What with 4 1/2 inches of rain one afternoon and a severe colic or twisted gut three days earlier, I’ve come to the conclusion that Mother Nature has decided I need to be taken down a peg or two. Or three. One thing about the rain, though, I can once again see the pond. The [...]
In just a minute or two, the longest day of the year will dawn and summer will officially arrive. Someone had better tell Mother Nature, though. If her rendition of summer is as cockeyed as that of spring was, don’t expect the rhapsodic example of which Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gushed: “…then followed that beautiful season…summer…filled [...]
A dear young friend — she is 45 and to me that is young! — and I were discussing the upcoming holiday weekend and I asked if she had any plans for Decoration Day. “For what?” she asked. “What’s that?” and I corrected my question to Memorial Day. Which got me thinking about the last [...]
Yes! Yes! Yes, I did go horseback riding — not on my exact 87th birthday but 10 days into my 88th year! I know this is not the most important happening I should write about — like the fragrant blizzard of pink and white blossoms now blowing across the driveway, like the two darling goslings [...]
No, I didn’t go horseback riding on my 87th birthday, the first time in many, many years I haven’t observed that tradition — but only because no “suitable” horse was available. Last year, there was a darling mare, Angel, visiting at Judy’s during one of her dressage clinics, and I was privileged to ride her. [...]
If you’re not from the tri-county — Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana — area, you might not find this column of interest. On the other hand, if you have a hankering to know what it was like to live in the early 1900s in a small community along the Sandy and Beaver Canal and the middle fork [...]
It’s about time, Mother Nature! You must have finally been paying attention to all the hoopla about “Going Green” and decided to give it a try because everywhere there is, indeed, green! Not all at once This hasn’t happened all at once. I watched the barberry hedges begin to sport a filmy veil that gradually [...]
Never having lived with a cow, I know almost nothing about cows — and I truly believe that unless you actually live with an animal, even another person, you know next to nothing about them. It’s that day-to-day contact, not necessarily under the same roof, but better if that’s possible, which lets you “see” into [...]
Full-figured Bingo is not quite sure where she is just yet. But, with typical feline curiosity, she is exploring every corner of every room, every cupboard, every closed door, every possible hidey-hole. In fact, this morning — her first here, having arrived only yesterday — I almost panicked because I couldn’t find her anywhere. We [...]
I do not want to write this column. But I must. February has once again taken a beloved member of this family. Beginning in 1965, February took my mother. Through the years it took a dear Dalmatian, Maggie; my father; my sister; my Arabian, Pinkie. And now, my Lisa. She spoke to me Lisa came [...]
If there is anything more rib-sticking, more delicious, more comforting, more warming to the cockles of your heart in these continuing assaults by King Winter, it has to be honest-to-God, old-fashioned buckwheat cakes served with honest-to-God maple syrup and either bacon or sweet sausage. (According to my Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, cockles are puckers and [...]
Where is global warming when we need it? And what happened to a January thaw? I think bears have the right idea. In fact, for one solid week, I copied them. I hibernated. Literally. The Friday that the Abominable Snowman was huffing and puffing to get a good start, I went to the store and [...]
Take heart, friends, take heart — Groundhog Day approaches! And whether or not the furry rodent sees his shadow, spring is just six weeks away and while King Winter hasn’t reigned very long by the calendar, it only seems as though the season has been here forever. Those folks who decorate extensively for Christmas had [...]
Let’s just come right out and say it: 2008 was a bummer. Actually, that is one of the kindest things one might say about the not-so-dear departed year. The welcome to 2009 is bound to be more subdued than usual. The state of the world, the state of the economy, the state of just about [...]
There is a sweet 1834 painting by Edward Hicks titled The Peaceable Kingdom showing animals of every description relaxing together, and I have a book by the same title, which is about the various animals at the Philadelphia Zoo. In the preface to that book, a noted author wrote, “In a world older and more [...]
Now the endless lists begin. What did we ever do BP — Before Post-its — because the list never happens to be where we are. Or is it beneath the living-breathing (I’ll swear) pile of papers, envelopes, CDs, notes that remind us of something we were supposed to do yesterday that accumulates and grows at [...]
October’s fabled bluebird weather has long since flown, but while blending into grey November left memories that will help us survive the looming winter. One of my sweetest memories will be the morning of Nov. 8 when, to my absolute jaw-dropping disbelief, I saw, perched on the rim of my bird bath, a real, honest [...]
Reading the daily horoscope is always good for a laugh, especially when it predicts wonderful romantic encounters plus great wealth and adventurous travel. Mine for Oct. 15 expounds on stress, noting, “You’ve probably heard that there is good stress and bad stress. However, just now, you’d be wise to avoid both kinds. Take the measures [...]
To paraphrase the famous lines from Robert Burns’ To a Mouse poem: The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. (If you want the Scottish brogue version: The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang a’ft agley.) Today’s plans were to play outside after first writing the column, maybe getting some [...]
In the column for the Sept. 11 edition, I wrote about all the scary storms everywhere else and hoped the other shoe would not drop. Well, didn’t it drop! When our area received microbursts and wind gusts upward of 60 miles per hour (or more some say), it is really frightening. And the odd part [...]
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