I hurried back to my garden the next day to plant the seeds, putting the finishing touches on our masterpiece. In the greens quadrant I added 2 rows of spinach, different varieties, and a few turnips, a new experiment for me. In the squash quadrant I added delicata squash and little pie pumpkins. Yes, I
Read on »Thoughts on This and That
Garlic and Gooseberries: Digging In
After deep knee bends in yoga and a 5-mile run for my husband, spending the day prepping the garden was perhaps not the best idea. We could barely move the next day, but it was the satisfying kind of soreness that comes from having accomplished something exciting. For the actual planting that week I called
Read on »Garlic and Gooseberries: Garden Gifts
“Do you know what you want to plant?” my husband asked me. Do I know what I want to plant?! In the 24 hours since hearing about my new community garden plot I had done what good gardeners usually take an entire winter to ponder. I had a list an arm’s length long. In the
Read on »Garlic and Gooseberries
When we lived in Portland our house sat on an acre of land, land that became progressively more wild the further it got from the house. There was a reasonably sized lawn in front and back, somewhat scrappy and a haven to moles and gophers, due to our resistance to using chemicals. Just beyond that
Read on »Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra: “Shaping future leaders through music”
My family used to teasingly call me Cinder-Ellen when I was little, but last weekend I got to feel like a real Cinderella princess. My husband and I got invited to participate in some of the festivities to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the 75th birthday of their charismatic leader,
Read on »Food Friday: Potluck Book Club Baked Potato Bar and Pot of Chocolate
I had to chuckle when someone in my book club brought this New York Times article to my attention: Really? You’re Not in a Book Club? It seems everyone today is in a book club. In fact, I have been in one or another for the past 23 years. The first one was formed by
Read on »Morning Miracle
The woman in front of me is coming undone. Wrestling a huge suitcase and a tiny child she is getting tied up in the black stretchy divider keeping the mass of people in orderly lines. Muttering to herself, she is close to tears and I hear a voice cut through the din around us: “Ma’am,
Read on »FOOD FRIDAY: Brewed Roasted Cocoa Beans – Could this be love?
I cannot drink coffee, or even tea, regularly and that has put me at a disadvantage. I used to wonder why I seemed to have so much less energy than the rest of the world until I realized that most of the world is fueled by caffeine, and I am fueled by, well, sleep. I
Read on »Shifting Gears
The plate flips and lands on the floor with a crash. My expletive booms into the air, bounces off the walls and then, just as suddenly, the silence closes back in around me like a vacuum seal. Having jumped off the couch when I knocked the plate from its precarious perch, my heart still pounds.
Read on »Please and Thank You
In the thick soft quiet that descends upon the city when it is blanketed in snow, I heard it: the scraping of a snow shovel, and I thought: “Thank you.” When I went out walking later, I thought those words again every time I reached a stretch of shoveled sidewalk or crossed the plowed streets.
Read on »Waning Light – A Photo Essay
Fiery ball dropping Busy with my indoor tasks earlier this afternoon, I received this text message from my husband: “Go outside. It’s beautiful” I looked out the window and saw blue sky. Catching his sense of urgency, I was quick to put on my walking shoes to be out in what could be our last
Read on »Home
A few months after we moved to Boston we flew to San Diego to spend the holidays with family. We had been flying in and out of San Diego where my sister and her family live for over 20 years and that airport felt as familiar as an old friend. When we flew back into
Read on »Roots, Wings and Tattoos
Remember in Mary Poppins, when the wind changes direction and it is time for Mary Poppins to open her umbrella and float away? Well it feels as if the winds are changing in my life. After an unexpected post-college year at home, our son has left for a two year graduate program in Berlin
Read on »Food Friday Mango Chutney a la Francesca
Sure it is great when you have a recipe, a shopping list and a plan. But what about those days when the challenge of getting from one end of the day to the other did not include that level of organization? That is when creativity becomes an important cooking skill. Making something appetizing from what’s
Read on »Soundtrack to my life movie
There are moments when my life has a soundtrack. The first time my two young kids and I rode bicycles down a cobble stone street in the town of Hilversum in the Netherlands, I thought I was imagining the accordion music that accompanied us. We had the oddest sensation of being in a movie of
Read on »A canvassing experience from start to finish
This is what I was thinking: I don’t have time, I don’t like knocking on doors, I already volunteered, my son volunteered, my daughter volunteered, I have to pack for my big trip, I have work to do, I am being guilted into this, I have done enough! This is what happened: I whined and
Read on »Dancing in the Rain: Graduation 2013
The weather roller coaster continues its crazy ride. It poured rain again Friday with temperatures in the 50’s after cycling through the 90’s, 80’s and 70’s all in the past two weeks. This being graduation season, when I saw that rain I felt bad for all the families braving the elements to cheer their students
Read on »Messy, Muddy, May-hem
Have you ever noticed that the root of the word “Mayhem” is “May”? Yes, mayhem, defined as rowdy disorder[1], or riotus confusion[2], is based on that lovely spring month, May. I forget every year what happens in May. In the depths of February I look forward to spring, to flowers, to warmer temperatures, to May:
Read on »Food Friday Salade Composee
I really hate making lunch. Breakfast, ok, I am half asleep and working on automatic. Dinner, great, I can be creative and it is a good change from the work I have been doing all day. But lunch is annoying. If I am working at home that day, it seems I have just cleaned up
Read on »Iwo Jima and Gratitude
On my recent trip to Washington, DC I stayed in a hotel in the concrete jungle known as Rosslyn, Virginia. With its high-rise office buildings and hotels it lacks the red brick charm of its neighbor, Georgetown, just one mile away across the Key Bridge, but it is very close to one of the area’s
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