Fall cleaning program

The heavy heat of summer left on a cool fall morning. On a desk in the downstairs office was an open, green composition notebook and a newly sharpened Ticonderoga pencil. On page 1 was the date and a short list of attainable goals for housecleaning, that day. The house on Popcorn Road raised one happy eyebrow and creaked with joy.

Popcorn Road

Popcorn Road is an imaginary place out in the country about 60 miles in from the central Texas Gulf Coast. It is far enough away from the coast that hurricanes begin to tire, and close enough to be a 1-hour drive to the beach. Popcorn Road starts outside some town along the coast, and ends in a T where it meets Wagon Road. Wagon Road parallels the railroad that runs east-west across Texas. A 2-story, 120-year-old farm house sits way back from the west-side corner of Popcorn and Wagon Roads. This house has 2 large porches that run the length of the front of the house on both the 1st and 2nd floors. The ceilings of both porches are painted sky blue. The 2nd-floor porch was screened-in a while back to give the indoor cat some outdoor air. There is a large chicken coop behind and away from the house, and a large adjacent area is fenced off for the stray goats the family have been gifted with over the years. Two dogs, one a large, tan Shepherd ...

Pinecone potatoes

Daybook: Backyard. This will take months. Her mother was a gardener. Her husband is a gardener. She loves wildflowers, butterflies and birds and the smell of good dirt and manure, but not digging in the dirt. Months ago, the husband brought home what looked like 3" fused pinecones and left them on the dining room table, which is where they sat gathering dust, no explanation given. They were hard and deep brown. In clearing off the dining room one day, they were shifted to a cardboard box, out of the way. Weeks later a thin, dark brown vine grew out of the box, exploring the cabinetry above. They were alive. She asked him, “What are these,” and he replied, “Some kind of potato. MaryAnn gave them to me.” ‘Rock-hard potatoes,’ she thought, 'Anything that wants to live that badly deserves water and dirt.' She carried the 3 pinecone potatoes to the backdoor stoop to find them a home. A larg...

A fall day

The early morning sun promised a clear, comfortable day ahead. Fifteen miles away, a crew of house movers lifted and transferred a tired, dusty-red cottage from its pillars onto a trailer. The Cottage awoke from a long, abandoned slumber and turned its gaze inward. Another truck gathered the porch that had been removed and set aside for moving purposes, and the cement pillars that held the house up off the ground. Followed by a pickup truck carrying mandated signage indicating a wide load ahead, they caravanned out of the driveway, trundled up the county road to the highway, turned left towards the west. It was a cool, dewy morning on Popcorn Road, like most fall days, except everyone was up a little earlier than usual. This got all the animals’ attention as they wondered what was in it for them. Breakfast earlier than usual? A walk down to the river? In the early days, as the House on Popcorn Road began to take form a...

Daisy Cooke

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