I’ve always enjoyed this quote by Albert Camus about the invincible summer we hold within our hearts. It seemed to fit this grumpy statue of St. Francis that I discovered one snowy day when walking in the Village of Oak Creek.
When I was researching the setting for the latest Pegasus Quincy novel, I wanted to include a scene where Silver Delaney and Rory Stevens meet in a bar. But just not any bar. This one had to be the local neighborhood hangout, where after work the lineup at the old wood bar is three deep….
One afternoon I looked up to see two very different clouds. One was brilliant in the sunshine, each layer clearly marked with almost luminous attention. I reveled in its beauty. The second, almost directly overhead was dark, threatening, ominous. And then I stopped for a moment to reconsider. If I were under that bright cloud,…
Abiquiu, New Mexico is north of Albuquerque, north of Santa Fe, even north of Taos. Georgia O’Keeffe discovered it and spent years there creating her own artistic way of seeing flowers, and nature, and blue sky. When I visited her Ghost Ranch, the isolation and peace of the country allowed me to slow down and…
In the desert, termite colonies thrive. It never gets cold enough to kill them, and sometimes there may be as many as twenty colonies in a yard–or under a house! After a recent rain, I found these two Lilliputian skyscrapers in a stream bed. Although the water had dried out on the surface, underneath, there…
Upside down, right side up, left to right, right to left. If you’ve ever noticed, we don’t often find (almost) perfect symmetry in nature. That’s why, when I found this vista, I was delighted. Symmetry creates a comforting predictability. Two by two, like the story of Madeleine living in the convent. Or Noah’s animals in the…
My father always grew cosmos in his summer garden. He would proudly bring a bouquet into the house and my mother would display them on our kitchen table in the same small glass vase each summer evening. Although both my parents are gone, I still have the vase. And each summer I grow the cosmos of…