All Purls. No Swine.
Today, September 30, 2022 is the fifteenth anniversary of my father’s death. He’s been the genius behind a number of my posts, so today I thought I’d let him speak for himself. Not (as has often been the case) as a Colonial Officer in Nigeria, somewhere between 1948 and 1963, but as a son and… Continue reading Recreating Worlds That I Have Lost
With the recent devastation wrought on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island by the remnants of last week's Hurricane Fiona, and the current emergency as Florida is inundated by Hurricane Ian, I thought I'd dust off a post from a couple of years ago about a great storm from the nineteenth century, almost exactly 171… Continue reading The Yankee Gale
Don't be 'a writer,' but instead be writing--William Faulkner All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know and then go on from there--Ernest Hemingway And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination… Continue reading Quotes of the Day: On Writing
I'm not sure I completely understand the myriad purposes of Twitter. It's useful to me, because I can link it to this blog, and send out automatic notifications when I publish a post, and because I have several dozen people who follow those announcements on Twitter, and who--one hopes, and I think this is the… Continue reading Putting the “Twit” in Twitter
Oh, Gosh. Eighty years ago today, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra made their last live radio broadcast: https://youtu.be/xQY3Qc_CM7E I'm a bit younger than many who might remember this (I was 68 this past week). But I grew up in the British West African colonies, and we were a bit behind the eight-ball when it came… Continue reading Sweet-Sounding Saturday: Eighty Years Ago Today
Disclaimer: I can’t be sure that’s true, because I’ve never owned any. But certainly, if I were to try and come up with my own undeniable truth in that regard, two of the items high on my shortlist would be flat, comfortable shoes and non-binding, full-fashioned, all-cotton underpants. But I digress; so before I head… Continue reading “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”
Today, September 22, 2022, is the first day of Autumn: Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the… Continue reading To Autumn, 2022
So here I am, the day before my Queen's funeral, trying to figure out what to do to celebrate her life and my own Britishness (not a bit of the overabundance of which takes away a whit of my love for my adopted country, I assure you). Some of my family in the UK will… Continue reading In Praise of Afternoon Tea
Holy Cow. I'm not sure why the death of Her Majesty has hit me quite as hard as it has. Perhaps it has something to do with age. Or sentimentality. Or that I'm on my own. Or the fact that I'm not at "home" with my people at the moment. (Still, I can't say enough… Continue reading Songs for a Mournful Saturday
My mother-in-law, Geraldine Zbozny, died fifteen years ago today. Here's a reprise of a post I've published annually for the past few years: It’s been fifteen years since my mother-in-law passed away, and perhaps it’s time to tell a bit of her story. Geraldine Virginia was born on May 13, 1918. She’d have been 104… Continue reading A Mother-In-Law For the Ages