There you stood in your pale green frock with white trim, showing a little age but resolute and desirable still, ready for come what may. You embraced us when we walked inside, asked where we’d been, and so we knew we were yours. We massaged your muscles and traced the contours in your bones with … Continue reading Farewell to Thee, Dear Clapboard New Englander
Memories
Sunday Serendipity: I Show My Hand
ostensible planter of daffodil bulbs Last weekend I went in search of some historical documents, any I could find, for a young cousin doing some research on our family genealogy. I didn't turn up much that will be helpful insofar as the particular thing she was looking for. But I did come across an envelope … Continue reading Sunday Serendipity: I Show My Hand
Sunday Photo Essay: Hope Springs Eternal
plucky parsley I was not absolutely sure I believed Chef David when he came inside from his run earlier today and announced last year's Italian parsley appears to have overwintered in our frozen Vermont soil, and is coming back. I'll be damned, I said a little later on in the afternoon when I crouched down … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: Hope Springs Eternal
Nine-ish years in Vermont: A Retrospective
Woodstock, Vermont It is possible I’m already growing wistful for Vermont, and we still live here, I mused aloud to The Chef a few days ago. Incredulous, he asked, Do you mean to tell me when we’re down in North Carolina, you’ll miss Vermont? Mm-hm, I answered. He’d have face palmed, except we were in … Continue reading Nine-ish years in Vermont: A Retrospective
Summer Gathering: A Memory
summer in Knoxville Let me tell you a story. It is a summer evening in Knoxville, Tennessee. The day has been hot, but the hottest part is over. It’s still sticky outside, though, and the cicadas are singing in the massive, centuries-old hardwoods all around the big house on the corner in this grand midtown … Continue reading Summer Gathering: A Memory
The Beauty of Magical Transformations, or Sometimes, Just Winging It
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
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
Travel Story: A Vacation Lamentation
O, Plague that has stolen so much from so many, will you truly deny us our annual purgative pilgrimage? (Unmoved, Plague replies through a yawn, a pox upon your house.) Back in February we began the calculus as always, surfing for dog-friendly digs, option weighing, and atlas consulting—the old-school version with the spiral binding, a … Continue reading Travel Story: A Vacation Lamentation
Aw, Snap: Technical Difficulties
I’ve had some spam problems lately, finally had to contact my phone service provider earlier today to help me block one shifty international caller in particular. But I’ve also had a few problems with the other kind of spam—the canned meat variety known as SPAM®, a concept I find revolting, innovation though it must have … Continue reading Aw, Snap: Technical Difficulties
Frozen Moments: A Memory
Impressionist-like landscape Leaving work last Friday afternoon, and even a couple of moments earlier in the week, I paused to drink in the landscape around our office campus, so eerily quiet just now. It always possesses a bucolic beauty, even on the bleakest winter days. But at some point when I was too preoccupied with … Continue reading Frozen Moments: A Memory
Sycamore Stories 