Tall Tales from Kansas

My name is Carol. I live in Kansas. I write about stuff that happens to me as I walk through the world. Most of it is true.

recent posts

  • … giving the reader the feeling that he knows what he is writing about

    I recently finished listening to The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb. It’s been on my list for a bit and when it came up on my Libby app I settled in. Insert big, deep sigh here – let me just tell you the first part of it is hard. The writer is setting things up and you know something bad is going to happen. You can feel it so exquisitely you just want it to get over so you can get past that and on to what comes next.

    The main character, Corby Ledbetter, is a troubled man. The loss of his job sends him on a path of making bad choices as he tries to get himself together. He has much to live for – a wife he deeply loves and twin toddlers he adores.

    I am going to leave it at that. The bulk of the story is the consequences of a tragic accident that sends Corby to prison and trying to figure out how he can come back from it all. Corby struggles with guilt, grief, fear, and underneath it all a hope beyond all hopes that he can get through this. It had (and still has) me thinking about the terrible problems with our criminal justice system and “correctional” facilities. Wally Lamb handles all of this with sensitivity, giving the reader the feeling he knows what he is writing about.

    I have previously read She’s come Undone, I Know this Much is True, and The Hour I First Believed – all by Wally Lamb. The River is Waiting ranks right up there with them. Highly Recommended.

    P.S. I have taken to searching out author interviews about the books they write when I finish a read. It’s my form of a book club, and I love that it helps me think about books more deeply. I enjoyed the Writers on Writing podcast discussion with Wally Lamb from June 16th 2025 that covers this novel.

  • You and all your baked good relatives

    Hang on to your hat, bear with me, and feel free to scroll as quickly as you need to. Today was the first day of the Lawrence Farmers Market, I may have taken more photos than necessary. I couldn’t help it, I was excited. I got there in time to hear them ring the bell to open the market at 7:30am.

    The couple above, he in spam hat, she in orange, looked as happy as I felt to be there.

    More happy market goers. Love their smiles.

    If you want get your vegetable garden started, they had what you need. If you are like me and have been biding your time for local flowers… oh they had those as well. Tulips or ranunculus and those were just the ones I got photos of.

    I know I am biased, but gosh I was glad to see Thuy from Liquid Garden, I have been needing to get some of her juice and protein balls.

    I want to learn to bake with millet flour. There is a spot in LA that I love to go to that has millet toast. It is the BEST. Research to be done and of course a conversation with the vendor to get recommendations. Do any of you use it? If so, do tell.

    Oh hello Pina Colada cake. How I have missed you and all your baked good relatives.

    They won the award for best transporting of produce in bags AND coolest glasses.

    Here is what came home with me today. It was so lovely to see my people and be out on a Saturday morning in my town. The feeling of community is unmatched. Something we all need right now.

    P.S. my tulips are “Columbus” according to the very friendly grower from Cooks Market who is always extremely patient with my questions.

  • before she heads out into the great beyond

    On my recent trek through the Baker Wetlands I was delighted to see all the WATER! The area above has been dry for months and months. It is absolutely amazing how this water makes the wetlands so much more alive. The sounds of the frogs and whatever else (other than birds) they were harmonizing with was just amazing.

    This was a nice cool morning. I questioned by outfit when I saw someone in shorts and a tank top, but was quite glad of my sweatshirt, especially in the shady areas along the tree line.

    Soon these trees will be all leafed out. For now it is nice to peek through them and catch that view of the river that I hadn’t noticed before.

    Beautiful cattails. I love all the varieties of textures at the wetlands.

    The ducks were racing along. Fingers crossed for more rain this spring.

    I just finished a gardening session. Grasses cut down, weeds pulled, bushes trimmed, pots on the porch moved around, sweeping accomplished. Then I sat in my chair and surveyed it all. Oh how I do love to sit on the porch.

    P.S. We had a Huff+1 lunch meeting the other day. I did not get a photo so I am going to take the liberty of posting an older photo of the Huff girls – from Nancy’s daughters wedding, maybe 7-8 years ago. Nancy will tell me if that is not correct. I simply love the sheer joy on all of their faces.

