Butterflies, Flowers, and Disillusionment
Last Saturday afternoon, on my way down the mountain to fetch the mail, I noticed a black swallowtail (Papilionidae) sipping nectar from cardinal flowers blooming on the slope beside the upper driveway. The bright red trumpet-shaped blossoms of lobelia cardinalis,...
On Faring Well
I placed my purse under the table, Bible next to the coffee pot, laptop on a chair then propped reading glasses on my head. It was Tuesday morning, which meant Bible Study in the sunroom at Mary Jane’s farm, and I was the note-taker. Those who wanted coffee helped...
Dogs on Duty
Heathcliff and Freya barked and whined in excitement. “As soon as you sit down, we’ll let the dogs out of our bedroom to greet you,” Keith and I said to our family houseguests. My daughter sat on the sofa, holding her thirteen-month-old daughter in her lap....
Today’s Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition: the placement of two or more things side by side. This morning, along the meadow edge, I noticed a lone daylily in bloom, its buds somehow missed by the deer. What a blessing, I said to myself, and perhaps more blossoms to come if the deer...
On a Humane Society
Today is shower day for Heathcliff and Freya—and you know from this post that bathing is not their favorite activity. Here, drying on the deck, they might play bitey-face or snooze. If they hear a vehicle on the mountain road, their whines, yips, and barks alert...
Win, Lose, TBD
Yesterday late in the afternoon, I heard another of those sickening thumps on one of the greenhouse windows in our dining room. After days of rain, the sun had come out, making it harder for birds to distinguish windows from forest. I looked on the deck near the...