tall clover farm

Black locust trees anchor my house. They are a much a part of its history as the wavy glass windows and half-wrap porch. Even in a photo taken in 1900, they were relatively large trees.  Where three once stood, there are now two. A large weathered stump tells the tale of a sapling’s fate—its robust nature [...]

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One down, five to find. Judging by its contents, some creepy crawlers take their coffee with cream and sugar, too. I like old coffee cups, the chubby ceramic kind well suited for a beverage called Joe. When daylight and I are on the same schedule, I usually take a brief stroll, coffee cup in hand as I remind Boz and Gracie [...]

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   Fresh-from-the-garden shares a plate with grilled-perfection. (Well, actually Dad would have called  for more searing time.) Happy Father’s Day, Dad, This Steak’s for You! Here’s to the Dad who relinquished his grill to a second grader, to the man who trusted the family’s ribeyes to a boy. As barbequer and mentor, he kept it simple: a [...]

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  Summer returns to Vashon; the Olympic Mountains sign off for the day I began my day in a sweater (cotton) and my day ended in a sweater (wool), a fitting and not unlikely costume change for the first day of summer in the Pacific Northwest. The varying degrees of chill here require you to choose [...]

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 Pink oriental poppies capturing the first light of day I get up at the crack o’thirty to begin my commute into civilization from the island, an odyssey that cross-utilizes every form of transportation known to man (at least in King County): my beater truck (the shortest leg of the trip), a Metro bus, a Washington State Ferry, [...]

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 Boz and Gracie lounging al fresco among the carnage I must have been drugged or under the control of space aliens to have allowed one particular oversized sofa a resting place in my home.  Secured at our island thrift shop Granny’s Attic, the sofa was as comfortable as it was ugly, an olive drab mastodon that [...]

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