The 2021 Vegetable Garden

Now that autumn has begun in earnest, it is time for me to reflect back on this year’s vegetable garden. It was an unusual summer. We had tremendous amounts of rain throughout the summer. My recent experience is that July and August are drier. Last year we needed to water the garden every day. This […]

Travel in the Time of COVID, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation

After nearly three years of not getting on a plane and almost no travel, I went to Germany. When you put this into the context that I had some years where I was traveling at least 75% of each year, to not go anywhere was…..a luxury! A luxury I had some trepidation of giving up. […]

A Busy Spring

It has truly been a busy Spring season. No one thing has caused it to be busy, it is just the amalgamation of an assortment of activities. I wake up each day wondering, where have I spent my time? Why isn’t it possible to just lie in bed. The life of the leisure class. I […]

Confession and Diary of a Serial Killer

My neighbor, a retired judge, has labeled me a killer. He chastises me for waging war on the creeping charlie weeds overrunning everything (but they have a flower, he says), the dreaded honeysuckle bushes which proliferate like rabbits (but they grow so well he says), and the bittersweet vines which kill everything in their path […]

Winter Is Finally Turning to Spring

Often it feels like Winter hangs around longer than it should. This year, I know this was the case. I compared photos of our yard from one year ago. The plants are blooming 2-3 weeks later than last year. There was some snow left in the yard, from a large pile, just two weeks ago […]

Winter Gardening

Outside the wind is howling fiercely, the sun is shining brightly, the temperature is hovering around 19 degrees fahrenheit, with a wind chill factor of 5 degrees, snow lies everywhere on the ground, just as it has since our big snow storm on February 1, 2021. Late winter is always tiresome, like a guest who […]

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a fun day. Who wouldn’t like a day synonymous with chocolate! Like most holidays, we learn the Valentine’s Day traditions as children. A day full of hearts, love, well wishes and sweets. It isn’t practiced in all countries, but it is firmly rooted in my life. Going back 100 years, I have […]

Winter

A fluffy snow arrived last night. The snow fell in thick clusters of flakes. The temperature was quite chilly. The result is trees and bushes with what appears to be a generous dusting of powder sugar coating everything. It reminds me of childhood and the wonder of waking up to a snow covered yard, hoping […]