Posted in Family, Haiku, Holidays, Love, Photography, Practice, tagged fathers and daughters, Mother's Day, parenting, the practice of haiku on May 12, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Waiting for Dad, self-portrait of Jim with Em at school, photo © 2008 by Jim. All rights reserved.
my best mother’s day:
my mother, my daughter, and
a father who shares
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
Posted in 25 Things, Family, Holidays, Love, Personal, Practice, tagged Valentine's Day on February 14, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Valentine’s Day is almost over.
I meant to say how much I love the simple act of acknowledging the day.
I meant to talk about how it seems that when we were little, the cards we gave to our classmates were so much bigger than the cards my girls bring home today. How much I loved coming home [...]
Posted in Holidays, Laughing, Life, Love, Photography, Practice, Seasons, Writers, Writing, tagged primroses, Ted Kooser, the practice of haiku, Valentine's Day, Valentines on February 14, 2008 | 14 Comments »
Valentine Primroses, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
red primrose surprise
fluffy white valentine hearts
fall from the gray sky
-posted on red Ravine, Thursday, February 14th, 2008
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art of Rebellion, Haiku, Holidays, Laughing, Photography, Place, Politics, tagged famous Pennsylvanians, get out and vote, Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil, Smith Lake Jake, the politics of groundhogs on February 2, 2008 | 94 Comments »
Walking The Susquehanna River, Central Pennsylvania, taking a walk with Mom on on her 70th birthday weekend, November 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
forget politics
cast your vote for the real deal
Punxsutawney Phil
-posted on red Ravine, Saturday, February 2nd, 2008, Groundhog Day
-related to posts, haiku (one-a-day) and The Politics Of Primary Season 2008 [...]
Posted in Art of Rebellion, Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Holidays, I Don't Remember, Life, Photography, Vision, Wake Up, Writing Topics, tagged American history, Civil Rights, Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, creating change, Emma Lazarus, Enrique Rivera, Harvey Milk, honoring the past, Human Rights, Mankato 38, Martin Luther King, memories, planting seeds, Stonewall on January 21, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Planting The Seed, Lightpainting Series, stained glass window, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
When I walked out into the sub-zero temperatures yesterday to warm up my car, a piece by NPR’s Enrique Rivera poured out of the Alpine radio speakers. Rubbing my hands together, and pulling the end of [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Bones, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Holidays, Personal, Place, tagged black-eyed peas, end of the year rituals, family traditions, Good Luck rituals, history of black-eyed peas, New Year's Day, Southern cooking on January 1, 2008 | 27 Comments »
It’s New Year’s Day. And it wouldn’t be New Year’s without black-eyed peas. Black-eyed peas aren’t peas at all but legumes, a member of the trusty bean family.
My family makes Traditional Black-eyed Peas every New Year’s Day for good luck. And black-eyed peas are also the prime ingredient in Hoppin’ John which spices up the [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Holidays, Labyrinths, Life, Love, Maps, Personal, Photography, Place, Practice, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, Topic Writing, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged community as witness, end of the year rituals, Labyrinths, making a Gratitude List, New Year's resolutions, prosperity, reflecting on the past, the ABC's of Gratitude, The Places I've Walked, the power of Gratitude on December 31, 2007 | 30 Comments »
The Places I’ve Walked, walking a brick labyrinth, Martinez, Georgia, June 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved
It’s New Year’s Eve (almost a whole New Year, ybonesy!). I’m working on the black-eyed peas and rice post. And I’ve got to say the orangutan’s butt is a pretty hard act to follow! But I’m [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Gratitude, Holidays, Life, Photography, Practice, Recovery, Seasons, Spirituality, Structure, Writing Topics, tagged community as witness, end of the year rituals, making a Gratitude List, New Year's resolutions, The Good Stuff, the Holiday blues, the power of Gratitude on December 28, 2007 | 50 Comments »
Winter Leaf In Pink Ice I & II, February 2007, Mabel Dodge Luhan
House, Taos, New Mexico, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey.
All rights reserved.
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions anymore. Wasted time. Wasted space. I never seem to follow through. Why project promises into the future, I’m not likely to keep? I’d rather [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Family, Holidays, Home, Personal, Random, tagged meme, post Christmas, pre New Year's on December 27, 2007 | 36 Comments »
Christmas Letdown. Yesterday my youngest had a meltdown when her sister left with a friend to Santa Fe. That’s when it dawned on her that Christmas was over. I know that feeling. It’s memorized in my bones.
