In the Northern Wood

The town is having a festival this weekend to celebrate the Strawberry Moon – it’s not a formal name like the Flower Moon is what Bess has told me, but it’s just an indication that it’s a good time to pick berries.She started to ask if I’d planted any berries this year, but she trailed…

Kat met me in the woods today down by the river.Tana was nowhere to be seen.She gave me a pleasant nod and removed her shoes, dipping her pale white feet into the river where they became distorted and took on a greenish hue.“Do you like my sister,” she asked.“I don’t really know you or your…

Bess, her children and Barbie came over yesterday bringing the makings for breakfast along with them.I made up a mountain of scrambled eggs, sliced ham, bacon and coffee and we all ate until we were stuffed.Bess’ oldest operated the toaster, buttering thick slices of her mother’s homemade bread. It was one of the best things…

I had a dream last night that Tana and Kat were circling my house from the field edges.The came from the woods and approached my stone cottage at a remarkable speed, but stopped at the meadow’s edge. They moved a few steps to the right and left then tried again, only to be halted as…

Somehow it’s already June and as I walk my usual routes I can see that some of the fields have been tilled and planted.I wonder who is farming in this area?Maybe Barbie, I think, the field I always see her in has been turned up to reveal rich, dark soil groomed into neat, straight lines.…

With the river ritual now occupying so much of personal understanding of time passing I’d forgotten that the months of the year matter as well.I was somehow very surprised to receive an abundance of mail and emails reminding me of billing cycles and monthly needs to maintain my household.Skobeth was delighted with the pile of…

How do I explain how unsettled I am by the sisters, Tana and Kat?These two women move through the town smiling and offering kind words to everyone they meet, but the townsfolk mostly ignore the girls, sometimes even crossing to the other side of the road to get away from them.It’s not unusual for me…

I had a dream last night that Skobeth climbed a tree – the tallest tree in the forest. She climbed and I came with her as a disembodied pair of eyes – higher and higher until we could not see the ground and the branches became impossibly thin.The wind whipped through the boughs and Skobeth…

I was up late last night, so late that I’m not even certain that I got to sleep. Skobath snored on my pillow, her deep even breathing rumbling in a way that reminded me of heavy trucks driving down the road.I stared at the ceiling and waited for sleep to take me… but, it never…

I went into town today with Skobath tucked into the pocket of my Spring jacket. She kept her little pink nose out to sample the world and sometimes reached a paw up to snag claws into the chest of my jacket.At the grocery store Bess offered my kitten a piece of cheese while she scanned…