All Purls. No Swine.
Dateline June 20, 2024: Happy Summer Solstice! I’m always reminded, on this “longest day,” of the trip that Mr. She and I made to England, and the day we spent at Stonehenge and (just down the road a bit) Avebury. Avebury is another Neolithic Henge, but in this case, the stones surround the village. Once… Continue reading The Summer Solstice, 2024
Four years ago today, North Macedonia, a former region of Yugoslavia, became the 30th country to join NATO. I rarely think about Macedonia, except on occasions when I see bags of frozen vegetables in the local Giant Eagle consisting of a mixture of butter beans and corn. My mother called it "macedoine,"** although most Internet… Continue reading Macedonia Baptist Bunnies! A Thanksgiving Story for the Run-Up to Easter 2024
Technically, I missed it. In 2024, the first day of Spring came yesterday--a day early--on Tuesday, March 19 (blame the leap year. And the almost-pneumonia.) But it's arrived. Someone apparently forgot to tell the gods of the Weather Channel, though. While we've had several days in the 60s, and a few in the 70s over… Continue reading Happy (Roughly) First Day of Spring!
A recent post on Ricochet, in which a member published a simply gorgeous photo that a member of his family had snapped of a Great Blue Heron, asking for other members to share their favorite nature photos, prompted a memory of a post of my own from five-and-a-half years ago now. I'm reprising it below.… Continue reading Perseverance Pays Off
With the recent devastation wrought on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island by the remnants of last week's Hurricane Fiona, and the current emergency as Florida is inundated by Hurricane Ian, I thought I'd dust off a post from a couple of years ago about a great storm from the nineteenth century, almost exactly 171… Continue reading The Yankee Gale
In my Autumn garden I was fain To mourn among my scattered roses; Alas for that last rosebud which uncloses To Autumn’s languid sun and rain When all the world is on the wane! Which has not felt the sweet constraint of June, Nor heard the nightingale in tune Broad-faced asters by my garden walk,… Continue reading An October Garden
The headline from a featured article in today's Telegraph: Garden of weeds takes home gold at Royal Horticultural Society Show. I am crying with joy. Speechless with pride. Overcome with emotion. And--at last--sure of my gardening (if nothing else) prowess. (Those of you who are vehement defenders of your Homeowner Association's right to regulate to… Continue reading Oh, My Very Goshness! I’m Trendsetting Again!
They’re so funny. And, in many ways, so very human. This is Oleg. He’s tiny for his age (about six weeks), and his “sister” (Tatiana) who’s only a couple of days older, is almost twice his size. I only named them this morning, upon the increasing certainty that the little fermentation vats that comprise their… Continue reading Guilty Pleasures
Gotta say, there were a few times, this past winter, which was hard, cold, snowy, and icy to an extent I’d almost forgotten winter could be, when I was a bit worried. But it’s here: https://youtu.be/goAo5dC8P1s Note: The United Nations General Assembly (barf) has designated March 20 as its “International Day of Happiness.” So today’s… Continue reading Happy First Day of Spring!
It's been, as my mother used to say, "as cold as charity" around Chateau Right for the past few days, chilly, damp and blustery--very reminiscent of a long-ago Thanksgiving and one of the most magical episodes of my life. I refer, of course, to the strange case of the Macedonia Baptist Bunnies. If I were… Continue reading Macedonia Baptist Bunnies!