On kindness, teachers, fur moms and all the women who mother without a title I had a wonderful Mother’s Day with Bill and the dogs saw. The morning was slow and quiet, a cup of chocolate, a few chapters of my latest read. Patches curled against my leg on the chair. Followed by mass, lunch…
A tribute to mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, aunts, and every woman who ever showed up There is a woman in your life who showed you something without meaning to. Maybe she taught you how to fold a fitted sheet, or how to make gravy, or how to forgive someone who does not deserve it. Maybe she…
I was tired until the first note, the Met Gala gave me thoughts, and Cornwall’s most southerly point is going on the list immediately I told you yesterday I was tired. I was lethargic all day, moving through Friday at about half speed. And then we walked into the chapel and the first notes of…
A Vivaldi concert I almost talked myself out of, recipes for the long weekend, two novels I cannot wait to start and a Peloton instructor who wrote a book I am tired. It has been a long, busy week and I started it with two things on the calendar and somehow ended it with a…
From Richard Scarry to Viktor Frankl to a bookshop in Scotland — a lifetime of reading, what it has given me, and the books I would press into your hands right now. Books are my windows to the world. They have been since I was small enough to sit pressed against my brother and my…
Fresh strawberry compote swirled into creamy no-churn ice cream. No machine, no churning, pure summer. My first job was in a strawberry field. My sister and I worked alongside our cousins at a local farmstead, early mornings, dew still on the leaves, before the heat of the day set in. I wrote about it recently…
A cold, gray, perfect weekend, the Kentucky Derby, dachshunds who will not go out in the rain, and a story about the great green room Saturday morning the weather app said 47 degrees. It was gray and drizzling. By some miracle it stayed that way all day, and I loved every minute. I am not…
Nobody taught me how to take care of myself. Not in any meaningful way. I was taught to take care of other people — to show up, to contribute, to keep going. And I did all of those things willingly and for a long time without stopping to ask whether I was taking care…
A chilly rainy weekend, a driveway circle in transition, and some wonderful things to watch and follow It is 48 degrees this morning and it is going to rain. Again. Yippee — we need it, so I will not complain. I am sitting with my drinking chocolate, listening to it drizzle, and thinking this is…
Good recipes, good reads, and the floral dresses I cannot stop thinking about This spring I seem to have had two things on my mind: the weather and the peonies. If you are tired of hearing me fawn over these flowers, skip ahead to the recipes, I will not take it personally. Between the gray…
I have been a wallflower my whole life. So when women tell me they feel invisible after fifty, I have a question for them. It is late April and the peonies are blooming. Two of the four roots I planted actually took. I held my breath for three full seasons waiting to find out which…
May arrives like a promise kept. The peonies are open, the garden is full, and for one glorious month the year feels entirely within reach. “Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire.” Virgil wrote that two…
