Olden Times

I enjoy finding out about my ancestry and how my long ago family lived. One of my second cousins, a dear, kind lady sent me quite a lot of information that I’d never find in history books. Digging through some of the letters she sent me years ago, I found one that sheds light on […]

Polliwogs and Tadpoles

“Climb up my rain barrel, slide down my cellar door and we’ll be friends forevermore.” A few years back, when I was at Matt and Dawn’s house, Dawn said, “Come around to the back yard, Blanche. I want you to see this.” And there, inside her rain barrel were dozens of small, black swimming objects: […]

New Roof

This August morning is still and golden–not a breeze stirring and so far, no smoke from Canada or dust from the Sahara. Thumps and bumps come from over my head. Remember the hailstorm that tore through more than a month ago? This new roof is the result of that. The small neighborhood cat is absent […]

Batten Down the Hatches

It seems that life is made up of one storm after the other, with peaceful stretches in between. When we feel tossed around by circumstances, it’s time to batten down the hatches and hold tight.  One of my favorite poems is The Voyagers by Van Dyke: O Maker of the mighty deep, whereon our vessels fare, […]

Dukes and Duchesses

  John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough defeated the French and Bavarians on August 2, 1704. Who knew? And, today, who cares? But, if you were the Duke or his British soldiers at that time, you cared a lot! If any one individual was ever the inspirations for stories of intrigue, mystery, action, or romance, it […]

Hello, August

Good morning all you August people (and everyone else). If you have an August birthday, you were born in an interesting month–a month with a history. To start with, it was once called Sextilis  and was the sixth month. Then, along came powerful Augustus Caesar. It was renamed August in the year 8 B.C. The […]