Category: Outside

My god what is that burning orb!

Dear Denise Austin: Could you come over?

Or, The Booty is Asking for Help Here.. In the next few months, I am going to get RID of this seriously ridiculous JELLY ROLL on my gut and hopefully bring down my cholesterol number. This is not some rinky dink New Year’s resolution. It takes time and resolve to plan the attack on bad…

On Not Walking

Walking is joy. I love walking like I love Ira Glass and peanut butter cups. I am surprised that since I moved back to America from London, that I have given it up. Just basically decided that even though it is one of my favorite things to do in the world, I am not even…

Finding Wonder in the Small

#Reverb10, Day 4 Prompt: Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (by author Jeff Davis @JeffreyDavis108) Wonder isn’t an experience: it is a spiritual geographical location, a destination I can choose to visit, or live in. It is exactly a “sense” — just like smell or sight. I…

Laundry, and Love

I get to feel superior to socks when I am conquering a load of laundry. That is sort of cool, isn’t it? There’s a swathe of the backyard that is leaf-free. Just one corner. (Well it was yesterday). I did that. I own that. Housework is menial work. Which is to say “humble” or “lowly”…

Where the Wild Onion Grows

Wild onions grow everywhere here. I smell them through the moon roof on those particular weekend days when men are at home in their kingdom yards, busy mowing alone and in harmony. If I made this up, forgive me, but I think maybe someone told me that a long time ago this entire area was…

First Pesto Of the Season

From our organic garden… Well at least the basil is. The recipe is “Classic Basil Pesto” from a great new cookbook called “Put ‘Em Up” by Sherri Brooks Vinton. Makes me really admire the makers of all organic foods … Timing of foods, storage and transport is not easy!

Rabbit-Proof Fence

There is a lot of wasted life, and so much of our time is used beating back the natural cycles. Shouldn’t we just leave the rabbits be? Let them mate and mate in our back yard, eat all of our hardwork, hard-earned? Shouldn’t we look at them and see the best of them? The softness…

Why is “Local” so Weird?

My kids reallyreally like bananas and I am reallyreally glad about that. As some of you know, we are greeny-greensters, so we grow our own veggie garden, make compost, and buy organic and local. Well, sometimes. If we started to apply the “locally-grown” condition to our food (250-mile radius), what would be have to give…

The Recurring Potato

We accidentally have perennial potatoes in our garden. These potatoes are unstoppable. We “planted” these them two seasons ago, on a whim. “Whim” = they had actually started growing from a few rotten potatoes we’d thrown out into the compost pile. Colin said “Hey, look. Potatoes are growing!” and dug ’em out and put them…

I’m Not Mowing The Lawn…

… and the reason I’m not is not at all simple. Despite the fact that I drive the heck out of our zippy five-speed manual transmission Mazda, and the fact that I drive our minivan like I need to get the kids to the raceway poddy–NOW! — despite both of THOSE facts, I feel complete…

Earth Day, Imagined

I found that my iPhone’s App Store “What’s Hot” as Green Apps featured today, as part of Earth Day celebration and I am thrilled. Earth Day is 40 years old today, and now it is almost ubiquitous. Everywhere there are thousands of events, so many that it is impossible to even get to all of…

My American Dream…

… has nothing to do with $$$, and never has, although travel always requires work, which requires money in exchange for goods and services. … spent 3 years in London, and very much likes the Idea of British. … is sometimes melancholy, and loves thick lyrics that make me want to sing along. … eats…

Taking Care of Scraped Knees

Or, The Case of My Dad and Neosporin I’d like to say, for the record, that I always thought it was weird that Neosporin had the word “spore” in the middle of it. That might have been, partly, why I always liked it. I also know that I liked it because my Dad was totally…

Spring, in Wings

By this time of year in London, I’d be stir crazy and ready for the end of winter’s short grey days. One big difference between Connecticut and London, in winter most especially, is LATITUDE. Stratford is on the 41 degree parallel and London is at 51 degrees. In terms of quantity of sunlight, that makes…