Summertime

This post was from a few years back. I thought you might enjoy pictures of the flowers. The trumpet vine isn’t quite as lush as it was then and my hollyhocks have left me. We had a nice rain yesterday–in fact, it was raining as I left church but we didn’t mind. I heard comments […]

The Fly Who Came to Stay

The Fly Who Came to Stay

  The Fly Who Came to Stay by Blanche Day Manos, who takes full responsibility for this goofy piece In my neck of the woods, everything gets ornery in the summertime. Critters, humans, even bugs are easy riled. There’s nothing like the heat of a white-orange sun blazing down from a copper-colored sky to make […]

But Why Is the Sky Blue?

But Why Is the Sky Blue?

    Just Wonderin’… …what would happen, if, when faced with a dilemma, I suddenly started laughing? …when someone says or does something rude, what would happen if I smiled and said, “God bless you”? …why the telemarketer hung up when I started singing “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You?” …why I get […]

Books to Cut Their Teeth On

Books to Cut Their Teeth On

    I ended that title with a preposition but it sounds stilted to say, “Books on which to cut their teeth.” Don’t you think? Anyway, sometimes what with all the iPads and tablets and laptops, I fear for the good, old-fashioned books, especially children’s books. That is, I fear until I go into a […]

Five Fabulous Days of Free Reading

Five Fabulous Days of Free Reading

What do you get when you start with an indomitable, adventuresome heroine  who just happens to live in a house with a pretty interesting past, add a deserted church, a legend of an old-time, ruthless outlaw, and plunk the whole thing down in a small, rural town in Oklahoma? You get By the Fright of […]

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May, 1915 In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, […]