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Oregon is home to the City of Roses, Portland, where there is an official test garden and several beautiful public rose garden parks. My grandmother had roses planted along her driveway, mostly memorably Oklahoma, a deep dark red. Here on the coast, however, salt and wind and cloudy days are a bit of a challenge…
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We all have our habits. My husband and I both love books and tend to fill shelves. Beyond that we have other things, too much of other things. When I spread all my Koigu yarn and a handful of handspun skeins out in order to get them sorted back into bins by hue, he took…
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“Behind me, a filled room of 9/11 first responders, and in front of me, a nearly empty Congress,” Stewart said. John Stewart spoke to many empty seats in a House Committee about the needs of first responders. All these years later and the men and women who responded “in five seconds” to a disaster: “I’m awfully…
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I discovered yesterday that Tin House is closing after this month’s issue. I already knew about Glimmer Train, Shimmer, and the end of Apex except as a publisher of books. These were all excellent publications. The New York Times is only writing about Tin House, because the founding editors are in New York? Sometimes I…
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“But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and…
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Last month I determined to complete several projects, mostly knitting. I knit a narrow scarf, a huge shawl, a cardigan sweater for my granddaughter, and a washcloth—that last from a horrible but gorgeous cotton linen blend. I would make another washcloth if the yarn were not so stiff and rough that it hurt my hands…
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We took our granddaughter to her first literary reading on Monday. However, our adventure began with dinner. It had been a long time since we took her for Thai. She barely remembered—maybe she did not remember at all. She chose yakisoba from the menu because she knew the word from a report she did on…
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If the weather had been better 75 years ago, yesterday would have been the anniversary of D-Day. [The D stands for “day.”] Instead, it was the Golden Anniversary of my husband flunking his draft physical. He did nothing to deserve this, but each year he celebrates his fortune in being spared Vietnam. This is not…
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The young man was doing summer landscape maintenance at a local public playing field. That is, he was mowing a huge patch of grass. He shut off his machine before coming over and say hello. I was taking a summer course in a nearby building. I was charmed that he remembered his English teacher from…
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Walking is healthy exercise. Taking time out from your busy life is mentally healthy too. A website recommends planning a 30-minute walk this weekend because “here in the age of binge watching and sedentary smartphones, that we all could stand to move around a bit more.” They aren’t wrong about that. They have three pieces of…
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