BIll and Barb are regulars here, driving up from Blairsville, PA for a 3-day weekend as often as possible. Knowing this is the last weekend of my season, they piled…
Continue readingNearing the season’s end
By the end of every summer at Allegheny Reservoir, the insatiable demands of a power plant downstream have outpaced the Pennsylvania rain. Happily, the barren bottom of Willow Bay becomes…
Continue readingAdios, autumn
Wet and windy weather this week threatens the tenuous hold of colorful elm, aspen, maple, and birch leaves. The grass remains green, the asters still bloom but the trees know…
Continue readingCheering for the underdog
In the panoply of fall foliage, the aspen in the west and the maple in the east collect all the plaudits. The aspen blankets whole mountainsides in golden cascades. The…
Continue readingFrank Hickory
A-la Johnny Appleseed, Frank comes from town in September and collects hickory nuts from beneath the hickory trees that populate Willow Bay Recreation Area and the Allegheny National Forest. He…
Continue readingRed shirt school of photography
Some of you may have been National Geographic magazine devotees decades ago as I was. I’m proud to say I once owned at least one copy of every issue from…
Continue readingMorning at Willow Bay
Cool (40 degrees) air. Warm (69 degrees) water. Fishing for walleye in the wispy fog.
Continue readingSublime
Storm coming in over the ridge. (P.S.: If you’ve a goldenrod allergy, this is not the time or place for you.) Arriving. My friend from long ago Wesley Griffin, would…
Continue readingMusic on the green
Music on a pleasant summer night is a treat. Don McLean, in his early 70s mega-hit asked “can music save your mortal soul?” I’m gonna say “no.” But music on…
Continue readingBooks for the road
For contemporary fiction, I rely on my Kilgore public library card and the digital collection offered by Northeast Texas Library System. But, with space at a premium and weight a…
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