Where seeds of thought have room to grow
Category: My Country Life
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I've mentioned before how acrobatic my little Belle is, that I thought she must be descended from circus dogs… Now I believe it more than ever! Would you believe she has learned to stand and walk just on her hands, er, front paws? (Where's Ellen's number?) Nah, not really. It's April Fool's Day, remember? This is…
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After a rowdy, adventurous beginning, Spring Break opted to slow things down with a hammock-napping final weekend. (Just a figure of speech – our hammock met its demise, with the help of Belle, last spring or so. I need to remind Tom to put that on his Craig's List, um, list.) So we didn't actually…
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Gypsy dogs love an open road … a new scent … an empty field with tall grass. Gypsy dogs love adventure. They don't care that you took a day off work to lay electric wire around a perimeter to keep them in, to keep them safe, or that you worry about them and miss them…
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Wildflowers are waking up, dotting the caliche roadside. Mostly yellow for now, although Tom said he spotted some small blue ones. (He cheats – he has bifocals and can wear his glasses all the time.) So yesterday morning I switched camera lenses and turned my attention from the treetops, where I'd been searching for birds,…
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I knew it. I could see it on their faces yesterday when we tried to get them into the van. Yep, it's true. They love Ginger more than me. Or at least Ginger's yard. Or dogs. Or driveway. Something up there is irresistible to my dogs – worth the trek through the valley and up…
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Max, curled up in his huge porch bed, stared out into the nearby woods. Belle lay nearby, stretched out in the dirt, gnawing on a piece of Dad's firewood. Beyond her, Max spotted a squirrel sneaking closer and closer, determined to scavenge a bit of bird seed from the ground under the feeder. He'd done his…
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Tom and I are pretty old and settled – it doesn't take much to entertain us. Since we're also pretty broke, that's a good thing. Taking a leisurely walk down our caliche road with the dogs on a sunshine-filled afternoon is a highlight of our weekends. That's how old and settled we are. We…
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Thomas Merton said that, not me. But I like it. I spend my day in silence. In prayer. In the mornings, it's just me, the dogs and my thoughts. Most of the day I'm on my own in a little office with very little co-worker conversation. At night, Tom sighs and leaves me to the…
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Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Tom and I celebrated early with a walk through the woods with the puppies, where odd things caught my eye, like this branch and its shadow against the aged cedar tree… and this colorful cactus… And then on the road headed home, Tom spent a few minutes trying to free a…
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I woke to a Winter Wonderland, Central Texas style (translation: an inch or so of snow) Not quite enough to cover the rocks, but hey, you northern people, don't laugh! It's like icing on a cake, and you know, icing makes everything taste better! Or in this case, look better… and also justifies freezing our…
Long Hollow 