I have recently taken up embroidery. By "recently," I mean a few weeks ago, and also six months ago, and also eight months before that. I mean, basically, that I have taken up embroidery for the 67th time. The thing about embroidery is that -- much like exactly every other hobby or craft or art … Continue reading A Year of Doing Badly
Author: Inkie
Tuesday Tarot Prompt
This week's tarot prompt for writers and artists. The card is the Raspberry, or Six of Coins, representing generosity or the fruits of one's labors. (Click through.)
Tuesday Tarot Prompt
This week's tarot prompt for writers and artists. The card is the Three of Swords: betrayal, grief, inner conflict. (Click through.)
Small Magic
This morning on a rainy-grey walk, I followed an ink-black squirrel through the woods until it held still long enough for me to get a single blurry photo of it, and then it vanished with a flick into bracken and shadows. Black squirrels are not unheard of, of course, but they're rare enough to make … Continue reading Small Magic
Foreshadowing
The thing is, you knew. Trump voters and backers now pleading innocence or ignorance, backpedaling furiously and disavowing frantically -- or those of you maintaining chaste silence on social media, I see you too -- you knew who he was and what this was. You chose this anyway. You had all the same warning signs … Continue reading Foreshadowing
Time and Tomatoes
Today is a day for slow-roasting tomatoes and daydreaming about the new year. It's sort of a meaningless mile marker, cynics have observed. The calendar is a human construct. Years don't have character. 2020 bears us no malice; nothing cosmic or karmic shifts on January 1st, 2021. But we construct things like calendars because they're … Continue reading Time and Tomatoes
Snow Day
First of all, it's cold out, so you're gonna want hot coffee. Specifically, you're gonna want hot coffee, cinnamon-infused maple syrup, and whipped cream. Homemade whipped cream is best, obviously, but it's first thing in the morning, I haven't had any coffee yet, and it's a snow day: the can will do just fine. If … Continue reading Snow Day
There Once Was a Pie from Nantucket
My friend Megan brought this pie to the first Friendsgiving Dinner we hosted in our Chicago apartment when I was in law school. "I'm making my mom's cranberry-nut pie!" she told me, and I said, "Great!" and then got off the phone and said to Bill, "Cranberry-nut pie? I think I should probably make a … Continue reading There Once Was a Pie from Nantucket
Civil Discourse
A house one street over from ours had a campaign sign in the front yard all season that read: TRUMP 2020: MAKE LIBERALS CRY AGAIN I walked past it a few times on early-morning outings with the dog, and it jarred me freshly every time I saw it. I mentioned it to my husband, and … Continue reading Civil Discourse
New Year
Happy new year! We've all agreed that January doesn't exist, yes? January is -- hiatus, snooze button, whatever. It's our collective hangover from the year prior. It's the year's trial internship. February is when we say, Okay, 2020, I guess you're hired, let's go. If you slept through January, that's okay. (Don't worry, people with … Continue reading New Year