Instead of the front porch, today I am writing from the hammock. Nutmeg is lazing on the grass. Amber has decorated the harvest table with flowers and place-mats and the benches with blankets. I am getting ready to fire up the firebowl and grill burgers for Spare Key's weekly potluck. Behind me on the porch an audacious plant grows from a crack in...

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Thanks to the wonder of email archives, the list below accounts for nearly every Spare Key potluck between May 2014 and May 2015. We have a potluck dinner together once a week. We take turns hosting, and there are five houses in the rotation so far. After dinner, we decide where to meet next week and what the main course will be. The...

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Spring is fire bowl season. In preparation for this joyous season, I needed to split a bunch of firewood. So last week I sent out a call for help to some friends who live nearby. They came over with their splitting mauls, and we got the job done in no time. Then like locusts we swarmed to another friend’s house to help him...

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