Oh to be here.

Emeralda Key and nothing as assured as the sun going up and down, that and the tides punctuated by the occasional hurricane to rearrange the shore, sometimes in a way that helps with less of a hike needed to reach the dock. Not so lucky a few years back, with a golf cart and a man needed, but not now.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest. There is no Emeralda Key: I used the name in a novel and thought it was pretty so reused it here.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1998-and-sunrise-coming

Students in Prairie Dresses: Anne Carney, Elisabeth Ertman, and Missy Parks (all Class of 1984) sit in the grass while wearing long dresses. Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, USA. 1984 image. Photographer not given. Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections, TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections.https://digitalcollections.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/node/378315?search_api_fulltext=dress

Oh to be here.

Another iced tea, maybe, and then getting ready to go into town. A niece having a Sweet Sixteen. A family lady needed to go looking at places. Funny. Mother, having been so good at that, helped look at places for half the town, but the family not being like that anymore. Better on the food and what to buy at the quinceañera boutique than who has the prettiest ladies’ room and the nicest view.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/1998-and-a-mid-morning-in-july-the

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

Oh to be here.

Early spring and the crocus and tulips getting ready to pop right out of the muck, if only it ever stops snowing in Saskatchewan.

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

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1961-nine-in-the-morning

A model wearing a Henri Bendel evening gown with a jeweled bodice, surrounded by gifts hanging from ribbons. Jewels are from Trabert and Hoeffer-Mauboussin. Photographed by John Rawlings for the December 1, 1941 issue of Vogue. Condé Nast Archive on Instagram.

Oh to be here.

The Cascades and a mountain peak to hike up, if one should feel so inclined, being visible from each corner of the yard. Flowers starting to leap right out of their beds. The occasional bunny rabbit mother sneaking out from her burrow looking for lunch for her little ones, but not competing with the red robin mother in her nest outside the dining room window, what with rabbits not being that fond of earthworms and robins not caring for baby asparagus with the occasional pale pink radish on the side.

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-2022-and-march-inching

The image is

Front cover of Diana Stobo’s Get Naked Fast! A guide to stripping away the foods that weigh you down. Published in 2010. It’s on the subject of a raw food diet. This version of the cover is from the author’s website and is copyright Diana Stobo LLC © 2021, but I found it here https://archive.org/details/dianastobosgetna0000stob/mode/2up

Oh to be here.

Colorado in August, and even more tourists than last time. Paying more rent than they had wanted for last summer’s A-frame, what with the new place having a bigger yard. People turning out to want to look at nature more than they want to linger over taco lunches, though. Having to sit out on the back porch staring at boulders so big that someone going for a hike can’t fit between them to get any peace and quiet, what with an endless parade of day-tripper hikers meandering down the lane out front.

my new short fiction piece published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to read the rest. The image is a 1960s Dole Pineapple advertisement.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1976-and-estes-park

Oh to be here.

Halfway up Lake Champlain. The best place on earth to be, down by the water and its singing muskrats, their feet stuck in clay.

my new short fiction piece over on my Substack if you’d like to read the rest.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/2012-and-a-mid-morning-in-march-the

“Alice Ronchetti with students: A photograph of Alice Rochetti with 11 school children of various ages standing around a table. The table holds projects presumably made by the students: a paper man figure, a model of the Massachusetts Pike, a crocheted pot holder, an elephant out of cardboard, and more.” Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1973. American. Ed Pacheco, Cambridge, Massachusetts, photographer. © the photographer. Alice M. Ronchetti Papers (1935-1973, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections. Via Digital Commonwealth https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:6395zt16q

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