Will the Real Ned McNeil Stand Up?

Will the Real Ned McNeil Stand Up?

  Ned McNeil is the main gal in three cozy mysteries concerning a historical house and moonlight. She doesn’t actively go looking for trouble, but it always finds her. She has courage but she also has her share of doubts and fears. I think you’ll like her. I do. Ned is the shortened version of […]

Welcome to a Wet, Soggy World

Welcome to a Wet, Soggy World

The picture of the mother robin and babies isn’t mine, but it might as well be. The nest is on a brick ledge like mine and the mama and her babies look exactly like the ones here at my house. The babies have hatched! The weeks of sitting on those eggs and keeping them warm […]

A Home of Sticks

A Home of Sticks

She sits on her little nest of sticks and feathers and this and that. It’s sort of a hodge podge of building materials, but it suits her and it’s home to those tiny blue eggs she warms patiently, day and night. Robins’ nests aren’t known as architectural wonders. And, although they do their best, mama […]

The Magic Wand of Time

The Magic Wand of Time

The morning is dark and cool. We’re under a tornado watch and a flood warning. Last night’s weather was wicked in many places and I haven’t yet heard of all the damage done in Oklahoma and other states. Sunday, as we drove to the cemetery for Decoration Day, we were amazed to see evidence of […]

Getting in Touch with an Old Tradition

by blanche manos · leave a comment (edit) Yesterday, my family and I kept up the yearly tradition of putting flowers on the graves of loved ones. Decoration Day is always the same Sunday every May and has been that way for generations. The beautiful little cemetery lies in northeast Oklahoma, surrounded by trees, gentle hills, and a creek […]

Tribal Customs Continue

Tribal Customs Continue

  Routines are nice as long as they don’t become ruts. Routines are not the same as schedules. A schedule seems rather inflexible and fixed, but a routine is a pattern that gives meaning to a day. Routines are more like tribal customs. In the dim, dark ages that many people have never experienced, those days […]