Blackbirds, Doomsayers & Hexes

Did you notice how 2011 arrived like a scene out of a Hitchcock flick? Out in the middle-of-nowhere Arkansas Four-and-twenty blackbirds fell from the sky, dead, along with hundreds of others. Wildlife folks in Arkansas are speculating as to the cause, suggesting that perhaps the birds were struck by lightening or were felled by an [...]

Gardening Tips for Life

January was always the time when my buddy Gordon would pass the morning with a cup of coffee in one hand and a seed catalogue in the other. While his dog Butterbean slept at his feet, Gordon would sit in the sunroom of his Tennessee home and consider warm tomatoes fresh from the vine, or [...]

A New Year's Wish: More of the Ordinary

Aunt Cil with Mama’s dog Sheba. Back in the mountains where my people are from jobs were scarce. Pap could get work at the paper mill sometimes but he was never regularly employed. He didn’t sit around talking about retirement or his 401-K or health insurance for Granny, who everyone called “the crippled woman down [...]