After Christmas Sales. I always say, “Let’s wait til after Christmas to buy the pants, shoes, coat, etc., you wanted [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Gratitude, Holidays, Love, Seasons, Spirituality, Vision, tagged Christmas card art, Christmas tree image, hopes for the New Year, linocut print on December 25, 2007 | 10 Comments »
peace ∞ hope ∞ love ∞ alegría
∞ joy ∞ reflection ∞ solitude ∞
persistence ∞ paz ∞ awareness
Posted in Death, Film / TV / Video, Food, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Growing Older, Holidays, Laughing, Personal, Quotes, Seasons, tagged A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, Bob Clark, celebrating the Holidays, Holiday classics, Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, never eat December snowflakes, nostalgia, Peanuts, snow, Vince Guaraldi, winter on December 24, 2007 | 17 Comments »
A Charlie Brown Christmas, snippets on YouTube by FlyingForGlory
Patty: Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue. It’s fun.
Linus Van Pelt: Mmm. Needs sugar.
Lucy Van Pelt: It’s too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January.
Linus Van Pelt: They sure look ripe to me.
I love to watch the snow fall. I’m a [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Holidays, Home, Photography, tagged Amelia's kitchen, baking Rocks, Holiday recipes, passing down family recipes, Southern cooking on December 23, 2007 | 12 Comments »
Baking rocks for the Holidays is a tradition in our family. The name “Rocks” sounds kind of iffy. But trust me, they are delicious.
Liz had never had them before. I turned off the computer, turned up the Christmas music, and convinced her to bake up a batch to take to Solstice. I was the [...]
Posted in Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Holding My Breath, Holidays, Nature, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Silence, Things That Fly, Vision, Wake Up, tagged celebrating the seasons, fire, letting go, making light of the dark, Solstice & Equinox time chart, winter, Winter Solstice on December 23, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Solstice Fire In Winter, December 22, 2007, Winter Solstice in Minnesota, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
We celebrated with friends outside by the pond. It was frosty cold, hovering around 5 degrees. Frozen hands. Sparks fly. A light wind blew from the West. The brilliant sunset was undone only by a circle wreath [...]
Posted in Art, Culture, Gratitude, Holidays, Home, Life, Love, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Spirituality, tagged community, darkness, filling the well, hibernation, light, linocut, Santa Claus, Solstice & Equinox time chart, winter celebrations, Winter Solstice, Yule on December 22, 2007 | 23 Comments »
Winter Solstice, cropped linocut © 1991 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Midnight is Winter Solstice. I sit in the coming darkness alone, watching the sky. Snow melted and dripped off the roof. Puddles formed in the driveway. A storm will skirt the Twin Cities by morning. I am hoping for a wallop of snow. The more the merrier, [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Family, Holidays, Personal, Relationships, Seasons, tagged Christmas, gift-giving, pig collections, pigs, shopping for others on December 21, 2007 | 49 Comments »
Pig in a Cornfield, Christmas card from 1993, linocut and ink wooden spoon print © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
My poor mother-in-law. For years and years, she received pig-everything for Christmas. Pig statues, flying pigs, pig art, pig earrings, pig containers. Jim and I single-handedly contributed to at least a fourth of her vast [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Holidays, Seasons, Things That Fly, tagged Christmas card art, First Day of Christmas, linocut print, partridge in a pear tree on December 19, 2007 | 14 Comments »
Sitting Pear-ty, Christmas card from 1993, linocut and ink
wooden spoon print © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Posted in Family, Family Recipes, Food, Gratitude, Holidays, Home, Love, Memoir, Personal, Photography, Practice, Seasons, Writing Topics, tagged Family, Food, memories in food & cooking, Meringue-Topped Southern Banana Pudding, Original Nilla Banana Pudding, passing down family recipes, Practice, Southern banana pudding, Thanksgiving, traditions, writing about food, writing practice & food on November 23, 2007 | 38 Comments »
Stirring the steaming, liquid vanilla pudding as it warms on the stove is kind of Zen for me. The silver spoon gleams and swirls through currents of milk and cornstarch. I stare, mesmerized.
Liz was bustling around the kitchen, dicing and dashing, mixing the Dijon, OJ, and honey basting sauce, chopping bananas, basting the naked Cornish [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Food, Gratitude, Holidays, Life, Photography, Seasons, Things That Fly, tagged blueskydesert, Frank Reese Jr., heritage turkeys, Jana L'Esperance, pet turkeys, raising turkeys for food, Thanksgiving Day, turkey lovers, turkeys on November 22, 2007 | 26 Comments »
Happy Turkey Week, Mama Azul on the plum tree, November 2007, photo © by Jana L’Esperance (blueskydesert). All rights reserved.
Last Saturday my friend Jana L’Esperance, who goes by the Flickr moniker blueskydesert, came to the house to shoot the turkeys. “What’s she gonna shoot ‘em with,” Jim asked, “…her huntin’ rifle?”
