Author: Nancy J. Moncrieff

Daughter Number Three and her husband came for a few days’ visit, last weekend.  We were their base of operations as they met with friends and attended the University of Michigan football game.  They were also generous in the amount of time they spent with us.  It was a bit harrowing for them to be… Continue reading Easy Peasy, Never Freezy

On the television news this week, one of the reporters made an off-the-cuff remark about the beginning of fall, “every Michigander’s favorite season.”  Could that possibly be true?  It’s true for my sweetheart and me, and for the friends and relations I’ve been asking.  Fall in Michigan is, after all, pretty great.      For a… Continue reading Autumn Wonders

Grass spiders all over the neighborhood were working hard last night.  It’s easy to tell, as they unveiled their work in the first morning light.  The work is, itself, like veils.  Grass spider webs do not resemble anything Charlotte turned out for Wilbur.  They look like netting draped over blades of grass.  Or bits of… Continue reading Lightbulbs Flashing

Our little dog is getting old.  He still loves his walks, but he’s pretty clear on not needing to interact with other dogs who are out walking.  In part, this seems to be because, if we fall in with friends out with their dogs, we don’t walk as far.  Those other dogs, whether by ability… Continue reading Driving a Sheep

September has arrived, and the weather has done its first-of-September pivot, with nighttime temperatures in the forties and days in the seventies.  Dave Rexroth, chief meteorologist for Seven Action News, tells us that the first of September marks the beginning of meteorological fall.  Weather folks, it turns out, calculate seasons in three-month chunks that start… Continue reading September Quickening

Sue and I hadn’t walked more than a couple neighbors’ yards from her house this morning, when we came upon a nice-sized euonymus bush in a plastic pot on someone’s lawn extension.  Sue said she’d go get her car and collect the euonymus for her daughter.  Sue had already talked to Angela, who’d put the… Continue reading Bush Procession

The lights flickered at church before the service began, last Sunday.  They don’t usually flicker.  They flickered again some minutes later, and flickered periodically as the service progressed.  I cannot have been alone in thinking, Oh, no; this may be expensive to fix.  Our building dates back to 1868; any repair is likely to be… Continue reading Breakfast and Basking

     This morning, as the dog and I were walking, the expected rain arrived.  We were prepared for it, Rascal with his thick coat and I with an umbrella.  The rain on the leaves was the only sound at the time, a quiet shhhhh.  It was a gentle rain, whose edges move in and wrap… Continue reading The Sounds of Rain

     Janice and I went to the Great Pages Circus this Wednesday.  We bought tickets online and showed up at the Washtenaw County fairground, only to find no sign of a big top.  Given the near-perfect flatness of the fairground, if there had been a circus tent there, we would have seen it.  We parked… Continue reading Circus

As Sue and I started up the path by the Huron River today, we could see that the Cascades section of the river was full of activity.  Canoers, kayakers, and tubers, as well as little guys with just lifejackets for flotation assistance were everywhere and so excited.       “It looks like an outing,” Sue said,… Continue reading Turnovers