All Purls. No Swine.
When a friend calls to me from the road And slows his horse to a meaning walk, I don’t stand still and look around On all the hills I haven’t hoed, And shout from where I am, What is it? No, not as there is a time to talk. I thrust my hoe in the… Continue reading A Time To Talk–World Poetry Day, March 21, 2023
I've written, every now and then, about my New Year's practice of trying to sum up the year that's passed in just twelve words, one for each month. I'm not much of a diarist, other than in the ways I write my life here and on Ricochet, and as a rule I try not to… Continue reading Twelve Little Words–2022
Every year, for almost more years than I can count whether we're together or apart, my family has raised a glass each Christmas season to those we love but won’t see again in this world, and to those we love who are still with us, but who are not able to share our celebration, because… Continue reading …To Absent Friends and Loved Ones, 2022…
She is, unequivocally, the most charming puppy it’s ever been my privilege to know. (For those interested or even just wondering–or perhaps choking a bit over the unfamiliar word–it’s pronounced SHOO-sha, being a Basque girl’s name, native to the Pyrenees.) “She has such a feminine head,” said my veterinarian, when I texted her a photo. And… Continue reading Xuxa!
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
To be perfectly clear from the outset, I've been living in a construction zone since 1986, the year the late Mr. Right and I moved out to the country and started on our house. Large swaths of the drywall were never painted. Much finishing was left undone. Doors have been missing. Floors were, in some… Continue reading Feeling Grateful, Blessed, and Very–Very–Clean
As some of you know, I’m currently owned by two dogs: Xena, an elderly Great Pyrenees, and Odo, a puppy of the same breed. My last experience with a puppy was in 1986 (Wulfie, the Old English Sheepdog), and I’d forgotten how exhausting, challenging, charming, and occasionally hilarious, such a thing can be. In the… Continue reading No Matter What: Contrarian Pets, and the Owner Who Loves Them
Doormats are valuable objects, but they are not friends. Wise words, spoken by a fellow Ricochet member on a recent thread about friendship. They are words I think that Mr. Right would have agreed with. (He'd probably have appreciated much this individual has to say, just as I do myself). When talking about relationships, either… Continue reading The Test of True Friendship: Don’t Be a Doormat
As some of you know, I’m British. And as such, I generally try to keep a pretty stiff upper lip about things. Not to whine unduly. And when I do whine, I try to whine directly at the person or people who are at the root of my dissatisfaction or unhappiness, or in the case… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale, Thou Bleak Midwinter of My Discontent!
Merry and Blessed Christmas to all from Chateau Right! Xena leads off with a welcome: I've been known to go a bit overboard with the Christmas decorations, but I love them so, especially the decorations on and under the tree, many of whose provenance extends back forty years to the time when Mr. Right's and… Continue reading Bringing the Light