Featured Posts
Ghost Bark
(Excerpt from Rowena Wentworth’s journal) 16 October 2023 I heard it again this morning. It was a bark, just a single bark, but it woke me up from a night’s sleep. I […]
Articles by Diana in NoVa
Fiction
The Shaman’s Magic
“You know you’re the only one of us who can do this.” Gerald Holloway, the chief of the prehistoric archaeological team, was speaking. Grace Ling nodded. She was barely five feet tall, had trouble […]
Personal Stories
My Sister Mary, Quite Contrary, Grows No Garden Now
Mary Martin, aged 22, St. Louis, Missouri (circa 1967) Mistress Mary, quite contrary How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockleshells And pretty maids all in a row. Old English nursery rhyme […]
Featured Posts
The Drunken Ladies of the Garden Club
A gift of May flowers hanging from a doorknob It was ironic, thought Sophie Martin, that the eve of her first anniversary—the anniversary of her first year without alcohol—should coincide with the hazard […]
Fiction
Home to the Heather
The woman in the hospital bed hadn’t spoken for days. She would neither eat nor drink. She was concentrating on the difficult work of dying. Fiona arrived in the morning, her arms full of daffodils. […]
Featured Posts
Christmas at Barky Manor
The festive Yuletide table with flowers, bayberry candles, and crackers It was Sister Dear who christened our house “Barky Manor,” because we nearly always had a dog or two running about. […]
Fiction
Featured Posts
Life in a Home for the Aged
Barky Manor in its heyday (2007) A few years ago I wrote an essay titled “The Weirdness of Planning for Extreme Old Age,” in which I described our ill-fated attempt to move to a retirement […]
Featured Posts
Lost Love, Forgotten Spring
“But, mom–” Laurie Russell stared at her mother in dismay. “Didn’t we make a bargain on your birthday last month that if I gave you the cellphone of your dreams, you would do a huge […]
Featured Posts
Wolves Don’t Fly
Her looks were unusual: was she really who she seemed to be? The wind was high that gray December afternoon as we passengers stood obediently in line to board the jet from Dulles Airport […]