January 04, 2014 / Snow Bound
We should hurry up, don’t you think? The snow’s already started, and it’s supposed to get worse in a couple of hours, and go on all night and on into tomorrow afternoon. They’re saying it’s going to get into the single digits and there will be high winds too, so the… Read More
December 30, 2013 / Inventory
About two years ago I decided to prepare an Inventory of the things in my house and to tell the stories of where they came from and how they got to be here. I don’t mean ordinary things, like a table or couch, but things that have family meaning, or are maybe valuable in some other way. As… Read More
December 27, 2013 / Breath-Holding at Year’s End
The Shortest Day A Poem Written for Revels in 1977 by Susan Cooper So the Shortest Day came, and the year died And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away. They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with… Read More
December 20, 2013 / Illuminations
When I moved to Massachusetts from Colorado, about fifty years ago, I discovered lots of things that were different from what I was used to. Such as calling soda pop “tonic,” no matter what its flavor. Or learning that a “cleanser” was a dry cleaners, or that when asked… Read More
November 29, 2013 / All Those Pictures
The other day I read somewhere that 216,000 photographs are posted online EVERY MINUTE. More or less. That’s almost 13 million every hour. Good grief! I got to wondering why we “take” pictures. Of course, it has gotten so easy now that even very small children can make their… Read More
November 24, 2013 / Remembering November 22, 1963
I was 25 years old on November 22, 1963. Eleven years before, our junior high school class had learned all about the government. We learned about its three branches, the concept of checks and balances among them, the requirements for being a Representative, a Senator, the President. We learned… Read More
November 14, 2013 / Attention Must Be Paid
A week ago this morning, 96 of us eclipse chasers filed onto the large chartered plane to begin our flight to London after our trip off the coast of West Africa. Most if not all of us were in the midst of, or edging along to the end of, large lives, as doctors, business executives, scientists,… Read More
November 11, 2013 / Seeing the Eclipse, Just Barely
It was a near thing, seeing our tenth total solar eclipse. I mean we almost did not see it. I kept telling myself what I told the “eclipse virgins” in our group of 96: “Well, the eclipse happens whether you see it or not, and even if you do not see the disk of the sun, you will… Read More
October 17, 2013 / Beyond the Web
It’s getting colder at night now, so I brought the pot with my big mandevilla vine, covered by its showy pink flowers, inside from the deck. I am going to try to overwinter it in a sunny spot in the living room. It turns out I also brought in a tiny spider with it, some kind of orb-weaver,… Read More
October 14, 2013 / Leaf-Peeping
One of the great joys of living in New England is the coming of the fall color change to the trees of our yards, roadsides and forests. Each year is different, but always beautiful. The colors come from different processes, none of which involve Jack Frost with his little paint-pot. Instead, we… Read More