Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. Flowerpot Traumas. An interesting juxtaposition, don’t you think? It’s a word combination that’s been stuck in my head since Oct. 27, 2022. That’s the day those were the words I used to solve The New York Times’ Letter …

Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. As we welcome July in earnest, we find ourselves standing at the year’s midpoint. Let’s do the math. Divide 366 by 2 (it’s a leap year, you know), and you get 183. Then, if we continue ciphering, we’ll …

Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. The Enigma Explorer is back. This go-round, though, the EE is meandering into new territory. Instead of solving mysteries that we’ve thought about for years, such as why there are no B batteries and which way the aluminum …

Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. Nature continues to speak. And I try my best to listen. If you’re a regular reader of this column, you know that already. I write about weeds and winds. Sunsets and afternoon shadows. Pastures and peach orchards. Many …

Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. I’m just way too excited about this. I know I am. But I don’t care. Week before last I finally got me some mayhaw jelly. The morning after I obtained it, I popped the lid off one of …

Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. A patch of untamed beauty recently took residence in our front yard. Many might have labeled the population of that patch as weeds, but to me they seemed to be welcome friends. Buttercups and fleabane, their delicate petals …

Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. One of my most cherished memories concerning nature sprang from our last big solar eclipse here in North Louisiana. But it wasn’t the actual eclipse itself. It was a mere byproduct – one little incident that has remained …

Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. I wish this past Sunday had been April Fool’s Day – and that the joke was that Daylight Saving Time was going to begin.Because to me and countless others it is a joke.Too bad, though. We’ve once again …

Take a moment to ponder: What’s that one thing that, when it happens, makes you want to shout, “Hallelujah – yes!” and fight the urge to do a fist pump? Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from Louisiana Tech University. Contact her at sallierose@mail.com. I’ll bet if you take a minute, you …

Through the years we Hollises have accumulated a potpourri of sayings that we cherish and never tire of repeating. Some we coined ourselves; some we collected from other sources. Often, I remember them around the holidays, from all those wonderful family gatherings of the past. Sallie HollisSallie Rose Hollis is a native of Rocky Branch and retired Journalism Professer from …