Purcell Wooden Toys
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – The evolution of toys in my opinion starts with what is still the greatest of all toys -- the stick. After that, I suggest my friend Chris's handcrafted wooden toys.
Join us. Subscribe to Friends of a Long Year
Friends of a Long Year is a weekly, private mailing list bringing stories to your inbox like the olden days. It's written in the spirit of Mary Austin. It was once called Place Without a Postcard, which neatly summarizes what I like to write about.
Archive
Sunrise
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Watching the sun rise, coffee on the stove, light in the world.
Hoppin’ John
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – New Year's cynics are boring. What they miss is that, sure, the only meaning in New Years is what you bring to the table, but that’s true of every day you exist on this planet. So bring something to the table damn it.
Our New 1969 Yellowstone Trailer
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – There are no real blank parts of the map anymore, to misquote Conrad, but there sure are a lot of empty spaces left. We intend to see some of them in our new (to us anyway) 1969 Yellowstone travel trailer.
The Night Before
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Every voyage has a night before. We tend to remember the excitement of the next morning, when our senses are on edge, hyper-aware and it's easy to be anchored in the now. But me, I like that night before. I like when you're still imagining what it might be like. Still trying to picture it all in your head, fit yourself into your own imagination.
Bourbon Bacon Bark
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Searching for what the Danes call Hygge in the sugar deliciousness that is Bourbon Bacon Bark. Because you rarely go wrong with alliteration.
Creamed Corn
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Creamed corn doesn't lend itself to showy food photography, but then neither do most Thanksgiving dishes. Strange holiday that one.
Colors
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Autumn in the South is never as spectacular as is in New England. The colors here are neither as intense nor as long lasting. But still, it is our autumn, our season, our reminder. And this is by far the most colorful year of leaves that we’ve seen in 15 years.
Muffins
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – When you're two years old everything in the world is new every day. Even things you saw yesterday look different, feel different, *are*, inexplicably, different today.
Memorial Park
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Loons, Maine, Memorial Park. *What that sound is?*
Halloween
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Halloween with three owls, a Theremin-wielding ghost band and a zoo full of ghouls.
King of Birds
St. George Island, Florida, U.S. – Watching birds teaches you to see the world a bit differently. You're always alert to flittering movements in your peripheral vision. After a while you start to scan the tree line, the edges of the marsh, the place where the buildings meet the sky, the borderlands where movement begins. You quite literally see the world differently.
Oysterman Wanted
St. George Island, Florida, U.S. – The world of oystermen and local fishing industry is doomed. Even the people resisting the transition know they’re no longer fighting for their way of life, but avoid watching the death of everything they know.
All the Pretty Beaches
St. George Island, Florida, U.S. – St. George is just off the Gulf Coast of northwest Florida and offers a seemingly endless amount of gorgeous white sand beaches.
Consider the Apalachicola Oyster
Apalachicola, Florida, U.S. – If you know the name Apalachicola at all it’s likely because of its eponymous oysters.
Things Behind the Sun
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – My grandparents left the home they lived in for 60 years today. I don't know how much of my life was spent in that house, probably well over a year if you added up all the holidays and family gatherings. And now I'm thousands of miles away and someone is clearing out the house.
Street Food in Athens Georgia
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – Cheap food, made fresh, in front of you. Served hot, wrapped in newspaper. Street food is the people's food, it removes the mystery of the kitchen, lays the process bare. It's also the staple diet of people around the world.
We Used to Wait For It
Los Angeles, California, U.S. – When we first came here, there was nothing. Downtown Los Angeles was an empty husk of a place fifteen years ago. Now it's reborn, alive and kicking. Yet there is something in the older buildings, something in the old walls, something lost in the bricks, something in the concrete, the marble. Something you don’t find anymore. Something we need to find again.
The World Outside
Athens, Georgia, U.S. – The world outside the house is blanketed in snow, a monochrome of white interrupted only by the dark, wet trunks of trees, the red brick of chimneys, the occasional green of shrubs poking through. The roads are unbroken expanses of smooth white, no one is out yet, no footprints track their way through the snowy sidewalk. The world outside is the same as it was last night, before the snow began, and yet, it feels totally different.
Charleston A-Z
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. – Charleston alphabetically. For example, Q is for quiet, Charleston has a lot of it. Just head down to the Battery area, walk through the park and starting walking down the side streets. Take one of the many alleys and walkways that weave between the massive, stately houses. Get lost. It doesn't take much to find a quiet place of your own.
Dinosaur National Monument, Part Two: Down the River
Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado, U.S. – This is the only real way to see Dinosaur National Monument — you must journey down the river. There are two major rivers running through Dinosaur, the Yampa, which carves through Yampa Canyon, and the Green, which cuts through Lodore. Adventure Bound Rafting runs some of the best whitewater rafting trips in Colorado and I was lucky enough to go down the Green River with them, through the majestic Lodore Canyon.
Dinosaur National Monument, Part One: Echo Park
Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado, U.S. – Dinosaur National Monument was poorly named. The best parts of it are not the fossils in the quarry (which is closed for 2010 anyway) but the canyon country — some of the best, most remote canyon country you'll find in this part of the world.
The Endless Crowds of Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S. – There is wilderness in Yellowstone, even if it's just inches from the boardwalks that transport thousands around the geothermal pools.
Backpacking in the Grand Tetons
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, U.S. – Hiking into the wilderness empties your mind. You fall into the silence of the mountains and you can relax in a way that's very difficult to do in the midst of civilization. The white noise that surrounds us in our everyday lives, that noise we don't even notice as it adds thin layers of stress that build up over days, weeks, years, does not seem capable of following us into the mountains.