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Category Archives: Backyard Nature
The Wisdom That Does Not Cry
Wisdom is not a monopoly held only by adults. There is so much we can learn from the deep wisdom of very young children. May we stoop from our greater height, bend our ear close, and listen. Continue reading
Collateral Damage
Throughout history humans have sought easy answers to complex issues. When things go wrong, how can we protect the most vulnerable: Women, older people, the poor, and our children? Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Childhood, Courage, Dementia, Family, Home, Ideas, Knoxville, Op/Ed Thoughts, Women
Tagged 1918 influenza outbreak, 1918 Mid-term Election, Alfred E. Smith, Covid, COVID-19, Democratic Party, George Maloney Home, Joe Biden, Kingsport, Knox County Commission, Knoxville, pellagra, pellagra psychosis, scapegoat, scapegoats, Spanish Flu, Tennessee, Texas, The New York Times, University of Alabama, World War I
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Blooming Out of Season
Nearly a decade ago I planted two camellias in container pots just outside the front door of our home. I never thought they would live for long–in containers, mind you– in the mercurial climate of East Tennessee. But my sister, … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Beauty, Blooming, Dance, Happiness, Ideas, John Irving, Music, Op/Ed Thoughts, Stage, Women
Tagged Billie Holiday, Blooming, Camellias, Carmen McRae, Growing, Happiness, Maria Cole, Nat King Cole, Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark, Netflix, New Year, Stanley's Greenhouse, Winter
4 Comments
Backyard Excavation
After 15 years in a house we loved but that had grown too large for us, we decided to downsize and drag fewer possessions through life. We wanted to move to an area (1) we could afford, (2) in a … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Beauty, Family, Freedom, Happiness, Home, Ideas, Knoxville, Love, Music
8 Comments
A Blue Moon Easter Eve
I haven’t written a blogpost since January because the last two months have been a blur of packing, downsizing, moving, and all the details that such a nightmarish task entails. At times we have wondered if we should have left … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Happiness, Home, Knoxville, Writing
Tagged a blue moon, Easter, garden art, goat, Knoxville, Old North Knox, Stanley's Greenhouse, West Knoxville
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Taking Along Our Ghosts
When I was young, I saw the 1979 movie “Being There” starring Peter Sellers in his most provocative role as Chance, a simple, uneducated man who grew up and tended the garden on a great estate, and had never been … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Beauty, Courage, Creativity, Freedom, Friends, Ideas, Love, Screen, The Arts, Wonder
Tagged Antietam, Being There, Chance the Gardener, Chancellorsville, Chauncey Gardener, Confederate widows, Hana, Juliette Binoche, Lazlo de Almasy, Miramax Films, Peter Sellers, Ralph Fiennes, The Civil War, the Confederacy, The English Patient, The North, The South, The Union
1 Comment
Birds a la Hitchcock, Ballanchine, and Boogaloo
On Wednesday I woke up and looked out our front door to find snow, ice, and swarms of birds (and I mean hundreds, not just a tweeting few) raucously flip-flapping as if they were reenacting a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s … Continue reading
Posted in "Pets", Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Books, Childhood, Courage, Freedom, Love, Screen, The Arts, Writing
Tagged Art house cinema, Birds, Boogaloo and Graham, Books of the Times, Downtown West, Dwight Garner, George Ballanchine, goshawks, Helen Macdonald, Live Action Short Films, Pet chickens, Robert Frost, The Academy Awards, The New York Times, The Oscars
1 Comment
Breaking the Code
The other night I was watching a particularly ingenious, forgive the phrase, network television program, (yes, unlike some of my friends, I do watch television from time to time, i.e., most nights) that will remain nameless (Elementary) and I began gathering epiphanies in … Continue reading
Posted in Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Knoxville, Music, Photography, Screen
Tagged American Kid, baby birds, Birds, Elementary, Jonny Lee Miller, Patty Griffin
2 Comments
Our Free-range Pet Spider
You can say it is a stretch to have a pet spider who comes and goes has he (or she) pleases. But no matter how strange it sounds, we apparently have drawn into our home a tiny, webless, very comfortable … Continue reading
Posted in "Pets", Autobiographical, Backyard Nature, Beauty, Freedom, Knoxville
Tagged fears, showers, Spiders, winter weather
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Zero Dark Ice Storm
Yes, my hometown of Knoxville continues to have one enterprising weather system after another in my least favorite month of the year: January. We have had 75 degrees, the freaky and fast-moving snowstorm that proved that some Knoxvillians can indeed … Continue reading
