~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >*< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With 2023 ebbing away as I type, I deeply wanted to write something poetic and ending-like. If I reflect back on the year, I remember the good and the not so good. I’ll say that we at the Hobbit House are well, busy and still don’t have…
Peace on earth, good will to men. What do we want? Peace on earth. When do we want it? Always. Never. I don’t exactly know. We are an unconscionable bunch of bickering earth dwellers. Christmas is a religious holiday and then again it’s not. We’ve made it into a spending…
Guest writer: Gina Ginsburg ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““ Thanksgiving is a lovely time of year. Food, family, and football, what’s not to like? (Actually, I don’t like football, but the alliteration worked well in that sentence.) But once the sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie have been put away, either gastronomically or via…
Guest writer: Maurice Frank On the morning of Sunday September 17, I was in St. Jean Pied de Port, a quaint town in southwest France. I began walking and five weeks later on the morning of Sunday October 22, I walked into the large open square in front of the…
Guest Writer: Shelly Mozlin .,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.././././././././.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.. I have a love-hate relationship with November. Perhaps love and hate are excessive as descriptors; maybe like-dislike is more accurate (that way I can save hate for December, but that’s another story). My dislike for November revolves around 3 axes: changing the clocks, knowing that…
===================== # ===================== It’s November 1st and 27 degrees. The morning found me asleep in my bed, nestled up against my most consistent heat source–my guy. I listened for a while to the raging wind whipping through the mountains, making a howling sound against the stone walls of the Hobbit…
====================&===================== I found a spider in my bathroom sink this morning. I swished it down the drain with some water and then waited for it to climb back up through the drain. It never returned. I wondered why I don’t like spiders. They are, after all, no worse than roaches–are…
““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““` Are you familiar with that little wobble that sent you down onto your back after the dog plowed into the back of your knees in the yard? No? How about the one when you were hiking up in the mountains and your foot caught a root–maybe you thankfully fell…
================ @ ================ First of all, this is not a story about war–okay, it’s about a little war, but mostly it’s a story about piece. Namely, a piece of me that I have pushed beyond its limit. It’s my left arm. I’m not left-handed–my right hand still does all the…
It’s Acorn Season! That time of year when it sounds like you live on a gravel road whenever a car drives up the street. You could go out and gather a truck load of acorns to harvest the nuts and grind them into acorn flour. Sure, it’s an old-fashioned thing…