… a noted regional author who recently died. Wendell Berry was born in 1934, recently died at the end of August 2026. Limited reading of his writing might think the stories are about individuals created in the mind of Berry, but often amalgam of those he encountered in life. He was known as a prolific writer: publishing books, short stories, as well as poetry, essays, being an ardent conservationist, speaker, Trump opponent. Small time farmer of land he owned, preserved, loved, in his native Kentucky by observing sound management of crops and livestock, with an abundance of common sense.
Highly regarded as an author of essays, poetry, fiction of the membership of Port William community, as well as full length books where he attempts reasonable explanations on race relations, soil and water conservation, A proponent of small family owned farms, Berry opposed large farming operations that cover thousands of acres, supporting the family farming operations of yore. Berry received a number of distinguished literary awards. His notable career achievements include: Guggenheim foundation fellow, recognition by President Barack Obama, National Humanities Medal, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
A beautifully written book, it is actually an anthology/collection of previously published short stories of the fictitious community.
…. by Wendell Berry. Berry was a regional writer, telling tales of life in a non-existent place where he developed a cast of characters inhabiting Port William. A fictitious community, he referred to as a ‘membership, situated in the valleys and hills, rich bottom land with farms along a river. With a population of fascinating, well-developed natives who ran shops, worked the land, married, had families, lived and were buried in the community. From pastors of small congregations, to barbers, farmers, tradesmen, all with a variety of skills and abilities as befits those capable men and women of that self-sufficient era.
Situated on the banks of the Kentucky River, along with a number of smaller tributaries, the hills and valleys of the community settled by families that married, expanded and diminished over the years as the area prospered. Then declines as circumstances changed for individuals including drought, being called into military service, financial difficulties, job loss, marriage and other life-altering situations. Stories of those who endured the hard scrabble life of farming on shares, as well as others who were fortunate enough to come from generational wealth: growing up in families established on land that was debt free, and profitable for raising livestock or crops.
All cheerfully invented over time, by a man with a mind so fertile all of the many people who lived there in the land surrounding the community seem absolutely believable: with thoughts, opinions, friendships, heartaches, employment, desires, doubts, and all the other daily difficulties humans live with. Most of the tales truly poignant, with elements of so many human emotions from hilarity to unbridled grief, racism, love for fellow man and beast, struggles with day-to-day doubts and fears.
… the big wide window, facing 52nd street. The view in the photo is actually from the street facing the front of the house, as is obvious. The people who live here have put forth the effort to dig and relocate the bulbs a couple of times over the years since the first moved in. House purchased in 2010, and those lilies might have been passed along in the following year – then dug up and divided a time. More than once, in order for them to spread the length of that sidewalk from porch steps to curb at the edge of the street.
The flower goes by several generic names: often known as ‘hurricane’ lily as they bloom in the fall- at the time the seasonal flooding occurs when the southeastern US is inundated by those rains that blow in from the Gulf of Mexico or south Atlantic Ocean along the coast. Also known as ‘surprise’ lily, as it seems like you have forgotten where you planted the bulbs months ago, then those thin stalks suddenly start to shoot up out of the lawn, or mulch in a bed, where you did not expect. Due to the complex shape of the open bloom, it might also be referred to as ‘spider lily’. Officially, the name is Lycoris.
Causing you say ‘surprise!’ to enjoy the colorful blooms for few days before they fade. Like the foliage on most bulb plants- imperative you do not dig, or cut the leaves back: the greenery is supplying the bulb with the energy it needs to bloom again. Just let it rest, and the long narrow green leaves will eventually die off, with the bulb resting below the surface over winter and spring to produce these amazing flowers again in the fall. Right on schedule after a drenching rain,when you have completely forgotten they were ever planted. Or just given up on them ever blooming again…
… back to TN from a medical appt. in Atlanta on Tuesday. A little side trip through the Georgia National Cemetery, across the wooded, red clay rolling hills of north Georgia, over seven hundred acres has been set aside for internment of US Military servicemen and women. Purchased by Atlanta real estate developer, Scott Hudgens, who was a WW II veteran, the property was donated to the Veterans Administration that provides maintenance and upkeep of the acres. Located near Canton in northwest GA, just east of I-75, on property with steep hillsides, deep ravines, densely forested, there are internments of veterans and family members five days a week. None on weekends. About five services per day, including those who have been cremated, with ashes interred or scattered in an area set aside for this purpose.
