly. For weeks. Every day he would return, and every day he would march up and down the railing boards, from one end of the deck to the other, pacing, chip, chip, chipping at us... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 