2018 Holiday Blog Tour Stop #18 “Welcome to Mountain Brook Ink’s 2018 Holiday Blog Tour! We’re so excited you’ve decided to join us on this journey of family, friends, traditions, and memories over the next month. You as our reader have done so much to pour into our lives, and this season we want to […]
Historical
Thank A Veteran
Veteran’s Day, a special day in which we honor those who have served in our country’s military, falls Sunday. I was reminded this week of how much I owe those individuals who have given themselves to preserve my freedoms. My elderly neighbor, now 96, served as a gunner on a B-17 during WWII. My brother-in-law spent […]
Of Ghosts and Goblins
When do the winter holidays begin at your house? I confess that Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two I give any attention, but with the commercialism of our culture my daughter gets into the spirit of the season early by insisting on a Halloween pumpkin. I benefit from her enthusiasm by having a lot […]
Retaining Brick and Mortar stores
The advent of online shopping and digital stores in recent years has increasingly threatened the existence of more traditional shopping in what retailers call brick and mortar stores. Watch the news and one regularly sees announcements of another store liquidating its merchandise and closing its doors, leaving behind a vacant, rectangular building made of stone. […]
A Kite on the Wind releases
Not too many years ago our city of Springfield, Oregon was embroiled in a controversy over allowing a new medical facility, Peace Health Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend, to be built near the juncture of I-5 and the city limits, not far from a community hospital already serving the community. Riverbend won the dispute […]
Launching Another Book
When the National Oceanic and Aeronautics Administration decided to move its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington to Newport, Oregon in 2009, the agency created quite a stir in the coastal community. My son, who had studied Marine Biology at the Hatfield Marine Science Center a few years before, knew many of the people named as […]
Reunion Time
I’ve always enjoyed family reunions. As a child I remember anticipating the summer reunion every July at Jasper Park. As a fifth generation descendant of Cornelius Hills, who settled in the Willamette Valley in 1848 and who developed one of the first 640-acre land claims in the area, I was expected to come and join […]
Book Pick for Summer Reading
Karen Barnett’s latest release, Where the Fire Falls, published by Waterbrook Multnomah, has everything a reader could hope for in an historical account—the beautiful setting of Yosemite National Park, engaging characters, a touch of mystery, and a love story. A surefire mix of elements for an intriguing tale. It’s 1929 and Yosemite National Park is in […]
Mothers and Others
Not everyone looks forward to Mother’s Day. For the woman who never married, or never conceived, or who lost one of her children, Mother’s Day can be a painful twenty-four hours—hours in which she simply tries to journey through. She feels de-valued, unappreciated for who she is, as if she is an “also ran” in a […]
From Photo to Novel
This week Facebook sent me a memory from five years ago that I had forgotten. The picture was one I’d obtained with permission from the Bureau of Land Management. It featured a lone stallion standing on a grassy knoll looking out at the camera. His caramel color, long black mane and tail, and the spidery […]