Curious About Nature, Astonished by Human Drive
Exactly six months ago, a “collision” forced me question the rest of my life. “Ka,” the event: me, who I thought I was, against a new reality. “Lizion,” the gradual diminution of its effects, like the reverberation of a bell. I didn’t post what I wrote back then. It was too earnest, too afraid. I... Continue Reading →
Stinging nettles—yowch! See those glassy hairs on the stems? They break off if you touch them, pushing histamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, and several types of acids into your skin, and giving you—“nettles.” At first it stings, then you might get welts where they went in, and then they begin to itch, an insistence that may come... Continue Reading →
You are Barb-the-Tourist-in-Thailand. Switch. You are Barb-the-Resident-in-Oregon. No, not so quick! You cannot switch from one Barb to the other, not in a matter of days. And yet you do. You wake up at some point and check your clock. You are all by yourself in an Airbnb. You check your phone for messages, brief,... Continue Reading →
Our picket fence was built to perfection during a dry Oregon summer several years ago, but in the winter, it goes out of plane. The pickets are still vertical, but it’s as if they’re nailed onto a ribbon. And it’s because of the wood quality of the horizontal part of the fence, the crosspieces, technically... Continue Reading →
I was astonished by many things this week: the gentle friendship of my 91-year-old dad and his 84- and 94-year-old visitors, who’d flown up just to see him. A stunning garter snake with a very orange head. My sourdough starter popping the lid off its container. The thickness and rigidity of a cherry leaf on... Continue Reading →
I’ve made soup with them, abused them with the weed-whacker, tiptoed through them in shorts, taught their anatomy to renewable materials students, photographed their male and female flowers, and watched their cycle of growth from the tender re-sprouts in the spring to the silvery senescence over winter. But I’ve never made yarn from them, until... Continue Reading →
Barb Lachenbruch 