My daughter has been tweaking me lately that this blog is…wholesome. That gives me pause. In uncool-mom parlance, “Dude, wholesomeness isn’t cool!” The idea of being wholesome appalls the rebellious teenager inside me. Wholesome is like…parents (mine, anyway). Wholesome is Mary Ingalls, not Laura. Wholesome is Melanie Hamilton, not Scarlett O’Hara. I would never want to be …Read More

  “Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life.” –Maya Angelou   Food feels like love to me. Providing it, cooking it, serving it–even eating it. For health’s sake, we’re often told not …Read More

This and That Living on a cruise ship full time is often cheaper than living in NYC. Would you do it? Talk about living minimalist. Next Thursday would have been Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday. His buildings are getting lots of well-deserved recognition. Here is a Chicago-area tour. And MoMA in NYC is having a …Read More

  (This is a re-post from a while back. It’s almost blackberry time, and we’re still fighting the annual blackberry battle, though there are fewer cane than in other years.)   I’m not terribly fond of blackberries. Their texture is too complex, their flavor unpredictable. When I was very young, I often confused them with raspberries …Read More

        Rabbit! Rabbit! Happy 1st of June. The other evening Husband and I were walking down to close the gate. It was dark and humid, and the sky was clear and full of stars. I used to be afraid of being out in the dark in the country because I grew up …Read More

  The Wednesday post is late today because I finally had to give up working at 2:45 this morning. I fear Husband and I are going to become like Isabel and Navarre, in the fantasy film Ladyhawke, only able to glimpse each other at dawn. (If you haven’t seen it, it’s a fun film that …Read More

Maybe it’s because yesterday was Memorial Day, a rather patriotic holiday, or that I’m doing our (extended) taxes, or perhaps that I’m thinking of vacations–but I felt a need to go back and look at the pics from our last trip to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. It’s definitely my favorite theme park, and very much appeals …Read More

    War isn’t just about bravery and courage and jingoism and patriotism. It’s also fundamentally about grief. And the people that go and do the fighting and the dying are never the people who actually benefit from the fighting and the dying. –Russell Crowe   When I was looking for quotes for Memorial Day, …Read More

            Random Bits Of course I have to start with this week’s big news about my next book coming out with Mulholland Books. I’m so excited…Here are the all the details. Chocolate is good for your heartbeat. Duh. Italy is giving away castles and other historic buildings for free. There’s a …Read More

  These past few days have been lovely in our little corner of Southern Illinois. The temperature hovered between 65 and 70 degrees today, and last week’s rain made everything explode with life. (I’m sure that includes snakes and spiders, too, but we won’t talk about that.) I feel like I’ve spent months and months …Read More