everybody loves a parade Our house is a jumble of boxes, papers are everywhere, artwork has come down and rests against walls, laundry is piled high. The fridge and pantry are empty mainly, and shall stay that way at this point. I've spent hours on the phone and online doing the things one does, cancelling … Continue reading This Is How a New Chapter Begins
Traditions
Journal Entry: A Holiday Reflection
Today is my last ‘official’ day off in a week with a couple of holidays plunked smack into the middle of it, courtesy of our Gregorian calendar. I exercised a little opportunism, nudging some unclaimed vacation time around what was already coming, like a pair of bookends. There is still the weekend ahead, which will … Continue reading Journal Entry: A Holiday Reflection
Thanksgiving Journal: Family Ties
Today when my irreverent twenty-something video messaged me, I explained I was making cookie press cookies. He watched me mix in the flour and work the batter until the dough was the right consistency to extrude through the press. I said the last time I used this little device he was still in elementary school, … Continue reading Thanksgiving Journal: Family Ties
Journal Entry: Confessions of a Christmas Control Freak
Is there any time better for derailing a self-proclaimed control freak than the holidays? I mean the Christmas holidays, and not the beachy summer vacation I’ve been coveting since we had our first cold snap, and forget about poetic hoary frost: I’m talking single digits, when the deck boards outside our back door explode as … Continue reading Journal Entry: Confessions of a Christmas Control Freak
Falling from Grace: Ballet Has a Reckoning
The fall has come not a moment too soon, some might say. Peter Martins stepped down as Ballet Master in Chief at New York City Ballet last week after allegations of sexual harassment and the verbal and physical abuse of company members, reported the New York Times. This is not the first time he has … Continue reading Falling from Grace: Ballet Has a Reckoning
Heavenly Noise: Holiday Sunday Photo Essay
Suffice it to say we have been busy. (Note to self: never again move to a new house just before Christmas.) A little peek at what some of us have been up to these last couple of weeks. Heavenly Peace on this Christmas Eve, from my family to yours.
Yankee Flour, Southern Biscuits: Sunday Photo Essay
Changing your address can change your life, chirped a too-cheerful woman in a slick TV advert for planned community living. We are long accustomed to cranking out some pretty impressive cuisine in our outdated, strapped-for-space, apartment-sized kitchen. We've made do using a teeny kitchen table that belongs to our landlord as adjunct counter space, perfected … Continue reading Yankee Flour, Southern Biscuits: Sunday Photo Essay
An Evening of Ballet: Refueling at the Mothership
Last night we saw ‘big’ ballet right down the road in Manchester. It’s a rare thing in these parts, in this underserved and sometimes overlooked state of Vermont, where a tiny population can’t support big art, or even medium-sized art of this caliber. We got lucky this time. Billed simply as ‘An Evening of Dance … Continue reading An Evening of Ballet: Refueling at the Mothership
Writing with Precise Language: Why it Matters
In my professional life writing and editing copy for a digital marketing agency I read a lot of other copy floating around the ‘net. And while the volume of trendy, quippy, or just plain prosaic writing in the cyber sphere may come as no surprise to many, what surprises and disappoints me is how much … Continue reading Writing with Precise Language: Why it Matters
Traditions: Peering Through the Lens of Nostalgia
There are a couple of late November moments that fill me with so much nostalgia and sentimentality I get chills. One is hearing the strains of Tchaikovsky's Miniature Overture to The Nutcracker for the first time in the long Nut season. Don't get me wrong: I am not a fan of the ballet, nor the score, with the … Continue reading Traditions: Peering Through the Lens of Nostalgia
Sycamore Stories 