Adventures in joyful living
While I wrote almost nothing in 2025, I read incessantly. One activity feeds the other, of course, so perhaps 2026 will find me beyond the painful slump as I really would like to refer to myself as a “writer” once again, authentically. I’ll begin the road back by telling you about two books I read, […]
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I became my godmother Angie’s principal helper in the last years of her life. Among the minor emergencies that required my attention, maintaining the caramel stock was always high-priority. A caramel or two (or five, maybe?) was her nightly indulgence till the day she passed. I never really had a particular thing for caramels until […]
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Spring, like Carl Sandberg’s fog, “comes on little cat feet.” One minute, the bluster of March threatens to steal your hat; the next, those lacy red maple buds are puffing up, their bright green leaves forthcoming. We need spring urgently this year, and the promise and hope that it carries. Last May, we went north […]
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I spent Fourth of July weekend immersed in A Season for That, Lost and Found in the Other Southern France, Steve Hoffman’s chronicle of the six months that he, his wife, and their two young children spent in Autignac in the Languedoc…a decision motivated, to a large extent, on the memory of his time in […]
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It borders on obsession, this “thing” I have for Canada. It’s no doubt rooted in childhood trips to my father’s home in western Maine, described to me then as “30 miles from the Canadian border.” For a kid who was passionately curious (still am), couldn’t get enough of maps and geography (still can’t), and yearned […]
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April and May were heavy-duty reading months. In fact, the first quarter of this year and much of the second has found me with my nose in a book, trading writing time for reading until, about a month ago, I hit a wall with both. What can I say? Sometimes your brain just needs a […]
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January always nudges me to read, simplify, and bake bread, not necessarily in that order. I read all year long, of course, but who doesn’t like a towering new queue to start the year? Although it’s more a work in progress than absolute, that’s my pile in the cover photo, plus The Piano Tuner, The […]
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Falling in love with a place isn’t that much different than falling in love with a person. As the old movie theme song goes, the experience can be even lovelier the second time around. First visits have their knock-your-socks-off magic, for sure. But just as the song describes, when you have “both feet on the […]
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I fall prey to a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle now and then, most often in the dead of winter but occasionally off-season as well. It’s a little thrill when you’ve finished, even if your dog always manages to steal and [possibly] consume a few pieces, so that in the end, like many things in life, it’s […]
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I remember a time when I’d sit with paperback in hand at the water’s edge for hours, on one of those low-slung sand chairs, the surf washing over my feet. No need for prescription sunglasses in those days! That time of lazy beach vacations has long since passed. Over the years we’ve become more attached […]
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After far too long a stretch, we finally hit the road for an extended weekend that took us through three states and one Canadian province. Erie, PA, was our first waypoint, chosen so that we could spend an evening with treasured friends we hadn’t seen in far too long. Natives of Pennsylvania’s Great Lakes shore, […]
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Our beloved Vermont is hurting right now, and our hearts hurt in turn. Hubby and I have spent many glorious hours ambling through Vermont, most often with my beau-frère and belle-soeur*, who lived in the village of Newbury for some time. We came close to settling there ourselves, back in 2010, but the universe had […]
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Hashtag Retired 