May 12, 1965 Jocie Brooke reporting from Holly County, Kentucky. Last week I was not too happy about Mother’s Day. I don’t really mind that my mother has never been a mother to me. If it had been up to her, she probably would have taken me in a basket and left me on some stranger’s doorstep and never looked …
Hands On Learning – Experience Not Required
This is the very first picture of me as a mother. I was very young. Seventeen. But I loved that baby from the first moment I knew I was expecting even though it meant my life was going to drastically change. My girlhood days would come to an end and I would have to be an adult. A mother. I …
If You Had Your Life to Live Over
“If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.” (Nadine Stair) Have you ever thought about what you might do differently if you had your life to live over? Or …
When Mother’s Day is Hard
May 5, 1965 Jocie Brooke reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. I found this poem in a church magazine at Miss Sally’s house. She says it’s a really sweet poem. She never had any babies of her own to rock, but she says she was blessed with many babies to hold at church. She said most mothers are glad to have somebody …
Procrastination – The Thief of Time
I knew I should have done it yesterday!! Procrastination is the thief of time. ~Edward Young Do you put things off? Even things you really want to do? I’ve been struggling with that while trying to finish the first draft of my work in progress. I want to write it. I really do. And I am writing it, but what …
A Green Theme
“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.” (Pedro Calderon de la Barca) What’s your favorite color in the springtime? We have so many choices. The bright yellow of the forsythia that shout spring is really here, the rosy red of the redbud tree that pushes out blooms to light up the woods, …
From Under the Lilac Bush
April 28, 1965 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill. Actually, I’m reporting from under the lilac bush in our front yard. Can you smell them? Ahhh. They’re wonderful. The butterflies like them too, but I couldn’t get the butterflies to pose for my camera. They kept flitting away and film isn’t cheap as Dad is continually telling me. But Dad …
The Breaths of Nature
After all, I don’t see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year there are miracles like white dogwood. ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh Every year I love walking to an area on our farm to see some of those miracles of nature. I’ve already shared a few of the photos I took on my Facebook page. I …
A Writer Sees Stars
As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next. (Rachel Cusk) Book reviews have been around as long as writers have been writing books. I’m guessing that even before books were printed, storytellers around the fire …
Easter Hats on Parade
April 20, 1965 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill, Kentucky where if you went to church last Sunday on Easter, you’d better have been wearing a hat or something closely resembling a hat. At least that’s what Aunt Love says. She even told Tabitha she’d have to wear a hat although I’m not sure she was happy when …