I recall an occasion many years ago when my now-ex and I were having dinner with some friends at their house; my twenty-something kiddo was still a peanut, say age four or so, and was included that evening because he and our hosts’ young daughter were attached at the hip, eagerly anticipating the play date. … Continue reading The Beauty of Magical Transformations, or Sometimes, Just Winging It
Biscuit Baking, Redux
For the last couple of weeks I've been hemming and hawing over a post that refuses to be written. When that happens, I've learned the best strategy is to step away from it and come back later, or not at all. Yesterday morning, though, I published a private post for one particular young man who … Continue reading Biscuit Baking, Redux
Protected: Biscuit Baking 101
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Evening Miniature 1.3.21
How peculiar the small things one remembers from an important or somber occasion, years or decades later. Cecily had long reflected on this curiosity in the intervening years between her father Cecil’s funeral and now, at age twenty-three. She had been thirteen at the time, mindful enough of the goings-on around her, impelled forward by … Continue reading Evening Miniature 1.3.21
Sunday Photo Essay: Deep, and Crisp, and Even
deep, and crisp, and even Scenes from our little corner of southwest Vermont over these last couple of weeks:
A Family Memory: Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and Surprise Connections
From The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gillman, 1966 I can still see the dog-eared paperback clear as day on the guest bedroom nightstand in my childhood home in Memphis: a mystery novel by Dorothy Gillman titled The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, my great-grandmother Gracie’s reading selection on that visit. On the book jacket a woman … Continue reading A Family Memory: Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and Surprise Connections
Thanksgiving Story: Pan-DEB-ic Edition
Thanksgiving 2020 We tried to put on a good face, didn’t we? I think most Americans did, but it’s tough to scale an occasion we’d typically celebrate in epic proportions for just a twosome. Chef David and I resolved to go on and cook like we would for a crowd, and then to freeze what … Continue reading Thanksgiving Story: Pan-DEB-ic Edition
Evening Miniature 11.22.20
The darkness would have compelled any visitor to stand quietly for a moment and adjust to it before finally getting his bearings, after crossing the threshold of this cottage, if it were only just: More precisely, this was but a room of four rough-hewn paneled walls, unfinished, with a shed-style roof fashioned of standing-seam metal, … Continue reading Evening Miniature 11.22.20
Afternoon Miniature 11.8.20
Lucy tugged at her skirt, which had ridden up over her bent knees in a funny way, and now its satiny lining had shifted, allowing the wool fibers to rub her skin uncomfortably. Her head swam with obtuse and acute angles, theorems and axioms. She glanced down at her open notebook and saw where her … Continue reading Afternoon Miniature 11.8.20
Sunday Almanac: We March Inevitably Towards Winter
It is always a little sad to me when the snowplow rig assemblies start showing up on pickup trucks around town; it’s inevitable, but cold weather comes a little too soon on the heels of summer (to say nothing of ephemeral fall) in these parts, and wears out its welcome along about April, when everybody … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: We March Inevitably Towards Winter
