October 7th, 2011 | General, the world and Mother Nature
Pay attention, folks. We are trashing the world and hurricanes and the ensuing floods are throwing it back at us. Making a wreck of our world is not like making a wreck of our childhood bedrooms—Mother Nature, unlike our own mothers, cannot pick up the garbage we...
September 11th, 2011 | General, the world and Mother Nature
I had not thought I would watch the remembrances. I remember the horror too well to think that reliving it over and over again will do anything to blur the vision, to dull the ache. Yet I did. I sat on the couch with newspapers and coffee, watching as the clock ticked...
August 29th, 2011 | General, the world and Mother Nature
She came and she went. We spent several days with ear cocked to the weather reports, doing this and that to prepare for assault on our sovereign territory. I excavated white river stones where they had become embedded in dirt washed down from above, added a wide and...
August 25th, 2011 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General
This year we again bought a lamb at the Harford County Fair 4-H auction. Our freezer has been lambless for some months but the decision to bid was very last-minute. A call about a week after the event let us know the amount owed, that our lamb had been delivered to...
August 23rd, 2011 | General, Time Passes
As we stepped off the Lantern Queen the air was muggy and dark clouds of an impending storm lined up southwest of Havre de Grace. It had been part two of a double-barrel event: dinner at Bruce Bitner’s Cafe & Grill on Saturday night, brunch and a cruise up...
August 6th, 2011 | General, Travel, United States
Lynn is a natural caregiver and that means she nourishes, certainly the spirit and absolutely the body. She comes by it naturally. Her late father, Joe the Plumber, was a marvelous cook; Hungarian-kitchen lore plus the resources of Cleveland’s West Side Market meant...
August 3rd, 2011 | General, Travel, United States
So many bad things are said about Detroit. Television programs show a city that appears to be abandoned and newspaper headlines focus on criminal proceedings against elected officials and a devastated economy. What I found was a place of broad straight avenues...
July 26th, 2011 | General, Time Passes, Travel
Monday was my third guitar lesson and the JazzMan, my teacher, introduced me to the third string and the notes G and A. The first week I had three notes: E, F and G. My assignment was an exercise that familiarized me with those notes, up and down and changing back and...
July 14th, 2011 | General
I remember playing the guitar as a teenager. I don’t know where it came from. Had my mother bought it? During her lengthy residence at McLean Hospital, several members of the Taylor family, most notably James, and Ray Charles all sought refuge there. She became quite...
June 17th, 2011 | Gardens and Gardening, General
This morning was no different from most. I woke at 6:30, rose and dressed; sleeping was over and there was much to do to prepare for Father’s Day forty-eight hours away. Morning tasks are always the same. I started the coffee, mixed my morning yogurt with something...
