“How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.” ~John Burroughs Yesterday was summer. Felt like summer. Today is autumn. A chilly day with rain all day long. Sweater weather even while walking. Perhaps not if the clouds hadn’t been hiding the sun, but the temperature struggled to inch past 60 degrees after …
A Story to Make You Smile
Of all days, the day on which one has not laughed is the one most surely wasted. ~Nicholas Chamfort I used to keep this quote on my desk calendar along with other motivational quotes. It is good to have smiles every day. Good laughs even better. I try to share smiles on Friday on my Facebook page. Sometimes even the …
Birthday Fun
A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip! (Author Unknown) Happy birthday to me! Love having birthdays. Don’t count them, but I love having them. My dog buddies never counted them up either. Up top here is a picture from back when I didn’t have to do the math to figure out …
9/11 – We Promised to Never Forget
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on 2001, we remember. All of us old enough that day do remember exactly where we were when we first heard the news and turned on our televisions or radios and witnessed unspeakable horrors. I was having an ordinary day at home. Maybe writing, but I don’t remember for sure. But then …
Q & A Time – “Do You Get to Pick Your Book Covers?”
I used to want covers that represented the book’s contents very closely and were also pretty. Many folks automatically believe that this is what makes a good cover. But I’ve changed my mind about this. While the cover should not lie (by implication or outright), its job is simply to say: ‘Pick me up!’ to someone who might like the …
1st Sunday Devotional – Keep Seeing the Good
Life ‘s beautiful when you learn to see the good in everything instead of seeing the flaws. ~Jr. Ronaldo How we see things is often influenced by our perspective or attitude. Someone once saw the thistle bloom and thought it lovely enough to plant in their garden. The seeds flew out and landed on new fields where it had never been …
Thank a Farmer
“My grandfather used to say that once in your life you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher. But every day, three times a day, you need a farmer.” ~Brenda Schoepp I grew up on a farm, helped in the crops, chased, er.. herded cows and sometimes sheep, bottle fed lambs, fed the chickens, carried in wood …
Cow Killer Ants
I wanted to know the name of every stone and flower and insect and bird and beast. I wanted to know where it got its color, where it got its life – but there was no one to tell me. ~George Washington Carver I get curious about things I see out in the world of nature and since we now …
Some Trail Camera Fun
I’m not a deer hunter or any kind of hunter except with my camera. And I do like to take pictures with my phone. But sometimes when I’m walking back in the woods, I wonder what might be watching from the shadows. And so, I borrowed my husband’s trail camera and set it up out in those woods to see …
Has the Internet Killed Off Letter Writing and More?
In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people’s lives. ~Anatole Broyard A few years ago, I came across a list in the Reader’s Digest of 8 things being killed by the Internet. Twelve years ago, I wrote a blog post about it. Tonight I decided …









