The View from Rockriver Hill

       Fellow writer and poet Alicia Pollard featured my poem, "Wolf Song" in her Winter Eyrie Project. The wind howls. It growls, snarls, swirls, threatens, Curls about my cottage walls, Seeking chinks and gaps where it might slip in... To finish reading, click  HERE .  Thanks for all the encouragement, and for including me, Alicia!

  Dear Readers,  Since last September, I've been blessed to begin working toward a Digital Media and Advertising Certificate at Cerro Coso Community College online.      I wanted to get the certificate because I believed it would help me with non-profit fundraisers and ministry advertising, but it's turned out to be much, much more!       Last Semester I took "Digital Imaging," and learned about design and basic photoshop skills. I was thrilled when I realized it was essentially an art class, but with computers!        This Spring, I am taking "E-Commerce" to learn about how to run a business online.  I was less thrilled when I realized it was essentially a business class....but with computers.  (Though I am definitely more "artsy" than "business-y," it's been an extremely valuable class.)  In addition to giving me skills I can't understand how I've been living without all these years, I'm just having ...

For the past few months, I have been logging in for a Zoom open mic night for Kern County Poets. They graciously invited to interview me for their most recent Kern Poets update.  My interview is the last one, and you can find it Here. If you'd rather not scroll through all of it, here is just my section:  Interview with Sandra Rose Hughes, First Friday Zoom Open Mic, January 7, 2022 by Carla Joy Martin Sandra shared this thoughtful poem with us that evening: Write Your Way Home by Sandra Rose Hughes Something bad has happened to you. The lid to your green-grass world has been torn off. Being Snow White doesn’t work anymore. You can’t just “sweet attitude” and “can-do” spirit your way out of this. Was it your fault or was it theirs? Where did you go so wrong? You are lost, lost in the woods, with no Prince Charming in sight, Though there are plenty of wolves. How do you find your way back home? After the bad thing, the thing that wasn’t supposed to happen, at least not to you,...

  Many of you know that I am part of an amazing online faith-based writing community called The Habit .  I joined almost a year ago, and it has provided me with numerous blessings and some truly incredible relationships.  For the past few weeks, we have been discussing God's expectations of us as writers and in his weekly newsletter, Jonathan Rogers included a prayer that I had penned.  If you'd like to see it the blog, you can visit it here If you'd just like to read the prayer, here it is:  A Writer’s Prayer By Sandra Rose Hughes The list of things I am not good at is quite long. But people tell me that You have given me some ability to write.  Thank you for this gift, Lord. Let me not hide it under a bushel Or use it to make others feel small. But let me share with them generously- For myself, my family, my community.  Help me to trust in the process, For you are a God of process, And you gave me this gift to be used.  Help me to trus...

Dear Readers,  This will be my last blog post for a few months.  Hughes Baby #4 should be due sometime in June and I can already feel the weariness in my body calling me to rest more and wait patiently for my new little one.  I plan to pick the blog back up again in August, and switch to a weekly update instead of twice weekly. Thank to so many of you who have told me how much you enjoy reading my blog posts. The fact that you take time to read the snippets I post on here means more than you know.  But for today, I present my final blog post for May: The Sunflower Jungle  Sunflowers are my kind of flowers. Sunflowers are easy to grow, cheerful, impressive, drought-resistant, and bird-friendly. My Grandfather Blackwell grew them every year and not a year goes by that I don’t think of him when the sunflowers grow tall. This year, we planted nearly 50 sunflower seeds. For some reason, (perhaps having to do with the “help” of my 4-year-old, or perhaps having to...

       Imagine that you are three years old. You are sitting in your backyard pouring dirt from a spoon into a blue plastic pail, watching the light catch on the shiny flakes in the dirt. An ant wanders near your purple Velcro sneakers. But not just any ant! This ant is larger than most, and its body seems to be covered in white, fluffy fur. Unlike most creatures you have tried to befriend, this one is moving slowly, as if it has nothing in the world to fear. Perhaps it is waiting for a friend to pick it up, pet it, and play with it.                 You consider vaguely that your mother has told you not to pet the fluffy ants. There was some pressing reason she did not want you to touch them. But even for all her words, you often misunderstand her; perhaps this is one of those times?   Surely there could be nothing wrong with gently, ever so gently, stroking that soft, white fur. ...

Cat On a....Well, You Know.    The rain barrels are dry.   We keep hearing the word, “drought,” in the news. I’ve heard that word so many times in my lifetime living in California that I wonder why we keep calling it a “drought,” and don’t just call it, “the way things are here.” Miniature Yellow Roses- Not Native This is the season when my garden starts to look weary, and a small percentage of plants which I planted hopefully in March and April will begin to die, especially non-native plants like the strawberries, the lemon trees, and my miniature rose bushes.  Aloe Vera Blossoms  A better gardener might be able to keep them alive. I am not that gardener. The agaves, aloes, cacti, hot-weather succulents and other desert plants will stubbornly survive and continue to propagate faster than I can transplant them and give them away. Harmless Garter Snake       Snake season continues upon us, and wildfire season looms its terrifying, red-hot he...