October 14th, 2019 | General, the world and Mother Nature
Last year and the year before, mostly in the colder months when leaves litter the ground, a red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) frequently lounged in a tree a little to the southeast of our house. Not all the time, but just at the moment daylight arrives. The tree,...
July 27th, 2019 | Gardens and Gardening, General, literature and poetry, the world and Mother Nature
I cannot, of the life of me, get that pesky monarch to pause and pose for a picture. I have a pretty long lens on the camera and I don’t need to get very close, but still. Very irritating. I’ve never spent much time watching butterflies. I learned to differentiate...
June 25th, 2018 | Architecture and Design, Europe, Gardens and Gardening, General, literature and poetry, the world and Mother Nature, Travel, visual arts
Every time I pick up a Ross King book, it’s longer and weightier. Brunelleschi’s Dome was a little bit of a thing, perfect for reading on a transcontinental flight. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling was longer but then the Sistine Chapel ceiling is a better...
April 2nd, 2018 | Gardens and Gardening, General, the world and Mother Nature
My maternal great-grandfather, Elwyn Greeley Preston Sr., established for his family a summer retreat on Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire. He acquired several contiguous parcels of land on Mooney Point and filled in a number of marshy areas to create firm...
June 6th, 2016 | Europe, General, Matters of the Spirit, the world and Mother Nature, Travel
I was alone in the church, and the two people I saw as a reached the summit had gone when I came out. A slight breeze tousled my hair away from perspiring neck, a mother’s caress; I was still slightly breathless after the climb. Birds sang and the sun shone on...
January 10th, 2016 | General, Memory, the world and Mother Nature, Travel, United States
Ranks of palm trees, beyond the baggage carousels at the San Diego airport, slender trunks curved like a scoliotic spine, confirmed that we were back in southern California. We expected rain, floods even, and landslides. We arrived to blue skies, temperatures in the...