Miscellaneous

Every so often, things happen that we don’t understand. Although we try, sometimes we never find the answers.

The Hunter’s Moon is past, when leaves are falling and the game is fattened. We are heading for the Beaver Moon, when it is time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze and to ensure that we have a supply of warm winter furs. It is also called the frost moon, and we can expect colder we…

Miscellaneous

“Let me stay in this moment ... forever!” I said, as I surveyed my surroundings on this glorious October afternoon. The hills are speckled with color. Dazzling reds, oranges and yellows stand out amid dull greens and browns. Warm sunshine, less intense than it was a month ago, highlights the…

Sometimes you need a big reminder to realize how grateful you are to be alive.

Long ago, when I was a congressional press secretary, Jennings Randolph was a wise senator from West Virginia. On his Washington desk, he kept a motto I never forgot:

I’m always amazed when suddenly, the day turns as dark as night, rain comes down in torrents, lightening flashes and thunder booms, making me feel helpless and then, within a few minutes, it stops as abruptly as it started and the sun shines brighter than ever.

Another glorious autumn day has dawned in our hills, with an errant breeze blowing down a few leaves and scattering them about lawns and elsewhere. Here in our Clay County hills, we have had only a light sprinkling of frost. Nights are becoming cooler and days are shorter. The seasons are ch…

Anniversaries/homecomings

“Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance” (Psalms 32:7).

Anniversaries/homecomings

The annoying ring of the phone woke me this morning — harshly, cruelly, too soon — from a beautiful dream. I was in a place I’ve always loved, even before I ever saw it: Paris, France.

The rain finally came. We had suffered many days of dry weather, with the creek almost dried up and with just a puddle here and there to prove it was a creek. Meadows and lawns alike turned brown and sere, and some water wells went dry. It seemed that the leaves would only turn just a brown …

The first day of October enters our hills with blue skies and sunshine, and is welcomed by those who regard this as their favorite month of the year. These early days float by as gently as milkweed floss on a breeze, and more impossible to catch and to hold.

Anniversaries/homecomings

In my younger days, I recall being very vindictive. If someone did something to me that I thought was wrong, I wanted to get even right now.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently reported that the summer of 2019 was tied for the hottest on record for the Northern Hemisphere. Had the weather run true to form, August would have been a little cooler and, by the end of September, chilly autumn breezes would’ve …

Our hills were shrouded this morning with a misty fog, which was soon burned off by the rising sun, which made a perfect autumn day. A wayward breeze riffled through the leaves, many of them turning yellow, and lent a cooling factor to the air. The sourwood is turning red on our Clay County …

Anniversaries/homecomings

When I was a little girl, a favorite uncle, who drank a lot and lived his life quite loosely in general, caused a lot of family confusion with a tactless remark.

The autumn season will be officially here in just a few days, but her coming has already been announced by several signs. We are now sweltering under hot September sunshine every day, and awaiting some needed rain. The creek has dried up to a few small puddles, as heat waves vibrate upon the…