One hundred years ago and only the old watermen would have known: a great storm is approaching. So late in the year, the lowering sky and restless wind could be chalked up to October’s moods. But in 2012 the Weather Channel blares the oncoming drama from every flatscreen. OK, I’ll confess: I’m right there with them, those eager meteorologists. This is their moment, and it’s the best reality show on TV, stealing the ratings from not only Real Housewives and Storage Wars, but the last gasps of the Presidential election. There’s good old Jim Cantore, knee-deep in surf, gamely reporting at the risk of his own dry socks. I love this stuff.
Footprints
For a Michigander, summer seems to last forever in the Southern Maryland. Of course, I've been preoccupied with the Big Move, but today, a fortnight past Equinox and I'm marveling: suddenly the forest has been glazed with transparent yellow. Leaves are floating to earth on the steady breeze off the river like a shower of golden …
Right There, or Everyday Miracles
It’s right there, just outside your window: an incredible world filled with (magic, love, science, energy, mystery, god, light, LIFE). A world where the smallest thing is vital, integral to the whole. Where your breath is as necessary as air, where angels really do dance on the head of a pin. Just step outside and …
Summer Happy Place
A friend of mine has been building her own water park in her back yard, one that includes among other things an outdoor shower and dog wash. I took both dogs for a lovely cedar massage bath and we talked about how summer heat meant seeking relief in the cool of the water. I've been going …
Get me to the River
Yesterday was our first sweltering day this summer, appropriate, perhaps, on Summer Solstice. My mission was to fetch a friend from BWI airport, normally about a 75 minute drive. For some reason, traffic was jammed in all directions, and especially coming back. ugh! The outside temp at 6:45pm was 97f/36c but ten minutes later, eight …
Boats Gone By
My dad Peter Henkel (1929-2001) was always a trickster: a rebellious kid, a young man with a reckless streak. A real romantic, he fell in love with my mother the moment they met. They both loved the whole 'Roaring Twenties' era and so when I was about three bought a 1930 Chris Craft speedboat to restore. …
The Speckless Sky
Have you ever been re-united with a piece of music, after such a long time that it makes you feeeel things? Wednesday night I went to hear two musical heros (both Canadian!) at Wolf Trap, the splendid outdoor performance venue in Virginia. We sprawled under a clear blue sky (while it poured down rain at …
New Life arrives in Storm
We humans were warned to expect violent thunderstorms late this afternoon. The doe, if she knew of them, was too preoccupied to care. She found a safe-enough place in my woodlot to birth a tiny fawn. Coming home from the CSA pickup run and snacking on fava beans, I see a deer cross the road, …
Resistance to Change
I heard it took extra dynamite to destroy the foundations of the old Henkel Flour mills, when the Detroit riverfront docks were being renovated. It pleases me that my great-grandfather's legacy was so stubborn. Odd, since I so often want to smash the past and break that rigid shell of pretending we were all shiny …
Today in the Garden: Surprise Gifts
I went to the garden the other day for solitude. To my surprise, five children under 7 ran up alongside my car, squealing about the dogs and can we play with them? Two girls and three boys were looking for something to do while their families set up for a big wedding at the community center. They …
