Category: NaBloPoMo

Happy Birthday, Mom

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My mom has a fantastic collection of her paper dolls from when she was a girl.  Movie stars with plenty of glamorous outfits to try on and change into.  When I was a child, she would sit with me for hours telling me who the stars were and helping me find the right dresses for the dolls.  

As I celebrate her birthday today, that is just one of a million memories on my mind.  I feel fortunate to have this steel-spined, funny, kind, determined woman in my life. 

(Photo from my wedding day.  Think we like each other?!}

It IS Easy Being Green

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 Easy to make small changes.  

My syllabi include instructions for proper formatting of papers.  After reading about Change the Margins, I added a note to tell students that if they want to use .75" margins instead of 1" margins in the interest of saving paper, they are welcome to do so.

When a student does change the margins, I feel pretty darn proud to have an environmentally-aware citizen in my class.

What small change toward being green have you made recently?

Back Wall

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 This is one of my favorite spots in the yard.  Neal built the wall himself with pavers and stones that have some serious history.  Founding fathers of the U.S. may well have walked on them.  When we talk about the aesthetic of the yard, I usually say that I want it to look like I moved into the house in which my great aunt (or someone's great aunt) lived since her childhood.  Now that ferns and moss have settled in on the wall, it is starting to feel that way!  

Will you show me a picture of your favorite outdoor space?  Leave a link in the comments.  

Soulard

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 Another Soulard shot.  My garden is going gangbusters with tomatoes, and I'm keeping a careful watch on the eggplant.  I'm hoping the summer squash flowers will lead to some bounty on the giant plants that have taken over most of the front yard.

We planted late this year, which means we're a bit behind on gathering produce.  I'm gearing up to plant my fall crops, though, and next year, the garden is going in much earlier!

How does your garden grow?

Nibble

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Here's another picture from the Farmers Market in St. Louis. 

I had braces for five years. Five long years.  During that time I did not eat corn off the cob, but you better believe that I do now!  I like it best on the grill, no butter, a dash of salt and pepper.   

Guess I know what I'll be making over the weekend!  How about you?  What's on your summer menu? 

Not Green


There's nothing green about this picture. Now that's out of the way, I'll tell you about it. Yesterday I picked up my Keep Calm and Carry On poster from the framer (it had been hanging in my work office, but I decided it would be adorable in the new kitchen), and I wheedled Neal into hanging up pictures for me. This is a kitchen wall as well as the entry way wall when you come in our "revised" front door. Next year we plan to add a mudroom addition on, so it will be strictly kitchen wall.

The piece to the right is by Linda Jean Fisher, my dear friend and amazing artist. She selected the frame for the piece, and I love how it works together.

On the left is a poster from the 1999 Globe Theater season (I saw The Comedy of Errors and Antony and Cleopatra there, and the Globe's Cymbeline performed at BAM). I can't believe it has been eleven years since I spent my summer in Oxford, but that's what the date on the poster tells me!

It's so nice to have artwork on the wall again. I only have a few more crafty projects, and I'll be ready to call the kitchen done!

What makes your house feel most like home to you?

What Home Looks Like

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 I grew up in the Tobacco Valley of Connecticut.  Even though I left at 21 and only returned to live here lo those many years later, the sight that made me feel like I was back home was and remains that of the shade tobacco fields.

It was only when I took a creative writing class in 2002 (it was a testing-the-waters class for me) and had to set a story in a place from childhood that I realized what the plants pushing against the nets meant to me.   Anyway, I wrote a micro-fiction piece set in the tobacco fields.  That short short story was the seed of the novel I am revising (for the fifth time…I have high hopes for this draft!).  

Today, when thinking about the theme of green, it only seemed appropriate to me to snap a drive-by shot with my phone of the plant that looks like home.

Let's Get Started

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