Adventures in joyful living
Oh, the apples of fall! Pies, sauce, dumplings, cake, Waldorf salad*… or, to keep it simple, an unadulterated apple, all by itself. Last year at this time, we were in Maine at beautiful Cayford Orchard, outside of Skowhegan, picking Northern Spys under a gorgeous October sky. Four years ago, Facebook recently reminded me, Hubby found […]
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‘Tis the last rose of summer, Left blooming alone… My mother had a soft spot for schmaltzy poetry—the kind that schoolchildren in the first half of the 20th Century had to memorize and recite. She also loved roses. We had a row of gorgeous ones in the backyard, planted when my parents moved into their […]
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My cousin Liz holds a huge piece of my heart. Because hundreds of miles separated us in childhood, we did not become close until we were well into adulthood. I will be eternally grateful for that, and I just hate it when a year goes by without seeing her. She lives up north, and one […]
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I am in an almost perennial state of longing for Italy. Hubby has Italy on his mind as well. The fervor is fueled constantly as we watch our current favorite Italian TV series. Una pallottola nel cuoro—the English title, Bulletproof Heart. We watch Euro TV almost every night, thanks to MHZ Choice, which we began streaming several […]
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We have a friend who is fond of saying, “You’re all that and a bag of chips.” When it comes to out-of-the-box ( bag??) compliments, one could do worse. A good potato chip, after all, is in a class all by itself. I grew up about an hour from Hanover, PA, Utz’s ancestral home, which […]
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Summer is looking a bit care-worn by now, even though this year, for the first in many, the grass has stayed a bright Irish-green throughout, and our little patch of herbs is so abundant that it looks downright provençal. I can see a few leaves starting to turn here and there, and, although I will […]
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Because so many of us are feeling the need for respite right now, it seems a good time to share photos from our last visit to New England. It appears that 2017 will be one of those rare years that we don’t go north. So much the better to have beautiful images to rely on […]
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We have been fortunate enough to have made many trips to Sint Maarten/St. Martin, so much so that over the years, it became more like a second home than a vacation spot. The exotic became the sweetly familiar as we got to know the people of that remarkable little island—half Dutch, half French, all heart. […]
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The approach of fall always makes me want to cook. For one thing, it’s the high point of the harvest. For another, temperatures drop to a more reasonable, less humid level. What follows is the first of my fall culinary musings. We have a friend in Virginia who is a very fine cook. She gives […]
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It’s a surprisingly cool day for the end of August. Typically, we have summer weather right through September. But nothing about the weather seems typical now, least of all the great tragedy of Hurricane Harvey. Our hearts remain with the people of Texas today. We wish for your safety and the rapid return of bright, […]
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Dear knitting friends, I love watching your fingers deftly move yarn over and under, around and through. I love that you are never “just sitting,” that even your leisure time is productive, and that every piece you turn out, right down to those dishcloths that last forever, is one-of-a-kind. I love the subtle click of […]
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I read many different writers and genres. These days it is mostly, but not exclusively, fiction. Sometimes, the novels that earn the most critical acclaim fall flat with me because in my mind they are generally overproduced, or over reliant on artifice. I much prefer storytelling so tight and well crafted that it doesn’t need […]
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