Holy Week: Dog Walk

Early spring is tough. A parishioner once said to me that it is an ugly time of year because it’s about “shaking off death.” Holy Week falls into this space, easily. Bare. Ugly. Broken. Bleak. For all that subdivisions were designed to be ideal places to live, there is a haunting, lonely look about them. They match the spareness of […]

Fall in the Neighborhood

Fall photos, taken mostly while walking the dog around our neighborhood. The farm where our vegetables come from – Green Earth Institute, and the head farmer, Steve Tiwald, who greets us every other Tuesday when we come by for our pick-up. Arugula, having been inspired by its neighbor, mint, taking over a garden plot (this stuff has amazing […]

Blood on the Lawn

We were walking along Parkside, Odo the Beagle and me, when all of a sudden he dove into a front lawn and baby bunnies went running everywhere. Except for the one in his month. It made a terrible tiny squeak. Meanwhile, I was still trying to figure out what was happening. Were these tiny things mice? […]

Our Local Farm

Our weekly share of produce from Green Earth Institute farm. From the right: winter onions, salad turnips, spinach, snap peas, lettuce, tatsoi (an Asian green), and… a beagle. Green Earth Institute is just four miles from our house, in Naperville. It’s a 60-acre organic farm, complete with beautiful old stone farmhouse, and an island surrounded […]

December Dog Walk

I love taking walks in winter. It’s still. Nobody is around. Everything is exposed down to the most basic level. And I love the cold, when I have a coat and gloves, anyway. Of course, gloves have to come off for taking photos, so for a number of these, so I lost the feeling in […]

Take 12 – August

Not all taken on August 12, but thereabouts… (“Take 12” is a project to take 12 pictures of your daily life on the twelfth of each month in 2012). My desk, with calendars, church directory, thank you notes, a Sunday bulletin, cup from Subway, to do list, and various:   The attendance count sheets we […]

Rabbit season

April is a cruel month to be a beagle indoors. The rabbit population explodes and is eminently visible from the windows, glass doors, and end of the leash, every day. Our beagle, Odo, shivers with anxiety and anticipation and pierces the air with ringing, frantic barks. It’s the one time of year I wish we […]