Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

recent posts

about

Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: My Country Life

  • He’s still here… and other sweet!s

    Tom and I once spent a week in a downtown Austin high-rise which had fabulous views of the city. It was especially beautiful at night, with the Texas State Capitol and other downtown buildings all lit up. Unfortunately, that high-rise was Brackenridge Hospital, and Tom wasn't in any shape to appreciate those gorgeous views. He was recovering from…

  • Mother’s Day, Husband’s Day, and other May Sweet!s

    About 50 years ago, this little cutie was collecting turtles near the Magothy River …pretty much having a Tom-Sawyer-like childhood in the Maryland woods where he grew up with his 8 brothers. He just turned 60, but still loves playing in the woods around our house, discovering and observing wildlife, and he still looks pretty dang cute…

  • I had no idea…

    I had no idea, when I decided to lug the recycling up to the bin tonight, that a full moon was waiting for me at the top of our winding path. It peeked at me from between the trees, but then BOO! there it was, resting just above the silhouetted hill in front of our house, shining bold and bright and…

  • Memories, and other sweet!s

      "…remember someone said that God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December…." ~J.M. Barrie, "Courage" (The Rectorial Address Delivered at St. Andrews University, 1922 May 3rd)   There are some days when the not-so-sweet! seems to overshadow the sweet! Yesterday was one of those days. First, I heard of the passing of…

  • Rain. A sweet! for me… a curse for others.

        Our rain started last night. A determined, confident rain that would match any long-distance runner in the Olympics… persistent and focused. I can hear it even now, picking up a second wind, stepping up its pace.  However, except for a few low-water crossings, and unlike poor Louisiana, thank the good Lord there haven't…

  • Getting Unstuck, and other sweet!s…

        At the time of my last 'sweet' post, I mentioned going through one of the boxes of my mom's things and crying when I came across her uneaten Easter candy. In all honesty, I fell into a funk that day that I just couldn't shake… like a perpetual gray cloud was hovering above my…

  • Slide Projectors and other sweets

        Last Saturday night I pulled out my grandmother's slide projector, propped it on my kitchen table, and went back in time through the images splashed on the wall above our stairs.  Most I had never seen before, like the one above of my grandmother standing in a field of bluebonnets. What you are seeing is actually…

  • Parades, Freedom, and other sweet!s…

        "I been one poor correspondent, and I been too, too hard to find, but it doesn't mean you ain't been on my mind." ~ America, "Sister Golden Hair" Despite good intentions, I don't blog as much as I'd like anymore, or have time to visit those of my favorite bloggers. But I'm hanging on to…

  • Promises Kept… a sweet catch-up

    A few days ago, I traded my phone for an umbrella when I took Belle for our morning run/walk down our dirt road. And that's why I don't have a photo of  the most beautiful rainbow … a perfect arch above the horizon, and below it, a summer-blue sky that winked at me from behind stormy gray clouds,…

  • Sunset and a smattering of sweets

        This evening I did something I haven't done in a long, long time…. I sat in my rocking chair on my back deck and watched the sun set.  It wasn't a dramatic sunset, like the one in this photo.  Just a deepening blue sky with a few wispy pink clouds dancing above the treetops. But…