Last weekend went so smoothly it seemed sort of enchanted. Rob and I got so much done. And yet somehow, magically, we still found time to baby the cats and savor our homegrown citrus and have lots of dorky domestic fun. …
Fall is here in all its glory. We’ve got camellias and sasanquas blooming like crazy, and our beech trees have turned gold. Bright satsumas and lemons hang like ornaments, like Christmas balls. The ageratum has turned ghostly. In the late afternoons the sun gets so …
This weekend was a glorious one here in Quincy. The Korean mums put on a dazzling show, and the satsumas and lemons went about their slow business of ripening, displaying rich, soft shades of gold. The weather was so cool that I was able to …
Rob was out of town this weekend, so I lived for two days in my weird Leslie way—getting up too early and eating funny things. I enjoyed delicious, salty popcorn suppers and spent most of my time happily puttering and rearranging things—I love to rearrange. …
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 …
Yesterday I did a whole bunch of weeding while Rob mowed the lawn and cleaned out the gutters. I actually love to weed. It’s so peaceful and it gives me a chance to really look at my plants, really study them and their surroundings …
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 …
Babs died on Wednesday. I won’t go on and on about how angry I am about this. I’ll just say I’ve been writing down my memories of her, and here are just a few: She would always sit on the steps by the screen door …
