Four years until I’m at the age Daddy was when he died, he was 52 and, in another month, I’ll be 48. This weighs heavily on me, more than it should. My inner self-loathing gets the better of me and I think of all the success he had, all the success… Read full post »

Pie Week!

Just like Shark Week but sweeter!

Eons and eons ago, when I was but a mere teenager, I spent a summer working at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. I was there to play nanny to a young baby, the son of the hotel manager,/… Read full post »

I have begun a new blog via Blogger, ChannelingHelen.com, dealing with all things epicurean and intoxicating. I will import here and continue to enjoy and reply to comments received. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading! 

The year was 1985 and my then boyfriend/now husband and I travel… Read full post »

Don’t tell my children this. But. There are times. When I wish (shhhh). That I hadn’t had any kids (quiet, I tell you).

Let me clarify.

Just now, case in point, I just sat down to write and the Child of Five asked me… Read full post »

He liked to make her laugh by mimicking the wind on his dashboard as he drove her home. Laugh,… Read full post »

I dream of driving with no clear destination in mind. East, I’ve decided, toward my tenuous meandering roots; I shall head east. Wrong age and wrong sex to go the other way, after all. I’ve been sick again, sick enough for the walls to close in on me, sick enough for… Read full post »

I didn’t say what I now regret omitting.

I didn’t speak of how much I’d miss you,

How much you meant to me,

How my life has been enriched by your presence.

I never thanked you

For working long… Read full post »

I know it sounds trite; but my father was my hero.  Unlike anyone else in this world, he had the innate ability to make me feel better when I was lower than down, and the gift of inspiring hope and ambition in just about anyone who knew him. 

 … Read full post »

That is the question
Whether 'tis simpler for the gut to suffer
The preservatives of microwaved Stouffers,
Or to take whisks against a saucepan of butter and flour
 And, by gyrating, mix them. To warm, to heat… Read full post »

Please bear with me while I take a short pause before returning to lessons in backyard chicken husbandry. I had a strange weekend and don’t feel like being all farmingly educational at the moment. I promise I’ll return for your last lesson shortly.

 … Read full post »

Preparing for Those Fuzzy Bundles of Peepitude

When last we kibbutzed, we had set up the accommodations for mature hens to live and love in your backyard and, in return, provide you with fresh eggs, velvety, tasty, colorful, pert-like-teenage-breasts fresh egg… Read full post »

In my addled mind, chickens occupy two distinct roles, the ones I buy pre-packaged at the grocer for eating and the ones I feed every morning for loving and eggs. And never the twain shall meet although I do get the question all the time: 

“Do you eat your… Read full post »

One thing we learn on a farm, even a small pretend one like ours, is that life can be cruel; and, in the last 17 months, we have definitely had our share of cruelty. Loss occurs without narrative or explanation; it occurs via storms, tumors, and predators; it occurs… Read full post »

Bless me Readers for I have been absent. It's been 17 long months since my last post. 

Where have I been? Location-wise, still here at Rancho Laurena doing many of the same things I had before, housekeeping, knitting, farming, being driven slowly out of… Read full post »

Typically, our esteemed Liz Emrich guides the OS foodies through the first season of Top Chef Masters, a spin-off featuring celebrity chefs competing for charity and ego.  Yet, this week Ms Liz is off playing with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) at Pennsic and I graciously offe… Read full post »