It’s somehow Wednesday already, a vacation day for me because I have a little bidness to take care of later on this afternoon, and maybe I simply needed a day for myself. There’s nothing left for me to say about missing our annual travel down South that I haven’t already said, so I’ll leave it … Continue reading Mid-Week Almanac, 9.23.20
Fall
Journal Entry: When Change Is Good
In a recent video chat with my irreverent twenty-something, I mentioned I’d heard a song on the radio that really resonated with me (it was a Blues Traveler song, in case you’re wondering), and after several days with that earworm, decided I must have this music, in spite of the negative review one critic gave … Continue reading Journal Entry: When Change Is Good
Photo Essay: Golden Pea and Sweet Potato Soup
A gray fall Sunday in Vermont begged for soup making. We'll have our first plowable snow of the season tomorrow night, but we'll enjoy this soup all week long. The Chef is playing his first hockey game of the season tonight; the soup will wait for him. Thinking of all the veterans who made it … Continue reading Photo Essay: Golden Pea and Sweet Potato Soup
Journal Entry: Stewing on a Sunday
This morning I woke with the left side of my tongue chewed red and raw. With The Chef away to attend a family wedding down in South Carolina for the last few days, my universe (Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever’s, too) is out of kilter, and I’ve slept fitfully, occasionally waking with doggie toes in my face despite the … Continue reading Journal Entry: Stewing on a Sunday
Sunday Photo Essay: We Go Flea-Tiquing
Chef David and I had a rare weekend all to ourselves, no obligations to anybody or anything outside of routine chores. Today we decided to visit our local flea marketer/antique dealer, a biggish operation in a mashup of old buildings, at least one of them almost certainly a large barn at some point, but with … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: We Go Flea-Tiquing
Journal Entry: Chef David Bought Me a Goat
And I’m calling him Van Goat. I’ve been making noise about getting a goat for some time now, mainly for the joy of watching the color drain from The Chef’s face. What use would I have for a goat—where would it live, and when on earth would I have time to take care of it? … Continue reading Journal Entry: Chef David Bought Me a Goat
Sunday Photo Essay: Butternut Squash Soup
It's the time of year I start yearning for soup and chili, feel the need to stand in my kitchen and create things. Tomorrow is the first day of fall, and I shall greet it with the best possible outlook, knowing it will also hand us our first plowable snow, and keenly aware our first … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: Butternut Squash Soup
Sea Glass Story: Willing My Home Improvement Project to Work
Sometime earlier this year—in late winter or early spring—I took a bad spill on a thin layer of ice at the bottom of our back deck steps. It was one of those cartoonish moments where you hope like heck nobody saw you: in trying to climb the steps, my feet went out from under me … Continue reading Sea Glass Story: Willing My Home Improvement Project to Work
Dog Story: It Must Be the Biscuits
Whole wheat that gives shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. Heavens, they're tasty, and expeditious!—A Prairie Home Companion The shy Scout-the-Labish is coming into his own. Although lately I’ve been calling our tawny little guy of unknown parentage a Goldapeake Retriever, hijacking the clever adverts an Australian … Continue reading Dog Story: It Must Be the Biscuits
Journal Entry: Florence Is an Italian City
But millions of people in America’s mid-Atlantic will forever think of her first and foremost as a hurricane, of course. “Aren’t you glad you came down in July?” went my sister’s text at a moment when she was still paying close attention to weather and assessing the threat to her South Carolina home, considering staying … Continue reading Journal Entry: Florence Is an Italian City
Sycamore Stories 