sunrise August 24th…

Sunday, I kayaked at sunrise for the first time. I’ve never witnessed this beauty from the water. Every direction I turned, the light shifted in awe-inspiring ways.

Cape Cod Bay, Sunday, August 24th, 2025, Sandwich, Mass

After a week of wild waves and wind from Hurricane Erin, the waters finally settled down. Cape Cod Bay felt expansive to me, just like the prairie I was raised roaming in South Dakota.

I could faintly hear fishermen talking across the still water.

The birds were busy. Hurricane Erin brought a lot of baitfish to the bay. The seals would pop up, see me, then dive down. They seemed playful and happy to have some calm waters.

This summer, I started singing Simon and Garfunkel’s Cecilia (Ce-SEAL-ya) to the seals in the morning. In my imagination, they are drawn to and comforted by my singing…Cecilia, you’re breakin’ my heart, you’re shaking my confidence daily.

I guess the day after this experience, I don’t want to put off what I’m longing to do.

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.”George Eliot

early spring in South Dakota…

That is one good thing about this world…there are always sure to be more springs.
―L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Heading West from Sioux Falls—March 15th

Main Street—Montrose March 20th

I’ve started taking alternative routes whenever I’m in South Dakota. I wanted to see Montrose where my great-grandmother’s family lived. I recently found this book in my grandfather’s library. To see Lottie Eno’s signature inside a college textbook was thrilling. We attended the same college…once Sioux Falls Academy, then Sioux Falls College (when I attended). Now it is the University of Sioux Falls.

Lottie and Lowell Lillibridge 1898

Main Street—Colome March 21st

On my way to the Burke Stampede Rodeo Gala—March 22nd

East of Burke—Sunday afternoon March 23rd

The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.


—from Prairie Spring by Willa Cather
Spring is the time of plans and projects.

―Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina