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Vacation Reading by Sheila Deeth
On vacation near London, I started reading The Girl On The Train at a railway station. This bookstore, with its horizontal as well as vertical displays, was the absolutely perfect location for enjoying...
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Life in Three Acts, by Carole Howard
Setting: Tanzania. Photographic safari. Act I We were in our jeep, along with a whole lot of other jeeps, watching a cheetah stalk….. something. We didn’t know what it was, but were mesmerized,...
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A Gigantic Ball of Twine by Christine Husom
There is a lot of pride displayed in the small town of Darwin, Minnesota. And at the center of it all sits the world’s largest twine ball that was rolled by a single person. It is thirteen feet in...
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Where Were You When…..?, by Carole Howard
Those of us who were around at the time will always remember where we were when we heard about JFK’s assassination. I was in my dorm room, blissfully unaware of what was going on, until my raucous...
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A Day at the Beach by Steve Hagood
My wife’s family decided they wanted to take a trip together a few summers ago. After much discussion, and making and changing of plans multiple times, they decided they’d like to spend a day at the...
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And to All a Happy Thanksgiving
It would seem churlish to write about anything other than Thanksgiving today. (The other thing on my mind is the election and, believe me, that would be even more churlish.) Problem is, everything’s...
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A Vacation Horror by Thornton Cline
I am still standing today after 11 near death experiences. In my last blog, I shared about how I should have died when I was only two-years-old, which is documented in Chapter Two: A Toddler Almost...
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A Local Evening in Germany
A few days ago, my son came to help me put up Christmas decorations and, wanting to reward him, I offered to take him and his girlfriend to dinner at a restaurant of his choice. He chose a local...
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The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by Carole Howard
I’ve been thinking longingly about a sailing trip we once took with friends in the Caribbean. It was a certain version of heaven. A catamaran (to minimize seasickness), with a crew (we don’t know how...
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A Rainbow in Winter by Sherrie Hansen
In real life, it’s called a bad case of the blues, losing hope, or hitting rock bottom. In a book, it’s called the black moment – that devastating culmination of circumstances when all momentum comes...
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What a Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful World by Sherrie Hansen
There’s no better way to spend a wintery day than to plan a summer vacation. My home in northern Iowa got over ten inches of snow on Thursday night and Friday. The murder mystery we had scheduled for...
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The One-Way Mirror, by Carole Howard
Violinists sometimes claim they play the most difficult instrument. After all, there are no keys to press that automatically produce “C#.” Nor are there frets, as on a guitar neck, for guidance. You...
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Golden-Haired, Most Fair, Prince Rod of Lachlan by Sherrie Hansen
If Prince Rod of Lachlan sounds like something straight from the pages of a fairy tale, you’re right. When Katelyn O’Neal, a reluctant “princess” from Minnesota, inherits a castle from a great uncle...
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If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words by Sherrie Hansen
An almost full moon reflected off a pond hugged by beds of flowers in blues, yellows and violets of various heights. In the center, a fountain trickled down the neck and breasts of a stone statue of a...
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Seaside Daisy? Am I Crazy? by Sherrie Hansen
What started it all was a stretch of wind-swept, treeless terrain and a bright blue cottage built from timber washed ashore after a shipwreck. I’ve always loved the notion of “if these walls could...
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Masks from Travels
I guess most of us collect souvenirs when we travel and I’m guilty of that, as well. Along with photographs and pamphlets or coffee table books and gifts for friends, I also like to try to find a mask...
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Do you have a suitcase story? by Sheila Deeth
Last year I thought it would be easier to travel by train with one nice strong wheely suitcase – only one item of luggage to worry about; only one spot needed on the luggage rack; solid sides to...
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Why Wildflowers? by Sherrie Hansen
Perhaps I carried a bouquet of goldenrod for good luck at some point in my life, because I certainly feel lucky to have visited Scotland three times – so far. As fans of Outlander know, most books set...
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Merry of Soul, She Sailed on a Day, Over the Sea to Skye – by Sherrie Hansen
The next leg of our Scottish journey felt like coming home. We make it a point to see new places and things each time we come to Scotland, but we also plan return visits to places we didn’t get enough...
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Best of Both Worlds By Maribeth Shanley
Life is full of surprises. Some things you plan; and, well, some things turn up as complete surprises! When Bob and I first discussed where we were going to retire, we had three destinations on our...
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