The last few days have been warm enough to wear a sweatshirt without a coat. At night it rains, waking up plants, melting the hidden ice and the last of the piles of compacted, dirt encrusted snow. My yard is taking shape. We gathered all the newly downed limbs, cut up sticks and raked up the leaves. Lots to do but also plenty of new discoveries. Our first Spring in…

I’m not sure why, maybe to celebrate spring, or because I had gotten a bag of lemons on sale, but I got up one morning this week and decided to candy some lemon slices. It’s an easy process, put a little water in a nonstick pan, add sugar, enough so it cannot desolve, add the lemon slices, then turn up the heat to a slow boil, making a syrup. Cook…

Like so many people today, I spend a good amount of time trying to get a handle on what is happening in our polarized country. It seems that each party, each group, is attempting to foster hate and distrust of the others and the result… well the crazy people come out with violence to settle the score, the rest- well we have started looking at our neighbors with suspicion. I…