What If?

I laid down on the soft bed in a spare bedroom and stared up at the ceiling, then sneezed. Everything was familiar in that room, right down to the crepe myrtle that decorated the window outside, its brilliant pink flower clusters contrasting so beautifully at the tip of its small green leaves. I thought about the first […]

Beans! Beans! Beans!

A bowl of beans and cheese on the table.

They smell awesome cooking. James is the bean maker in our family. Pintos. Always pintos. Only pintos. I’ve gladly relinquished this position to him, and he cooks them for us regularly, because we love them. This time is a little different, because I decided to make some pintos right alongside him; while he’s cooking them on the stove, […]

Five Baby Rabbits versus My Garden!

A person holding an animal in their hand.

Everything comes to life in spring. My terrier found baby rabbits hiding in our raised garden five little ‘uns, with their heads stuck in the concrete blocks, as if they thought themselves hidden. I shooed the dog away, picked them up, and laid them, one by one, in my shirttail.James rigged a dog pen with […]

Speaking of Unspeakable Misery. . .

A horse drawn carriage traveling down the road.

Scrolling through a  newspaper archive  when I was stopped by a headline in a 1860’s edition: In Misery For Years. Wha–? What could it mean?  At first impression, I figured, Okay, it’s probably a middle-aged man who’d lived with a nagging wife for forty years. He just couldn’t take it any more, and decided to disappear. Men did […]

Camping Like a Scout

A paper cut out of a house with people and van in the grass.

Camping today is so civil. We drive our RV filled with books and blankets, a canned bathroom complete with its own permanent toothbrush, and hot running water at the push of a button. Frozen and refrigerated food awaits our plundering. We find our reserved slot and pull  onto a cement pad. It might take a little shifting to be […]

Cat Training

Posted: February 4, 2011 in Home Page  Here’s the mother of all cat-tales: Wingnut, my friend’s cat, is in training to use the toilet! We don’t have enough to do, right? He probably he eats out of a crystal sherbet. Wingnut is Marc and Linda’s  handsome new black and white cat–black, with snowy-white feet and gleaming white whiskers that makes […]