The Not So Nice Mice

A Fable By Blanche Day Manos The hundred year-old barn was home to a cow, a rooster, some hens, and a mule who pulled a plow. The days they spent in working; each one did its best, and when the sun sank from the sky, the animals wanted rest. But, when evening fell across the […]

Life

Life

I’ve thought quite a bit about my blog this morning and it would be so much easier not to write it, but, this is the Sunday set aside to consider the value of human life and I cannot ignore that. Many people won’t agree with me and that’s fine. However, I truly don’t want to […]

Snow

Snow

It’s amazing what snow will do for the drabness of winter. Snow covers the ground and rooftops and it’s still snowing. It’s a wonderland for children who run out, lifting their faces to the sky, catching the flakes on their tongues.  Do the birds and squirrels enjoy the snow? I doubt it. Four squirrels are […]

Meadow Life

Meadow Life

Autumn moves through the meadow, rearranging it in muted colors. As the sun shines on tall grasses, they gleam with the silver of seed tufts. Thistles, whose purple crowns swayed in the breeze only a few weeks ago, now wear cotton thatches. Goldenrod, touched by frost, bows its bronzed blooms. The meadow mirrors passing seasons. […]

Nancy and Me

Nancy and Me

As a youngster, I learned many things from Nancy Drew that were not written on the pages of her books. I learned that Nancy was the kind of girl I would like to be.  Nancy was a magnet who attracted mysteries. To anyone else, clocks were clocks, staircases were just what they seemed; but, not […]

Spinning Words

Where do they come from, those words that mystery writers spin into stories? Do we catch them like butterflies netted as they fly through the air? Do we snatch them from conversations of friends or winnow them from long ago memories? How can these words be spun into sentences and paragraphs and a story that […]