Oh to be here.

Another hour of weed pulling. Fun it is, but not as much fun in a pastel pink linen skirt and camisole set as uprooting dandelions in denim shorts and an old t-shirt. Not like back home with all that red clay that turns everything and everyone from little girls to puppy dogs nearly as orange as the sign over an Orange Julius stand. Pale colors in accordance with Pantone, and whoever the buyer is at the boutique by the beach. Nothing darkish brown enough to hide the smallest streak of mud.

my new short fiction piece published over on my Substack if you’d like to read the rest. The image is from Digital Library of Georgia.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/1992-and-an-afternoon-in-spring-with

Oh to be here.

Eagle Lake. Having to clean before the cleaning lady arrives tedious. The children leaving everything in their toy box out in an eternal Noah’s Ark display, like the holiday windows at the big jeweler in Portland, but in plastic and painted wood instead of gold and platinum with diamonded-up hooves. A need to make up for it somewhere, so the lady doesn’t quit like the last three did, announcing that there were tidier families to clean for, even if you have to bring your own broom.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest. The image is from Facebook.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/1949-and-a-mid-morning-in-march-with

Oh to be here

Marin County. Lunch over, and a couple of hours to do something with ahead of the poodle needing to be picked up from the groomer’s. A work apron needed, then, what with the dog always shedding the minute something comes along that she doesn’t want to do.

my new short fiction piece, published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest. https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-2020-with-the-summer

Keys Soulcare Comforting Tinted Lip Balm. Illustration that accompanies an article from Wirecutter ranking the best lip balms. From an email sent out by the New York Times yesterday. Image © Ruthie Darling for the New York Times/Wirecutter. Fair use license. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-lip-balm/?campaign_id=290&emc=edit_wcd_20260228&instance_id=171739&nl=the-recommendation&regi_id=74983616&segment_id=215949&user_id=4c00c56e321c85af6192e44c4d492b60

Oh to be here.

A tiny bit of ice left up at the top of the elm across the way, so high up the branches are like twigs. Only the tiniest birds having a nest that high up lest their babies tumble to the ground.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/1998-with-spring-coming-in-as-the

Oh to be here.

Down for Christmas. All the fancy places taken and a tourist court instead. Better than the Comfort Inn, though. One of those 1930s places with built-in seashell arch-topped niches flanking the living room fireplace, the shelves deep enough for a cat to sleep away two lives if her nap goes on long enough without a grandchild yanking her tail.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest. The image is from a 1968 Frigidaire ad campaign –

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/2022-november-turning-into-december

Oh to be here.

Minnesota, and not being that far from anywhere, if you measure it by how fast a Canada goose can head south for the winter. Teenage children who play trumpet in the band. Saturdays spent ferrying them around. Sitting and waiting in the back of some dusty auditorium, reading a novel while trying to appear to pay rapt attention to whatever the band leader says in case they ask about it on the drive back home. Not needing to find out about a band rehearsal on the other side of the county on the morning of, either.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest. The image is an advertisement from 1949 issue of PROM which was a magazine targeted to Saint Louis Missouri teenagers.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1958-and-december

Oh to be here.

The dishwasher to unload. The list to go over. Augusta and the big fabric store, the one with sequined-up ribbons in every color of the rainbow, tacked up in huge swoops against the back wall like the Christmas tree they hoist up and down at the ballet for the Nutcracker.

my new short fiction piece with the rest over on my Substack if you’d like to read it. The image is from the 2016 Neiman Marcus Christmas book and is © the store.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-2024-and-mid-morning

Oh to be here.

Warmer outside than last week. Sneakers that almost lace themselves up. A new burnt orange colored fleece, perfect for running in. No one to run with, but that a Saturday thing and not a Wednesday break-time kind of thing. A working remotely good thing, though. The big boss having mentioned the morning off and the dentist. No one to check if you let your standing desk and tea mug tend themselves while the minute hand takes another lap around the dial.

My new fiction piece with the rest at the link if you’d like to read it

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-2024-and-an-early

Oh to be here.

Saturday tomorrow, and that ice-skating day. Two middle schoolers taking lessons. The baby inching along on her double runners. A good thing she has such a padded-up snowsuit. Falling doesn’t hurt that way. She can almost bounce right back up. A tutor from the skating school, next year, maybe, but not until then. Not advanced enough to need more help than a mother whose skating lessons were a few years ago can impart.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/1998-and-a-mid-morning-in-march-with

Spring through Summer 1960 Sears catalogue (?) page. From the collection of Alexander B. Tecoma. via flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/vintagestitches/23628069121

Oh to be here.

A morning spent pulling weeds using Mother’s old trowel, not to mention the ancient tweed skirt and thrift shop pullover she got somewhere in Montreal. A need to be dressed like Vogue at all times that came with her lifetime subscription, but not when the only things likely to see you are bugs, beetles, and worms.

my new short fiction piece with the rest at the Substack link in case you’d like to read the rest.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-2003-one-oclock-in

Pour les jours de grands froids, l’esquimau est le costume le plus comfortable des petits, nouse l’expliquons dans sette page, pour 3 ans, (voir les conditions de vent dans le texte. TRICOTER DES CHAUDS LAINAGES: LE COSTUME ESQUIMAU DES BAMBINS. Article published in the February 5, 1933 issue of La Mode illustrée: journal de la famille on Page 9. Collections of the Bibliothèque Forney, Paris, France. In the public domain due to age. https://bibliotheques-specialisees.paris.fr/ark:/73873/pf0000553549/1933/n06/v0009.simple.highlight=Dominotier.selectedTab=record

and the kind of winter outfit my parents, born in 1925 and 1928 wore when they were little and quite possibly knit by their mothers.