This property is actually the third in Georgia dedicated specifically for this use: formerly a hunting preserve, it was originally land that belonged to the Cherokee Nation. More recently, after the Time of Removal when the Indigenous people were forcibly removed to Oklahoma, much of the property has had timber cut and sold for logging purposes. There are also cemeteries in Marietta, and a National Historic Site at Andersonville, where POWs were imprisoned during the Civil War, as well as one on Ft. Benning proper, but not part of DOD, administered by VA. This one, on the military base that is ‘Home of the Infantry, near Columbus, GA, is rapidly filling, with another cemetery currently being used just across into Alabama, on military property at Ft. Mitchell, Alabama.
This photo, found on cell phone, was taken early in the year: Decidious trees still bare of leaves, but you can see the brightly colored lavender blooms of the spring-flowering red bud there just behind the sign as vehicles enter the gates.
… by prolific legal writer John Grisham. A number of his publications have been read and reviewed here: most paperback versions: all interesting, well written, dog-eared, recycled and passed around over time. The list of his work printed inside the front cover numbers nine, with the publishing date indicating this one was printed in 1999. Seems quite feasible there could easily be a dozen more in the decades since, that have been written and enjoyed by his fan base. According to internet research: currently he has published 47 books, not all legal thrillers, but in a variety of genres.
One of the interesting traits that seem consistent with his various published works is the Grisham method of devoting himself to research before composing. All have such details that flesh out the characters, subject matter, story lines. The people and circumstances of their lives are unique to each book, but provide fascinating insights into situations and environments the reader is rarely privy to. In this case, details about the lives of beyond-wealthy attorneys who are completely out of touch with work-a-day humans. And people who depend on the mercy of soup-kitchens, shelters for sleeping in freezing weather, kindness of complete strangers for basic necessities: clothing, shoes, water.
At first glance, when found in a Little Free Library on Virginia Ave., my thought was ‘The Lincoln Lawyer” made into a movie about an attorney who used his vehicle as a mobile office.
Michael Brock is an attorney, working in a high rise office building, as an employee of Drake and Sweeney, a large high-powered firm with four hundred attorneys. Followed into work one morning, by a homeless man, Brock and others are briefly held hostage, before the situation is resolved by a SWAT team. The death of the homeless man, who apparently only wanted to be seen and heard, rather than feeling as if his needs were ignored and he was invisible, causes Brock to seek out a man, Mordecai, who is a ‘street lawyer’. Serving the needs of this segment of the population, Brock is compelled to quit his well-paying job, recruited to become part of the team of the attorneys who focus on the basic survival needs of these people who fall through the cracks of society: with no permanent address, little income, lack of the things most consider necessities like food, clothing, shelter, warm coats, shoes.
The research involved in telling the compelling story was fascinating: providing many small details one would not consider when thinking of the culture and environment this group of people accepts as a way of life. From standing in lines in soup kitchens for hot meal, to finding shoes in cold weather, it is difficult to imagine some of the challenges that complicate the lives of the underserved. Sleeping in public places – city park benches, doorways of commcecain cities large and small, the population often becomes invisible. Often rounded up en masse to be literally ‘vanished’, loaded onto buses to make the problem disappear, those who are struggling in so many ways often seem to have no ‘voice’, feel ignored, unseen and without recourse when politicians are making promises they cannot keep.
Interesting and surprise ending. Clearly a lesson in compassion as a description of what life is like on the streets. Although the lead character had the resources and where-with-all to avoid some of what happened, the hardships that befall someone with little funding, struggling with daily necessities is painfully apparent in then narrative.
… by prolific author Julia Alvarez. She has best sellers published, including the noted ‘In the Time of the Butterflies’, and ‘How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent’. Born in New York City, her family moved to the Dominican Republic when she was an infant. Forced to leave for the family safety, they returned to the US when Alvarez was ten years old. She became an educator, as well as a children’s books, poems and novelist, currently an artist in residence at Middlebury College.
It could be a depressing, distressing story: of illegal immigrants, working for a man who is trying to keep his head above water on a small dairy farm in Vermont. It could be a disheartening tale of a young illegal immigrant woman/girl pregnant who has no one to help her as the due date nears, far from home, family, a support system that will see her through labor and delivery. It could be a tale of grief as a widow learns to live with loss of a devoted husband. It might be a story of the loss of a beloved sister who cannot deal with pressure of trying to stabilize mental health, and resorts to an overdose of pills unknowingly collected from her siblings.
