I recently attended the funeral of the mother of a good friend of mine. It was joyous for a good and long life lived and sad for the loss of her spirit. Today is also D-Day (which many Americans probably don’t even realize), with the tremendous loss of life on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. …
It’s Memorial Day, the beginning of summer, time for barbecues, picnics, swimming and boating. Or at least that’s how most of America celebrates. And how we used to. We didn’t give much thought to our military; they were just there to protect us, but we weren’t involved. Then we became military parents. Our son Patrick …
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is a Mom or who has one (pass it on)! I had a special Mother’s Day moment today and thought I might share it. I’ve had a brown paper-wrapped package for many years; it traveled with us all over the country as we moved, passing from closet to closet …
Happy Mother’s Day! Read More »
My daughter recently called for advice. I’ve noticed that as she’s matured, she does this more often. This time it was a sensitive situation with a co-worker who was struggling to deal with cancer in the family while working to support everyone. Clearly what she needed to do was take on the role of mentor; …
Musings on Mentors Read More »
I don’t know about anyone else who did the A-Z blog challenge, but it felt rather strange this week not to be writing something for my blog. Which is probably why here I am, writing something for my blog. Actually, I’ve found myself back writing my second book more or less full time, rather than …
What to do now that A-Z is over? Read More »
Zinnias were a part of my mother’s rock garden, one she carefully designed on the side of a slope that ended at our driveway. Their color is riotous – yellow, red, white, chartreuse, purple, lilac – although I only seem to remember orange. On a warm day, they had a very characteristic fragrance. Zinnias are …
The North American Yew is, to my sense of smell, like many other evergreen shrubs or trees – it has a wonderful odor when the sun warms its needles. There is nothing better than taking a walk through groups or a forest of evergreens on a hot day and inhaling the crisp smell of the …
Thanks to everyone who has stopped by my blog! I hope you enjoyed my A-Z choices so far, although some did have a yuck factor. I’m glad there are not more letters in our alphabet since the end of the alphabet has been a bit of a headache. The only choices for a U with …
Almost to the Finish Line Read More »
It’s hard to find an odor beginning with X, but this particular substance figured large in my graduate career. Xylene, from the Greek word xylos, meaning wood, is an aromatic hydrocarbon. I won’t bore you with the chemical formula, and just because xylene is an aromatic hydrocarbon doesn’t mean it smells good. It just means …
I was going to do wine, but the subject is vast and I suspect many other bloggers will choose this topic. So I am going with this flowering vine which some regard as a weed, because it grows rapidly and can choke out native plants, particularly in the southeastern US. In China and Japan, it’s …