Gather 'round…
The robins are singing again. I can't be sure that it's Julio I'm hearing out there, but whoever it is, they're greeting me through closed windows each morning, and I've missed them. As I've explored before--you know, a few times--I am slightly more dependent than the average bear on the changing seasons for my well-being.... Continue Reading →
I’ve been crashing through Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals. Crashing because it is good, and I'm loving it, and because I’m thrilled to have finally discovered Durrell’s voice as an adult, but also--possibly--because it is nine days overdue and I'm feeling like a felon. I wonder if I’m the only president of a... Continue Reading →
Has anyone noticed? It’s December. December 2nd, if we want to get all technical. This fact is revelatory because I have somehow managed to skip completely over December 1st. In my spanky new journal—The Gratitude Sidekick Journal, if you must know—I have been putting the wrong dates on each entry for days. This morning I... Continue Reading →
The birds have been frequenting our back deck, promenading back and forth along the railings and peering at me from the handles of the grill nearest the patio doors. They’ve been hanging out around the spent stalks of the hostas in front, parading up and down, stopping with each ascent to gaze in through the... Continue Reading →
The other night, Wednesday I believe, we were out at Picnic Flow enjoying the waves on the basalt and the dancing moon in the ‘tide’pools. The Flow is this amazing tilt of lavarock, just shoving out into Lake Superior, and a favorite place of ours at Gooseberry Falls. We're especially drawn out there at night,... Continue Reading →
A gorgeous jaunt on the North Shore, if a bit short. First, a photo essay: That pretty well sums it up. Except I didn't manage to take any pictures whilst vehemently scrubbing my face Thursday night, when the wind and the cold conspired against my headlight and it exploded to drip battery acid on my... Continue Reading →
We’re headed to the North Shore tomorrow. To our beloved Gooseberry. Life’s thrown some sucker punches our way this year, and the enthusiasm is tempered, but still, deep down, it is there: the primordial pull towards the mighty Gitchi Gummi. I’ve got a plethora of reasons that this trip will inevitably be bittersweet, but also... Continue Reading →
This post has been kind of falling together for a few days. How fitting that it's ready to hit the interwebs on Mother's Day... Anne Lamott wrote this letter to her Grandson Jax at 4 months old: "Dear Jax: Yesterday was your first Thanksgiving, and it is time for me to impart to you the secret... Continue Reading →
We had ten male cardinals at the feeder yesterday. Six females hanging out in the wings. We don't usually get that many. Not at once. Beautiful! The blue jays were missing yesterday, too, like we were part of some neighborhood bird exchange program. Hmm... We did get another foot (and then some) of snow this... Continue Reading →
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich My rating: 5 of 5 stars I think that The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse has been on my to-read shelf for almost a decade. Back in the days when my super-reader-friends were just introducing me to good... Continue Reading →
I set my Goodreads 2019 Reading Goal at 30 books. I think I was one book shy of the same for 2018. At this rate, I'll hit 50. But who are we kidding, I never maintain this pace for more than a few weeks. 30 it is, and 30 it shall remain. Up at #3... Continue Reading →
First sun of 2019. Well, there we are. One year up in flames, and another just kindling on the hearth. I've been thinking about my word for the year. For my first year or so it was Empathy, which never really gets old, at least not when you're me. But still, in the spirit of one... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 