Category: Uncategorized
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A Tree of Branches
When my mother graduated college, she joined the newly formed, though not yet approved by Congress, Peace Corps. She took Kennedy’s proclamation very seriously when he said, “Ask what can you do for your country.” and she wanted to serve. After several months of training and grueling work, my mother, a young woman from Scranton,…
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And then there were horses
In August of 2022, I found myself in a situation I had seen coming for years, but could do nothing to slow its approach or prevent it from happening. At the age of 85, my friend had an accident and was no longer able to care for his farm or the twenty-six horses who lived…
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Okra
I always hated okra. The name itself sounds too much like orc, ogre, or Orgoch, one of the witches of Morva from The Black Caldron series. It is a word with open ends and sharp middle, a grunt, more likely a growl. Nothing good can come from a word like that. “Best be home before…
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Train Whistles in the Dark
My father grew up in Soddy-Daisy, a small town in eastern Tennessee that sat between a lake and a mountain. His parents continued to live there throughout my childhood and a few times a year we would head from Maryland to Virginia, and drive down 81 to Tennessee. I loved these trips because there was…
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The Wild Hunt
In this episode of Lore, Follow the Leader, Aaron Mahnke delves into folklore describing what is known as The Wild Hunt. Mostly rooted in Germanic legend, the wild hunt is often described as a supernatural horde of warriors hunting great beasts through the forest or across the sky. The sight or sound of these hunters…
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The Woods
*fiction The trail through the woods was a winding one. It ran along a stream bed, deep and wide with very few places to cross. The trees were tall and as spring settled in, a pasture of green rose above the leaf fall, delicate grassy plants that mirrored the canopy above. The path rose as…
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Just a little bit spooky . . .
I was listening to a Halloween podcast the other day. It was series of stand-alone fictional stories intertwined with an overarching narrative about the trouble you get yourself into when you start summoning demons and bending to their will. Whenever I hear a story like that, I am always disappointed that someone would feel the…
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The Salt Marsh
There is a photo of me on the front page of our local newspaper when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I’m with three other kids and we are all standing on a patch of marsh grass, staring intently at the water, crab nets in hand. This photo was taken at the Elms…
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Cheese Balls and Cider
I like Food and Wine magazine. I like the fact that they have a recipe for virtually every occasion and that the majority of their recipes are an almost guaranteed success. That is, if you have access to all the ingredients and are capable of following all the instructions. Regardless, one of my favorite features…
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Crowsfoot
“Lloyd, why don’t you take Sara to get some crowsfoot for a centerpiece.” My mother said this in her school administrator voice, not her cheerful mom voice. My mother was a whirlwind of mixing bowls and table linens, preparing for her family to attend our annual pre-Christmas gathering. With visions of sparkly presents and over-frosted…
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Stuffed Ham
Unless you are from St. Mary’s County, you have probably never heard of stuffed ham. Stuffed ham is a dish that is ubiquitous in Southern Maryland, especially in the Fall and Winter months, but has not travelled much past its borders. The origins of the recipe are unknown, but it is thought to be a…
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Nostalgia
There are a lot of beautiful historic homes in Southern Maryland, but one of my favorites was owned by my mother’s friend and mentor, Hope Swan. Gravelly Hills, as it was called, was located about 20 minutes north of our house and my sister and I often went there with one or both of our…
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Goose Bumps
When I was little, we raised chickens for eggs and meat and they had a rather generous sized coop with a large run in the field behind our house. My best friend and I would spend hours back there in the summer playing with the chickens and bringing them all the tomato worms we found…
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Oysters
Oysters are part of our culinary history and culture in St. Mary’s as evidenced by our annual oyster festival. The festival, now known as the U.S. Oyster Festival, occurs every year on the third weekend in October and has been featured on the Food Network. They have an oyster shucking contest that brings competition from…
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Dark Woods, Dark Water
In my dream, at the end of a winding path, mostly downhill and strewn with loose rocks, was a pond. Both the path leading down to it and the pond itself were surrounded by trees; maples and oaks and the occasional pine. They were spaced far enough apart that you could see the trees behind…
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Crabs
I grew up in Southern Maryland, St. Mary’s County to be exact. This is important because it is surrounded by rivers, creeks, and small bays, all tributaries off the Chesapeake bay and when I was growing up, you could pretty much toss a chicken neck into any body of water and catch enough crabs to…
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The Dunes
If you traveled in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the 1980’s, long before it became a popular tourist spot, there was very little between the small outpost towns of Corolla, Duck, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Nags Head. This long stretch of islands and narrow lands was simply a brushstroke on the…
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The Scent of Boxwoods
American boxwoods have a distinctive scent that throws me back to childhood, growing up in Southern Maryland. Boxwoods don’t have much of an aroma in the winter, unless you break the branches, but when the sun hits their leaves and warms the oils within, you get the musty and slightly acrid scent of damp shadows…
The Scent of Boxwoods 