People have been asking me why I haven’t been blogging over the summer. I’ve been away a lot. I spent part of this summer in place in the mountains where there was no TV. No air conditioning. No cell phone. I played a lot of scrabble, listened to a lot of “porch talk,” read a lot of books. I went for a lot of walks. I wrote, but I didn’t blog. Until this past week.
This past week I was honored to be a “guest blogger” at a teaching site I love. You can see my guest post by clicking here:
As hot as it is, I am loving these summer days. The words of Mary Oliver come to me again and again:
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it
Write Now. Write Here. 
Thank you again for that lovely contribution. We appreciate having your voice in the ongoing conversation about the teaching of writing!
I’m so glad you’re coming to speak to the aspiring writing teachers at VCU Tuesday. I know they will pay attention and be astonished as YOU tell all about it! We can hardly wait, Annie!
I was checking the website links for the literacy website and clicked on your blog. I read the first entry and then couldn’t stop. Your words always inspire me! What more can I say?
I just found your blog…as a fellow blogger and teacher, I am impressed! I love your idea for Poem in Your Pocket day! I’ll be trying it with my 2nd graders this year! And your birthday words from students had me reading with tears in my eyes.
Looooove your blog and cannot wait to read more!
After reading this passage, I gathered that you spent a lot of time on the porch relaxing and doing a number of things that you always favored. From your description, my thoughts gathered that these were things that you rarely had time to do.