I love marking the tiny epochs within a season. This is especially vivid in the spring when we’re desperately vigilant for signs that winter is in fact going away. In the Midwest, it will begin with the snowdrops and crocuses peaking up from winter-brown lawns or a light snow, the first signs of life and […]
Note: I wrote this post on Friday. I thought I’d posted it. Turns out, I should have double-checked. So in today’s post “Rethinking the Medieval”, when I say “if I piqued your interest” this is the post I mean. You live & learn. 🙂 As Halloween approached, the Twittersphere came alive with preparation and excitement […]
This is the time of year when we compare summer and winter, the usual pros and cons, and brace ourselves for the downward plunge into grey skies, shorter days and snow. It usually comes down to a matter of personal preference: heat vs cold, light vs dark, ice cream vs hot tea, mowing the lawn […]
Until a few weeks ago, my writing life looked like this: I could feel the end coming. I could see it in those tiny numbers: 57, 87, 102 words cut. Weeks earlier it had been in the hundreds; if I was especially diligent, a thousand. When you’re trying to condense a novel down by several […]
A poem for you this day. Solmonað is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of February. It translates to “mud month.” False springs appear in deep winter – a tease of green as the snow falls again. Restless, we count robins – or are they sparrows playing games? We long for buds and blossoms under a Lent-grey sky […]
