On the north side of my house is a happy tangle of ferns, hostas, violets and lily-of-the-valley. I call this my woods garden. For one thing, it grows without much help from me. For another, this pretty group of flowers reminds me of taking a walk through the woods. They like to sink their little […]

Those Mean Old Bad Reviews
·What do you do when you’re reveling in good book reviews, happy that your writing has brought a bit of sunshine to your readers, when, suddenly, there it is–a bad review of your beloved book. Someone didn’t like it. In fact, somebody didn’t like it so much that she felt compelled to share her distaste […]

Brewers of Coffee
The first thing I do each morning after feeding Nemo is make a pot of coffee. Some of my fondest memories center around cups of coffee and the people who brewed them. I guess a person’s mother is always the yardstick by which everything else is measured, but really, my mother could make the most […]

Dogs, Flowers, Politics
·I’ve had it with the news. Off it goes; off go those nasty Facebook posts that dim the sunshine in the day, and on to something that I enjoy–Nemo, flowers, coffee, fresh starts every morning. It’s a morning ritual that Nemo goes, first thing, to find his bone placed next to his tasty breakfast in […]

Lightning, Thunder, Hail
·Yesterday afternoon, we got a good, old-fashioned thunderstorm with rain! We even had a sprinkling of hail–not much, thank goodness. I’m so grateful and so are the grass and flowers. The roadside ditch where the children used to race their boats right after a rain, was a turbulent little stream. Trees were swaying, my little […]

A Voice From the Darkness
·At last, the turn-off to the house came in sight. I yanked the steering wheel. The car slid, then righted itself. Braking at the end of the drive, I leaned my head on the wheel, breathed a prayer, and tried to think of what to do next. I pushed my purse under the front seat […]