Category Archives: More
FREE RANGE: FOOD, NATURE, PLACE, AND MORE
Three white Stetson hats: the joy of limitation
Let’s face it: we are not culturally conditioned to look kindly upon constraints. Every day bombards us with messages urging us to maximize our enjoyments, super-size our servings, and prolong our erections. Limitations, we’re told, are for losers. I, on … Continue reading
Bonfires in the soul
Last week, as Martin and I flew into Denver on our way to the Aspen Summer Words literary festival, we could see giant billows of smoke from the High Park fire outside Fort Collins, about sixty-five miles to the north. … Continue reading
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Tagged alternative medicine, Aspen, Aspen Writers Foundation, Colorado, curanderismo, fire, Luis Urrea, medicine, Orion, T. S. Eliot
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Take me to the river
Last week I started rowing again after an eight-month hiatus. It has been pure pleasure, despite the inevitable price of blisters on my baby-soft hands. First, the pleasure of seeing my friends at the dock, including the ducks and C.J. … Continue reading
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Tagged Bible, books, cancer, Colorado River, marriage, rowing, sex, Wendell Berry
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Memorial Day: remembering Mamaw
Last Monday was Memorial Day, which Heather and I acknowledged by visiting the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg on our way out for a quick visit to Madroño Ranch. If you haven’t been there yet, I can … Continue reading
Submission guidelines
The cliff swallows have returned to Madroño Ranch. They’ve expanded their housing development under the western eave of the Main House to several eastern eaves, one of which we can see from inside the house. We watched them build their … Continue reading
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Tagged Big Bend National Park, birds, cliff swallows, Lajitas, love, Terlingua
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A father’s legacy
Heather’s father Henry E. Catto Jr. died on December 18, 2011. The following is an adaptation of remarks she delivered at his memorial service at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio on January 7. My friend Mimi Swartz wrote … Continue reading
Love, light, and Wallace Stevens
Yesterday was the solstice, the shortest day of the year; Heather’s father died last Sunday; and we’ve received various other pieces of bad news over the last few weeks. It would be easy, under the circumstances, to give way to … Continue reading
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Tagged Christmas, darkness, gift, light, love, Madroño Ranch, Wallace Stevens, Williams College, winter solstice
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Angels in the dark
Jesus said to them… “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be … Continue reading
Field notes from inside my head: connecting art and commerce
Point One: When we attended the Alliance for Artist Communities conference in Chicago several weeks ago, I found myself eagerly awaiting the start of a session entitled “Earned Revenue and Artist Residencies.” Point Two: The other day, as Martin and … Continue reading
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Tagged Alliance of Artists Communities, chickens, economics, farming, LEED, Madroño Ranch, Occupy Wall Street, Slow Money
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Second City, second harvest: pork bellies and bison blood
Sometimes this whole harebrained Madroño Ranch scheme of ours seems to manifest a distinctly split personality. Last week, for example, we experienced, vividly and in close conjunction, two contradictory extremes, one exhilarating, the other sobering. The resulting psychic whiplash has … Continue reading
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Tagged Alliance of Artists Communities, bison, Chicago, Madroño Ranch, meat, pork belly
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