APLACECALLEDMERRYMOUNT

Joyeux Noel "Peppy" at 90, and Noelle to you! What type of meal does one experience when the ingredients include a famous chef, a composer, a poet, a singer, and a pianist? Cuisine d'amour! In this season of celebration, I draw your attention to two birthdays: the 90th birthday on December 18th of Jacques Pépin , (see an article in the NYT by Melena Ryzik below) and a HBD today (December 14) to our friend, Noelle Woods Chesney . https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/dining/ja

Some folks have itchy feet and crave the next travel experience, while others (like me) are homebodies. Which are you? Wanderlust Freedom Give me the long, straight road before me, A clear, cold day with a nipping air, Tall, bare trees to run on beside me, A heart that is light and free from care. Then let me go! - I care not whither My feet may lead, for my spirit shall be Free as the brook that flows to the river, Free as that river that flows to the sea. -Olive Runner  

11/30/25 Today is the first day of Advent, so in deference to Saint Nicholas Day (December 6), I offer "manna" excerpted from the link below: https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/advent/about-st-nicholas.html?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20251072681&gbraid=0AAAAADq2By2yDeXpoO8PpIInGGq0g2-gy&gclid=CjwKCAiAlfvIBhA6EiwAcErpyZasgDMXSw8gXZ-xXFrIatAandGtZbWSz1o6qrmkGdJmdI2GCJaB4BoC5_AQAvD_BwE Saint Nicholas was an early Christian bishop of the ancient Greek city of Myra (modern-day Demre

From our family to yours, may the year ahead be one of good health and happiness. from Thanksgiving Day 2024 Today we also honor the Indigenous people who for centuries occupied the grounds on which we currently reside. CPW

photo taken on October 6, 2013 On November 23, 1989 my "sweet Caroliney" entered my life. Caroline Elizabeth Robinson Woliver has gently touched Rett's and my life since that wonderful day! One endearing moment that is etched on my heart took place when she was around three years old. I often had to be out of town for work and so when I was home I enjoyed snuggling with her in her bed as she was going to sleep. We both would be lying on our sides with my belly up against h

Merry Mount entertains twelve “calendarlar” guests.  Each has special traits and sensual splendor.  Enter November. My November Guest My sorrow, when she’s here with me,      Thinks these dark days of autumn rain Are beautiful as days can be; She loves the bare, the withered tree;      She walks the sodden pasture lane. Her pleasure will not let me stay.      She talks and I am fain to list: She’s glad the birds are gone away, She’s glad her simple worsted grey      Is silver

Trump ironically uses the term "Biden witch hunt" especially when he wants to divert the conversation away from some egregious act that he has committed. Before moving on, let's define "crucible". crucible: a container in which materials or other substances can be heated to very high temperatures crucible: a severe test hysteria-during the courtroom scene from The Crucible at The Ohio State University In the 1980’s, I  became closely associated with a Pulitzer prize winning o

For over twenty years, Rett and I have traveled annually to Slippery Rock, PA to join dear friends at the invitation of Mary Anne and Stu at "The Cabin" on the Slippery Rock River. I have developed a close companionship with this turn of the river and the following poem captures my feelings about this special place. The Housatonic at Stockbridge 
 Contented river! In thy dreamy realm The cloudy willow and the plumy elm: Thou beautiful! From ev’ry dreamy hill what eye but wa

Foliage at Hubbard Lake Poème d’Automne The autumn leaves Are too heavy with color. The slender trees On the Vulcan Road Are dressed in scarlet and gold Like young courtesans Waiting for their lovers. But soon The winter winds Will strip their bodies bare And then The sharp, sleet-stung Caresses of cold Will be their only Love. -Langston Hughes Last week Rett and I experienced “young courtesans” around Hubbard Lake before they shed their clothes and before the “sharp, sleet-

No Kings!! 10/18/25 On this "No Kings" protest day, I wish to add my voice against the Trump Administration's demonstration of fascism. Let's begin by recognizing Antifa. First, I offer an article from the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced5gqn0p6jo Antifa is short for anti-fascist. It is a loose, leaderless affiliation of mostly far-left activists. The word Antifa comes from the German word "antifaschistisch", a reference to a German anti-fascist group from the 1930

George Burns as "God" in a 1977 film directed by Carl Reiner and also starred John Denver and Terri Garr. Google Cloud defines Artificial...

Why would a Commander in Chief and his "Secretary of War" call their top military leaders from around the globe to a meeting and then...

A girl asks for chalk Monday, February 3, 2025 as she prepares to write on the wall of a temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, during a Hindu...

Photo that hangs at Birdsong Cottage, Hubbard Lake, M 9/21/25 I write this morning from our cottage on Hubbard Lake, Michigan.  It is...

Possibility Soft and contrasting lights illuminate A way forward, but Up or Out? In or Out?  Warm or cool? Soon, Now or Later? Here, in...

How does one capture the beauty and essence of moonlight? I offer three answers: 1) a photo by Diane Elizabeth, photographer; 2) a poem...

Those of us of a certain age remember a cartoon character named “Woody Woodpecker”,  but who among us knows which order of (Picidae) he...

Like a circle in a spiral. like a wheel within a wheel. Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel. Like a snowball down a...

2025 will be remembered by the Woliver Clan as the year our matriarch Dorsey Lou Woliver passed from this life, and the year the newest...

My view of Hubbard Lake looking East As I sat in my lawn chair gazing out at Hubbard Lake, the following lyrics came to mind. Roll out...