On My Mind

Good food helps us get through winter

Thursday, February 12, 2009 by Janie Jenkins

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 wrinkles, […]

Nothing nice about snow and ice

Thursday, January 29, 2009 by Janie Jenkins

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 stocked […]

Take heart: Spring is six weeks away

Thursday, January 15, 2009 by Janie Jenkins

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 to […]

The year 2008 was really a bummer

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

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 everything […]

Here is heaven on Earth for animals

Thursday, December 18, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

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 complete […]

Post-its are a big help with all the lists

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

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 […]

Bluebirds finally find my small refuge

Thursday, November 20, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

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 to […]

Good stress? Never heard of it

Thursday, October 23, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

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 necessary […]

Life doesn’t always go how we plan

Thursday, October 9, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

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 […]

Weather woes: The other shoe dropped

Thursday, September 25, 2008 by Janie Jenkins

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 was […]