Author Archives: Gavin Stevens

About Gavin Stevens

Humptulips County is the wholly fictional on-line residence of Stephen Ellis, a would-be writer, an avid fan of William Faulkner and his Yoknapatawpha County, and a retired lawyer.

The Gods of Summer

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

Summer evenings on our Humptulips County farm are my favorite time of year. Since I live sufficiently far from work and its attendant stress, by the time I arrive home each Summer evening I feel as if I am on … Continue reading →

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New Roads and New Prospects

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

It’s Friday and our “Spring” has morphed into “Summer.” We have the same cold and rainy weather in Humptulips County that we’ve had all Spring, but now we call it “Summer” due to the rotation and tilt of the earth. … Continue reading →

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Tractor Dreams

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

As previously noted, Spring has forsaken Humptulips County this year, but it was warm enough on Memorial Day for me to grease the tractor and mow parts of the farm while Helen and her sister were visiting their parents’ nearby … Continue reading →

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The Warmth of the Spring

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry … Continue reading →

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Lyrics and Poetry

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

April is National Poetry Month. The state of modern poetry seems sad, with most practitioners of the art focused upon small, insignificant episodes of self-revelation with no attempt to find universal meaning. While I cannot pretend to have read the … Continue reading →

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The Value(s) of Simplicity

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

“The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion. ” Dwight D. Eisenhower “get your big trucks … Continue reading →

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Coffee and the Foggy, Foggy Dew

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. Carl Sandburg It is quite early and the city is swaddled in a dense fog of the kind that … Continue reading →

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An Anniversary Card for Helen

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Gavin Stevens

While it is New Year’s morning for everyone else, for my wife, Helen, and me it is also our anniversary. And, not just any anniversary, but our thirtieth. As usual, we face New Years day and our anniversary here on … Continue reading →

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Waiting for the Snow

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Gavin Stevens

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether … Continue reading →

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It’s a Strange Life, Indeed!

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Gavin Stevens

“Strange, isn’t it?  Each man’s life touches so many other lives.  When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” Clarence Odbody, the angel in It’s a Wonderful Life, to George Bailey Whenever I think I know something, … Continue reading →

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