Ann Silverthorn

Tuesday was the all-day mountain ride. You might wonder when we ever wrote, but there was plenty of time for that with scheduled literature sessions, writing prompts, and sharing of our writing every day. But you don’t really want to hear about that, do you? We left the ranch at 9:00 a.m. in vans while…

Here’s something I wrote about Lollipop when I was at the writers’ retreat in Wyoming: “My horse, Lollipop, is the ugliest of the bunch. He’s the equivalent of a pale, thin, red-headed man. When I first saw him, I was sure he’d be someone else’s horse. When the wrangler called my name, I looked around…

Since I can’t do too much on the Internet here in Wyoming, you could view some pictures on my Facebook page. You have to join Facebook, which is free, but the album is public, so you can view all the pictures I’ve posted so far. Today, we’re going to a ranch and ride the horses among the…

I can’t remember if they’ve done this in the past–but–today when I voted, they gave me a card that said my party on it. The cards were color coded. I understand that I can only vote my party, but I really don’t want all the other voters to know which party I belong to. Isn’t…

I’m at the writers’ retreat in Wyoming. This place is quite amazing. My room is outstanding. It’s about 15 feet from a river! I’ll eventually post pictures, but the Internet connection here is slow, so I’ll only be able to do a couple. If you can get on FaceBook, I’ll try to put some there,…

Last night I stayed in Ogallala, Nebraska. I’m about three hours from my destination. The Ogallala Aquifer has its site locality here and runs under eight states in the Great Plains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer). The aquifer is being depleted at ever-increasing rates. I learned about it in a college environmental-issues class and was shocked at how much…

I traveled to Davenport, IA, yesterday on my way to Wyoming for the Literature and Landscape writers’ retreat. Davenport is the home of John Deere, the tractor mogul who developed a steel-bottomed plow back in the 1800s. Davenport, for me, brings images of my German grandmother’s white-leather living room sofa, which she called a davenport.…

I recently watched a documentary called Chernobyl Heart about the young victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident when a nuclear reactor exploded. Although the film was made in 2003, the problems it illustrates remain today. Children who weren’t even alive at the time of the accident are being born with a heart-valve disease, which requires a…

“Made in China” used to connote cheaply made tin toys. You might be surprised at the number of “quality” goods that are made in other countries, especially China. A casual walk around my house revealed that the manufacture of most of the products occurred in China—even designer clothing from Ralph Lauren and pricey quality handbags…

I’ve been culling paper from the files in my house. The amount of stuff I’ve shoved into files for years is ridiculous. Anyhow, in my adventure I found the following piece by the late humorist, Erma Bombeck. I watched her recite it on TV back in the 1980s when my kids were too young to…