While walking on one of my favorite hiking trails, a monarch flits past me. This fragile insect, no heavier than a paperclip, will soon begin its journey to Mexico—battling heat, storms, and cold, adjusting its flight with the sun or,…
Garoo-oo-a-a-a. The call of the sandhill crane always makes me search the sky. My fascination began in my 30s, when my husband and I joined the annual Sandhill Crane Count. We rose at 4 a.m., brewed a thermos of coffee,…
Every evening after supper, my husband and I scheme and whisper like spies as we plot ways to get our small dog to take her three pills… and nearly every night Josie outsmarts us. I start in the kitchen with…
It started with a mess: rotting firewood, a broken cartwheel, and my husband muttering, “Maybe I’ll try to fix it.” At the time, it felt small and ordinary. Later, I thought of the saying that the flap of a butterfly’s…
I’m on the porch flipping through the Italy section of my latest travel catalog when a tooth in my lower right jaw throbs. Please stop, I tell it. I try to distract myself with descriptions of Italy’s art, culture, and…
I’m taking a twilight stroll along the river walk when it strikes me: fifty years ago this week, I moved to the Dells. I can still see myself lugging suitcases down a narrow spiral staircase into the basement apartment I’d…
Last week I added a surprising new addition to my life’s résumé: hot air balloon crew member. My brother, sister-in-law, husband, and I joined my cousin Mike—a balloonist—at the Rhinelander Hodag Park’s Salute to Heroes Balloon Festival. He handed us…
I’ve got that buzz again—that creative thrill that zings through me when I stumble on just the right idea for a column or dream up a fresh way to celebrate the launch of my latest book. My fingers twitch. My…
I’m feeling pretty useless these days. I try to remember the good ol’ days when I was a dynamo. I once jumped into a cold lake because I thought Mum needed saving while she was zipping around on water skis.…
“Summer Nights” from Grease loops in my head as I mash a banana and crack open a beer—not to sip, not yet, but to bait moths. According to online sources, moths are drawn to a fermented mix of banana, sugar,…