WELCOME TO MEMOIRS AND MUSINGS

I dreamt I died last night I drove around a mud puddle But failed to see a larger one into which I sank, the car sank, the muddy mass...

My seven-year-old self knew that spying on people was bad, but there I was in my second-floor bedroom and there they were below, just...

The Shrike He spies a cricket In the dirt Flies into the wind Head still, wings blurred Hooked beak Down Plucks the muddy bug Rises,...

We've long kept watch at an Eagle Nest on Route 36. Many a drama has played out with eaglets falling 50 ft or more and being rescued....

Here in the US, we have a novel solution to our climate and population problem. As the world rushes to kill the planet through habitat...

Overheard on the news while making my tea this morning--AI is transforming art. You can use a little program like Lensa to create an...

I'll tell you how the Sun rose— A Ribbon at a time. The Steeples swam in Amethyst, The news, like Squirrels ran— The Hills untied their...

Sometime in the early 1970s when my kids were about 11, 14, and 16 years old, I bought "From Julia Child's Kitchen." Momentous. The book...

When digital cameras were new, I bought one right away--I had always loved photography, but I simply couldn't bear waiting days or weeks...

38 degrees and a bit of wind. I bundle up and head out to Llano Seco Wildlife Refuge with my two trusty cameras--one for landscape and...

We have a Wellesley Class of '58 "Sister List," and we send email about passing events, getting old, advice about topical pain meds, when...

Whatever you do in life, make sure you never, ever, travel to the Tetons and Yellowstone at 85 in the grips of Type A Flu. On Day two,...

This story took place in 2019 and was first recorded on Facebook. I can feel my fear and angst even now. Here is the tale as I told it...

Sunday, I went to our Chico Eagle nest at 7 AM. As I was walking out, I spotted a parent sitting in a tree that hangs over the Sacramento...

Here is the hillside where I look out on an eagle-nest vista. Very often, the sun has not yet reached over the hill, the eagle mom is...

After leaving Philadelphia, leaving Anna and my brief recognition of my love for her, I traveled along my life through the thickets of...

In 1975, I decided to shorten my PhD thesis by two full chapters—enough, I thought, I have proved that Shelley was ironically...

I love my hobby because it lets me off the hook. That phrase popped into my mind unexpectedly. And now, as I turn it over, I discover...

It's 2022 and I'm entering a manuscript into my computer. I wrote a memoir 47 years ago, and decided it deserved to be exhumed. This...

Twenty years after the event outlined in “The Importance of a Second Opinion,” I found myself face to face with another young...