The Old Mother Hen Syndrome

If any of you have ever lived on a farm that had chickens, you know what I mean when I say The Old Mother Hen Syndrome. Hens with a brood of chicks spread their wings and gather their babies under them when danger or bad weather threatens. I have that same inclination when storms or […]

Tempest

The ocean is fascinating and it is also dangerous. In a very short time, its mood can change from benevolent to violent. Life is like that. Everything can be fine and dandy (as Dad used to say) and then, it’s not. If life is a sea and people are the boats sailing it, we are […]

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, […]

Folklore is fun to read and fascinating to think how all those old beliefs got started. Or, maybe they weren’t really beliefs, just something to hang onto to try to make sense of nature. Anyway, here are a few having to do with rain or storms. By the way, this is St. Swithin’s Day. Who […]

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It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

It was a dark and stormy afternoon. Rain beat against the deck. Lightning flashed and thunder rattled the windows. Within the dining room, four women sat around an antique dining table, sipping coffee and munching chocolate. They spoke in hushed voices, almost as if they were afraid they would be overheard although they were the […]

Fierce Winds

This is a dark, rainy morning. Tornado warnings are out for parts of Oklahoma. Yesterday, parts of Texas experienced some pretty wicked storms.  Usually, I wake up to the sound of doves calling, robins chirping, and the neighborhood woodpecker drumming out his breakfast of bugs. But not this morning. This morning I woke to the […]