My Grandmother’s Celtic Cross
I’ve written other posts this year about jewelry I received from my maternal grandmother—earrings she bought for me and another heirloom she gave me. Today’s post is about a Celtic cross pin that belonged to my grandmother, which my mother gave me shortly after my grandmother died. I don’t know the origins of the […]
A Fall Family Feud Over Trees
The trees have been gorgeous this autumn in Kansas City. I can’t say it’s been the best year I remember for fall colors, but it must be among the top five. The turning leaves have been so bright that if I were a painter—and I am most decidedly not a painter—I would have to start […]
The Times, They’re Not A-Changin’
For those of you who want an update on my writing about the Oregon Trail, I just started delving into the first draft of my second novel in that series. Writers recognize this as a very dangerous point—will I hate every page or will I think it is all wonderful? Neither of those perspectives is […]
Smithsonian’s American History in 101 Objects
The new issue of Smithsonian magazine has a report entitled, 101 Objects That Made America. The Smithsonian has also published a book by Richard Kurin, The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects. How intriguing! How impossible. How can a nation that spans a continent and beyond, that reaches into four centuries, and that has embraced […]
Haunting Book: In the Woods, by Tana French
I like well-written murder mysteries and police procedurals, and In the Woods, by Irish author Tana French qualifies. A writer friend of mine told me about Tana French. I have now read her first three books, and her fourth is on my shelf waiting. In the Woods was the first in her series about the […]
The Haunted Doll House
I’ve written before about the times I built Barbie houses with my father-in-law. The second house we constructed was my daughter’s Barbie Magic Sounds House, which she received the Christmas when she was four. When the holiday celebrations at my in-laws’ that year were over, we brought the house home and placed it in the corner […]
Haunting Book: Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed, is the only non-fiction book I’m reviewing in my haunting books this year. I almost didn’t review this book, because I was disgusted with the author throughout most of the time I was reading her memoir. But I decided that because her […]
Division of Labor: Pumpkin Carver
I don’t know how I became the pumpkin carver in our family. My husband and son are the ones with the Boy Scout totin’ chips. And I’m pretty slow at slicing vegetables. But my role as pumpkin carver, once started, became inalienable. My husband and I moved into our first house in October 1980. I […]
Haunting Book: Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
This week’s haunting book is a novel about a privileged Englishwoman, Ursula Todd, born in 1910. She is born over and over throughout the novel, living a series of lives, each life slightly different from the one before. Life after life poor Ursula lives, some lives happy, others not. This book has been on many […]
Barlow Road to Foster Farm: Civilization At Last
I’ve mentioned the grueling Barlow Road around the south slope of Mt. Hood before. Barlow Road was the last leg of the Oregon Trail for the emigrants who decided against floating down the Columbia River. The descent down Laurel Hill on Barlow Road past the summit, a 60 degree slope in places, was one of […]