Posted in Authors, Bones, Home, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Seasons, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged American poets, listening to Robert Frost, places writers call home, Robert Frost, Robert Frost statue at Dartmouth, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, writers in their own voices on February 21, 2008 | 28 Comments »
Shadows Of The Cattail, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Robert Frost was an American poet who lived from March 26, 1874, to January 29, 1963. He was born in San Francisco, made his way to Massachusetts via Harvard, and finally settled in New Hampshire.
My 3rd grade English teacher, Mrs. [...]
Read Full Post »
Our house is just about as old as me. The blueprints are dated 1958 and ‘59; the house was completed in 1961.
It harkens back to the advent of the great room, The Brady Bunch, green (or orange) shag carpeting, sunken dens, and bean bag chairs.
No wonder I feel so comfortable here.
Until I moved into this house [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Animals & Critters, Body, Bones, Books, Death, Growing Older, Holding My Breath, Home, Life, Love, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Quotes, Relationships, Silence, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged December (Christmas Box), Fitzgerald Theater, Galway Kinnell, Josephine Dickinson, MPR Talking Volumes, Silence Fell, Strong Is Your Hold, Where Were You When I Came In From The Evening Milking, Writers Hands, Writers reading their work, writing through grief on January 9, 2008 | 28 Comments »
Writers Hands VI, Josephine Dickinson, Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul, Minnesota, April 2007, all photos © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Josephine Dickinson read her poetry at the Fitzgerald Theater last April, sharing the stage with her mentor, Galway Kinnell. She met Galway at a poetry reading at Morden Tower in Northumberland. She was drawn to [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Culture, Everyday Art, Food, Home, Memoir, Personal, Photography, Place, Things That Fly, Vision, tagged Basilica of St. Mary, Claes Oldenburg, Coosje Van Bruggen, Frida Kahlo, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Southern cooking, Spoonbridge and Cherry, Walker Art Center, ways to start the New Year, White Elephant Cafe, white elephants on January 5, 2008 | 44 Comments »
White Elephant Cafe, Augusta, Georgia, June 2007, photo © 2007-2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I don’t have much energy for writing. Liz and I spent the day at the Frida Kahlo Exhibit at the Walker Art Center. Then romped around the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Conservatory, snapping photographs of:
That’s our idea of a FUN day. [...]
Read Full Post »
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 [...]
Read Full Post »
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 [...]
Read Full Post »
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, [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Home, Laughing, Life, Memoir, Personal, Place, Relationships, tagged Amish foods, history of food, how the Whoopie Pie got its name, how to make Whoopie Pies, Labadies Bakery, Lancaster County, Maine Whoopie Pies, passing down family recipes, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, tradition on December 14, 2007 | 33 Comments »
Whoopie Pies, Falmouth, Maine, photo by alcinoe, 2006, image released to public domain.
I’m having way too much fun with these old family recipes. The comfort foods we grew up with connect to memories. And memories connect to family stories. In a comment on Memories, Writing, & Family Recipes, Mom mentioned the delectable Whoopie Pie and my [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Body, Bones, Books, Culture, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Home, Photography, Place, Practice, Quotes, Seasons, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, Taos, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged Beginner's Mind, Buddha, December, Mabel Dodge Luhan House, meditation, Natalie Goldberg, New Mexico, religion, Rohatsu, Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, sit like the mountain, sit-walk-write, solidarity, Taos, winter, Writing Down The Bones, writing practice, writing retreats, Zen on December 4, 2007 | 31 Comments »
Afternoon Meditation, Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico, February 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
In writing practice this morning, ybonesy and I both wrote about sitting in solidarity with our writing friends at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos. Most Decembers, Natalie holds a writing retreat during the period around [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Family, Food, Home, Life, Personal, Practice, Recall, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged attention to detail, what's in front of me, writing the details on December 2, 2007 | 11 Comments »
What’s in front of me is a list of the four ingredients for roasted broccoli:
salt
pepper
garlic powder
olive oil
I wonder why I left off the main ingredient.
I wrote the items down in my notebook on Friday night, and on Saturday late in the day I cut the broccoli into florets and used my hand to coat each [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Family, Food, Home, Laughing, Photography, Random, Relationships, Secrets, tagged candy, Family, fun, Laughing, Pixy Stix, The Pixy Stix Challenge on November 24, 2007 | 17 Comments »
Steve Almond would have loved this! I was visiting with my brother in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, when my niece and her friend charged in the door, all excited for a great scientific experiment: The Pixy Stix Challenge.
My brother prepared a wonderful dinner in the kitchen: mashed potatoes, brined chicken, sweet tea, apple cider, [...]
Read Full Post »
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 [...]
