places

What I write often coalesces around a place. (Even going from the kitchen to the living room changes the perspective.)

canada

True Nature – Gabriola Island, British Columbia — Where we live, at the end of the road, on the least-populated side of the island, at the edge of the sea, we’re deep inside the lushness.

europe

Black Forest Beauties — Titisee, Germany — Up in the mountains above where we live in Freiburg, in the little village of Titisee, there’s a booth with a professional photographer who’ll take your photo in traditional Black Forest costume. Like the dorks we are, we went for it.

Ode to the Saint of Eyeballs — Near Freiburg, Germany — St. Ottilien is the patron saint of good eyesight, without which reading and writing — two great loves of my life — would be much more challenging. I’m captivated by her hideout near Freiburg, Germany.

united states

Dying Words – Lake Junaluska, North Carolina — In two different parts of the country, both of my parents are flirting with death. As I reach out with both hands for something — anything — to give me solace and strength in this double whammy time, over and over again, words save me.

Chemistry Lab – Ohio and Washington State — We scoot beneath branches, paddle a bit, talk, watch cows watch us, and paddle a bit more, two peas in a pod on a peaceful day. Until the river passes beneath a fence.

Granny’s Weird House – Lake Village, Arkansas — Granny made the most of where she lived, creating a magical space on the near a tiny town on an oxbow lake of the Mississippi River.