Into the Woods
We were in the grip of a different national crisis when I wrote last month. I know that first one is still running amok and am anticipating that when I […]
Darwin Stops By For Lunch
I don’t recall when I saw my first bald eagle. They were mythical beasts in my childhood, living in a far off place, commanding and powerful, but driven to near […]
Spring
Spring has stumbled onto the farm like a loud drunk into a hospital waiting room. It doesn’t care that we’re pensive, that we’re taut against our own hopes, almost afraid […]
An Unreasonable Bounty
My week has been full of “shoulds.” I should write about John Prine. I should write about coronavirus. I should write about the tribulations of my particular family’s attempt to […]
A (Socially-Distant) Garden Party
[Cross-posted from Natembea.com/blog] This morning, the southern sky looks like a scene out Laputa, and the mountains, when we get peeks of them, are scintillating. I don’t get to use […]
Sheltering in Place
Outside my window, traces of Mt. Townsend are gleaming with first light amid folds of the blanketing clouds to the south. It’s like the mountain would rather sleep in, but […]
Memento Mori
I keep trying to figure out how to write about life anymore. Out here on the farm, it’s a little too normal. Yes, pandemic is in every headline, pictures of […]
Southbound, er, Northbound again
There’s always a challenge with travel writing, where you have to shirk one tenet of the genre – accuracy in tense – to convey accuracy in emotion. I want to […]
Traveling Again
“Have I got everything, am I ready to go?
Is it gonna be great, is it gonna be the best time,
Or am I just saying so?
Am I ready to go?
What do I hear when I say I hear the call of the road?”
-Dar Williams, Traveling Again
New Story: Smoke
“Hey — can I ask you for some advice?” The girl stepped out into the streetlight toward me and took a made-for-TV drag off her cigarette. She’d been nearly camouflaged against the […]
