Driving to Port Angeles

April 3, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

We’re sitting in a trendy restaurant overlooking the water. The atmosphere is funky casual, and Ric and the waiter are bantering back and forth, each one trying to outdo the other with corny quips. Painted snow and surfboards decorate the walls, and I think my son would love this place. “They are all done by […]

The Oregon Coast

March 29, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Let’s go for a seafood lunch on the ocean.” So, I bundle up – the temperature is cooler here than we’ve used to – and we head along highway 126, out of Eugene. The two-lane road winds through trees, passes through a tunnel and leads us out to the amazing Oregon coast. We stop in […]

Oregon: We Made It!

March 28, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Could you please turn off the scenery so I can get some sleep?” We’re leaving California and driving along highway #5 into Oregon. Tall firs and pines line the road and a soft velvet green covers the hills. Peaks in the distance are snow-capped offering a shocking contrast to the deep green tips. The route […]

Redding, California

March 25, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Redding is a mid-sized town with a population of 90,000. Our camp is set atop a hillside, and the scenery is beautiful, with mountains as a backdrop and tall trees beginning to bud. We have found spring. I have not quite recuperated from our trip to San Francisco, so we decide not to venture very […]

Pacific Coast Encounter

March 22, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

We drive through San Francisco’s waterfront, noting the interesting architecture and impressed by the artsy feel of the place. Like most big cities, San Francisco has its share of homelessness, and many officers on foot patrol can be seen talking to people in make shift tents, or others sleeping in cement flower boxes. It is […]

Turning North

March 20, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

It is raining the morning we pick up the RV – heavy dark clouds hovering overhead. Some days, it feels like my skin offers no barriers, for the damp weather seeps into my body and plays havoc. And then, just as we ready ourselves for the road, the sun breaks through and a rainbow lights […]

Writing Class #3

March 17, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

The prompt for this week is to consider the vulnerability of new growth and what it takes to protect it, tying it into nature. Here is the edited version, after the instructor’s suggestions. Rebirthing It came in the peak of summer that most optimistic time, when sunshine equates with health and bodies glow with exertion […]

Some Days Are Just That Good

March 15, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

We return to the hotel room only to find our keys no longer work, so while Ric goes off to the office, I sit and look up at the bright California sky and say: “Thank you for this f***ing amazing life,” and then immediately apologize for the expletive, but sometimes it is just called for. […]

Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens

March 14, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

In Claremont, California, less than half an hour from where we are staying is a lovely, privately funded natural area with accessible walkways and well choreographed displays. The Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens have over 55 acres of trails, with two short walks available just inside the entrance. The cost for the two of us […]

Joshua Tree National Park

March 10, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

“Let’s have some breakfast and then just go out for a little bit,” my husband coaxes, knowing that I am not feeling very well. “It would be a shame to be here and not see it,” I agree. My body wants me to spend the day in bed, so I compromise by putting on comfy […]

Sun Certainty

Clouds bundleshift and foldcotton strata Trees huddleconfidence incommunity Emotions stackone on anotherco-mingling hues Beneath layersan eternal glowsun certainty. (First published April 2021. Image my own)

Peachy Keen

Not Everything Is Defined by Age

As a child, I knew no limits, setting out on adventures with never a fear for how I’d find my way back home. Now, nestled in my home, I limit myself to certainties, fearful of risks. Some days, I wonder about that child, and how it would feel to wander freely, and it makes me […]