exquisite flowers, not from our garden Early this morning I stood outside near the badminton net in our back yard, clutching a dog poop bag in my hand and waiting for Scout to do his doings. Something on the ground caught my eye; further examination revealed a half-eaten green tomato, abandoned. Dammit. Hope you enjoyed … Continue reading Journal Entry: Gardening Is Difficult, and Other Truths
Outdoors
Sunday Photo Essay: A Birthday Celebration
tide-me-over birthday cupcake It's annual birthday week for The Chef and me: Mine was last Monday, his is this coming Tuesday. On Monday he brought me home a single cupcake to celebrate the occasion: lemon, with lemon buttercream icing and lemon curd filling—lemony goodness, through and through. But we saved our grand celebration for yesterday, … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: A Birthday Celebration
Sunday Photo Essay: Look Busy
Saturday morning busy I can't recall a moment in my lifetime at once so exciting and completely anguished. SpaceX launched the Dragon Endeavor successfully yesterday with two American astronauts aboard, and today docked at the International Space Station. Meanwhile, American cities are burning, we're still navigating a deadly pandemic, and people are dying. This control … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: Look Busy
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
Journal Entry: Rules and Regs
I follow rules and regs. (What are rules and regs?) COVID-19 wouldn’t have impressed my great-grandmother Gracie too much, I’ll bet. I was expressing this notion to a few colleagues on Friday in an office ping thread where we were heaving a collective sigh over the language that’s everywhere you turn right now: in these … Continue reading Journal Entry: Rules and Regs
COVID Story: Post-Pandemic Positives
still life with pandemic A few months ago when I started trying to tweak some lifestyle choices, let’s say back in October, I read online somewhere it takes 21 days for a new practice to become a habit. Okay, just under a month, I get it. Can there possibly be a one-size-fits-all calculus for a … Continue reading COVID Story: Post-Pandemic Positives
Sunday Photo Essay: Spring Is Open for Business
However haltingly commerce goes on during a pandemic, the changing of seasons waits for nothing and no one. We ventured outside for a brief walk in the moderate temperatures and glorious sunshine yesterday, The Chef and I and one Goldapeake Retriever called Scout. I've always thought of our little hamlet in the Southwest corner of … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: Spring Is Open for Business
A Reflection: Finding Grace in Solitude
You may be by yourself, but you’re not alone. I couldn’t have foreseen sitting outside in our lovely outdoor space on the first warm, sunny spring day in Vermont while our world suffers through a pandemic, but here we are. Yesterday The Chef pulled all the outside furniture out of winter storage, brushed off the … Continue reading A Reflection: Finding Grace in Solitude
Journal Entry: The Pandemic Inspires a Conversation
Before all this happened, I was already reflecting on this notion, that in the intervening eight years between living through the kind of loss I think of as the emotional equivalent of blunt force trauma, and life as it is right now, my take on things has changed. Not everything. Some losses were undeniably horrible, … Continue reading Journal Entry: The Pandemic Inspires a Conversation
Saturday Photo Essay: Social Distancing, Vermont Edition
It's a grey day today, but the temperature was perfect for running, around 48 or so when we struck out. And there's no denying how bucolic the landscape. We had a good run. Scout ground scored a gravel-encrusted dog turd when I wasn't paying attention, which I had to pry out of his slobbery mouth, … Continue reading Saturday Photo Essay: Social Distancing, Vermont Edition
Sycamore Stories 