Mountain Laurel

Maple Leaves and an October Breeze

October 24, 2025

I bundled up this morning in an oversized vintage fleece and a beanie from Alaska to walk Batesville road. Miss Mira trotted ahead with a fierce step. I shivered. The sun cast a false glow of warmth and the red and orange of the maple leaves danced in the cold October breeze. The grass glistened with frost and my fingers stiffened by the cold air ached. Ahead I saw my neighbor walking toward me. She yelled “It’s COLD” We laughed. “We going to walk? Or retreat?” Mira looked at me. She sniffed a patch of grass beside the dirt road.…
Read More

No comments on Maple Leaves and an October Breeze
July Shadows

July 11, 2025

There is a beauty and a sadness in the shadows cast across the mountains and valley. The shadows glide over the trees and turn the leaves from green to a bluish hue. I learned just recently that Jim Waive suddenly passed away. A local music legend, not many years older than I am. Years ago I sat in the Blue Moon Diner as he belted out lyrics to the song Blue Shadow as well as many other favorites – The Likes of You, Why I Hunt, House of Ghosts, Fool, Cross Eyed Bear, Bend. When I learned a month or…
Read More

No comments on July Shadows
Redwing Blackbirds and Birthday Pondering

May 15, 2025

The trees that edge the fields and the rolling hills of the Blue Grass Valley are almost fully leafed out. Various shades of tall green blades of grass dance with the breeze. The redwing blackbirds perch atop fence posts and cast their calls down the valley. I love how they respond back and forth to one another and then fly across the fields catching various insects to keep themselves and their babies fed. The soft rumble of a neighbor’s four wheeler passes by in the field to my right to remind me that in this land of supreme beauty and…
Read More

No comments on Redwing Blackbirds and Birthday Pondering
Spicebush and Snowflakes

March 25, 2025

The first signs of Spring in Batesville bring relief and anticipation. I discover the crocus in bloom along our brick walkway and a smile creeps across my face. The delicate white, purple, and yellow flowers peak out from newly sprouting grass. The splash of color indicates the world will soon burst open with life and growth. As I walk the path in our woods a week later the tips of the spicebush branches are flush with fluffy yellow flowers and dot the woods. When I see the white flower of the bloodroot I know we are getting closer to even…
Read More

1 comment on Spicebush and Snowflakes
The First Snow

January 8, 2025

The first snow brings deep silence to the woods. The calls of the cardinal and nuthatch snuffed for a moment as they nuzzle their beaks into their warm nests and wait for the flakes to stop falling. I am warmed by the goose down jacket I wear and socks and a hat made of wool. Without them I would surely freeze. I am sometimes envious of the wild creatures who have natural coats to warm them. The temperature is now only 18 degrees and the wind chill close to zero. There is a certain joy I have in making the…
Read More

1 comment on The First Snow
The First Day of January

January 3, 2025

The leaves softened by the rain no longer crunch beneath my boots or the soft pads of Merlin’s feet. I walk the path and glance behind me to make sure he is still following us. His grey and white coat fluffed from the cold is easy to spot. I stop to sit upon a fallen tree and wait for him to catch up. He leaps into my lap purring. I see the mist and fog filling the valley below and the last bits of the evening sun splash golden highlights through the trees. The earthy smells of leaves and moss…
Read More

3 comments on The First Day of January
Falling Leaves

October 18, 2024

I saw the Northern Lights tinge the sky As you stood by my side on one leg A shared moment with each other The sky ablaze The next day We drank the golden nectar of Apples pressed with our friends and neighbors The foamy juice spilled down our chins As you chopped the apples in halves I love you Like I love the leaves falling down on me As I lay in the sun in the tall grass Below the old sycamore I love you Like I love the sound of the dry leaves Singing on the branches above And…
Read More

No comments on Falling Leaves
Hillbilly Proud

September 26, 2024

You hick, hillbilly, redneck, yokel, backwoods idiot, poor, shoeless, toothless, dirty, grubby, scum of the earth. I believe my first exposure to the depiction of a hillbilly was a bugs bunny cartoon – Hillbilly Hare. I absolutely loved the square dance scene. My brother and I sat in my grandfather’s basement rolling on the cold linoleum brick patterned floor laughing. I had no idea at that point that the county I grew up in nestled softly in the Appalachian mountain range was to the majority of the outside world filled with a bunch of hicks, rednecks, yokels, backwoods people –…
Read More

4 comments on Hillbilly Proud
Bluebird

August 23, 2024

My father was an alcoholic His skin scarred like Bukowski’s A spot remains on the kitchen floor worn smooth by A path to the bottle of ET Every evening He would pour a shot glass Again and Again and Again. On June 8th 2021 I received a call from an unknown number in the middle of the day. I usually don’t pick up, but for some reason I did. It was the call I had feared would happen for many years and now it was a reality. I sat by my brother’s side for hours in the ER room. I…
Read More

3 comments on Bluebird
Homegrown Tomatoes

August 17, 2024

It is a breezy day in the Blue Grass Valley. Clouds scrape across the mountain ridges and barn swallows dance above the barn lot. I picked a five gallon bucket full of garden tomatoes and now they glisten on the enameled sink. Hues of orange, pink, and deep red. Stacked neatly beside one another the “maters” bring a smile across my face. I always think of the song Homegrown Tomatoes by Guy Clark this time of the year. Mom, dad, and I would sit in the kitchen singing the words together. I met Guy Clark at a venue in Washington DC years…
Read More

No comments on Homegrown Tomatoes

Maple Leaves and an October Breeze

July Shadows

Redwing Blackbirds and Birthday Pondering

Spicebush and Snowflakes

The First Snow

The First Day of January

Falling Leaves

Hillbilly Proud

Bluebird

Homegrown Tomatoes