first time

headed south to Sylvan on Horseneck Road

My sister loved work. Visited Sylvan Nursery yesterday, one of her workplaces, first time ever I have been there without her.
Gray in her Sylvan happy place

Bought a sourwood or sorrel tree, Oxydendrum arboreum, the sole species in the genus Oxydendrum. It’s a Virginia native.
The first time I bought a sourwood, Emma, Helen and I planted it in Gray’s front yard, on her 45th birthday. This 2nd one goes in my oak-heath forest on Market Street. Hope the roots whisper to each other across the 459 mile divide.
Back to Gray’s I looped south to the ocean and west by way of East Beach Road. The section of road destroyed by Hurricane Irene has been reconstituted.

old girls

Sophia and EG
Always treat your parents as if they are close friends who are soon to move to a distant land from where it will be impossible ever to
return. Never take them for granted, no matter how busy life gets. You can’t imagine your mother and father dying. And then they do.–Tony Parsons

Moving

thirteen years later
My brother Sam is under the knife today, reconstructive surgery on a busted up foot. Getting old takes a lot of strength and grace.

stories

baby ID

The great grand-daughter and the great-great grand-daughter of the lady who built my house visited last night.
They visit partially for love of place and because they value a tradition where tales are told to succeeding generations of preceding generations.
Who will tell your story?
Who will give a tinker’s dam.

Dividing Creek

traditional country store
On the way to Dividing Creek we pass this store. Old style. Organic. Presumably grew in response to the needs of the local population and the owners. Forty years ago “country stores” were prevalent, nowadays there is the WalMart.

land people water
I’ve been snapping a Thanksgiving picture for years. There were twenty people in the photo today but only seven repeats from twenty years ago. Whither the absent?
They are covered up, moved on, elsewhere, otherwise engaged and alone. For better and for worse.
The missing are all missed.