We — Jim and I [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Growing Older, Holidays, Home, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, tagged Amelia's kitchen, Family Recipes, Food, passing down family recipes, R3, Southern banana pudding, Southern cooking, Thanksgiving, traditions on November 21, 2007 | 24 Comments »
Old family recipes remind me of the good parts of childhood. The smells are familar and warm, enveloping me in a giant culinary hug. The tastes are like ancestral footprints, distinct to each family, passed down for generations. (They don’t call it comfort food for nothin’!)
My 5 siblings and I have started pulling together Mom’s [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Growing Older, Holidays, Home, Memoir, Personal, Photography, Place, tagged Amelia's kitchen, dumplings, favorite cookware, Food, passing down family recipes, Southern cooking, Thanksgiving, traditions, turkey on November 18, 2007 | 24 Comments »
I was sitting in Amelia’s kitchen with the smell of Southern style chicken and dumplings pouring through my nostrils, when it occurred to me I should be writing her recipes down. I’ve never been much of a cook. But all of my siblings carry on the tradition of Mom’s cooking. That was in mouthwatering evidence [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Family, Holidays, Home, Laughing, Photography, Things That Fly, tagged amazing turkey tricks, famous turkeys wallenda, turkey drumline, turkeys, who ya callin' "turkey"? on November 4, 2007 | 19 Comments »
Um, hel-loooo… can someone let me in?
They’re lining up to do a drumline.*
Don’t leave me out here alone with ‘em.
OK. Everyone into formation. Not you, duck.
Quacky idea…stupid turkeys. Hmmph!
Line ‘em up, turkeys, straight and narrow!
Watch this…they’re fluffin’ up for the finale…
Woo-hoo, show some tail! Duck, get out!
We’re done…let’s get the flock outta here.
Wait a sec, is there any food?
*Drumline [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Bones, Culture, Death, Family, Food, Great Places To Write, Growing Older, Holidays, Laughing, Life, Personal, Photography, Practice, Random, Relationships, Spirituality, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged 1 Year Birthday of red Ravine, All Souls' Day, anniversaries, birthdays, celebrations, Day of the Dead, Food, Halloween, Happy Birthday To You, rituals, writing relationships on November 3, 2007 | 25 Comments »
Day Of The Dead Birthday Celebration, detail of Halloween bouquet, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
We went out to dinner at Mysore Cafe in Uptown to celebrate a friend’s birthday last night. It was All Souls’ Day, day after All Saints’ Day, and both days following the Celtic rooted celebration [...]
Posted in Art, Bones, Culture, Death, Doodling, Holidays, Seasons, tagged Day of the Dead, Halloween, pen and ink drawing, pumpkin, skeleton on October 31, 2007 | 17 Comments »
Posted in Culture, Death, Family, Food, Haiku, Holidays, Photography, Poetry, Seasons, Skies, Things That Fly, tagged Boo!, Family, Food, Haiku, Halloween, Holidays, mask, moon, Poetry, Seasons, sky on October 30, 2007 | 20 Comments »
Boo!, All Hallow’s Eve by the fire, one year ago, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2006, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
North
pumpkin-faced Milk Duds
Willy Wonka candy corn
12 tricks for a treat?
South
Dead flash toothless smiles
2 Grandmothers walk the earth
Spirits dance on fire
East
gloved hands wipe chafed lips
crooked teeth eat twisted stems
shadows swim through oaks
West
hollow frosted rose
Hunter’s Moon [...]
Posted in Family, Gratitude, Holidays, Home, Life, Love, Nature, Personal, Photography, Seasons, Wake Up, tagged buds, fall, gardens, Halloween, Holidays, Nature, October, roses, Seasons, tea rose on October 27, 2007 | 11 Comments »
Halloween Tea Rose, out in the front garden, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
We worked on last minute details in the yard today. It was cool, cloudy, sunny. Bending over the 7 transplanted tea roses with the green water bucket, I noticed a distinct peripheral rush of red. A [...]
Posted in Culture, Food, Holding My Breath, Holidays, Laughing, Life, On the Road, Personal, Photography, Place, Seasons, Structure, Things That Fly, tagged All Hallow's Eve, Family, friends, Grantsburg, Halloween, Holidays, Home, minerals, pumpkins, rocks, Siren, The Great Pumpkin Catapult, The Midwest, Wisconsin on October 14, 2007 | 24 Comments »
The Great Pumpkin Catapult, The Lee Roberts Farm, Grantsburg, Wisconsin, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Yesterday Liz and I traveled out to Siren, Wisconsin with friends to check out Verne Peterson’s lifelong rock and mineral collection. It was a beautiful Fall day and the almost two hour drive flew by like [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Authors, Bones, Culture, Death, Holidays, Life, Memoir, Photography, Practice, Seasons, Writing Topics, tagged All Hallow's Eve, Exit Ghost, ghosts, Halloween, haunted, Holidays, Philip Roth, Practice, writing topic on October 10, 2007 | 15 Comments »
The Haunting, All Hallow’s Eve By The Fire, one year ago, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 31st, 2006, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Maybe it’s the time of year — Halloween and Day of the Dead nearly upon us. Nights grow longer. Frost kills the plants, and another season is put to rest.
