Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
They say reading tea leaves can tell you the future. These leaves say we may eventually move out of the rainy, 70 degree weather in to actual fall temperatures. Maybe. The kids and I spent last weekend climbing trees, picking apples, and raking leaves! The best kinds of exercise. As far as we know, the…
If I whisk matcha in my autumn tea bowl, but don’t take a picture, did it really happen? Isaac found a persimmon tree heavy with ripe fruit way up out of reach at the botanical gardens a few weeks ago. These persimmons, however, are from the commissary.
It almost breaks my heart it’s so ernest. Isaac picked out her birthday present all by himself—a playdough cookie maker. As soon as he saw her, Isaac grabbed the gift bag, bypassed the table where everyone else left their presents, and ran to her. “It’s a present for YOU! You want to open it?” She…
I have learned some things about yellow jackets. They’re not bees, it turns out. They’re little wasps, related to hornets. They can “overwinter” and become massive colonies. They can go unnoticed for years, apparently, until I want to use the office space in the attic, at which time they will come—literally—out of the woodwork. Seven…
I was lost one afternoon, so I stopped to look around, When I found a tiny woodland nymph sitting on the ground. Her eyes were green like moss, her hair was russet silk; Her skin was pure and flawless as the surface of fresh milk. She crawled around the knobby roots of an ancient maple tree…
The last week of October we had one calm, sunny, warm summer day. I’d already planned to drive out to the beach to visit Sara-Michelle now that she’s a Compound Outlier, and the weather could not have been more perfect. Eloise tested her abilities by climbing all the way over the playground and letting Isaac…
“Mom! You want to go apple picking?” I don’t know where Isaac gets this stuff. I must have mentioned it before I realized there seem to be zero places to pick apples within three hours of here. He kept asking. I kept looking for somewhere close enough we’d have good memories of the occasion. Finally…
