Fresca, that’s a beautiful comment. I hadn’t thought too closely about sparrows, but they’re a bird I know that I see and hear. And perhaps I had in the back of my mind “His eye is on the sparrow…” I like alleys, too. My grandma introduced me to many in this town when I drove her places. She knew all the best shortcuts and sort of taught me to be where she was…

Oh, yeah, and ferns. Lots of ferns on this side of the mountains. We were closer to the higher and drier areas Sunday, so probably there weren’t many along that trail.

Ferns are my favorite plant… I don’t see any in the photos, but I imagine they might live in such forests?
I recently heard some brain guy on the radio talking about how when we imagine things, we just imagine the inessentials, we don’t waste brain energy imaging the details.

True enough in everyday imaging, but it struck me that one thing artists of all kinds do is exactly that: imagine the details. And then, hopefully, we help one another see them too, so life’s not just a blur out a train window.

For instance, in your flash fiction about the brother visiting the dying sister, I noticed that the bird that sings the hymn in the end is a sparrow. That struck me as metaphorically apt, but I wondered—do sparrows sing so sweetly?
Well, a few weeks later I was walking around the lake and heard the sweetest birdsong. I stopped to look, and sure enough, it was a sparrow. I connected the two (another thing the brain does) with a lot of pleasure, due to you!

As for places that inspire me, I really love alleys! Where I grew up, we didn’t have them, but I’ve spent most of my adulthood in Mpls where alleys split almost every block –like secret rivers. Sometimes I’m walking down one and am aware that if I didn’t know where I was, I’d be lost. If you know what I mean.
Write on!

I’ve finally given in to my passion for old churches. Maybe I’ll even get a new camera. But…I think, at least one a month, perhaps two. There are a lot of beautiful churches all over this state, and reason to visit them all. :)