by jphilo | Oct 8, 2020 | Daily Life
Life with my heart in two places began in 1978 when Hiram and I moved from the ice cream capitol of the world in Le Mars, Iowa to a remote part of South Dakota. I was homesick for paved roads, orderly green fields of corn and soybean, and living close to the library and stores. And my family. I really missed my family.
Not surprising since I was twenty-two and away from home from the first time.
The surprising bit began seven years later when we moved back to Iowa, and I became homesick for South Dakota. My homesickness continues to this day, even though my morning walks along the lake are filled with beautiful views. I snapped this picture and imagined what fall must be like in Harding County as the cottonwoods drop their leaves against a backdrop of rugged buttes and short grass prairie.
Life with my heart in two places won’t end as long as I’m on this earth.
Writing fiction is the perfect way to cope with homesickness. Every afternoon I sit in our Iowa living room, open my work in progress, which on this day is Hear Jane Sing!, and start writing. Immediately I’m in the town where we once lived, surrounded by the children and families I still love. I can smell the crisp, fall air and almost touch the stars hanging low in a sky untouched by light pollution. When it’s time to fix supper, I return to Iowa where a trip to the grocery store for missing ingredients takes ten minutes or less.
So far as life with my heart in two places goes, this is the best of both worlds.
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by jphilo | Sep 18, 2015 | Uncategorized
Today’s Fantastic Friday post first appeared on Down the Gravel Road in September of 2008. Considering the popularity of a recent listing of ten reasons to watch The Music Man, this article about some very noisy birds in our neighborhood seemed to be a logical choice.
Pick a Little, Talk a Little
Yesterday morning, I was walking along our gravel road at top speed, oblivious to the scenery around me, when the noise from the ditch awakened me from whatever inner thoughts consumed me. The chirping along the fence was deafening.
For a few seconds, I couldn’t see a thing. Then, I noticed the grass waving and saw a bit off fluff pulled from a seed pod. Finally the noisemakers, a small flock of female goldfinches, came into view. Their dusky gold coats so perfectly matched the browning fall grasses, they were barely visible. One by one, their movement and their chirping, gave their positions away. By the time my camera was out of, some of them had flown away, but a few remained.
While I snapped their pictures, I thought of the song from The Music Man, the one when all the town gossips are busy spreading rumors. The music makes them sound like a flock of old bitty hens. That’s exactly what the goldfinches sounded like, scolding and flapping their wings at each other. I half expected Robert Preston and Shirley Jones to march by, followed by the 76 trombones and the rest of the band.
Instead, I saw a sure sign of fall, the goldfinches flocking together as they do at this time of year, stocking up on provisions before they journey south for the winter. What I wouldn’t give to be going with them, I think as I face the prospect of winter.
But if I do that, I won’t be here to welcome them next spring on the day they return. No matter how hard the coming winter will be, the joy I feel when the birds come home melts my aversion to snow. Their return beats Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, the 76 trombones, and the town gossips, hands down. I can hardly wait.
by jphilo | Nov 4, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
November is such an awkward, unlovely child with it’s chilly days and long nights. Even so, here are ten reasons to love this hard-to-love month.
10. The chances of being bitten by a rattlesnake are low.
9. It’s a good time to rearrange the living room and sweep the insect corpses that have been hiding under the furniture since the Man of Steel discovered the bee hive in the AC unit a while back.
8. Turkey prices go way down. Good for humans. Bad for turkeys.
7. The trees that still have leaves look so courageous, hanging onto their foliage with all their woody might.
6. Morning walks are lighter for a few weeks once Daylight Savings Time kicks in.
5. Outdoor plants moved inside to winter over give the house a safely-tucked-in-bed feeling.
4. Every once in a while God offers up a gloriously warm, calm, and sunny day.
3. In case you haven’t yet heard, The Caregiver’s Notebook released this November. What’s not to love about that?
2. It’s time to make pie.
1. Thanksgiving with the family, eating great food, playing board games, and hugging our grandson!
What do you like best about November? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Oct 28, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
10. It’s the closest thing to time travel most of us will ever get.
9. There’s more time to turn the lights down low for a romantic evening and not notice the need to dust the furniture.
8. When it’s dark by suppertime, jammies are perfectly acceptable dining attire.
7. Once everyone’s wearing jammies to the table, serving breakfast for supper is also perfectly acceptable.
6. So is going to bed early after meal clean up. Which is incredibly easy when cereal bowls and spoons are the only things that need washing.
5. School children who wear jammies to the table, eat breakfast for supper, and wake up early because they went to bed early the night before no longer have to wait for the bus in the dark on school days.
4. Writers and bloggers who wear jammies to the table, eat breakfast for supper, and wake up early because they went to bed early no longer have to take their morning walk in the dark either.
3. On evenings when people don’t hit the hay immediately after wearing jammies to the table and eating breakfast for supper, it’s too dark to do anything but binge watch the Modern Family Season 5 DVD, which you have on loan from the library for 1 short week after waiting months for your turn to check it out.
2. Fall back in the fall means an extra hour of sleep this weekend. Heavenly!
1. The end of Daylight Savings Time means only 4 short months until March 9 when it and spring make their glorious re-appearance.
What would you add to the list? Leave a comment!
by jphilo | Sep 23, 2014 | Top Ten Tuesday
The September equinox left the building two days ago. That means shrinking daylight hours and increasing hours of darkness for the next several months. Not my favorite time of year. But in an effort to think positive, I came up with ten things to appreciate this season of darkness.
10. Unemployment will go down as work hours expand for burglars and peeping toms.
9. It gets dark soon enough to take kids outside to play with sparklers before bedtime. Yes, toes and fingers and bums will freeze. But we are thinking positive, remember?
8. Burned out lightbulbs are more obvious and therefore are replaced sooner.
7. Sunscreen bills go way, way down. No need to mention that heat and lighting bills go up because that wouldn’t be positive. At. All.
6. Less daylight means people won’t notice dirt in the corners of my car/bathroom/kitchen/closets. You get the idea.
5. Those who wait to binge watch TV series on DVDs and Netflix don’t have to wait so long.
4. Putting on jammies right after supper is perfectly acceptable when it’s dark outside.
3. Long, cozy, dark nights + reading lamp = more hours to read!
2. Long, dark nights + cold + nasty weather = a perfect reason to stay home and write.
1. Once each day’s minutes of darkness overtake the minutes of daylight, only three months remain until the December solstice when daylight hours start increasing again!
