Category: Animals

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

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My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

A Walk in the Woods #Poetry

A couple of years ago, I wrote the following poem for a contest sponsored by National Braille Press, but it didn’t win. So, I submitted it to The Avocet, and to my surprise, it appeared in this week’s online issue. You can click on the title to hear me read it.

A Walk in the Woods

Bird songs fill the air.
I smell pine, flowers,
feel the whispering breeze,
as I pause to drink cool water.
I don’t see much,
but my other senses
help me appreciate nature.

My Books

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

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My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

The Ice Cream Stand

Thanks to blogger Mary Hiland for inspiring this. In her post, she shares memories of buying sweet treats from an ice cream truck as a kid.

When I was a kid, I wasn’t a fan of cones, Eskimo pies, or any other treats you could eat with your fingers. Instead, I preferred malts, sundaes, and other treats that could be eaten with a straw or spoon. The stand at Kendrick Park here in Sheridan, Wyoming, had plenty of those. When I was in high school and college, our house was only a block away from the park. My younger brother and I often walked over and swam in the pool, then bought ice cream. Behind the stand was a playground, and when I was younger, I often enjoyed myself there, even after Mother accidentally caused me to fall off a swing.

On Tuesday nights when there were concerts in the park, Dad and I often took our Irish setter, Clancy, over. After the concert, we made our way to the ice cream stand. While I had my usual chocolate malt, Dad got a vanilla cone and a spoon. He told Clancy to sit, and he fed him some of the ice cream from the cone. When the cone was empty, he gave that to the dog as well.

One summer, my ten-year-old cousin Shelley and her family were visiting us from Iowa. Dad, Shelley, Clancy and I walked to the park as usual on a Tuesday evening. We brought lawn chairs, and after the concert, Dad decided to stow them behind a tree while we made the quarter-mile trip to the ice cream stand. When we returned to that tree after enjoying our treats as usual, the chairs were gone.

Dad told Shelley and me to start walking home while he looked around to see if the chairs had been dumped somewhere else. They were old and not of much value. While we waited to cross a busy street, to our surprise, Shelley spotted the chairs in the back of a green pick-up truck that was driving by us.

So, when we got home, Dad called the police. When the detective arrived, Shelley gave him a description of the truck. The next day, the chairs were found. Unfortunately, the police needed to keep them for evidence, and we didn’t get them back until October. By that time, I was away at college, and attending band concerts and eating ice cream were far from my mind.

What about you? Do you have any specific memories of buying and eating ice cream from a stand or truck? What was your favorite kind of ice cream? Did you prefer it in a cone, dish, or malt? Any way you like your ice cream, I hope you enjoy plenty of it this summer.

My Books

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

My Other Links

My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

Re-Blog: Flamboyant

Here’s another delightful poem from Lynda McKinney Lambert. I like the way she compares a bird singing to a performer on stage. Enjoy, and have a great day!

Via Flamboyant

Note: I’m sorry to say that posting a poem a day here is taking too much of my time, so after today, I’ll only post poetry here once a week on Tuesday. It’s not that National Poetry Month isn’t important to me. It is, but my novel and other activities are just as important, and I’ve found it necessary to create a balance. When there are so many hours in a day, something has to give. Thank you for your support and understanding. I hope you will continue to take time to enjoy some good poetry this month.

My Books

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

My Other Links

Via Poem: “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear

Re-Blog: The Owl and the Pussycat: A Poem by Edward Lear

My Books

My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

My Other Links

My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

Thursday Book Feature: Words of Life

Words of Life: Essays and Poems

By Ann Chiappetta

From the author of Upwelling and Follow Your Dog comes a short collection of poetry and prose on family vacations, vision loss, animals, and other topics. It also includes a work of flash fiction. An introduction by the author explains what inspired this compilation.

I met Ann Chiappetta through Behind Our Eyes, an organization of writers with disabilities. I like how she writes about the lighter and darker sides of life. My favorite piece is one in which she describes how she rescued two baby sparrows, only one of whom survived, and the hard lesson her eight-year-old son learned from this experience. I recommend this book, which not only provides insight on vision loss but on other negative and positive aspects of life.

My Books

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

My Other Links

My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds

Thursday Book Feature: AWOL on the Appalachian “Trail

AWOL on the Appalachian Trail

By David Miller

In this memoir, the author explains how and why he left his job and family and hiked the entire Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia for five months in 2003. He describes conditions on the trail, shelters, hostiles, and other places where he stayed, and his encounters with other hikers and wildlife, inserting snippets of information about his life into his narrative. At the end, he gives advice to anyone wishing to hike the Appalachian Trail.

This book helps put life in perspective. My minor aches and pains are nothing compared to the agony David Miller suffered on the trail as a result of foot infections, a sprained ankle, and other complications, some of which nearly caused him to abandon his hike altogether. When I work out, I tell myself I’m only exercising for an hour at the most, not walking for ten hours a day through rough terrain. On frigid winter nights when I burrow under my blankets in bed, I’m thankful not to be soaking wet, trying to get dry in an equally wet sleeping bag.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail is quite a challenge. If you’re up to it, great. If not, I highly recommend this book. You’ll successfully hike this trail from the comfort of your own easy chair.

My Books

How to Build a better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver

My Other Links