No matter your opinion of the late but unmourned winter — since this is a family publication we’ll not offer our thoughts — it would seem that every flowering shrub, tree, bush and even traditional spring flowers believed it was the best ever. Maybe we’re mistaken, since the winter seemed so endless, but didn’t everything [...]
Every spring, this column is committed to bring you in poetry the scent of hyacinths as you read once again the advice of an old saying: If thou of fortune be bereft And in thy store there be but left Two loaves: sell one, And with the dole, Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul … [...]
Whatever happened to the March lamb? Did the ferocious March lion have lamb for lunch before slinking back to his lair, growling and lashing his tail as he went? Do you remember my warning after January’s benign presence that somewhere down the road Mother Nature’s payback would take place, and I was right on the [...]
Before launching a paean to spring — surely it is here by now — I must express fervent thanks to readers and friends who took the time and trouble to send me condolences about the Feb. 26 death of my sister, Barbara.
If ice storms weren’t so frightening and dangerous (please, God, don’t let the electricity go off, don’t let the trees and wires fall down, etc.!) they’d be beautiful. I’m sure the folks in northern Trumbull County saw nothing beautiful in their damaging storm this week, but our area was spared the problems and had no [...]
It usually began this time of year. On my every-Saturday-night telephone calls to my sister in New England, I would ask, “When are you coming?” and she’d laugh and we knew her annual summer visit was still a long way away, but we’d still look forward to it. But as Barbara and I both aged, [...]
Just think: Spring, by the calendar, is only three months hence. And isn’t it sweet to have those few extra minutes of daylight each day, even though the vernal equinox still slumbers? Meanwhile, we must all endure Old Man Winter’s wrath along with trying to keep warm, keep the pipes from freezing and despite having had the fireplace chimney relined several years ago, I still can’t summon the courage to light a fire.
Make no mistake: down the road, we will pay for the prolonged January thaw which blessed us for so many days.
Time has a way of running out this time of year, and with horror I realized this morning – the day after Christmas – that a column had to be in by 10 a.
Twice, in early December, when glowering clouds veiled the skies so thickly that nothing was visible, I heard their song.
