I feel less connected to Knoxville every time I go back there, a thing that makes me all kinds of sad, but also somehow helps propel me forward, make my peace with where I am now. Don’t get me wrong: I shall never be a proper Yankee, but will remain forever a Southerner, wherever I … Continue reading Travel Journal: Knoxville in a Day
Outdoor art
Travel Story: We Visit Fallingwater
Let me start backwards with stories of our Way Down South trip, that is to say, start at the end, while the images and sounds and smells from our special day at Fallingwater haven’t yet faded or grown too stale. We drove out of our way to tour this exquisite Frank Lloyd Wright house, widely … Continue reading Travel Story: We Visit Fallingwater
Sea Glass Story: Willing My Home Improvement Project to Work
Sometime earlier this year—in late winter or early spring—I took a bad spill on a thin layer of ice at the bottom of our back deck steps. It was one of those cartoonish moments where you hope like heck nobody saw you: in trying to climb the steps, my feet went out from under me … Continue reading Sea Glass Story: Willing My Home Improvement Project to Work
Travel Story: One Night in Charlotte
The plans to meet us in Charlotte unfolded exactly the way all the twenty-something’s plans do, fraught with angst, vacillating wildly between Yes-I’m-Coming and No-I-Can’t, and with no small measure of hand wringing and car polishing, I am guessing. Because when your mom-who-lives-a-thousand-miles-away comes within spitting distance of where you are right now, it’s obviously … Continue reading Travel Story: One Night in Charlotte
Gardening Story: True Confessions of a Mulching Enthusiast
Mulch, gentle reader, covers a multitude of sins. I know how to spread mulch: I am good at spreading mulch. David-the-Chef wants to know why on earth we should have a load of mulch delivered. I ask you, Does this question even merit an answer? Isn't it OBVIOUS? Mulch gussies up everything it touches: it is … Continue reading Gardening Story: True Confessions of a Mulching Enthusiast
Dogged Adventures: Asheville Is Noisy
The metal carabiner-like clip that fastens to the harness part of Scout-the-Lab’s seatbelt is maddening, like that childhood game Barrel Full of Monkeys: just when you think you’re about to get it clipped—or unclipped as the case may be—an irksome little hook (think crochet needle) gets hung up and refuses to slip through the metal … Continue reading Dogged Adventures: Asheville Is Noisy
Art is the Consolation Prize…
...for the human condition. Catchy, isn't it? I can claim it only partly. Came to me in the car, where all profound thoughts outside the shower do, while I listened to the inimitable Meryl Streep discuss her portrayal of Florence Foster Jenkins in a movie named the same. Jenkins was a real-life character, a New York … Continue reading Art is the Consolation Prize…
Wilmington Lifts Her Skirts, Just a Little
Yesterday I had the 23-y-o all to myself for several indulgent hours while Handsome Chef Boyfriend played golf, something he does exceedingly well but has far too little time to do. And wouldn't you know the instant my son and I pulled out of the golf course we met a jeep in traffic whose driver spotted our … Continue reading Wilmington Lifts Her Skirts, Just a Little
A Day at the Museum: MASS MoCA
Every small-to-midsize Massachusetts town I've had occasion to drive through or visit these last three years seems to possess a seamy industrial underbelly, more often than not in plain view of historic dwellings in varied states of loving restoration or decline, depending. (Second Empire is hands-down my favorite iteration of the Victorian style, and it … Continue reading A Day at the Museum: MASS MoCA
Homecoming, Part the Second
It is beyond me how 1000 miles disappear so quickly in the rear view mirror, or how four days dissolve in what feels like a half hour. It's what has transpired in the intervening hours since 2:30 Saturday morning when Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I began our long drive south to see family and friends, … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the Second
Sycamore Stories 