Standing in front of “St Bride” in the National Gallery

So a couple of years ago, when I first went to Edinburgh Scotland, I found this painting. It's called,"St Bride", and it depicts a pair of angels carrying away the Saint to witness the birth of Christ. Painted by John Duncan, "St. Bride" combines the artistic realism of the times (the early1900s) with the striking…

A Swansong

I know I know. I promised that my next post would be about my biggest adventure in Alaska to date. But I made that promise before my job scheduled me all hours of the day and night, over the past week, and took all the fight outta me. I'll get you that story this week,…

What Does it Take to Go on a Real Adventure?

The word “adventure” is one of my irrational pet peeves. Well, not the word itself as much as the way that some people use it.  I low-key hate it when people use that word to describe a vacation to the next state, or a package holiday, or a hike in the suburbs of DC.  You…

The Teller Road

This poem is inspired by one of the prettiest roads I've ever seen in Alaska or anywhere else. The Nome-Teller Highway stretches from Nome to the village of Teller, and made me lose my breath at every stretch with its mountains, lakes, and golden tundra. An image popped into my head, I wrote this. The…

Mourning L.M. Montgomery

Bad news always hits worse when you are not expecting it. It was late at night. I was robbing myself of sleep and putting off the horrors of going to work the next day through the usual method: scrolling down social media. I do this a lot (who doesn’t?) and on that particular night, I…