I never had a strong maternal pull to have children, yet when each of my sons was born, I became immediately, deeply, incontrovertibly in love. I would do anything in my power to keep them safe, healthy, strong human beings. I would do anything to shield them from the vagaries of this sometimes tough, unyielding …
The sky darkened with only the sun’s last rays giving rose-tipped light to the tops of the trees. Our slight dark-haired, dark-eyed guide handed us each headlights. He quickly explained, as he likely does each tour night, how to turn the thin knob at the end of the tiny lamp clockwise for on, counter-clockwise for off. We’d …
Annandale State Park, February 2014 Some initial reviews of “First Friends: Love, Loss and Life in Humboldt County:” Your descriptive passages of places and people are highly creative expressions, Pat. You paint word pictures. Maybe someday you’ll put down your pen and take up a brush. It’s a wonderfully well-written story. I was so impressed by your …
So many variations of family themes this past week. One of my dear friends from my Humboldt County days died thirty-three years ago on March 28. A tragedy, senseless, struck and killed while running by a Sunday afternoon drunk driver. She left behind four darling children and a brilliant, caring husband. I am becoming acquainted …
The third day of official Spring: the weather is celebrating the spring equinox without regard to historic droughts or hayfever or gardens needing tilling. I want to sing songs of praise to the renewal of life in all its glory and to wish for joy and good health to all I know. This feels like a Walt …
Titbits “Milk Maid,” by Glory Gale (www.thegalery.com) We attended Glory’s pop-up art show in Los Angeles on Saturday night. She’s taking this year to delve into and make more real her artistic endeavors. Her first exhibit was “Titbits,” a celebration of the original women of burlesque. Her work is unique, whimsical, and charming. The detail …
My birthday in Boulder: blue skies, bald eagles, and flat country roads where the Great Plains butt against the Front Range mountains. The alluring alliteration is mesmerizing as sentences form in my mind as I pedal, circles without end, along barely ice-cleared roads on this first bicycle ride of spring here in Boulder County. What …
Boulder Reservoir from Dakota Ridge, November 2014 We all have nicknames, official ones to which we respond, some lovingly bestowed, some happenstance, some fleeting. The transitory names are forgotten as quickly as they are created. We don’t bother much about them. At least, that’s what I try to convince myself. My earliest memories are of …
The house has always been our retreat, our safety net, and our childhood. The sturdy red and white-shingled walls seem barely to contain the memories accumulated during fifty years of our family’s history. I imagine them bursting out at any moment, ready to spring forth and clutter our present. The chronicles change depending on the …
Rabbit Exhibit, Singapore July 2013 My husband just finished his first month at a new job. He’s based in San Francisco but the company is headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. Years ago the four of us (Doug, the two boys and me) to the South Island of New Zealand, encountering snow in Christchurch (yes, it was …