Read Full Post »
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 [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Culture, Family, Gratitude, Home, Practice, Topic Writing, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged chivalry, generosity, going home, kindness toward others, Providence, writing practice on November 19, 2007 | 14 Comments »
A little kindness goes a long way. Simple things. I thought about kindness quite a bit last week when I was visiting with my family in Pennsylvania. The way everyone chips in to help each other in our family. It’s not like that for everyone. I don’t take it for granted.
The family donated money toward [...]
Read Full Post »
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 [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Body, Bones, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Gratitude, Growing Older, Home, Laughing, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Relationships, tagged birthdays, daughters, Family, Food, Gratitude, home & hearth, Mom's 70th Birthday, mothers, surprises on November 14, 2007 | 46 Comments »
Cutting The Cake, Amelia’s hands cutting the cake on the day she turned 70, Central Pennsylvania, November 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I’m sitting in Amelia’s kitchen. The smell of homemade chicken and dumplings spins across the room. My brother and sister-in-law stopped over for breakfast. Amelia made Canadian bacon, grits with [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Food, Home, Laughing, Seasons, Things That Fly, tagged bunches of turkeys, raising turkeys, Thanksgiving, turkeys, turkeys for sale on November 8, 2007 | 8 Comments »
Hey, look, it’s Mom, she’s home for lunch!
Hi, Mom, d’ya got anything for us? What d’ya got?
What d’ya got there, Mom? D’ya got anything??
She dudn’t got anything, let’s get the flock outta here.
Read Full Post »
Posted in Body, Family, Home, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Relationships, tagged blood, fainters, fainting at the sight of blood, feeling weak at the sight of blood, health on November 7, 2007 | 32 Comments »
If you’re anything like me, that is. The kind of person who at the sight or mention of Blood gets weak from head to toe. Like those pens you stand on end and the color drains, revealing a naked woman underneath. Except, instead of busty nude, you get floppy, boneless mass. Which is what I am right [...]
Read Full Post »
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 [...]
Read Full Post »
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 [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Essay, Family, Gratitude, Home, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Silence, Spirituality, Vision, Wake Up, tagged be still and know, Beth Bro Howard, Buddhism, Christianity, Iraq, living the answers, mother's love for her son, peace, Prodigal Son, red Ravine Guests, religion, return from war, soldier, Thich Nhat Hanh, unanswered questions, veteran on October 22, 2007 | 23 Comments »
By Beth Bro Howard
Be Still And Know, altar offering at the retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh,
August, 2007, Estes Park, Colorado, photo © 2007 by Beth Bro
Howard. All rights reserved.
On August 25, 2007, while on retreat with Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh in Estes Park, Colorado, I was prepared to ask a [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Bones, Culture, Death, Home, Personal, Practice, Secrets, Writing Practices, tagged fear of ghosts, ghosts, haunted, sixth sense on October 20, 2007 | 14 Comments »
I want to write of ghosts, real ghosts or imagined, the kind who gently bump your backside as you brush your teeth. That happened to me in my bathroom, weeks ago now, and Jim had already shared his suspicions that a ghost lived in our house. “She’s not evil or bad,” he said as I [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Home, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged cemeteries, daughters, grandmothers, graves, grief, haunted, loss, mothers, trains, writing practice on October 19, 2007 | 20 Comments »
I’m more haunted by the things that haven’t happened, than I am by the things that have. Half worn radials rumble over the railroad tracks near Winnetka and Bass Lake Road, wipers slap another day of dreary fog and rain; I drudge up the things that haunt me. Porcupine quills in tender skin.
There were no [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Gratitude, Home, Nature, Photography, Place, Seasons, Skies, Wake Up, Weather, tagged autumn, Rio Grande Valley on October 5, 2007 | 27 Comments »
This time of year in the Rio Grande Valley makes me think of:
The bluest skies,
misty mornings,
apples,
hot air balloons,
and days that make you sweat.
Unexpected rain.
Ditches running with muddy-brown water.
The most intense colors.
Light that makes everything look crisp.
Did I say apples?
And still mornings, the most brilliant skies.
Smells. I should mention smells.
(Green chile roasting, and hay [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Home, Photography, Place, Practice, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged interviews, Natalie Goldberg, Writers, Writing, Writing Down The Bones, writing practice, Zen on October 3, 2007 | 36 Comments »
After listening to Natalie Goldberg’s new interview on ThoughtCast, ybonesy and I wanted to pass the information along to our readers. But we first wanted to take a moment to reiterate our gratitude for the teachings that Natalie has passed down to us. Our vision for red Ravine was born out of our writing practice [...]
Read Full Post »
Wild Turkeys At Morning Asking Themselves, Are Those Cornflakes
They’re Eating?
