Waiting for the First Snowfall

Waiting for the First Snowfall

  Anticipation, eagerness, impatience–will it or won’t it? I gaze out at the dark morning, waiting for the first snowfall of the season. The morning is dark and damp. Although I can’t see rain falling, it must be raining some, a fine mist, perhaps, because driveway, street, and deck are wet. The temperature is dropping […]

A Day of Remembrance

A Day of Remembrance

  It was exactly one hundred years ago. My mother recalled the day well. On the eleventh day of the eleventh month at eleven o’clock, in 1918, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies and the Great War ended. Millions of people had died but now, the world could begin to recover and, perhaps […]

Walkin’ Through the Leaves, Gettin’ Really Cold

Walkin’ Through the Leaves, Gettin’ Really Cold

For those of us old enough to remember Johnny Ray’s song, Walkin’ in the Rain, this morning we could sing, Walkin’ Through the Leaves. There’s not much wind, just a bit, but leaves are falling like rain because last night, the thermometer sank really low! It’s only about twenty degrees now and the mercury was […]

Weather Lore and the Gift of Books

Weather Lore and the Gift of Books

    Interesting weather lore from Farmer’s Almanac: If there be ice in November that will bear a duck, there will be nothing thereafter but sleet and muck. Some of my friends just to the north are having snow already. And, we may see a few flakes today or Monday. It’s three degrees above freezing this […]

The Umbrella Oak

The Umbrella Oak

  A large oak stands firmly anchored to the ground on land that once belonged to my parents. It is so tall and its limbs spread so wide that when a person stands under it during a shower, she is sheltered from much of the rain. Whether it’s wise to be standing there during a […]

Stepping Away for a Closer Look

Stepping Away for a Closer Look

  Remember the old saying, You can’t see the forest for the trees? Have you ever noticed in a museum of art, people stepping away from a painting to look at it from a more distant viewpoint? That’s where I was with Moonstruck and Murderous before I started the proof-reading or first editing. I finished […]