Category: Blogging
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Sleep And The Birch Tree Clock
[Our Limelight Hydrangea.] I look at the clock. It’s 4:35 am. I can’t sleep. I begin another chapter in the book I’m reading. I go into the kitchen and eat a cracker. I sip some Tonic Water (it helps my leg cramps). I go back to bed. I can’t sleep. I take a little pill.…
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It Just Isn’t That Simple
I am waging a war here in the North Country. I am waging a war against spiders. I am the General and I am losing. Look, we bought the house in 2000, but the spiders think they are the real owners. That’s eighteen years of warfare. The two World Wars didn’t last that long. Okay,…
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Next Stop: Poughkeepsie
[Mariam awaits our train at Grand Central Station My weariness amazes. —Bob Dylan As Train #283 chugs northward, the Hudson River, on my left…its water the color of tan mud, is flowing south to enter New York harbor. It’s going home in a way. So are we. Almost one month ago we were aboard the…
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I’m Not Alone On A Wide Wide Sea
[NOTE TO READERS: I’M REPOSTING THIS BLOG ON MONDAY, JULY 2. IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT MANY OF MY FB FRIENDS DID NOT GET THIS WHEN I FIRST PUBLISHED IT ON JUNE 27. I’VE MADE A FEW CHANGES. SOME PHOTOS ARE OUT OF THE PROPER TIME SEQUENCE.] Sometime in the 1980’s, I…
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Of Time and Distance: A Departing
[Corfe Castle] Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I sat on unmowed grass leaning against a stone wall. I was on the grounds of Corfe Castle in south Dorset. The mason who built my backrest had fitted the stones into their places over 1,000 years ago. There was still a strong sun in the west and…
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Lancelot, The Spotless Starling And The Blogger
[Spotless Starling. Source: Google search.] I’m perched on a chimney near the Ashfield House B&B with my friend, Tristram. We’re Spotless Starlings. You can find us on page 303 of Collins Pocket Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe. You might not find us in Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds of America, but we’re in…
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Yesterday Afternoon And An Afternoon Thirty-Three Years Ago
[The tomb of Joseph and Caroline Damer] Thirty-three years ago I parked a VW Polo in a small space a short distance from the village of Milton Abbas. I was an exchange teacher at a school in Dorset, England. A teacher friend told me that I must visit an Abbey near Milton Abbas. I was…
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If I Was A Good Dog And My Time Came To Die, I’d Go To My Reward, England
Some years ago, when I wore a young man’s clothes, someone told me that when dogs get old and die, they go to The Dog Star. Now, as a man with gray hair, I know the truth. When dogs pass on, they go to England. When I was a child I had a dog. His…
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A Walk Through Lichfield Cathedral
[Lichfield Cathedral] Some people have life-lists of the birds they have seen. Some people have collections of autographs of rock stars or artists. A fair number of people pay a ton of money for signed baseballs; signed by Ted Williams, Goose Gossage or Ron Guidry. That’s great. Many of these things can be framed and…
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