    At our lunch this week, Marti told me she was in “phase 5”. When I asked if she meant “as in 5 of 5”, she said yes. Then she told me about her latest idea – she is working on something that will automatically cause her arm to raise and her to utter “thank you” when people walk by her in her casket and say something about “how natural she looks”. Oh we had a great big laugh over that. She is in consultation with a patent attorney in case she gets all the kinks worked out before she heads out into the great beyond.

    P.P.S. In the event that I have not said it lately – Marti Huff is a treasure – on so many levels.

  • you do not have to be great at something to get intense satisfaction from doing it

    Because it would not be spring without a pot of pansies, I present my selection from the nursery last week. I used to share an office with Barb, whose mom (Ginger) would call us every year when it was time to get “the pansies”. This was more than 20 years ago, and Ginger is in charge of pansies in the after-life now, but I still get a huge smile on my face and think about how much we enjoyed that call every spring. Such a simple thing. But it’s deeply embedded in my memory banks. Every year now, I share a photo of my pansies with Barb and we continue to remember together.

    On the bedside reading front, I have finished 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It’s told in the form of an exchange of letters over the course of many years between a writer and a used book seller. Nothing like The Correspondent, but a lovely read all the same.

    An oxalis is also a spring requirement here at Tall Tales Headquarters. The last several years I have had green ones but was lucky to find this delightful shade of burgundy. When the weather warms it will go on the porch, for now it lives on the dining room table. It is very hard not to load up the cart at the nursery with all the flowers beginning to be available for planting. We have the possibility of a hard frost for another month at least, typically anyway. No need to jump the gun.

    In preparation for our trip to Paris in May, I am needing to exercise my painting/drawing/sketching muscles. You gotta start somewhere, and before you get there is best. I’ve said it once, I will say it again, you do NOT have to be great at something to get intense satisfaction from doing it.

    Do tell what spring activities you are up to. I am going to go and change the sheets on the bed now, then catch up on some newspaper reading, then I am going to roast some mushrooms for salads this week, and finally I may go shopping for some fresh “spring” candles. Happy NO KINGS day to each of you.

  • the return of the white pelicans

    Glory Hallelujah! There were WHITE PELICANS at Clinton lake this week. Completely unexpected and a real treat. Such magnificent birds. They are so BIG. Right after I took this photo I did a Marco Polo and caught them taking off. The sound of the wings… ahhh. I have only previously seen them in the fall. Maybe they made a special visit because they knew I was going to be walking on that morning before I did. It’s good to believe in all sorts of things.

    Whatever the reason for our coinciding visit, it was a serious boost of dopamine in the brain. Who doesn’t need that?

    The deciduous trees are just starting to get their leaves again. Soon the redbuds will do their thing.

    A good spring walk in the woods, by some water, with some amazing wildlife, is a win-win-win.

  • are we inevitable

    I recently finished listening to Vigil by George Saunders. It is read by a cast of narrators, which was initially a bit off-putting to me, but I got used to it fairly quickly. I wasn’t sure I was going to read it, after the rather less than favorable (to put in kindly) review in the NYT Book Review, but then Sharron, my trusty literary sidekick, gave it a thumbs up and I had to dive in. Let me also say that I really liked Lincoln in the Bardo – his previous work. If you didn’t, you may not like this.

    As with Lincoln in the Bardo, it revolves around death. This time a man is dying, and Jill “Doll” Blaine is sent from the afterlife to comfort/console, and generally ease him into whatever his next chapter entails. I really liked the character Jill “Doll” Blaine and the dialogue written for her. The guy dying has been a not so nice person and other characters from his past also visit for a variety of reasons.

    The story makes you ponder if we are inevitable. A great topic for a spring porch book club meeting complete with icy cold gin and tonics and leftover tuna salad from the fridge scooped up with mini saltines. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

  • backyard field trip

    This week, with only a wee bit of planning in advance, Chris and I hit the road, headed in a southwesterly direction towards Council Grove.

    Council Grove is a town of just over 2,000 folks in the heart of the flint hills. Lots of stuff happened here a while back. It was a meeting up place for folks headed out on the Santa Fe trail. There were treaties signed between the native Americans tribes and settlers on the stump of an old tree. I am not going to begin to try and give you a history lesson. How about a few photos instead?

    Gosh our history is fraught with so much injustice against the indigenous peoples of this land. As I walked through the Kaw Mission it was disheartening to read all the statements about how treaties were signed and yet it was never enough. More was always taken. As with many things in our history, this is not how we were educated about it in school (at least when I was taking American History). We must do better.

