Ask The Lightning Bugs

June 15th, 2017
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Lightning-Bugs

 

Many would say that the oppressive heat that has been visiting the Washington, DC area is proof.

Or they might say that the proof is in the feast of freshly picked juicy strawberries that fill the local grocery stores and farmer’s markets.

On the other hand, the roses and hydrangeas are bursting in bloom and that could also be proof.

But for me, the proof that Summer is here is the seemingly instant appearance of lightning bugs that tease and flit through the warm summer air.

I saw the first ones of Summer the other night when I went … Read More

Oh Those Tacky Christmas Lights!

December 5th, 2013
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Christmas lights take me back to the innocence of my childhood, to a time when my parents would gather me and my five siblings and put us in the station wagon with winter coats over our pajamas and we would ride around the neighborhood and look at the Christmas lights displayed on other people’s houses. Did you do that too? One of the houses on the Richmond Tacky Lights Christmas tour Photo courtesy of Richmond.com                                         Those were the days when… Read More

Two True Friends

August 21st, 2013
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Knowing that I have at least one person in my corner, always supporting me as a true friend, makes life feel less scary and full of many more possibilities.I can almost bear anything if I know my friends are holding my hands and understanding what I am trying to do and say.Friends for life, friends until the very end, this is the unique gift that Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe gave to each other. “Just Kids” is a beautifully, beautifully written memoir by Smith.  You may know of Patti Smith from her infamous Horses album and also from her magical… Read More

Happy Birthday to My Irish Twin

December 6th, 2012
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Happy Birthday Sheila! Today is my sister Sheila’s birthday so for the next month we will be the same age. How can we be the same age for a month? We are Irish twins. I was born in January and she was born in December of the same year.  Busy parents, yes?  Irish twins are defined as a pair of siblings born within 12 to 16 months of each other. When we were young children, our mother would dress us alike as though we were twins and we have lots of pictures from holidays in the same dresses and coats. … Read More

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

December 15th, 2011
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Songs can be powerful time machines.  Sometimes all it takes is hearing the first few notes or strands of a melody and YOU ARE THERE. It is amazing to me how a song has the uncanny ability to mentally fast track you to a place you haven’t thought about in years. Recently, I was driving my car home in the oh so unpleasant nightly commute of bumper to bumper traffic on Connecticut Avenue. I found myself pushing the radio buttons over and over because there were so many commercials playing and I was getting annoyed.  Yada, yada, yada. I was… Read More