Nashville’s robins – thousands of them, locals and visitors – made quite a racket over the last few weeks. They spattered my car every day. They seemed agitated, dawn to dusk – or at least they made me feel agitated. I…
You’ll find Kevin Crumbo and Captain Jack Sparrow out at the park before daybreak, sometimes as early as 4 a.m. Conversations take place in the deep, dark quiet of the woods. Today, Kevin is kind enough to share a recent…
When no one was looking I snuck in a total pleasure read – an impulse purchase on my ipad – one of Amazon’s “Best Books of January.” I succumbed to the temptation of The Bear and The Nightingale, by Katherine Arden…
Why do we go to the Symphony, the Ballet, the theater or any other arts performance or institution? The National Endowment for the Arts asked. “I expected to hear that it is because someone loves a particular form of art,…
At nine months old, my friend Sara Bhatia’s son Zander was sampling a variety of curries and other exotic dishes. My nine-month-old daughter, Ruth, on the other hand, was sampling the foods Gerber put in a jar. Fast forward a few…
There’s a place just beyond where the Grickle-grass grows, in a far back corner of the yard: the Bamboo Forest. Many long years ago, when people long since dead were alive, grandmother planted bamboo because she thought it was pretty. It grew,…
The best novels tend to acknowledge and explore how complicated life can be. Love that, appreciate that! But sometimes you’re in the mood for something gentler. For a beautifully simple vision of the good life and how to live it, light a…
I ran into Monica McDougall at a party recently. “How are you? How are the kids?” I asked, expecting an enthusiastic response. “Normal,” she replied, with her lovely wry smile, a smile that conveyed the vagaries, hassles, worries, and aggravations of family…
Finally, a ray of sunshine! Pepper and I took advantage. She bounded around the yard securing the border and I did my usual slow circuit. To my dismay, I found the daffodils already 3 and 4 inches high, seemingly overnight….