Grass
Grass My mother became ill. A sky-high blood pressure, a stampeding heart, tingling limbs and her head hurt. She turned into a shadow of the active person she had been. The one who mowed my lawn every week when the grass got too tall and unruly according to her. The smell of fresh cut […]
Amaryllis
The amaryllis in the white pot near the living room window is sporting a tiny green leaf coming up from the middle of the dried-up bulb like a snowdrop emerging from the cold earth. Snowdrops are always the first flower to brace the winter cold here and herald the long-awaited spring. Although spring is still […]
My heirloom apple project
What is your favorite apple? For my memoir about apples and autism I’m diving into the world of heirloom apples. This fall I’ve procured 25 different apples species from a grower who is saving lost and amazing apples from extinction in the Dutch province of Friesland. I’m savoring their unique taste, bite and shape. The […]
Why I write
What do heirloom apples, Frisian cows, farming, prehistoric burial chambers, little crater woods, autism, my family and a boulder clay ridge have in common? Not much you’d say at first glance, but these are my backdrop, my history, my life and the landscape I live in. And the one I write about. If someone had […]