APLACECALLEDMERRYMOUNT

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...

One of the great joys of summer at Merry Mount is watching the swallows glide across the pasture as we mow on the zero-turn, or as we sit...

July 25, 2025 “aplacecalledmerrymount”   Sometimes during moments of solitude, I ponder the lives of others who lived in this old house before us. There is very little written about this place before we became its occupants on July 25, 2013, but I have looked into Madison County records and have gathered stories from the memories of Gary Self and Dave Junk. On this occasion, I offer you some of the history of this place we call Merry Mount. You’ve read the story of Merry M

Holding a bowl of plenty over his head, displaying a broad smile, and exposing a big belly mirrored in a crystal ball, the world is his oyster. As I observe and identify with "The Happy Buddha", I also realize that the vastness of our universe and all that it contains is interpreted by a biological mass between my ears called my “brain”, and without it, nothing outside of it would exist. My happiness is a state of mind. Evan Harris Walker from his book, The Physics of Consci

This week, Americans will celebrate the signing of the “Declaration of Independence” that officially formed our nation.  It took Thomas Jefferson 17 days to write it and on July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain. Suppose you were charged, as was Jefferson, with the task to write a declaration of independence (who knows-perhaps we should all consider writing one in case cessation from the United States becomes necessary).

Hubbard Lake, Michigan The Lake Isle of Innisfree I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay...

Michelangelo's "The Creation of Man" June 15, 2025 Let’s begin with KJV: Matthew I, verses 1&2 and 17: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat  Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat  Judas and his brethren …etc… So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying into Babylon unto Christ are fou

6/8/25 Today I echo a shout out from my daughter Caroline. Justice flows in our blood, for Caroline's paternal grandmother's maiden name...