(Photo courtesy of John Plunkett) One afternoon in early July, my father and I were having lunch on the deck at my parents’ house. The deck is home to several […]
Fun With Geocaching
On Memorial Day weekend, my friend Karen joined me for a yoga retreat in the Berkshires. One evening we drove downtown to get some ice cream, and on the way […]
Why Are There Snails in My Garden?
(Photo courtesy of Chris Bernstein) I’ll never forget the first time I spotted a garden snail in my yard. I was dumbfounded. Like most people who grew up on the […]
Tulip Time
(Photo courtesy of Chris Bernstein) Daffodils are among the first indicators of spring’s arrival. But when tulips begin to emerge from the ground, you know the warmer weather is here […]
Invasion of the Ladybugs
Ladybug on the windowsill. Every new year – sometimes in January, sometimes not till March, my house is invaded by ladybugs. At first they congregate on the sunny upstairs windows. […]
Tsunami Puts It All Into Perspective
(Photo: A snow-covered stone wall in the Norris Reservation) A friend of mine recently returned from a two month silent meditation retreat at a monastery in Myanmar (Burma). He was […]
The Blizzard of 2005
Where were you during the Blizzard of 2005? Were you at home, hoping that the power would not go out? Were you in your driveway, shoveling, trying to keep up […]
Visiting Oregon’s Crater Lake
Oregon’s Crater Lake. When my husband and I were planning our road trip through Washington, Oregon and Northern California, friends kept recommending that we visit Crater Lake National Park. Similar […]
The Redwood Forest
Giant redwood trees. In 1956, Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land,” a response of sorts to the more provincial “God Bless America.” In his now-classic folk song, Guthrie […]
Our Local Connection with the Columbia River
My husband Chris and I spent two weeks on the West Coast this fall, on a road trip between San Francisco and Seattle. After visiting with Chris’s brother Jeffrey in […]