Before my maternal grandfather, a taciturn businessman from Oregon, married my grandmother, he allegedly told her, “I don’t care if you’re Catholic, but you’d better vote Republican.” I don’t know if the story is true, and I don’t know how my grandmother voted. After all, she gave my mother the […]
Continue readingSally of Monticello: Founding Mother, by N.M. Ledgin
A new novel raising Thomas Jefferson’s slave mistress to “Founding Mother” is now a Kindle e-book on Amazon, soon to be available in paperback. I have had the pleasure of reading drafts of this book, and it is an engaging novel based on detailed historical research. Author N.M. Ledgin said […]
Continue readingPerspective from the Mountains
Although I prefer the ocean, I enjoy being in the mountains, too. Mountains show us the grandeur and timelessness of the earth. We may know that the mountains rose eons ago from the boiling lava of volcanoes or from the shifting crusts of tectonic plates. We may see the surfaces […]
Continue readingFamily Pictures: Capturing History As the Mind Cannot
Both my dad and my mother’s father took lots of pictures over the years. As kids, my siblings and I were always smiling at the camera for my father or grandfather, and often both of them at the same time until my grandfather died. There were four standard poses for […]
Continue readingMighty Falls of the Snake River
By mid-August the emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail in the 1840s had passed Fort Hall. They rode for 300 miles along the cliffs on the south side of the Snake River until they reached Three Island Crossing, where they forded the river to the north. Temperatures were often over 90 […]
Continue readingThe Pitfalls of Planning
I am a really good planner and organizer. I don’t say this boastfully, but as a matter of fact. I keep a detailed to-do list, complete with due dates and timeframes. I schedule work time on my calendar, with specific things to finish in each block of time. I relish […]
Continue readingClio Is My Muse, by Pamela Boles Eglinski
Here is a guest post from Pamela Boles Eglinski, author of the new novel Return of the French Blue. If you like this post, look for her book on Amazon. Clio is the Greek muse of history. She is often seen with a scroll or a set of tablets. Clio is […]
Continue readingThe Magic of the Sea
My husband and I were just in Southern California and spent most of our time near the ocean – driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, walking on beaches and on cliffs above the sea, looking at boats in the harbors, and kayaking in Newport Bay. (But no sunbathing; not active […]
Continue readingCady Killers
Those of you who have read this blog for awhile know that I hate spiders. I have a new enemy now – cady killers, more formally known as “cicada killing wasps.” My husband thought he found evidence of termites in our backyard a couple of weeks ago – holes under […]
Continue readingAnother Pie Story
Readers liked my gooseberry pie post, so here’s another tale about a summer pie – this time a banana cream pie I made myself. You’ll see I had issues with it, just like with the gooseberry pie my future mother-in-law and I made together. In 1969, Home Economics was a […]
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