An argument’s been raging in Georgia for years now. The believers are fierce and will cuss you out for questioning them. The non-believers are dismissive and condescending. I guess I’m a wanna-believer. This isn’t politics or religion. We’re talking cats. Big Cats. Some people say that there are still Big Cats roaming North Georgia. Cougars, or … read more Cats in the wild
There is one flower that I anticipate all year long. In every season, when I drive past its patch on the way home, I say “Hi, fire pink!” to the bare dirt. When mid-April rolls around, I start looking closely at that dirt. It’s a steep, rocky bank that rises up from a very curvy piece … read more FIRE PINK!!!
I have a CD which is only played in my car during March and April each year. Listening to it animates everything I see. Flowers seem to leap out of the ground, trees burst into leaves before my eyes, squirrels dance and birds pirouette. The allegro section perfectly captures that feeling of the earth giving birth … read more Appalachian spring
I waded into a quagmire today – and spent six hours in it. It’s been five weeks since the plumbing went to hell, and the pile of wet carpet and water-damaged stuff on the lower deck is starting to stink. Gypsum dust coats everything in the basement and a lot of the main floor, from the drywall cutting for the … read more Scrap heaps
There it is – all along the highway and byways, from Atlanta into the North Georgia mountains – that only-in-springtime color combination – lavender and lime green. It’s the palette of perfume, misty rain and thrusts of life. It’s the color of invasion. It’s the war of wisteria against the youngest, freshest leaves of trees. … read more The color of invasion
The weather’s been delightfully sunny, for March – 70s and even low 80s. The flowers jumped right up, fruit trees burst into blossom, and the carpenter bees began their war dance of mating – a full week or more before the official start of spring. I am astonished that it’s so warm I need to … read more The early spring
Buckets of water are hitting the windshield. I expect to see fish on the car’s hood. The forecast for home, where we’re headed, is freezing rain. The temperature in Chattanooga starts out around 38. Then we cross into Georgia, and the temperature drops a few degrees. As we head further east, closer to home, the temperature goes … read more Out of the mist
Daffodils are kind of … daffy. They come up too early every year, oblivious to the dangers that are looming just over the snow-laden cloud-filled horizon, sticking their cheerful faces to the sun at the first sign of warmth. Yet there’s something about seeing the first one. It gives you a blindly loyal kind of hope, … read more The first
There’s nothing like doing market research on a book to make you feel that you’re not so special. Hundreds of thousands of books are published every year in America. The top nonfiction sellers mostly are written by people who are already famous – actresses, comedians, CEOs and mainstream media investigative reporters. I’m not famous, not … read more Self-doubt
Last night, on a re-run of The Newsroom, the killing of Osama bin Laden was the major news event of the day. May 1, 2011. I watched the reporters and other Americans cheering and high-fiving, and it brought back the feelings I had that day. I wasn’t jubilant. I was sad. My sorrow was not, of … read more Remembering Osama
