Signs of the times

 

New Mexico

Vermont

Need I say more? VOTE!

Visiting Nellie at college

Nellie, Colleen, and Michael enjoying baked treats at Amy

This weekend was Parents & Friends Weekend at Mount Holyoke College, where Michael’s daughter Nellie is a sophomore. We really enjoyed spending some time with Nellie, and she really enjoyed our taking her up to Brattleboro to stay with friends Ken and Jane for a couple of days. We had some fun trips to thrift and consignment stores, great coffee, great food, and visits with other relatives and friends who drove to meet us.

Last day at Ghost Ranch

Rainbow over Orphan Mesa at Ghost Ranch

The weather changed, and a storm came up, on the last day I spent at Ghost Ranch this year. Most people were in the dining hall when we began to hear people saying, “Go outside! Go outside!” This is what we saw. It was the perfect ending for a perfect week.

Did I mention that my students wrote wonderful essays? I was so proud of them all!

Ghost Ranch in October

Hurray! I’m back in New Mexico once again, teaching a class in writing short essays as part of the Ghost Ranch Fall Writing Festival. Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived and worked, is one of my favorite places on earth, and also — as I learned from a large-screen film I saw recently — one of the world’s richest sites for dinosaur fossils. Here’s a picture of the top of Pedernal, the mountain O’Keeffe painted many times.