On the drive in Friday, Tom flinched every time a branch scraped against Xena on Booger Hollow’s narrow and rhododendron-infested roads. So today, I got out the loppers to trim them back. It was a three-hour chore. But the destructive beast inside me was growling with delight to be off the leash. Loppers were unfamiliar to … read more Lop lop loppers
Author: Lisa
What the drought hath wrought
The first summer after I transplanted a black cohosh to the hillside above the cabin, I was so worried about its need for shade that I suspended a baby blanket over it with bungee cords. Then halfway through the summer I realized that I was also keeping some of the rain from reaching the plant, … read more What the drought hath wrought
From Montaluce to Booger Hollow
Since we have the X3, we can drive straight from our condo in the city all the way to Booger Hollow in the middle of the Chattahoochee National Forest. The ease of making this dramatic transition in less than two hours makes it especially fun. We decided to do that for Labor Day weekend, but … read more From Montaluce to Booger Hollow
The cooler people
Here’s a pro tip, one of many from my encounters with the health care system this year: When you have an appointment with a specialist, take a cooler. Not to offer the doctor a beer. Not to carry a spare heart for transplant. Though you might find both of those useful, too. No, bring a … read more The cooler people
Food fun
Dinner in a box didn’t used to be anything but KFC and other junk food. Today we got a delivery from Peach Dish, one of the new online services that offers fresh ingredients and easy recipes brought to your doorstep each week. There were snafus in the ordering process, so this box was unexpected. I had … read more Food fun
The woodworker
At the rental house, there are two garages, but one of them isn’t for cars. It’s a woodworking shop, and it belongs to Amanda. She let me see it. I got to ogle the band saw, the power saw, the shaping tools that I don’t know the names of but would like to. I got … read more The woodworker
The snake and the bear
As a treat for myself, I made the time to head up the mountain on a strenuous hike. This trail is the one that traverses steeply, gaining more than 1,000 feet just in the last section. My previous time, mid-June, was 45 minutes going up, but after two months away I wasn’t hoping to match … read more The snake and the bear
Remnants
I’ve been back to the house a half-dozen times now, maybe more. Each time there is some other small thing to gather up. Fragments of the life of this house. The packers, who wrapped, boxed and inventoried every single item in the entire house before carting it off to storage, randomly left little pieces. They … read more Remnants
Empty boxes
Tom quit smoking on my birthday. He didn’t actually start the day intending to do that. It just happened. When you are hospitalized with a stroke, they don’t let you light up in bed, oddly enough. So that took care of the first month of quitting. What surprised him was that he had no nicotine … read more Empty boxes
The King
Around town, they called him King. He was the only son of Louis Tyler, owner of a popular downtown store who served as mayor and played a silver coronet. The King was handsome. He had an air of smug certainty that life would go his way. It’s a photo I’d never seen before, a young man … read more The King