Cynthia’s New Book
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Category Archives: Ranch Life
Hiding, Seeking, Being Here
I pushed my bicycle up the dusty hill. Everything is harder these days, but I try to keep moving. In the distance there was a blur of bright color…the blue of a dress, a luminous streak of pale blonde hair. … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Nature, Ranch Life
Tagged bike ride, canyon wren, children, cycles, friends, hiding, neighbors, ranch, sky, William Stafford
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The Weight of Things
My friends Ming and David came out on Sunday for our annual New Year’s walk, only six months late. After coffee and croissants, we headed for the beach. The air was warm and humid, the shore was heaped with tangles … Continue reading
Posted in Finding Hope, Friends, Memoir, Ranch Life
Tagged cattle ranching, friends, hope, ranch life, scales, walks, whales
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The Neighborhood
The sky had the haze of not-too-distant fires, but the air was mercifully humid. I had stopped by for a Sunday morning visit with our friends who live up the hill. Little Virginia was wearing lavender pajamas and her hair … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Ranch Life
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The Fort of July
There is a FORT in comfort. Sometimes hiding inside a word can help. Naomi Shihab-Nye It’s a difficult fourth of July, but … Continue reading
Posted in Finding Hope, Memoir, Nature, Ranch Life
Tagged 4th of July, America, hope, kids, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Naomi Shihab Nye, politics, ranch life
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Lights in the Night
I’ve been watching the glow of squid boats in the Santa Barbara Channel lately, a veritable parade of lights, and there is something beautiful about it. (I didn’t take the picture above, and I think it’s Malibu, but you get … Continue reading
Posted in Nature, Ranch Life
Tagged boats, fishing, nights, ranch life, squid boats, wildlife
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Tuesday Morning
It’s early morning…everything is still quiet, the house is asleep. I had a dream-filled night, a solid sleep from eleven until five, which is pretty good for me. My daughter arrived last night, and maybe I sleep better with her … Continue reading
Vernal Pool
We saw it from a long distance, glistening blue in sunlight, a sapphire set in the green. It’s a vernal pool, an ephemeral pond, an evanescent wetland offering habitat to plant and animal species that can flourish nowhere else. Nobody knows how many … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Ranch Life, Small Pleasures
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Brief Companionship
The day was like this: a muted white sky morning, almost raining. As my friend and I walked up the canyon together, a dog wandered from the yard of his house and began to follow us. “Go home!” we shouted, to … Continue reading
Posted in Friends, Memoir, Ranch Life
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Re-Play
I posted the following on this day seven years ago, and I’m re-posting it now because it’s pretty much exactly still true. That’s how life is around here, especially in summer. Timeless. Seamless. As Jane Hollister Wheelwright once told me, “There’s no … Continue reading
‘Tis A Season
My father-in-law at ninety sits in his La-Z-Boy playing rousing music on his iPad, a newfangled device he has grown fond of. It’s vintage Czechoslovakian polka music, he says, and it makes him happy, so it becomes the soundtrack for the … Continue reading →