I let the original version of this post sit in the queue and marinate for a while, and then I scrapped it. It sounded way, way too Eeyore-ish, and that is not how I wish to be thought of. But I admit to struggling with a heaping case of the blues lately. I always look for … Continue reading Winter Workouts: Pouring Myself Nice Glass of Endorphins
Vermont
The Day The Sheep Shearers Came
You need not go far in my home state of Vermont to find a farm. Lots of people live and work on them, the rest of us drive past them going to and from. Same thing applies to upstate New York, a stone's throw away. Writer Jon Katz and his wife, fiber artist Maria Wulf live on … Continue reading The Day The Sheep Shearers Came
Along the Battenkill: Late Day Walk in Early Fall
Homecoming, Part the Third
Before we pulled out of Chattanooga on a hazy Tuesday afternoon, my dad reported he'd seen a burgeoning praying mantis and stick bug population this summer. And evidently my son is a praying mantis whisperer. I could not capture the kind of image he did, a challenge I threw his way. And what it lacks … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the Third
Homecoming, Part the First
This afternoon, for the first time since I moved to Vermont, a stranger made a comment about my Southern accent (which I can't hear at all). I walked through the automatic doors at Home Depot, where a man wearing a familiar orange apron was stooped to some task or other. He asked me how I was. … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the First
Works & Process
I love the theatre—lobby, house, backstage, on the stage—it does not matter. I have clocked time there since before I could walk. Friday night I had the chance to be there again at the small and mighty Paramount in Rutland, Vermont. A quirky and entertaining NYC-based company called Bedlam was reading a new play by … Continue reading Works & Process
Learning Curve
Once upon a time when I was the director of a small ballet school I taught classical ballet to adult beginners a couple nights weekly. They were dedicated people, mostly women, but also a few men, from all walks of life. Some of them told me it took them weeks to gather the courage to … Continue reading Learning Curve
Auto Mode: Thou Art Weighed…
...and found wanting, along with my outdated photo editing software. I am itching to get out of auto mode. Not sure I can wait until the October workshop. Today's experiment was the vista opposite the building where I work. (I have always found it funny to see an actual building somebody dropped on top of … Continue reading Auto Mode: Thou Art Weighed…
Kingdom of Wilis: Foggy Vermont Morning
Giselle is a story ballet with Romantic-era sensibilities that still somehow reaches modern audiences. In it a pretty peasant girl—Giselle—dies at the close of the first act, duped by a handsome nobleman promised to a princess, her heart too weak to withstand the loss. In the second act she is transformed into a wili, a … Continue reading Kingdom of Wilis: Foggy Vermont Morning
Sycamore Stories 