All Purls. No Swine.
Regular readers here (thank you!) may have noticed that I've been signaling a bit of distress the last couple of days. That's because a dear friend, a virtual friend, a person I've never met, someone I didn't "know," IRL, but who (as they used to say about Princess Diana) I'm pretty sure knew me, died… Continue reading (Not) His Last Post: Boss Mongo, RIP
Those of you who can legitimize the quote mentioned in the title (which is supposed to come from Plato’s Meno), please have at it. I can’t authenticate it. However, the spirit of “bequeathment” is entirely appropriate for what I’m about to say, so I’m going with it. “Pity. Pity he never had any children.” And… Continue reading Bequeathing a Spirit of Reverence
A few months ago, on the occasion of 2021's Easter Sunday, I wrote a Ricochet post called "First Easter," in which I reflected on the fact that, following the death of a loved one, there's an inevitable year, 365 days, of "firsts." It begins thus: I learned, many years ago, that when a loved one… Continue reading The Last “First”
“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” — Lucy Maud Montgomery Eventually, quite boring, I expect. But I do understand the sentiment. Even though we’re sweltering here in the mid-90s at the moment, with humidity almost as high, and I’ve assumed my English “summer privilege,” which… Continue reading Summer Daze
Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters, there is something which there are no words to express. So said Joseph Addison, seventeenth-century essayist, playwright, and politician… Continue reading Dear Dad
Into each life, some rain must fall. But not into ours. Our lives are where the garbage is delivered. — Jenny Today (June 10) is Jenny's birthday. And so I repost this, in her honor, and that of the occasion. Ever have one of those days, weeks, months, years, decades, when it seems as though… Continue reading Family Matters: On Life’s Vicissitudes
Today, May 10, 2021, would have been my husband's 83rd birthday (He always called himself "a good pre-war model.") He died on July 3, 2020, after suffering a decade of chronic health problems, and several years of mental degeneration due to dementia. His last months weren't made any easier by COVID lockdowns and the near… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Mr. Right!
Disclaimer, before I even start: I dread the first few weeks of May. Every. Single. Year. It’s one of those stretches of awful memory that many of us have at different times of the year, when it seems that regrets/trauma/cataclysm all pile on top of one another to render certain times insupportable and sometimes just… Continue reading May the Fourth
I originally published this post on Ricochet, on November 4, 2016, five days before the election that put Donald Trump in the White House. It would have been my stepson Michael's forty-ninth birthday. Today, May 2, 2021, is the 19th anniversary of his death. I'd signed up for the month's group writing challenge, which asked… Continue reading Gratitude: For Michael, And Why I’ll Still Be Here A Week From Now
https://youtu.be/8iwBM_YB1sE David Austin, PBUH (this is the US link; it's originally a UK firm) says that they've been shipped at exactly the right time for planting in my plant hardiness "zone." (My zone number is somewhere between 6A and 6B--worst case indicating that the temperatures in the winter might go down to about -25F, or… Continue reading I’m So Excited–My New Roses Will Be Delivered Tomorrow!