Or none of these: a story about a family doing their best to cope with the curve balls life throws daily as they are challenged with finding balance in their lives when the unexpected has to be confronted.
… in-mid October when one might expect flowering plants to start looking so tattered and tired there is little to appeal as pollinators search for one last meal. In the bright sunshine, as the growing season slowly comes to a close, the bees and butterflies still hard at work, harvesting the available resources at their disposal. The blooms here were deliberately planted by commercial landscapers to beautify the small circle in the middle of the driveway of Clairmont Lake residence complex. Located in front of the main entrance of the building, the seasonal blooms, though varied, are consistently colorful year round.
The pink flower is a begonia, the little bee has so much pollen collected on it’s legs it can barely fly.
That magenta colored bloom is called ‘gomphrena’. Also known as globe amaranth it has a variety of healing properties, uses from teas to tinctures, a plant that has been around for a long time, with a number of ways it has been applied for healing various injuries to bodies. That bee, with the little yellow pollen sacks on it’s legs, appeared to be almost drunk from collecting, possibly not even capable off flying well enough to get back to home to share the wealth.
Small circular planter with a raised concrete curb. There is always something seasonal blooming, eye-catching as vehicles come up the asphalt driveway, past the small water feature towards the front entrance of the building.
In the background of the photo above: an assortment of other fall and summer blooming plants installed by the commercial landscape team. Including tall stems of the Mexican petunia: a good choice for a prolific bloomer and easy to grow. With a purple bloom and plenty of appeal to pollinators late in the growing season, the stalks are easy to root and hold over for the following season
…by prolific western genre writer Larry McMurtry. The book was found in a Little Free Library when making a donation on Virginia Ave. in the neighborhood. This particular tome, at nearly four hundred pages, was first published by Simon and Schuster in 1988. Other publications listed inside the front cover number fourteen, indicating he was well established as a writer, with more than one of those titles appearing to have been sold to be made into screenplays and developed as motion pictures.
Billy – refers to Billy the Kid (William H. Boney) a young firebrand who enjoyed a reputation as a ruthless killer. A young lad who seemed to be completely without morals, scruples, and no compunction for shooting complete strangers in cold blood. The story is told from the view-point of a man who is a writer of the paperback books popular at the time, referred to as ‘dime novels. Most of the tale takes place in Texas, border towns, Mexico, barren land that will barely support livestock, to say nothing of provide enough food for farming and feeding humans. Young Billy is truly a psychopath without the slightest sense of regret after back-shooting a victim, or perforating the random passer-by on a whim, explaining how he comes to a bad end: killed by a former lover.
Peopled with cowboys, outlaws, ranchers, Businessmen, young families having made their way to the west looking for a fresh start, struggling to establish homesteads, small farming operations. Bankers, itinerants, tradesmen, blacksmiths, druggists, printers, people bringing skills from the East, looking for opportunities to advance.
Then there were the young men who choose to ride daily as cowboys. Living in bunk houses, employed by the cattle barons who claimed thousands of acres, hundreds of bovines. Men who spent their days astride horses, unwilling to accept the daily drudgery of building fences to help control livestock, preferring to spend their income in saloons: card playing, drinking themselves into oblivion, fighting, anything rather than actual manual labor.
I did not enjoy this book. Had a hard time finishing. Actually put it down several times before doing that thing where I will say: let me give it one last try, and start in the middle hoping it will improve enough for me to want to read to the end. Which I did, explaining how I know what happens. It was interesting, the author a talented writer. Several of his published works have been made into movies, screen plays, but this one has not. Viewers might recall a series some years ago “Lonesome Dove”, with Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall as cattle drovers, adapted from one of the books, a classic western story.
… on October 9. The photo is not recent, but taken some years ago when she was employed by another non-profit organization. Taking full credit for the highly-amusing, completely hare-brained plan to pop up out of a big box as a surprise, it is uncertain how much she was actually ‘surprised’ by the whole ridiculous event. Her sister, living in Atlanta agreed to the scheme, as we historically will gather for lunch and laughs on a special day.
Driving from middle Georgia to Chattanooga for the day, with the large appliance box,wrapped in birthday paper folded flat in the back of the car. We went into her workplace, gained the assistance of her co-workers who were readily compliant with our silly scheme. Had some help closing the top flaps of the box, before the Birthday Girl was called from her office, to come and look at the delivery.
Her family popped out of the large box, with party hats and those silly noise makers you put in your mouth and blow. Hard to say if she was truly surprised, but all in good fun, right? We amuse ourselves pretty well…
