“All the soarings of my mind begin in my blood.” Rainier Maria Rilke The seasons fold into one another like origami. Several days of hard frost caused my tomatoes to droop with dismay. As if on cue, east winds set the maples ablaze with fall color. Then a front of marine air, spring-like, collided with the … More Where The Wild Things Are
Last Sunday morning, I walked six miles. Then, I spent the afternoon working in my garden. I dug up a row of potatoes. I rooted after the spuds like a wild pig. I got down on all fours and, with a potato fork acting as my snout, unearthed the crop. I washed and sorted the … More Harvest
I love the musky smell of my tomato plants. Each evening after work, I forage for the ripened fruit, taking in their dense, earthy fragrance. Green peppers share the raised beds. Mother Nature’s fickle architecture of this bell-shaped vegetable pleases the eye as well as the tongue. My wildflowers are going to seed. They attract … More The Reality of Hope
Nature has a way of making disorder look like a plan. My gardening secret is wildflowers: whatever you do with them works. In my yard, they piece together colorful mosaics that ignore the borders of the frame into which I sowed them last March. Lupine encroaches on the lawn; red poppies take root happily on … More Wildflowers
During the interval between this post and the last, my garden unleashed a bounty of colorful blooms. Iris and rhododendron, in particular, show off extravagant blossoms in lavender, pink, and white. Beneath these preening plants, more humble flowers open their smiling faces to the sun and spring rains. Nasturtium, cosmos, petunia, dianthus, marigold, geums, and … More Riding the Melphalan Wave
Spring, fashionably late as usual, reveals that it has been here all along, working its magic under the veil of bad weather. A trio of deer, two does heavy with fawn and a young buck, amble across our property. Twice, I’ve spotted them browsing on the leaves of low hanging branches. On other mornings, their … More Springtime in the Cascades
I returned to work on April 6th following a ten-month absence. I’d taken time off to receive treatment for multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting the plasma cells in my blood. I spent the fall and winter months recuperating from an immune suppressed condition, the result of an autologous stem cell transplant. I am the Postmaster … More El Gato del Correos
In the mountains, in the heart of winter, an antiseptic stillness penetrates the landscape. Many of my solitary walks in December and January were steeped in silence, the crunch of my shoes on road grit the only sound. By mid-February though, a clatter of orchard ladders mixed with the beat of mariachi music breaks the … More No Expectations
I feed the birds that winter over on our property. The vast majority are Oregon juncos, a humble ground forager with rust colored shoulders and a head hooded in black. They are joined by a single lost song sparrow and a mob of noisy blue jays. I use makeshift feeding stations. One is the ground next … More Feeding The Birds
A neighbor keeps the snow in our long driveway at a manageable depth. I try to pay for his plowing services or to at least help with gas. He refuses with a smile, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep it clean.” Obviously, snow angels come in many guises. At present, we have a narrow lane due … More No Promises
Good Blood, Bad Blood 