Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

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Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Tidbits

  • Don’t Stop Believing!

    I didn't become Catholic because they consider it okay to dance and drink, but I have to admit, those are great fringe benefits! Every year I look forward to our parish "adult" Christmas party, where there's always great food, great dance music, a huge dance floor, and a mostly older crowd who make me feel…

  • Thanksgiving, Advent, and other sweet!s of the week…

      I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did. I feel especially blessed that in my 55 years I've only been responsible for the whole dinner a handful of times, thanks to my mom and, more recently, my son and daughter-in-law.     For the second year in a row, my son did an…

  • The Power of a Wheat Penny

    Like my Daddy, and his daddy before him, I have a coin collection. My coins aren't categorized into small blue books like theirs, though. Mine -all wheat pennies - jingle around in an old bourbon bottle.   This doesn't look like much of a collection after fifty years, does it?   I'm not sure when or…

  • Birthday Snow

      It snowed in Texas today, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet.  Granted, it was in Lubbock, up in the Panhandle, farther north than most of Texas. My son and daughter-in-law (a Texas Tech graduate) were there this weekend, celebrating her birthday, and she welcomed the snow as a special birthday gift. (I just hope…

  • Party Girl

      This evening my family commandeered the sunroom where my mom lives to celebrate her 83rd birthday a few days early. It was the only day we could all be together, but besides that, when you're turning 83, you really should start celebrating early, don't you think?     I know Mama loves being with…

  • Nightowls, Revisiting Spring, and other Sweet!s

      Temperatures here have been in the 70's and 80's. Wildflowers, mostly yellows and purples, line the roadside and dot the woods. Birds chatter and sing in the treetops, bright green bushes dotted with new blooms hum with industrious bees, and Monarch butterflies dance among the snow-on-the-prairie.     Is this spring or autumn? It doesn't…

  • Sunday afternoons and belated sweets

      Just before sunset this afternoon, I escaped to the front porch swing with a glass of wine and a long-lost book from my childhood. I'd spent the day taking care of the dogs, going to church, fixing one of my signs that got knocked over by city mowers, visitng my mom, and finally making…

  • They’ve landed! (…and other sweet!s)

    For the past week or so I've been living vicariously through a couple of my kids. Again. My son and his wife have now experienced the beauty, beer, food, art, sights and sounds of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Amsterdam. And through the wonders of technology, I've been able to tag along through their photos and…

  • Sisters (and other sweet!s)

      It would have been intimidating growing up with such a beautiful big sister if she had been the type to criticize or belittle. But I was blessed with Brenda.      Sure, she liked to tease me sometimes, and even lost her temper with me once or twice, but given that I was a…

  • Daughters (and other sweet!s)

          They grow so fast, don't they? One minute they're crawling around on your stylish-at-the-time-rose-colored carpet, exploring and investigating… picking on their older brothers, trying to stir things up…cuddling in your arms because they're still shorter than you and easy to pick up… …and then suddenly they're wanting to explore far beyond your…