In a pamphlet he published called “Common Sense,” Thomas Paine expresses the last straw that pushed him over the ledge toward independence from Great Britain. No man was a warmer…
I have an uninvited companion. His name is Death. He barged in and dragged off my mother, my father, my in-laws, and pets in short order then came back with…
LORD of Birds and Questions On my morning walk in the neighborhood, I head south on Oceola Avenue and the sun burns like a campfire on my left cheek. The…
Dad picked up the salt shaker and tipped it over his tea. “Uh Dad, that’s not your steak. That’s your tea.” He continued with the salt, and few crystals began…
A tropical storm is simmering in the Caribbean Ocean, and its forecast track edges westward then eastward but always northward, where I sit at my keyboard. The thought of a…
I gazed over my steering wheel through swirling snow at an empty road. What a lonely stretch for my car to conk out on. A bridge bisected the highway between…
Last Man Off is the true tale of a fishing vessel sunk in the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic. Thirty-eight crew members hauled in thousands of lines of dangling tooth…
We walked through a historic neighborhood in an unfamiliar city. It was time to return to the hotel, and I knew we should turn right, but my husband headed left.…
A disturbing question confronted me two weeks ago, like an Intervention. It bubbled under the surface in March and April when the Master Naturalist classes were meeting, but I ignored…
Nikita, our dog, lay unbothered near the driveway despite passing dogs barking and straining at their leashes. Neighbors exclaimed their amazement at her loyalty. Even on our walks to the…
Acting Squirrelly Our breakfast table rests against a wall of windows that look out on the back porch. Each morning a menagerie of birds and squirrels entertain us at the…
Cardinalis cardinalis. Like an enlightened Hellen Keller, I gorge on names in a Master Naturalist class, running from tree to tree. What’s the name of this tree, that bloom?…