I somehow agreed to an 8:30 am tour at the Portland Japanese Garden in early March. I wondered what could possibly be interesting about a slow stroll through the damp, the cold, the bare-branches? I'm sometimes reluctant to go with Alan on his frequent visits; I prefer unkempt forest trails and meandering streams, where nature has its way.
Attics of My Life Part II
Ojai, Ventura, Santa Barbara, our weeklong adventure continues. This wasn't the sort of travel seeking new adventures and novel sights. This was a trip through the past to make sure the ties that bind are healthy and alive.
Attics of My Life
Sometimes you have to step back into the past to find a way to move forward. Actually I just made that up; I don't know if it's true. But doesn't it sound good? I went back to my old home for a week. What did I find? Sustenance, encouragement, joy, beauty, camaraderie. Oh and warmth. A jumping off place. I don't know what's next, but I feel good since coming back; the tank is full. That's good, because I'm writing this in record snowfall.
Away From One Life and Into Another
We're getting back to traveling, hitting the road and the skies, but it's different these days now that I'm older, and the world has changed too. How about you?
New Car New Me
In which we buy a car, and it's fraught with pitfalls. The pandemic makes the ordeal even more arduous. In addition, there's shifting priorities as I age, my dear old VW bug, and David Crosby of course.
Walking on Clouds
A change in the weather, a wetlands, birds and beasts and walking on clouds, as well as writing and writers, songwriting, and death. I think I covered it all...
Soggy Saturday
It's soggy, and has been for a while, and will be for a while more. Not California soggy, which seems strange to say; they have their own troubles. Here in the PNW we have the slow slog kind of soggy, weeks and months of it, seemingly endless. I might be getting used to it, or maybe just resigned. I guess it's what I signed up for when I moved.
100 Things That Made My Year
If 2022 was our pandemic junior year, then I've moved on to senioritis; I'm restless and ready to bid goodbye to 2022. I nosed through the layers of my life like a mole. I paged through calendars, notebooks, my blog... Maybe it's death's hot breath, or maybe I just like spreadsheets and lists. But here are 100 things that made my year, in no particular order or ranking.
The Best Thing
"Tell me the best thing that happened to you this week," I asked Facebook. I asked in 2019, and again in 2021 and 2022, just so I could hear happy news about people thriving, at least in the moment. It's what I needed to hear in one big slurp, in view of everything else, like these times. You know.
Doing Nothing
I thought, in passing, one October morning, that I would not write anything that day. This is rare for me, but I had nothing to say. I felt wrung dry and wordless. Alan was isolating due to Covid, and I'd been on my own for a while.
Rivers and Roads PDX 