Our theme this week is regrets, but here is the thing–i’m not big on regret. We are all human and we all make choices both good and not so good and we learn from them. I am a firm believer that every experience in your life has made you who you are now. So, instead, i’ve decided to share a few things I never regret doing: hanging out with friends and family eating…
As luck would have it, this week’s Deb Ball topic coincided with my life quite well. I just returned from a mini-writers retreat on the Oregon coast. I’m pretty relaxed right now, so I’m not full of deep thoughts. That said (I’m such a liar!), here’s what I think: I think modern life can deplete us. It can sap our inner resources, including our creativity. We are so busy, we sometimes…
Unlike Lydia McKenzie in Posed for Murder, I was raised in the country. Wildlife in general doesn’t scare me. At least I’m not usually freaked out by the kind of wildlife that lives in Virginia. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my share of frightening animal encounters. I really hate snakes, and have no desire to pet one or–God forbid–keep one as a pet. Once I picked up what…
We’ve been smelling smoke for weeks down here in South Florida. Too long of a dry season has turned our brush to tinder, and lightning strikes, for which we are a world leader, seem to prove that Mother Nature is a pyro at heart when they don’t come along with the typical afternoon showers. Hundreds of acres have blackened, and homes have been destroyed. We are lucky enough that we…
I like the idea of gardening. I imagine myself (in a sort of Disney princess style) singing to animated woodland creatures while collecting a bounty of fresh veggies and flowers. Reality is a bit different. First of all, for those of you who may not know, earth is made of dirt. Dirt which often contains things like worms and those bugs that have been exposed to nuclear radiation because they…
I would like to start this harrowing tale of animal encounters by saying that I live in North Vancouver. This area is about 15 minutes from the downtown core of Vancouver. However, our home is about half way up a mountain, a mountain that we share with several woodland creatures. We have two dogs, they are approximately the size of two jumbo Kleenex boxes. Their true size in no way…
For several years, my partner Drea and I lived way out in the woods. I have many strange and wonderful animal stories from these days, but this is my favorite. It was summer. Mid-afternoon. Drea and I were in the clearing where our house stood, building a door which was up on sawhorses. I had a hammer in my hand. The radio was cranked up on an oldies station. The…
This just out: if you can make it through a 6.7 earthquake (including a 5.8 aftershock and some), then you are entitled to some chocolate. Or, at least, to write off-topic. “The hairy thing that lurks under my bed” suddenly seems harmless when compared with your entire house rocking and rolling like nobody’s business. “The hairy thing that lurks under my bed” could be a science project gone bad, a…
I’m sitting here on St. George, a tiny island off the coast of northwest Florida, feeling lethargic and yet sort of cute in my new pink bikini with a little skull and crossbones on the bum. There is nobody else on this beach except for my husband, who is dozing silently beside me, the smile on his face only slightly faded by sleep. The warm water of the Gulf of…
