I’ve spread the dining table with the Thanksgiving tablecloth, orange and maroon turkeys on a black background. Last night we had roast chicken and afterward, while the children and their guest cleared the dishes and set the table with rummikub, I sliced pears, ripe but firm, and cut butter into oatmeal. After husband had won […]
The weather report says that a cold front is coming. But today is t shirt weather. Wash your car weather. Driving to Starbucks, my reward before the work, I listen to the radio. A flute quartet by Mozart. The trees have all turned. Yellow leaves against a bright blue sky. The clouds are fluffy, like […]
This weekend I went to see a play, Las Nuevas Tamaleras, a funny and touching story of three friends and cousins who set out to make tamales — and create a link to past generations of women. From the great-grandmother who spoke only Spanish and who had known only one man, one who had not […]
I went for my walk late today. Along the way, I found a neighbor had planted flowers along the edges of his ditch. Blue daze, lamb’s ear, and varigated lariope. If I were to put my nose to the pink and white dianthus, they would smell like clove. On the way home, it began to […]
Yesterday I was late in picking up my son. When I got to the school, the playground was nearly empty. I saw him at once. He waved at me but continued to swing. Leaning back, his feet strain for the sky. When the swing begins its backward descent, he drops his head forward, his hair […]
We are enjoying a glorious Indian summer, with warm afternoons, blue skies, and turning leaves. But mornings there is a slight chill in the air – just enough to warrant a blanket for sleeping. I wake early – a side benefit of the switch in daylight savings. The cat hears me get up and scratches […]
Storm winds visited us recently. At four a.m. I woke to darkness within and an odd pressure without. Moving to the front of the house, I watch and listen as trees bend in half, windows rattle and walls shake. My bare feet step in the cold water of a small puddle. Wind has pushed rain […]
This weekend husband and I worked in the yard. Wild trees had grown up in the lobelia. Morning glory had killed a flowering bush. The gardenias had died a mysterious death after a neighbor did work on the fence. Plants grown familiar through repeated weedings choked the rose bushes and the black-eyed susans. I sat […]
Labor Day has come and gone and with its passing, so too the heat of the summer has eased. Mornings now are cooler – the heat holding off until 10 a.m. or later. The children and I went to Brazos Bend State Park. The heat started early that day and we took refuge in the […]
Yesterday I passed by one of my favorite houses. It used to be a grocery store, back in the 1930’s. Today an artist has made it his own. The double doors are turquoise. A child’s red tricycle is sculpture. I noticed that the tree had been trimmed, allowing me to walk down the sidewalk without […]