Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

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Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Remember when…

  • Ten Years Ago…

    He noticed it when he used the rowing machine at the gym where he worked. A consistent pain or pressure that would start up after a few minutes and go away when he stopped rowing. Perhaps a pulled muscle? He was in the middle of building our new home, after all, and stretching and working…

  • Flowers for Leontien (and other Sweet!s)

    June 3 will mark the 4th anniversary of my first blog post. I started blogging because, as I write in my "About" section up above… "Diaries, letters, and scrapbooks became journals, writing classes and essays became Long Hollow (and a few fictional works in progress…)  But come to find out, what started as an outlet for my journaling…

  • Catching My Breath (and other Sweet!s)

    I haven't blogged in a whole week. I think that's a record.  Snippets and ideas for posts have popped in my head – random words are scribbled on scraps of paper all over the house and in the car – but I haven't been able to stop long enough to work them into full posts.…

  • Beauty in the Midst

    Last week I helped celebrate my cousin Ronnie's life.  Looking through the photos afterward, Claire Bidwell Smith's words kept coming back to me… "Even in the midst of all this pain and sadness I see something beautiful."   I snapped this one of Ronnie's sister Cindy surrounded by her daughters, grandkids, and great-granddaughter because of the…

  • Fiction, Fires, Family… and other sweet things

    Bonfire sparks drifted up to the sky where clouds parted like curtains and stars crowded the stage, accompanied by the singing creek beside us. No moon softened the darkness – the pitch wall of night rose just beyond the reach of the firelight.  There was a time not too long ago when I would have…

  • “Girl…We SO Crazy” (a Diva weekend in Long Hollow)

      This tiny naked baby, arms opened wide for a hug, sits on my kitchen window sill, a sweet reminder that just two weeks ago my kitchen was overflowing in love and friendship and hugs from women who have known me almost forever.       The baby came hidden in an authentic King Cake,…

  • Kids, Jewelry, Birthdays, Weddings and other (belated) Sweet!s

    A rumble of thunder and whisper of rain woke me in the night. It continues today, another steady, soaking rain falling from a colorless sky. We've had enough rain in the past few weeks that I almost take it for granted, despite the months of drought. Almost, but not quite. Waking to the sound of…

  • 26 Sweets (and then some)

      I was 26. I had felt the life inside of me, kicking my ribs, pressing on my bladder. Had heard the amplified swoosh swoosh of the heartbeat in the doctor's office. Had spent all night and most of the morning gritting my teeth and breathing heh-heh-heh through the waves of pain. And then, there…

  • Returning to Me

    http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/blogher.org/Pfizer_Nov11_ReviewBadges_014/@x13 With the birth of my first child, my ego, dreams, and most other aspects of Me as I knew Me sloughed off like a snake skin, forgotten. I was a Mother now! That tiny little being depended on me and by golly, that's all that mattered. Within a few years, I had two more…

  • “It was the thing to do…” (Thank you, Veterans!)

    "Lord, if your people need me, I will not refuse the work. Your will be done." ~St. Martin of Tours     My big brother Buster was headed to Viet Nam, saying his goodbyes, when I stood beside him in this photograph and smiled. I had no idea what was ahead of him. This was…