Mother Nature has already dismantled her art gallery and set the stage for her annual striptease. The performance is usually accompanied by wind music, sometimes as in the rattle of dry leaves — veils? — flung wantonly into the sky, sometimes without fanfare when raindrops keep the dancers grounded. Some veils lie in mosaic skirts [...]

This is anniversary month. It will not be celebrated or even observed. Don’t anyone dare to wish me happy anniversary! It was one year ago on Oct. 3 that a tumble — more like falling off a cliff — from my high bed in the middle of the night, changed the course of what is [...]

How many times have you — the homemaker, not the housewife as today the homemaker can be any gender, married, single, with or without children — sat down to look for a special recipe you know is in this cookbook, or is it this one, maybe in this envelope … The first thing you know [...]

In Farm and Dairy’s Classified Advertising section — we used to call them Want Ads — there are always many intriguing headings. I enjoy reading the Dogs and Dog Supplies, Horses and Ponies, Hay and Grain, Miscellaneous and Wanted To Buy.

At last! All the suspense, all the practice, all the preparation and hard work are gone — well, not really — and the big day has finally arrived: the Mahoning County Fair, proudly known as Canfield Fair, is underway and as of this moment the fairgrounds are ready to be wall to-wall with people through [...]

Twenty-four years ago, when On My Mind was “born,” I promised myself I would try very hard to not dwell on the past in what I wrote because the present and the future are usually much more interesting. But in these troubled times, both the present and the future are almost too scary to be [...]

Could be you’re tired of reading about the mundane happenings on this quiet island, and so I’m calling on my mother to rescue you.

Now that summer has decided to stay for a while, we can quit worrying about whether it is too wet or too dry or too cold or too warm. Sit back, sip a cold drink, make potato salad and meatloaf or fire up the grill, whatever you prefer. Enjoy the fruits of your labors, literally and figuratively.

Already morning sunlight is diffused and late afternoon shadows are longer sooner. At dusk, there is a spectacular show as the trees become the stage for fireflies that gather to perform their love dance, and the darker the night the brighter they shine. Just think: fireflies have been texting and sexting and have had GPS [...]

It must be because of the “aging process” — med-speak for growing old — but little annoyances are doubly annoying.