Linda M. Hasselstrom's Blog, page 6

July 5, 2018

Journal Entry, 7/4/2018

I woke up with the familiar words going through my head:

From the mountains
To the prairies
To the oceans
White with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home

When I let the dogs out, I went to the rain gauge to see the results of the wild thunderstorm that struck about nine-thirty last night. I had sat in bed reading with my back to an open window, watching the lightning blast the sky out windows on two other sides of the room. When one jagged streak of power smashed into the ground so close...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on July 05, 2018 16:56

June 29, 2018

Twenty-Five Meditations on Grief

Retreat

On May 29, the day after Memorial Day, I wrote in my journal, I need a retreat.

As I considered the statement, I realized I meant that I’m never free of cooking, checking this, cleaning that. Always my priority is something other than myself or my writing. Lately I’ve taken a few minutes once in a while to read in the middle of the day, but that’s not thinking or writing. Still, it’s a step– taking some time for myself

Here’s the irony: I have a spare house where writers, artists and...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on June 29, 2018 22:53

June 21, 2018

Antelope Antics

A doe antelope— correctly called pronghorn, or, if you want to get technical, Antilocapra Americana— has been strolling around the field and hillside south of our house for several days. She probably separated herself from the little band of 6 or 7 that has been roaming through this area all spring.

Yesterday morning, we saw her standing still, and realized that a fawn was nursing. After a few minutes, the little one zipped up the hill, running and pirouetting, bowing his head to kick his hin...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on June 21, 2018 16:05

March 21, 2018

Persistence is Perpetual

The phrase “Nevertheless, she persisted,” has become a rallying cry for women worldwide who are, as always, trying to be taken seriously.

[image error]The expression originated with the U.S. Senate’s vote to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren’s objections to confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.

Mitch McConnell, majority leader in the Senate, tried to stop Warren’s speech as she battled against Sessions’ confirmation. Sessions testified under oath that he had not had contact with R...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on March 21, 2018 19:40

March 16, 2018

Peterman Inspires More Than Sales

The narrative impulse is always with us; we couldn’t imagine ourselves through a day without it.
— Robert Coover

Why do I snatch up the J. Peterman catalog whenever it comes?

Not because I can’t wait to order another outfit. Most of my clothes come second-hand– and probably look it.

[image error]

I’m more interested in reading the descriptions. The clothes are fairly ordinary, but what intrigues me is the mystique the writers have chosen to make customers pay shocking amounts of money to acquire them.

Her...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on March 16, 2018 19:16

March 1, 2018

Lucknow: The Topic is Not Guns

[image error]We were immersed in an episode of Downton Abbey when a slighting reference was made to one of the titled ladies of the neighborhood.

Granny–Violet, the Dowager Duchess of Grantham, was leaving the room when she turned her head and said with the significance of having the last word in an argument, “She loaded the guns at Lucknow.”

No other reference was made to Lucknow during the episode, but the line stuck in my mind, so I went looking for its meaning.

The Siege of Lucknow was part of the mut...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on March 01, 2018 14:29

February 22, 2018

Plowprint Report: Only half of the Great Plains grasslands remains intact.

[image error]

This blog is more political than what I usually post, but I am horrified by what I read in the Plowprint Report. In the second half of my blog I list some positive steps being taken to reverse the decline of grasslands, and how you can help.

The Great Plains Native Plant Society newsletter for Spring 2018 contains a summary of the World Wildlife Fund’s 2017 Plowprint Report– a survey of what’s happening to grasslands in the world.

Temperate grassland ecosystems– like we have in western South...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 22, 2018 23:28

February 6, 2018

A Steamy Experience

And I Recommend It!

[image error]We recently spent a half day at Evans Plunge in Hot Springs, and I’m ready to go again. I’ll wear my bathing suit under sweatpants and sweatshirt so as soon as we’re admitted, we can head to the Men’s and Women’s changing rooms.

Furnished with curtained booths for undressing, the rooms have long benches near the lockers for those who are less modest. Another room has individual showers so you can clean up before or after your soak in the pool. Don’t expect a hot shower, ho...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 06, 2018 21:36

January 20, 2018

The Skunk Minuet

Skunks are always around on the prairie, but with luck we hardly know it because they pursue their diet of insects, worms rodents, lizards, frogs, snakes, birds, eggs, moles berries, roots, leaves and grasses without disturbing us.

Our current resident skunk is properly polite, as befits a wild denizen of the plains. We’ve seen signs of occupancy in disused badger holes on the outskirts of our hill but the Striped Stinker has never forced a confrontation with the dogs. Most importantly, the O...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on January 20, 2018 12:26

December 24, 2017

O Holy Night on the Prairie

[image error]

Folks who are used to bustling, fur-wrapped shoppers and greenery hung with lights would see the wide prairie that stretches in front of me as a bleak place to spend Christmas. The grass is a mountain lion pelt– not one color, but gold, fawn, red, brown, and colors for which no name exists– blended into each other over the rolling hills. A few limestone outcroppings studded with pale green lichen, and a scatter of white and granite-gray boulders decorate the scene; there are no trees, no gre...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on December 24, 2017 06:00