Wild Turkeys Reflecting On Turkey Concerns, Such As Grasshoppers,
Coyotes, And The Comfortable Chair By The Door
Wild Turkeys In Mid-Morning Repose While Nature Rages On
Wild Turkey Scat Discovered On The Patio
Other titles I considered for this post:
Turkeys for Sale, CHEAP!
Friendly Turkeys Free to a Good Home
U Pick ‘Em [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Body, Bones, Family, Holding My Breath, Home, Life, Love, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged fall, fish, tea roses, water, writing practice on September 26, 2007 | 14 Comments »
The 7 tea roses sitting on the deck, roots untangled and exposed, tilted in their makeshift pots, looked like fish out of water. I stared at them through the picture window. The wind whipped the mustard ash leaves across the peeling gray paint. We called a handyman to help shore the deck for winter. He [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Bones, Gratitude, Home, Life, Love, Music, Personal, Place, Silence, Spirituality, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged flags, healing, I-35 Bridge Collapse, Mennonites, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, red Ravine Guests, Teri Blair on September 10, 2007 | 36 Comments »
By Teri Blair
It’s been 40 days since the 35W Bridge collapsed. Today, a sunny Fall day, I’ve come down to view the site…the first day (since the first fitful days of August) that I’ve been here. I’m writing this from the 10th Ave Bridge. I stand close enough to the collapse site to see everything, [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Authors, Body, Bones, Books, Home, Life, Nature, Personal, Photography, Place, Poetry, Random, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged Delights & Shadows, Poetry, Ted Kooser on September 9, 2007 | 10 Comments »
Beach Grass In Winter, walking along Park Point Beach on Lake Superior, near Canal Park, Duluth, Minnesota, April 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
It’s a beautiful Fall Sunday in Minnesota. I’m feeling reflective, pensive. Like the perennials on the deck that I need to transplant, my body is beginning to prepare for [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Essay, Family, Film / TV / Video, Home, Memoir, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, tagged cleaning rituals, folding clothes, memories, mothers and daughters on August 28, 2007 | 16 Comments »
I have a picture in my head of Mom. She’s wearing soft denim shorts to just above her knees. Her hair is in curlers, a red bandana tied around the curlers, a cigarette on her lip. Next to her, on the floor, is a flat metal ashtray, the kind that folds like tin when you bend it. [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Culture, Family, Food, Home, Personal, Photography, Place, Seasons, tagged 57 foods on-a-stick at the Minnesota State Fair, Butter Queen, Fair food, Minnesota history, Minnesota State Fair, Minnesota State Fair Press Kit, summer on August 26, 2007 | 74 Comments »
-Minnesota State Fair Button 2007, quick snapshot after breakfast (notice the little piece of dirt on the middle right edge!), Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
It’s Minnesota State Fair time! And after over 150 years, it’s a Minnesota tradition. The Minnesota State Fair is the 2nd largest State Fair in the [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Everyday Art, Haiku, Home, Nature, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Wake Up, Writing, tagged Haiku, light, Photography, study in red on August 25, 2007 | 13 Comments »
Study In Red, out on the porch, July 2007, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
last day of July
sun vase over the deck rail
red refracting light
-posted on red Ravine, Saturday, August 25th, 2007
Read Full Post »
Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Family, Gratitude, Holding My Breath, Home, Life, Money, Personal, Photography, Place, Practice, Writing on August 20, 2007 | 10 Comments »
Memorial, By Night, Gold Medal Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 5th, 2007, shot through the grove of trees at center circle, facing the I-35 Bridge, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I heard on the 9p.m. news that they found the final and 13th person from the I-35 Bridge collapse. The final person as far [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Home, Life, Personal, Practice, Quotes, Secrets, Work, Writing Topics, tagged cleaning house, cleaning rituals, writing about cleanliness on August 18, 2007 | 14 Comments »
Just in case you’re spending the weekend cleaning house, we wanted to give you a writing assignment that might make all that dusting and sweeping and scrubbing and vacuuming feel more like research than time wasted. Or maybe you’re the kind of person who never feels that cleaning is time wasted.
Cleanliness is indeed next to [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Bones, Books, Culture, Death, Family, Growing Older, Haiku, Home, Life, Love, Memoir, Nature, On the Road, Personal, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Topic Writing, Wake Up, Work, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged abandoned houses, Haiku, Memoir, memories, Poetry, writing about the past on August 17, 2007 | 31 Comments »
You Can’t Go Back, one of the homes I lived in as a child, now abandoned, June 2007, Augusta, Georgia, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I spent two weeks on the road in June, researching my book. The second week was a road trip with my mother to Georgia, where I spent much [...]
Read Full Post »
