I see this pair walking around the lake just about every single day.  I do not know them but imagine they must be yearlong residents somewhere on my road, unlike the majority of folks who own seasonal houses and who will return only with the warmer spring weather.  I have passed them on occasion during … Continue reading Secret Admirer

One of many things I find so endearing about Handsome Chef Boyfriend is a penchant for leaving things in his wake that will surprise me later; found this today.  There was more, but I can't (or at least shouldn't) include it here. Unsupervised for even a second, he rediscovers his inner sixth grader. HCB:  you … Continue reading Magnetic Poetry, Magnetic Boyfriend

...Dog shoes. Clarence has struggled some with the bitter cold winter here in Vermont when we go outside, particularly when the temperatures drop below zero. I mentioned this to my good friend Larry back in Tennessee who calls often to check on us and he immediately bought these nifty Petco shoes for Clarence and sent … Continue reading Two Shoes, Three Shoes, Four Shoes…

At one of the several teachers’ intensives I have attended at American Ballet Theatre over the past four years my mentor, Raymond Lukens (at left)—who happens to be co-creator of ABT’s National Training Curriculum along with his esteemed colleague Franco De Vita—asked a roomful of sweaty ballet teachers, Do you realize how lucky you are … Continue reading Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho

Today Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I braved a very windy day to venture out onto the frozen lake where I live.  Since the temperatures have steadily climbed above zero for the last couple of days, more and more people have been seen on the ice engaged in various winter sports.  On our way out of … Continue reading I Skate on a Frozen Lake

The lake where I live is completely frozen now, and has several inches of crunchy snow on it.  It is nearly ten below as I write, at 1 am; there are warnings about frostbite and hypothermia floating around.  Today (yesterday) was kind of horrible and it is calming to me to think of this cold … Continue reading January Deep Freeze

Last summer I started looking around Vermont for a place to live when it seemed more and more likely that I would be powering down my life in East Tennessee and pressing the reset button in New England.  I knew that when I arrived in August for the teaching audition that serves as a job … Continue reading Snow Plow

I am pretty sure I once heard Eudora Welty in a radio interview lamenting the disappearance of the regional dialect in America.  Her theory:  the insidious whitebread suburban-speak coming into our living rooms day and night via television had dealt a fatal blow to the subtleties that once defined us regionally, including our interpretation of … Continue reading You say potato…

Long before I took the huge leap of faith that was moving to Vermont—before my marriage failed and I found myself unemployed at the end of a miserable divorce—I wondered how rural New England life might feel on my bones.  It was just a fantasy.  My life and family and work were deeply rooted in … Continue reading Size matters.

  Let me be very clear about this.  Chickens—the dead kind that await preparation for the table—are just chickens.  They may be tough or tender, free range and organic, or raised in a huge, commercial poultry house, in which case you might say they were fowl.  Get it?  Fowl?  They may be served up as … Continue reading Chickens are not compelling.