    There is a wonderful bookstore in town. Flint Hills Books is in the old national bank building right on the main street and it has a wonderful selection of every single thing you did, and did not know you needed.

    I have given Chris the assignment of choosing our next backyard field trip. I will let you know how he does.

  • when I stick myself unexpectedly

    This week, in Kansas, it has been warm enough to wear shorts, and today we just had some snow flurries blow through. It makes life interesting, this in between extremes, that is the beginning of spring. I have been tending my teeny plant above, watering it from the bottom, waiting to put it in a pot on the front porch when more temperate weather is here to stay. I very badly want to tell you the name of it. It starts with an “E” I think but it eludes me at this moment and so I let it go. It will come to me after I hit the publish button.

    There has been some practice at painting French buildings in preparation for the trip coming up in May with sister.

    The tree’s are budding out and hopefully will be just fine with a several day cold snap. Mother Nature knows how to handle this better than we do. Or so it seems to me.

    I am progressing along on my hand quilting. It’s very meditative, except for when I stick myself unexpectedly which causes me to curse, then stick my finger in my mouth so I don’t get blood on the quilt. I feel fairly certain I am not alone in this.

  • it’s a real gem

    If you have not been properly introduced to “black squares” from Bath England… please allow me to facilitate your getting acquainted. These are some amazing, unusual, extremely delightful, crackers that are the perfect pairing with a triple cream brie and a pour of your favorite crisp white wine. The olives, nuts, and dried cherries are icing on the cake. The crackers have a bit of chocolate in them. But not like a sweet chocolate, more like the effect you get when adding chocolate to a Mexican mole – it increases the flavor profile in a way you can’t quite put your finger on, but you know you like it.

    This is a perfect addition to your spring cocktail hour. Plus your guests (if, and only if, you want to share them) will think you are a culinary trend setter. Thank you Annette for telling me about them.

    While I am on the subject of really good things, let me recommend (HIGHLY) When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzen. If you can… the audio version is wonderful. Ivan Huw Dafydd narrates the 89 year old Swedish main character (Bo) beautifully. Bo is living alone, in his home, with the support of “carers” and his son Hans to check on him. His wife with severe dementia has been placed in a facility, and Bo misses her mightily. The story follows the last months of Bo’s life as he comes to terms with what his life has been, and where it is now. He badly wants to be sure he has done right by his son, but at the same time is inwardly intensely frustrated at being told what he must do. Isn’t losing our independence what we all fear the most? The author handles this subject matter honestly without backing away from what is hard.

    Thank you so much Susan Bjerke for recommending this to me. It’s a real gem.

  • …waiting for the light to return

    Since my last post about the marginalizing of trans people through the invalidation of drivers licenses and ID’s because of the requirement that gender on the card match sex at birth, I have been doing a lot of thinking. Mostly struggling with what to DO? We all want to DO something to amend this injustice towards one segment of the population. My indignation over the trampling of someone’s freedom out of ignorance about the trans community has me wanting to get this changed. Just like so many things of late that I want to see changed.

    I read a great quote from Anne Lamott (one of my heroes), took a long walk outside (listening to the birds), and spent some time thinking about pluralism and why is it that we can’t be more open to all people and all beliefs. Which of course made me look in the mirror and think about my lack of tolerance to those in power in this country right now.

    So what I want to know is what are the things that you are doing? I mean beyond our writing letters, making phone calls, donating to causes. I need to open my eyes wider, for ways I can help, so of course I want your help.

    Here are the things on my mind… paying for the groceries for the person in front of me that is short “because it’s been a really hard month”, intervening when encountering conflict to interject calmness and kindness into the equation, and trying to stop being so angry about what I absolutely can not understand and try to learn about it instead.

    We gotta talk about stuff before we kill each other. I am going to have to turn off the deep, dark, horrible, revenge videos playing in my head that aren’t working and instead hang out as a peace-keeper. I think I am likely a real natural for a flower child. Okay, that may be pushing it but I am pledging to try. In the meantime, I will keep lighting candles, waiting for the light to return.

    P.S. Restorative yoga has also been incredibly soothing to my soul.

    P.P.S. There is a hearing today to seek a delay in the enforcement of the law invalidating driver’s licenses.