When my sister Kris and I were kids, we were big fort builders. We were always crouching in a fort under a tree. We built a great succession of forts, little lean-tos concocted without nails or screws. We’d usually stay in each place for about …
When I was a little kid, probably about nine, my father, one day, brought out a leaf collection he had made when he was about my age, about nine. I saw it only once, that one time, but I never forgot it. It was beautiful …
When my brother and sisters and I were little, we always played outside in our Tallahassee backyard, which was about an acre in size and elaborately landscaped by our parents. There were two vegetable gardens and a rose garden and plum trees and a bed …
August in North Florida brings with it certain special beauties–blue morning glories, jewel-like poke berries, puddle-loving smartweed (which I always called “bead flowers” as a kid), purple muscadine grapes, and butterflies galore. Whenever I see a ripe poke berry or a wild grape, it reminds me that it’s August, and it makes me think, inevitably, of another August, when I was 12.
As a child, I was always a fort builder. When I was 12, my sister Kris and I built our most beloved fort, Mintwood Estate, a crooked little house and elaborate garden, under a camphor tree in our backyard. We didn’t know …
