Room with a view

When I went house-shopping almost two years ago now, my only requirement was that it be closer to family than where I was.  However, before long I had to admit to my real estate agent that I’d been spoiled, and I didn’t think I could bear to live any place but on top of a…

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Laurie’s List

(Two weeks is plenty of time for Christmas shopping, right?  Right??) Want to know some things I’ve fallen in love with this year, that now I’m giving to a lot of people on my list? Pre-reader book: Journey, by Aaron Becker.  This is a gift of time as well, and self, since there are no…

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The passing of friends

Funny, how things come together. This week, I’ve been working my way through my MA thesis, concerning the feminine aspects of Yahweh, trying to get it into shape for e-publication. At the same time I’ve been writing an essay for Sisters in Crime on the topic, “Belonging.” Which means I’ve had two things on my…

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England the tease

England is such a tease. When I arrived here, it was the hottest weather since, well, the last hot weather. Which in England isn’t exactly a treat, since the houses are designed more for trapping the air inside than for letting any faint breeze pass through. And as you might imagine, a hot spell of…

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Things I will miss…

…when I move from the present house, not when I leave this life.  Although I suppose that applies, too. The house I’ve lived in for 15 years is very rural, with live oak and redwood in all directions.  Since no dogs have lived here for all that time, and since the fines for allowing dogs…

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Moving, house

In 1997, which my fingers tell me was 15 years ago, I moved house.  I was then part of a family with two adults and a pair of high-school aged kids, and part of the reason we came here was the room. There’s now me.  And the family center has shifted to the northern end…

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Dance of sun and moon

This is what the side of my house generally looks like when the sun is low in the sky, the light coming through the oak leaves: And here is what the wall looked like tonight, as the moon slipped in front of the sun, turning the circles of light to arcs:

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Other duties

This week’s post on writing was superseded by grandmaternal duties.  Meet the newest pirate in the King’s realm.  Arrrgh! grandson.

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Moving on

As of today, I no longer own a house in England.  And I’m surprised to find how disturbing that is. This was my husband’s house, which he and his first wife bought in 1967 when he got a job in California, and she wanted a place in England for when their children were on holiday…

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A gem among men

Sometimes with family, you really luck out.  True, sometimes family saddles you with serial killers and moustachioed aunts with lethal halitosis, but sometimes, that sprawling entity known as family presents you with a gift. One of my husband’s granddaughters brought an extraordinary man into our family.  I mean, we all knew he was a great…

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