Category: Melancholy Thoughts
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In The Land of Pooh, The Badger, King Arthur and Beyond: The Excursionist XIII Finale
magic (n) A mysterious quality of enchantment. England is a land of mystery, magic and myth. It is a land of legends of kings and villains of all sorts. Consider this quote: As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can recapture nothing but a dim sense of…
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The Circus: The Excursionist XI
Really great adventures always start with a sign taped to a window of a shop or to a wooden pole along the curb. At least that’s how I found out about the circus. We’re not talking about Barnum & Bailey here or even the Big Apple Circus that visits Lincoln Center every winter. No, this…
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The Enigma of Knowlton Church: The Excursionist VII
[Knowlton Church…front facade] In the middle of Cranborne Chase, a hilly and breezy open region in north Dorset, is the shell of a Norman church. Nothing special really. These churches are found in many villages and hamlets of Dorset. What is unusual is that it is built-in the middle of a Neolithic ritual henge (a…
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The Holiday Card
[What follows is pure fiction. It is a short story that I hope you will enjoy. It’s not funny, but it’s what I wanted to write. Please don’t read anything into this post.] It was during a brief April thaw, when a chance breeze blew the snow and a few minutes of sunlight melted the…
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For Me? It Was a Hard Days Night
[Source: Google search.] There were no classes scheduled for that Monday. It was parent/teacher conference day at Ridgefield High School in Connecticut. I was assigned to meet the parents of my students in an office close to the front entrance. I sat at the head of a large conference table made of a dark wood.…
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Autumn And Gravestones
[Sitting and thinking at Forest Cemetery, St. Regis Falls, NY.] Now that there is six inches of fresh snow on the ground and the trees are bare and the world outside our picture window is monochromatic, I can admit that I miss the late summer, the coolness of autumn days and the color of the…
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Another Time Around
[Our front deck table.] It all happened so fast. One minute, the flies fill the skies, the frogs croak down by the lake, the fan is kept on all night (a rare thing here in the North Country) and I spend my outdoor time swatting mosquitoes. Tonight, we’re told of a frost warning. The fan…
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The Birch Tree Clock: An Update
After I posted the blog about a clock that my father made from a birch tree in our backyard in Owego, NY., I got some responses. Several people said that it would be a tribute to my father to restore the clock. Refurbish it. Make it come alive again. So, I did it. A friend,…
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An August Omen
Omen n. Something believed to be a sign of good or evil. –The American Heritage Dictionary Can you see it? Between the two large trees…behind the birch. I can see it. I first noticed it a few days ago but held-off saying anything about it. It’s not a cardinal or an oriole. It’s a leaf.…
