(July 2018) We lost a place this week. Ahalanui, I say with respect and humility, because only now I am learning that Ahalanui is “the great transgression,” a land division. I am not the one to write the obituary for the warm ponds, their history, the coastal trees, the shoreline facing the Pacific winds. I… Continue reading Of placenames
Author: ksfriday
The nurse who didn’t catch the literary allusions
I went for a check-up the other day; as usual, the nurse asked me several loaded yet perfunctory questions, and then a new one: “Have you ever fallen?” Have I ever fallen? Is a crash a kind of fall, or is a fall just one kind of crash? I do avoid full-on bicycle crashes. Mountain… Continue reading The nurse who didn’t catch the literary allusions
Of islands – November 2016
How does one approach an island? (I invite you to read even if you are not interested in islands – I am making a broader point.) Nowadays, by air. Through layers of clouds above broad blue waters, coming into focus with overlapping swells, over forested slopes and a reef onto the tarmac. Back in the… Continue reading Of islands – November 2016
Hard cider and sweet fallow
There was a lot that my parents didn’t tell their innocent children about picture-perfect New England. I imprinted like a duckling on the white churches of Puritans nestled in the rolling hills of farms and fall colors. There was a decade or two when I was a child, when my grandmother was at rest in… Continue reading Hard cider and sweet fallow
Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and other matters
We stayed at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge for the closing days of its summer season. Our daughter will be at the Lodge again in a few days, the last section of the last class of students to stay at the old Lodge for “trips.” We were decreed old-timers, and accordingly, we sought out our favorite… Continue reading Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and other matters
Forest Bathing
I had not heard this term, and my first thought was skinny-dipping – not? Oh, I am just a country bumpkin, a late adopter. It is cutting edge, the initiative to engage urban dwellers (voters) in a deep sensory awareness of the forest. Not an intimidating athletic rush through miles of forest, nor an academic… Continue reading Forest Bathing
September 21, 2001
We went to see the lava flowing into the sea. I had not ventured to see the lava since Mayon’s mother, Nancy, died in November. The flow had veered away from the Park toward Puna, so it was time. We drove to the end of the highway and over the now-cold lava that had flowed… Continue reading September 21, 2001
The Singing Forester 