Some day I’ll write a cozy mystery and Amaryllis Poinsettia will be my sleuth. She will have red hair, prefer linens the color of pastels, and pack a marksmanship certification. But before I do all that, today I’m going to … Continue reading
Not quite as exciting as a zoo, but pretty cool anyway. The City of Albany, Oregon needs money. All cities do. 10 or so years ago the Council drew up a Plan. In this plan, among other cost-saving efforts about … Continue reading
Wasn’t it just summer a minute ago? I was going to go even farther and say, What happened to fall? We’ve gone straight to winter!, but that’s not quite true. Yes, I did have to pull out socks a few … Continue reading
It’s fall for certain. That sunlight slant. The trees looking as if they’ve been misted with yellow paint. Those squash leaves wearing a funereal shade of pale ocher, as if trying on make-up for a Halloween costume. The only spot … Continue reading
It was a good summer for tomatoes in my neck of the woods—lots of hot, sunny weather brought them and peppers out in profusion (but please do not ask me about my cucumbers. Sigh.) This, of course, means that we … Continue reading
(Picture from our little paw paw tree.) It started out promising. The weather was just awful. Hot May. Dry June. Record breaking rain July. Normal August—oh, yeah. Hurricanes. There is black rot on my Concord grapes and even the pears … Continue reading
Photo by jaimy van kessel on Unsplash It was a strange sound, an animal sound. Perhaps even an animal-in-distress sound? It wasn’t a bird, we thought, probably, though it was a little screechy-chittery like a bird. I heard it when I got up … Continue reading
This will be a short one, all made up of photos for your viewing pleasure–a relief for us on the U.S. West Coast experiencing foul air and energy-sucking heat. A few days before the SECOND malevolent heat wave hit Oregon, … Continue reading
Green walls are fashionable but many climates are not suited for them. If it’s hot and dry and sunny, you may be limited to stonecrop and succulents. I’ve never lived where they’ve been really practical. When I arrived in the … Continue reading
In preparation for a brutal heat wave about to descend on Oregon, I am sitting in semi-darkness, fans whirring, upstairs AC units working at light speed. The garden and the dogs are watered, shorts I have not worn in years … Continue reading
