Ellen Waterston

Happy Daylight Saving Time! Sorry to say, no time has actually been saved, just shifted. We lose an hour in March to “spring forward” by adding daylight to the evening and gain an hour or “fall back” in November by adding daylight to the morning. Make sense? Not to me. But apparently it did to […]

I have a feeling none of you currently have (or ever had) “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” on the top of your must-read list, especially considering the subtitle: “The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.” It sounds boring but trust me, Lynne Truss’s book, first published in the early 2000s and still going strong, is hysterically funny. The […]

There’s often a hard edge to New Year’s resolutions. A punitive subtext. A get with it, do more, do better tone. If ever there was a year for a kinder, gentler take on being our best selves, 2024 might just be it. I am not a birder, not by a stretch, though I am devoted […]

Sometimes something happens out of the blue that restores your belief everything is right with the world. Moments like these are precious. I recently had one: a friend emailed, instructing me to drop everything, grab my skates, there’s black ice at Todd Lake! I come by my love of black ice honestly. During the winters […]

On Veterans Day, nearly 3,000 flags lined the main streets of towns across central Oregon with Redmond, aka Flag City, USA, in the lead with 1,600 stars and stripes placed by volunteers hours before that city’s parade began. Throughout the region, the best of hometown parade pageantry was on full display: high school bands, Girl […]

What are your autumn memories and traditions? Making favorite soup recipes? Taking in a film festival? Bagging a deer, antelope or elk? Tailgating with friends at a football game? Fall has arrived. What a beauty, with Indian Summer prolonging outdoor playtime against a multi-colored display of foliage. It’s hard for me to imagine living somewhere […]

I‘m not one of those who can chop parsley and put a last-minute singe on the steak while simultaneously greeting guests. I try to get party preparations done in advance to avoid last-minute fussing. Once I’ve done what I can and guests start to arrive, I surrender to the will of the occasion, to its […]

Off on an early morning hike, a girlfriend and I encounter three younger friends of mine on the trail. Based on a lifetime of evidence I knew my nervous anticipation of a four-way introduction was the guarantee I’d forget a name. So, I defaulted to a brief if awkward hello to the threesome, and my […]

Off on an early morning hike, a girlfriend and I encounter three younger friends of mine on the trail. Based on a lifetime of evidence I knew my nervous anticipation of a four-way introduction was the guarantee I’d forget a name. So, I defaulted to a brief if awkward hello to the threesome, and my […]