Really, it was four days in nearby Mt. Pleasant, SC, with a single worthwhile diversion into downtown Charleston. This was the trip we planned last summer, to see my ex-sister-in-law-but-still-my-sister and her sweet Waco-the-Lab. But last year Hurricane Irma had other plans, thus derailing ours. Weather. It’s why we chose July this time around instead … Continue reading Travel Story: Four Days in Charleston
Food
Travel Story: One Night in Charlotte
The plans to meet us in Charlotte unfolded exactly the way all the twenty-something’s plans do, fraught with angst, vacillating wildly between Yes-I’m-Coming and No-I-Can’t, and with no small measure of hand wringing and car polishing, I am guessing. Because when your mom-who-lives-a-thousand-miles-away comes within spitting distance of where you are right now, it’s obviously … Continue reading Travel Story: One Night in Charlotte
Travel Story: Stranger Than Fiction
Because truth often is. Our stranger-than-fiction travel moment unfolded at a Bojangles eatery just off the highway in some small Southern town or other on Sunday, June 30. Our Way Down South trip, Part the Fourth, had gotten off to a beautiful start the day before, when a certain twenty-something drove over from Knoxville and … Continue reading Travel Story: Stranger Than Fiction
Food Story: Nourishment for Body and Soul
When I was a kid my mom often opined that overweight children were proof positive of a household where food was a stand-in for love. Maybe. I submit there are times food offered as love is the best kind of nourishment. Like yesterday. Once in a while running on a hot day makes me sick. … Continue reading Food Story: Nourishment for Body and Soul
Music Story: Verdi + Friends
Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem—or simply Requiem, as it’s often called—is big work that goes down like a gulp of a chewy Cabernet, a soul-satisfying swill of life that gets bigger and better with every reprised chorus of Dies Irae—the day of wrath. It was among the last of his works, near the end of … Continue reading Music Story: Verdi + Friends
Dog Story: A Crust of Bread, a Glass of Wine…and a Marrow Bone
On Friday night David-the-Chef made salmon for our supper, and as he always does, crisped the skins in the hot pan next to our fish. These make the most delectable dog treats, with a little of the salmon meat still clinging to them. Scout-the-Labish never turns down a piece of crisped salmon skin. In fact, … Continue reading Dog Story: A Crust of Bread, a Glass of Wine…and a Marrow Bone
Food Story: Falafel I Have Known
One of the best things about warmer weather is simpler cuisine. The produce in our local grocery stores looking better by the week, and soon our favorite farm stand will overflow with beautiful local lettuces and vegetables. By the time summer arrives we'll be making dinners of fresh corn on the cob, tomato slices, spicy … Continue reading Food Story: Falafel I Have Known
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.
Shape Shifting Words and Other Moving Truths
Have you ever fixated on a simple word until it’s no longer recognizable? The word desk, for example, is a four-letter word that means “a table, frame, or case with a sloping or horizontal surface especially for WRITING and reading and often with drawers, compartments, and pigeonholes,” so says Merriam Webster. Roll around the word … Continue reading Shape Shifting Words and Other Moving Truths
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
Sycamore Stories 