hiking

JusJoJan26 Day 9: Celebrate

/ Liz H-H / 4 Comments

January 9 – “Celebrate”. Many Thanks to Wendy for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!

(Part 3 of 3, continued from Stumble…)

Winter softened into Spring, Summer strolled by with bare shoulders and snapping flip flops, finally trading off the lazy slap of summer fun for the aromatic crunch of boots on fallen leaves. Squirrel Bird Woman was still feeding her charges, and it turned out that she had classes in many of the same buildings I haunted, as I grinded through my graduate coursework and final thesis. Not that I followed her around; we just walked many of the same campus paths. As my graduate program progressed, so did the number and mileage of walks I took.

Her range of feeding the animals was more extensive than Joe and I had realized. Piles of seeds were spread every quarter of a mile on the grass beside the sidewalks. She made her rounds early mornings and afternoons now, somehow refilling her buckets in between. Like me, she must have lived in one of the tiny apartments near campus. I knew better than to interrupt her efforts with words, but she did offer up a smile now and again. Progress.

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Summer Day

/ Liz H-H / 13 Comments
Woman with hiking poles, standing at the side of a road, tall mountains across a field and creek behind her.

© Ayr/Gray

Many thanks to Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr for their photo prompt, THE UNICORN CHALLENGE. (10/11/2024). No more than 250 words in length.

Agatha Marie had been an intrepid hypothetical explorer all her life. Impatient with the boring landscapes of the Midwest USA – cornfields in every direction, surrounding the lackadaisical cow or ten nibbling a fenced green pasture – she decided to risk all and transform the hypothetical into the empirical.                Continue reading →

Dreamtime Travel

/ Liz H-H / 3 Comments

Steaming coffee mug

The coffee is good today. Michaela must have set up the brewer, after a thorough wash of all the parts that even the Mom and Pop shops seem to need to have for a decent cup, at high traffic volume. I sashay over to a single table in the corner. The table has one chair and a padded bench seat that extends from one end of the wall to the windows opposite. I prefer the bench because I sit here several times a week to watch the customers wander in, sit or hurry out, all versions of my past and future selves filing through. Continue reading →

Honoring My Gothic Present

/ Liz H-H / Leave a comment
Norwegian Forest Cat

Norwegian Forest Cat

As part of my studies of Gothic fairy tales I offer up this quick write from our Carterhaugh class today today, all in the service of learning and expressing and using NaNoWriMo to focus in on what needs to be. As it is written, so mote it be…

Honoring My Gothic Present

I am the old woman you meet in the woods, dressed in shapeless, comfortable black, salt and pepper hair tucked under the hood of my green, woolen shawl as I follow the deer paths through the darker parts of the Wood. My boots are sturdy, laced over the ankle and meant for hiking, but if you look closely at my chicken legs, you’ll see that my boots are a deep burgundy color.  Continue reading →

Waiting for Spring (6-Sentence Story)

/ Liz H-H / 18 Comments

The task is to write a story in 6 sentences, no more no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Diana. The prompt is ‘Clip”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Story on “CLIP”

Glacier

She’d hoped to make the rounds before the storm blew in and kept her indoors and isolated for the next week and a half. She started out with the usual chores–library, groceries, pet supplies for the cat, liquor store, quick visit with her mom—but wanted one final hike at the State Park, taken at a fast clip, with its rolling hills, pine forests, and sparkling creek. Continue reading →