It’s been compared to a patchwork quilt, and I’ll not bother thinking of a better image because the quilt is such a good one. Yes, the seamed squares of land in their varied shades of green look very much like a quilted bedspread, and here it is one pulled tight and flat across the bed, […]

Well, I am off again. And I’ve been off two other times since I last told you I was off, but I haven’t told you about those times. Yet. That’s because I’m a slacker. And let me tell you, this weekend is All About being a slacker. Well, okay, I am taking along some stuff […]

I am a thief. This very moment I am stealing: I am sitting on the sofa in the middle of the afternoon while so many things wait for my attention. For example, downstairs clean clothes tick in the dryer while wet ones in the washer await their turn. The boys’ bedroom is littered with piles […]

William was an army man. Easy enough. He wore a camouflage jacket and a bandana on his head and carried plastic weapons. We burned a cork and rubbed it on his face, then added red paint as evidence of “action.” Everett was a ninja. He didn’t settle on this until about 4:30 the day of, […]

O hushed October morning mild,Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;To-morrow’s wind, if it be wild,Should waste them all.The crows above the forest call;To-morrow they may come and go.O hushed October morning mild,Begin the hours of this day slow.Make the day seem to us less brief.Hearts not averse to being beguiled,Beguile us in the way […]

They were on the swing, William and Everett, talking and laughing above the lawnmower’s din, waiting to play with their father who was, as you might imagine, mowing the lawn. From my seat here at the kitchen table I could see the boys’ heads rise momentarily into view and then swing away again. I could […]