I have pontificated at some length on the adventures of Bob the spider and his lovely wife, Mrs. Bob. However, they are not by any means alone in their occupation of my dear, dog-eared little cottage. They have, so far, confined their presence to the bathtub (which makes the relocation process much easier, since their […]
Author: Evelyn J. Willburn
Fall flowers are nice too
“Let’s talk about the flowers that bloom in the spring,” my mother would say whenever someone started to drift towards coarse in their mode of conversation. As my sister Laura reminded me, one of us was pert enough to once ask her, “why can’t we talk about the flowers that bloom in the fall sometimes?” […]
An Alaskan ferry tale
These days, Prince of Wales Island is a really happenin’ place. We even have our very own ferry, with daily service to Ketchikan, which, in the local parlance, is our “hub.” In the bad old days, the Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) would occasionally throw us a line, in the form of a weekly ferry in […]
Dammit, Bob!
This morning, I walked into the bathroom of my little cottage, and saw that Bob the spider had returned after three days of wandering in the wilderness. I spoke to him sharply, explaining that this is my tub, and he should consider setting up shop somewhere else; but he seemed unimpressed, and merely paced back […]
Apple tree, apple tree
Apples are the canines of the fruits-and-veggies world. Bear with me while I sort this out. For the sake of argument, I am assuming that wolves were the first canines, and the domestication thing started when one of these wolves crept in from the cold, tacitly agreeing to help out in exchange for room and […]
In which I meet Bob, and keep a weather eye out for Mrs. Bob
Recently I was getting ready for a trip from the sleek, modern metropolis of Craig, Alaska, to the wilds of central Virginia. My sister Laura always stops by my little cottage before I come to make sure no possums have moved in, and this time she said casually, “Oh, by the way, there is a […]
Water, water, everwhere
I have lived in many Southeast Alaska communities, each one smaller than all the others, and the availability and quality of the water has been a mixed bag. We lived in Coffman Cove for four years in the early nineties, and the “better not drink the water” notice was up more often that it was […]
Attack of the herbivores
There are many, many things about the film Jurassic Park that I can get irritated about, and even more in the sequels, but one that stands head and shoulders above the rest is the bit about the veggie-saurus. Here they are, stranded in a tree, and this five-million-ton critter is blowing snot all over them, […]
Let’s talk about the flowers that bloom in the spring
One of my mother’s lifelong missions was to keep the general level of family conversation out of the gutter. When one of us began to stray into the earthier realms, she would invariably say, “let’s talk about the flowers that bloom in the spring.” That was our cue to shape up, and we rarely failed […]
Red, the retired quarter horse
Red came to live with us when I was sixteen. He was a quarter horse, trained to run the western barrel race event, but he had gone lame in his old age. There was plenty of physical evidence that he had been mistreated by an early owner, and I was told I could ride him […]