Category Archives: Mind

One of the great pleasures in life during our time in the desert was monsoon season.  Mrs. tVM and I enjoyed sitting on our covered decks and watching the lightning flash and the rain pour from the sky in bucketsful.  It was wondrous and awe-inspiring. Since moving to the hobbit house a week ago, Clarence […]

While I fiercely miss the daily companionship of Mrs. tVM, I have found peace in my two nights on the hill since we became ‘homeless’ on Friday. Mrs. tVM will reside with our daughter and her family across the St. Croix River in Minnesota. I have chosen to live with Clarence on the hill in […]

Swedish writer and photographer Staffan Widstrand comments, “Many people have experienced for themselves the value of simply walking in nature, how you return feeling refreshed, how your thinking is clearer and you are more balanced.” My personal direct encounters with nature throughout my life verify Mr. Widstrand’s observation. “In a hole in the ground there […]

Early this morning, Clarence and I went mushrooming with our good friend Bonnie and her dog Bruno.  A thin mist wetted the air and made the leaves greener than Ireland. Bonnie startled me when she called out, “Oh my goodness!” “Did you find a mushroom?” I replied. “No.  A fawn!” I immediately put Clarence on […]

Thanks to our good friends, Mrs. tVM, Clarence and I spend two hours each day in the fresh, open air surrounded by fields and forest. With the exception of an infrequent airliner passing overhead, there is no noise pollution and we are immersed in the uplifting calls from a wide variety of songbirds. The variety […]

Thanks to the generosity of our friends Pete and Bonnie, Mrs. tVM and I have been spending more and more hours each day surrounded by the serenity of the natural world. Pete and Bonnie live on a 35-acre hilltop not far from the St. Croix River, and they encourage us to bring Clarence up as […]