Or maybe it’s [...]
Posted in Authors, Family, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Holidays, Money, Nature, On the Road, Personal, Photography, Place, Spirituality, blogroll, tagged family vacations, Ghost Ranch, Kitchen Mesa, New Mexico, photos of Ghost Ranch on July 5, 2007 | 20 Comments »
This is the second year in a row (which I suppose is long enough to call a tradition) that my daughters and I are spending a week at Ghost Ranch. I lived 44 years in New Mexico before ever laying eyes on Kitchen Mesa. I don’t know what took me so long to get here, [...]
Posted in Culture, Gratitude, Holidays, Photography, Structure, Vision, Work, Writers, Writing on May 28, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Some consider Memorial Day the first weekend of summer. At red Ravine, we’re celebrating spring and summer by sliding in a new masthead.
Thanks to Wallinga Design, the logotype and tagline pop against a palette of bright lemon yellow. The photograph in the masthead is a detail of the larger image below, Yellow Rose. It’s a telephoto [...]
Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Holding My Breath, Holidays, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, Practice, Quotes, Relationships, Writers, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Bones, history, James Baldwin, Memoir, pilgrimage, Practice, Travel, Writers, Writing, writing practice on May 28, 2007 | 3 Comments »
It’s the day before I leave on a two week trip to Georgia and Pennsylvania to do some research for my book. A memoir. I talked to my mother this morning, a short check in before I fly out tomorrow. I told her I am keeping my heart and mind open and looking forward to [...]
Posted in Bones, Books, Culture, Death, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Haiku, Holidays, Life, Love, Money, Music, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, blogroll on May 27, 2007 | 5 Comments »
I am sitting on a burgundy leather couch in the Satellite coffee shop. I used to come here and write with a small group of people, we did Bones-style writing, and I remember how much the music bothered me. Today, now, it’s a bluesy piece with an organ played low and a woman’s smoky voice. Lounge [...]
Posted in Death, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Holidays, Home, Life, Love, Maps, Memoir, Nature, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Topic Writing, Travel, Weather, Work, Writing Practices, tagged bicycle tours, Big Bend, camping, escape, Family, fathers, healing, loss, mimbresman, Place, red Ravine Guests, sons on May 11, 2007 | 11 Comments »
By mimbresman
Little place: (physical, the bike, the trailer, the country)
Big place: (culture, family, etc.; my head)
Everything has its place: food, water, extra clothes. It is Christmas Day 1997, and I am packing my bike for a 5-day bicycle tour in the backcountry of Big Bend National Park. The weather is cold for Big Bend, near [...]
Posted in Art of Rebellion, Family, Food, Growing Older, Holidays, Laughing, Life, Memoir, Money, Personal, Relationships, Secrets, Topic Writing, tagged barter is better, barter system & money, candy cravings, Lifesavers, smelling like Peeps, vintage candy, writing about candy on April 27, 2007 | 16 Comments »
-image by SCEhardt, released to public domain
When I was a kid, I collected things. This is no surprise to anyone who knows me. Stashing is cumbersome in adulthood. But as a kid, it was a goldmine.
I tended to be the slow, silent type who savored and squirreled things away. I cached items like carefully folded [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Authors, Culture, Food, Holidays, Jugular, Money, Photography, Seasons, Spirituality, Writing on April 8, 2007 | 11 Comments »
-Kit Kat Bunny Ears, YUM!, photo by Sky Wire
Happy Day. I don’t want to do a long post on the meaning of Easter. But it would be a shame to let a controversial Holiday pass without at least commenting on the day.
Growing up, I was one of those stiff little girls headed to church wearing [...]
Posted in Bones, Culture, Film / TV / Video, Holidays, Laughing, Personal, Quotes, Random, Secrets, Taos, Things That Fly, tagged , Bones, Golden Lasso of Truth, Halloween, Quotes, superheroes, Wonder Woman on March 25, 2007 | 9 Comments »
I got a short, one page letter in the mail on Wonder Woman stationery from someone in last year’s Taos writing Intensive that inspired me to scour the world for Wonder Woman quotes.
It made me wonder if they actually remembered that writing practice I read about carrying the Golden Lasso of Truth through Missoula, Montana [...]
