Sayings & Stories

From the old days to today…

Apple Picking at the Homestead

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imageI went home to visit my mother at the old Homestead the first weekend in October, picking her up to come to a concert with us near where we live, and then bringing her home two nights later. I bought her some mums on an earlier visit, and this time we added a pumpkin to the old well cover for a little more autumn flair. 🙂image

Before I had to leave to go home myself this time, we decided to pick some apples from the two trees my father and she had planted more than two decades ago. We both love to bake/make pies, and several of my sisters still live in the area and might use some of the apples too.

imageWhen we drove up the driveway, several deer had made their way out of the woods in the back to sample the fruits as well. It was a beautiful sight, watching them. imageAll the wildlife that makes its way through the yard – deer, turkey, rabbits, the crows…even skunks (the babies are adorable) and a few times a fox – is one of the reasons my father loved this home he made for us all.

imageThe tree he planted in the back yard, where the deer were sampling, is a Macintosh , but the one in the front is a mystery. Based on the color, crispness, and flavor of the apples, we’re thinking Cortland or something similar. They’re never sprayed, which is great as far as I’m concerned. I’d rather deal with a few spots than to have pesticides all over the apples.

imageThe trees were loaded with apples this year, so 30 minutes of picking (some with the trusty apple picker on a pole) yielded multiple bags of apples.

It was a beautiful day, crisp and sunny, made all the more wonderful for sharing it with my beloved Ma and having the fun of apple-picking with her too!

imageThe end result was a pan of salted caramel apple bars…and a nice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown-sugar laced apple pie! 🙂

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Welcome September!

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September poster1This photo was taken five days ago when I was on my way to visit my mother at the old Homestead. It was a field just a couple miles away, up the street from where my childhood best friend lived. I’ve always loved wildflowers!

That Bittersweet Time of Year

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imageIt’s a strange juxtaposition of feelings, when you’re a teacher. This is my empty classroom (all the desks have been moved downstairs to the gym for testing purposes).

It’s a strange and empty feeling, with all the students gone and the work undertaken each day composed of proctoring tests, grading, assessing completed exams, pulling together final reams of paperwork in the form of “proofs” of the work I do all year as a teacher so that I can receive my “score” (that will designate me as “effective”, “highly effective”, “developing” or really in trouble), and ordering supplies and books for next year, taking everything off the walls, straightening up files, etc etc.

I prefer the have the liveliness of teenagers (spanning ages of 14 – 18, depending on the grade I’m teaching that period) in my classroom. But at the same time, this signals a shift to the different, less harried work of summer. It’s just as demanding, only at a different pace (and with no pay, of course, LOL).

Any real writing I may get to do will take place in the next two months.

But much of that time will be spent trying to “catch up” on all the household things let go all year, carting my own teen here and there and babysitting my new granddaughter, not to mention slowly – always – getting ready for the coming new academic year in the fall, and the six new classes of students I will face each day.

So it is bittersweet to me.

I used to think I’d get used to it over time – but this year marks the completion of my 27th year of teaching, and it’s never changed. I still feel that little flutter of emptiness and that lump of memory of all the lively, engaging, sometimes upsetting but always useful moments that have happened in this space since the first day of September.

And I miss my students.

A Few New Posters – Please Vote!

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So – here are a few posters that have been made for Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven. I’m asking that you vote in the comments for which you like best; please explain why. I’ll be having more posters done, and I want to incorporate your suggestions and ideas!

That said, if you’ve read Moose Tracks and want to suggest a quote to be made into a poster, please do so as well in the comments! I’d love to hear your thoughts. The quote chosen has to be fairly short, obviously, but it can be several sentences long. 🙂

Okay, here are the latest three posters:

CFoHWhKUgAE-G8b    1.

Forest poster 1    2.

CGJEesxWkAA0pIM3.

 That’s it for now – tell me what you think, please! 🙂

Foreword Review!

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Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven

Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann
April 29, 2015

A woman discovers her rich relationships in this exquisite exploration into themes of time and connections, love and loss.

Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven tells the story of protagonist Elena Elizabeth Wright Maguire, who reexamines her life and relationships after she is involved in a minor car accident.

M. Reed McCall skillfully transitions between different periods with segues that invite further exploration into memories triggered by a comment made in the present. For example, when Pa says he can hardly wait to put Christmas decorations around the house, the narrative flashes back thirty-two years to the Christmas Eve when Elena was almost seven years old. This movement in the narrative not only serves to keep the story flowing but also creates an intriguing and natural flow in the stream of connections that Elena makes as she unravels the journey she has made in her life.

McCall captures the unique voices of different personalities and their relationships with one another with evocative and heartfelt precision. This creates a vivid image, not only about Elena, but also about the people around her and the place she lives. This is clear in Pa’s letters to Elena, which offer wisdom, and in radio disc jockey Willard T. Bogg’s announcements on WGRR FM 103.9 about the events in Moose Junction. Elena’s transformation to a mature woman is contrasted with her past idealistic and youthful eighteen-year-old voice in a diary entry about her love, Jesse: “I can’t wait to give Jesse the card and giant Hershey’s chocolate bar I bought for him. I’m SO in love!!!”

While the narrative itself is deeply moving, the black-and-white photographs scattered throughout further contribute to the story’s heartrending quality by lending a unique sense of reality to the story and giving it the feel of a personal history unfolding, adding to the book’s allure and effectiveness.

Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven forges a path straight to the heart.

**For a limited time, Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven is still on sale for $2.99 for Kindle and Nook!

Summer(y) Afternoon

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Summery view on my way home from work yesterday afternoon

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
― Henry James

Here in upstate New York we seem to have leaped right from winter to summer.

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A view on my drive home: a farmer getting his fields ready for the new growth of the season

I suppose it’s apropos for this time of year. Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, with a forecasted temperature in the mid-80’s (Fahrenheit). I can remember at least one Mother’s Day when it snowed. So goes the climate upstate.

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Summer view in Spring

For now, I’ll enjoy the summery hints of days to come. Lots to do today, but I hope to enjoy some time, as Henry James seems to exhort in his quote above. It may only be Spring but summer is coming…

What’s your favorite thing/aspect about summer?

May Flowers

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No, not THE Mayflower.

May Flowers.

imageThese grow in my little garden behind the kitchen door. They have tiny little bulbs and I have no idea what they are or where they came from. They just started growing the year after my father died, next to a few of the beautiful iris he transplanted to this same garden at his last visit to my house before he became ill. The almost glow in the early Springtime, wide open purple and white blossoms atop slender but strong stems.  I consider them a little “gift from heaven”. ❤

imageAnd here to the right is a picture of what my father and I called the “little blue flowers”. I don’t know what they’re really called. I looked it up once, but then promptly forgot. 🙂

Anyway, this little patch was transplanted from my parent’s yard into my yard about six or seven years ago. They grow prolifically all along the side of the old Homestead and have always been the first harbingers of Spring to me. He cut out a 12×12 square of sod with the flowers in it and we placed it next to my house. Every year they come up and I look forward to seeing them (though they haven’t spread much, even though my father had thought they would considering how much they spread at the Homestead…not enough direct sunlight at my house, I think).

These little signs of spring and the thaw of winter’s ice and snow fill me with joy. They are signs of new beginnings, while being at the same time lovely connections to treasured memories long past.

Happy Spring to all of you! I’d be glad to hear some of your stories connected to plants or spring renewal (and if anyone knows what either of these flowers is really called, please let me know!)

Who Are People, Really?

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quotes-trust-first-maya-angelou-480x480I find “truisms” like this very interesting in terms of human nature (and as a writer of course…characters who do and who don’t follow this precept are fascinating to write). And I am aware enough of my own tendencies to know where I fall in my ability to follow it.

What is your interpretation of Dr. Angelou’s statement? Does anyone have any experience with doing (or not doing) this, good or bad? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Writing Pains

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“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”
– William Faulkner

Writers, painters, poets, musicians and all others who create something from nothing…do you enjoy the rough draft process, or do you like more the process of editing, once all the raw material has been pulled out of you?