RattleBag and Rhubarb

Dreams become simpler: Tove Jansson and The Island

The IslandFrom: “The Island” by Tove Jansson There is a surprisingly large number of people who go around dreaming about…

3 years ago

All the Islands

All the islands I have known become one island whose Eastern coast spreads sandy arms to welcome bathers and sea…

3 years ago

Women Artists of WW1: Anna Coleman Ladd

In his series of WW1 epitaphs, Rudyard Kipling comments on the all too common fate of a new soldier at…

3 years ago

Evacuee Story Lines #3 Evelyn Waugh

I did, in the first weeks of the war, before I got my commission, suffer severely from 'evacuees'.- Evelyn Waugh in…

3 years ago

Hemlock and After and Angus Wilson

‘Oh, I know all about goats,’ Sonia was saying. ‘People give them the same recommendation as the billeting officers did…

4 years ago

Ashokan Stroll

A short drive to the Catskills and a Saturday stroll along the Ashokan Reservoir Promenade. Wildflowers growing in the cracks…

4 years ago

The Happiest Day

They say the day you get a boat is the happiest day of your life. That is, until the day…

4 years ago

Evacuee Story Lines #2 C. S. Lewis

"What are you doing in the wardrobe?" "Narnia business" C.S."Jack" Lewis spent childhood years in a house in Belfast where…

4 years ago

Evacuee Story Lines #1 Nina Bawden

All our stories begin before we are born. Not Just the blue eyes or flat feet we inherit, but the…

4 years ago

The Rock Swop

Took a stroll around the perimeter and something colorful caught my eye. There - discretely propped against a generator close…

4 years ago