Hopping Down the Bunny Trail
As I’ve written before, we didn’t spend many holidays at home when my kids were growing up. We typically went to grandparents’ homes to celebrate. And that was true of Easter as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plus, my children’s spring break was usually the week before or after Easter. So many years, we traveled […]
Waterfront Walks in Washington State
As I wrote recently, spring came earlier to Washington State this year than to Missouri. During my recent trip west, I spent two pleasant afternoons walking along waterfronts in Washington. The first was on a boardwalk on Liberty Bay in Poulsbo, Washington. I had a little time to kill, and needed to work off a […]
A Northern Digression: The Seattle Museum of History and Industry
On my recent trip to Seattle, I went to the Museum of History and Industry (called MOHAI by locals). And I realized how little I knew about the history of my native state. I took the requisite Washington State history class in the ninth grade—it was a quarter or a semester long, I forget which. […]
Spring This Year . . . Maybe Twice
I left Kansas City in mid-March for a two-week trip to Washington State. It was still winter in Kansas City when I left, barely any sign of green in the lawn, and only the beginnings of daffodil shoots. I arrived in Seattle to cherry trees in full bloom. The azaleas had blossoms, and even the […]
More on My Nook HD
A year ago I wrote about my then-new Nook HD and my favorite app at the time—Flipboard. My Nook HD isn’t so new anymore, but I continue to love it. Shortly after I got my Nook HD for Christmas 2012, Barnes & Noble opened up the Nook HD to non-Nook apps, so it is now […]
San Francisco Newspapers Report on Gold Discovery, and More Lodes Are Found
The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California was first reported on March 15, 1848, in the Californian, a San Francisco newspaper. The article was buried on page 2 of the four page edition, and consisted of a single paragraph: Gold Mine Found In the newly made raceway of the Saw Mill recently erected […]
Creative Listening in the Land of Dementia: Three Innovative Ways to Enjoy Repetition in the Caregiver’s Journey, by Deborah Shouse
Deborah Shouse is one of my writer friends and mentors. For many years, Deborah has written and spoken about being a caregiver and advocate for Alzheimer’s patients. She is the author of Love in the Land of Dementia: Finding Hope in the Caregiver’s Journey (Central Recovery Press Nov 2013). Her blog, Deborah Shouse Writes, focuses on finding the […]
Writing Creative Nonfiction: Objective Facts v. Personal Truth
Readers who are not writers may wonder what “creative nonfiction” is. Many writers wonder also. How can nonfiction be creative? I recently attended a program at The Writer’s Place in Kansas City on Creative Nonfiction. Our presenter was Kate Meadows, a freelance writer and editor. The definition Kate used for “creative nonfiction” was “telling true […]
Memories of Green and Orange on St. Patrick’s Day
We celebrated the major holidays in our family—Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, but we didn’t celebrate many minor holidays. Except St. Patrick’s Day. My mother made sure we celebrated that. My maternal grandmother (Nanny Winnie) was half Irish and half Scotch. My Irish great-grandmother, Cecelia Ryan, died well before my mother was born, so my mother […]
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
My maternal grandmother was always happy. At least that’s how I remember her. Her birthday was in mid-March, so I think of her often this time of year. As I’ve mentioned before, we called her Nanny Winnie. She was too light-hearted for “Grandmother,” though she could have been a “Granny.” But “Nanny Winnie” is what […]