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    The tin coffee pot, blue enamelware sits on the stove missing its lid— it’s just for decoration but there is a sadness in its lack of completeness. The andirons stand waiting for a log to poke but the stove sits cold and lonely. An old piece of wood rests on the hearth and… Continue reading The Cabin in the Morning

I am not a killer, a torturer of small rodents trying to keep body and soul together albeit in my house. I don’t trap, poison, dry up their blood—no I have a cat, who is supposed to scare them away.  I don’t expect he’ll chew them up as Bobbie Burns so explicitly does as he… Continue reading Now That Damn Mouse is Eating my Vegetables

  Born on autumn nights, the dewdrops remain dewdrops, but the wide meadows on the mountainside all shine, washed by tears of passing geese. - Mibu no Tadamine -

The new rage is here—a blanket with sleeves, so you can read or knit, or whatever, while you keep your thermostat turned down to frigid, saving the environment. It comes in solid colors, prints (as in leopard) and for your pet. I have two—lazy as I am, it’s far too much trouble to drag it… Continue reading The “Snuggie”

The snow is relentless in its plan to cover its older cousins; cars slide from the highways, traffic backs up and events are cancelled. I was supposed to go a birthday lunch—Hu Hot! One of those places where you select all the increments of a stir fry  and some athletic chef prepares it. Instead, it… Continue reading Ode to Winter

[Note: Original photo, circa. 1943, lost; only this memoir remains.]            In this picture, you are far younger than I am now.  You wear dress khaki's; handsome in your uniform, you stand under the blossoms of a tree.  The branch brushes your forehead  and you look carefree, I suppose, like any other soldier on leave. … Continue reading The Faded Khaki Photograph

I don't know about you, but ever since 9/11/01, I hold my breath each New Year's Eve with the hundreds of thousands of people all located together in Times Square. I guess I'm just a doomsday girl, but I thank the higher power at 12:01 each new year that the accumulation of people are still… Continue reading Welcome to 2010

Last day of the year. Tomorrow a new decade;  this one passed twice as fast as the others. Time for resolving once and for all to clean up all my messes—I only need one resolution. DO IT! The papers litter my desk like snow drifts from December’s storms. Clothes lie on my bed; the closet… Continue reading I Hereby Resolve to Tie Up All My Loose Ends

"None of them knew the color to the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea." Stephen Crane’s "The Open… Continue reading True Account for Short Fiction writing

It's Sunday, the 27th and by now most of the hupala is over for another year. Yesterday was return the gifts and buy the reductions day and today I might go to a movie. The CBS program, Sunday Morning, did their yearly remembrance portion and the nostalgia was comforting. When these people die, there is usually… Continue reading Ho Ho Ho Hum!