Rockwall, TX (April 25, 2024) – I can see no way that we will get through the season without me writing about the garden, so let’s do this now. The Mildscape is in glorious full bloom in the third week of April. How can I neglect mentioning vibrant Roses, sweet Dianthus, Cat Mint tipped in […]
Rockwall, TX (March 27, 2024) – Happiness is a place between too much and too little. – Finnish Proverb Happiness is continuing to desire what we already have. – Saint Augustine The above quotes are favorites of mine. The first, a Finnish Proverb, is one that has rolled around in my spirit for years. Not […]
Rockwall, TX (February 8, 2024) – As I began to consider this column, I was sitting in front of the Christmas tree. No, I do not leave the tree up until February! The tree came down during the first week of January. Our tree, as for many of you, is filled with memories. Most years […]
Rockwall, TX (December 18, 2023) – Holidaze. A month of anticipation, lights and Shiny Brites, holiday programs and choruses. Gifts to be found, wrapping accomplished, Angel Trees and food banks to fill. So much packed into just about four weeks, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. A month of myriad emotions and some humbugs too. The […]
Rockwall, TX (November 10, 2023) – My grandparents were Finnish immigrants, settling on the Keeweenaw Peninsula, in the Copper Country, Upper Peninsula of Michigan. “Ukki”, as we called my grandfather, worked as a copper miner and owned a small property in Allouez; a home for his family with a barn across the lane, cows and a […]
Rockwall, TX (October 20, 2023) – I have a friend who frequents thrift stores. She recently shared a photo of a treasure she had passed up while on a foraging expedition. The photo showed a red, green, and blue snowman, crafted of Playdoh, with perky yellow buttons, requisite carrot nose and a winsome sky-blue derby. […]
Rockwall, TX (October 4, 2023) – What fortune to have a birthday in autumn! Though the past days have belied it, we inch closer to fall weather. Mornings are pleasant on the patio. Shaded from the sun, I can soak in the beauty of the revivified fall garden and watch the chaotic antics of the […]
Rockwall, TX (August 18, 2023) – We recently returned from a sojourn to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the U.P. Specifically, to the Keweenaw Peninsula, also known as the Copper Country, because of its history of the first copper boon in the United States. Way up at the far tip of the world (feels like […]
Rockwall, TX (July 18, 2023) – There was a wonderful hush to this day. A Sunday in the very middle of July, amid a humid heat wave, the kind that makes the lungs feel heavy when breathing the air. The kind of heat that, when you step outside for five minutes, your brow gets sweaty. […]
Rockwall, TX (June 16, 2023) – A universal struggle of women; expectations of perfection. Particularly size. The size of our tummies, our bottoms, thighs, bosoms, backfat, holey buckets. I hear women daily, voicing self-disgust about themselves, even women who seem to have the body ideal. Body image remains an issue. I’ve noted clothing sources and […]