Category Perspective
Orchid
Spring is a season of change. This weekend our clocks will move forward into daylight saving time. Three years ago exactly, I was spending my last night in London before moving back to the states. And nine years ago I gave notice to my law firm that I was leaving to take a new job […]
More Zion!
Up again in the wee hours, out with the first shuttle, and on the trail before dawn. Today we did three different hikes, with snacks and naps and a healthy serving (or five) of ice cream in between. Vanessa’s step-counter says we did more that 30,000 steps over more than 12 miles. Another fun day […]
Speaking of flowers… those lilies did not cooperate 🤨
After two full weeks —aka eternity—the lilies finally deigned to bloom. By then nearly all the berries had turned brown, the pussy willow buds had either dropped off or begun to sprout—and the lilies weren’t even white. Pink! Sigh. But it’s good lesson in the importance of getting the timing right in floristry. And of […]
The hand bouquet
The second task in my floristry class was to create a hand bouquet—meaning a bouquet constructed with stems held in hand, rather than inserted into a vase. The result was supposed to be compact, roughly symmetrical and appealing from all sides—something in the vein of a bridal bouquet. I chose to build mine with a […]
Stolen!
At 10am today I unloaded groceries from my car. At 12:30pm I went back k down into the garage to leave for a wedding—only to find, well, nothing; an empty stall (that’s mine in the middle) and no car to be found! So I called the police to start the process of filing the stolen […]
Hawaii! — let’s start with beaches…
I cannot tell you how good it feels to get out of the house, Seattle, the daily routine—and instead enjoy sun, warmth, and the joy of living in a big and beautiful world. And having Heather decide to join me at the last minute has made it even better. We flew in yesterday, separately, and […]
La Grande
On the drive to Boise I stopped in La Grande, Oregon, for gas and a snack—and to see the place where I lived from the age of 11 to 17, and which I hadn’t seen since then. What a strange visit! The surrounding valley was just as I remembered it, with the unmistakable profile of […]
Fog
There’s nothing quite like a foggy morning. So much scope for the imagination, as Anne of Green Gables might say. Growing up where I did, fog for me was something I knew more from books and movies than real life. It was associated with magic and “other” places. So encountering it as part of my […]
Tile and the election
At about 6:15 this morning I had an epiphany of what I wanted my bathroom to look like at the end of its upcoming remodel (the result of the last remodel turning out to be a real hack job that only made things worse). By a few hours later I had visited the tile store […]
Kidney stones!
I’m going to start with gratitude. For the emergency room doctors, nurses, and technicians who took care of me; for the ambulance drivers who took me to them and made empathetic small talk on the way; for my dad who answered my early anxious phone call and encouraged me to seek care right away in […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 