Kaukahi Kayaks
When I lived in Hawaii I loved the sea. Not being good at surfing, I took up kayaking in about 1981, when my wife Barbara and I met Ann Fielding, a marine biologist well known in Hawaii for her books on Hawaiian fish and her adventure tours. Read more
Dissed Off
Dissed is a lovely word, originally Jamaican slang, but I play with it a little here. I have been dissed a lot recently. Let me display the ways: Read more
Downsized
Downsized means smaller, shrunken, poorer. Maggie has downsized this week. She was sheared from her normal full-size mass of unruly maggie-shagginess to a new svelte style: cool, velvet-coated, sleek. She shed Age too- she looks 3 years old, not 13. Read more
Myfanwy
This is a love story.
Myfanwy was my mother.
Myfanwy (Muh-van-whi) is a Welsh girl’s name, from annwyl (”"beloved” or “sweet little one”). Myfanwy is also the title of a hauntingly lovely Welsh folk song; which, as sung by Welsh massed male chorales, moves my back to shivers and my eyes to seep.
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Bicycle Boy – Rediscovering Jill
There was a difference in class between the streets in our neighborhood of Acton, in West London. Our street had a grand name, King Edward’s Gardens, with nice enough houses tightly crammed together, owned largely by middle-class to working-class families. One over was West Lodge Avenue, which had homes with mock-Tudor facades. Folk along that street were richer than folk along mine and spoke with better accents. Read more
Praise – Carl Grau
When I married Julie in 1991 I married her family, too: sister Ann, nieces Kim and Laura, father Carl, our Dad. Carl and I admired each other; we had a lot in common. I related to his adventures, his wanderlust and his engineering career. And from Carl Grau, engineer, hero, friend, and Dad, I heard the Elder Praise I needed so much in my younger years. Read more
