Hi! Gracie here. Can we talk? Yeah? Great! My sister, Joy, and I are taking over this blog. At least for today. Mom hasn’t written for a loooong time. She says she can’t figure out what to say. But we have a lot to say, so she told us to go for it. Okay, we will. Oh, here’s Joy. Hi, I’m Joy. I’m up here supervising the kitchen. Mainly, I’m on the lookout for MICE. […]
To the reader: This is the last entry in a series in which I revisit earlier posts. Once again, I have chosen one that I think has something new to say in our current pandemic times. The month of November 2015 was brutal. Do you remember why? I didn’t. So let me remind you what was going on in the world at that time. In November 2015 — • In Paris, a series of suicide […]
Today I begin my second week at home, doing my own small part to combat the pandemic. I still haven’t tackled even one item on the list of household projects that I jotted down eight days ago. I always seem to find something more important to do. You see, I have a lot of things to figure out, and that takes up most of my mental energy. I keep asking myself questions—most of them unanswerable […]
It began as a 3-way chat on Messenger. It was a couple of weeks before my trip to visit Joe and Sylvia in Asheville, NC, and we were discussing plans for my stay. Sylvia and I were making decisions about places to visit and things to do. Then Joe jumped in. Wait. A set of questions about the novel I wrote?? I took a deep breath and typed: Yes, it turned out, that was exactly what he […]
Hi, readers… Long time, no see. Long time, no write. The ugly truth is that I haven’t blogged since July. Honestly, I don’t have a good reason for my absence. I’m not sure why I couldn’t get motivated to write. What I do know is that I’m back now. And it feels good. A few days ago, I returned from a delightful week visiting friends in Asheville, NC. Joe, Sylvia, and Bandit were my neighbors in […]
Thank you to the readers who have asked to see more photos from my recent cruise. In my previous post (immediately below this one), I shared my pictures from our day in Old Quebec City. Now we sail on to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. And while we do, this is a typical view from our ship, Holland America’s Veendam. Our first stop is Prince Edward Island, which is the smallest of the provinces […]
As I took my first few steps on the narrow cobblestone streets of Old Quebec City, fragments of a quote popped into my head. I wanted to share it with my traveling companions, but I couldn’t retrieve the exact sentence of dialogue from Our Town. It had been too long since I had taught or seen the play. As soon as I reboarded our cruise ship, I looked up Thornton Wilder’s words: Only it seems to […]
You are invited to a Book Signing for my new novel, TEACHING MYSTERIES 201: THE STRIKE. This coming Sunday, Dec. 10, from 1 to 3 pm, I will be talking about the book and signing copies at Read Between the Lynes on the Woodstock Square. This is a busy time of year, but if you have a few minutes and care to stop by, I’d love to see you. If you can’t make it Sunday but […]
This time the weather forecast was right on. A winter weather advisory posted yesterday was amazingly accurate. Unfortunately. The sleet hitting my bedroom windows was loud enough to wake me just after 6. I peeked through the blinds to see that 3″ of snow had fallen during the night. The sleet continued off and on — mostly on — for an hour. No yoga class for me this morning, I said to my cats. ••• […]
Anyone want some free snow? We have more than enough, thank you! After getting over 60 inches this winter, we have run out of room to stack it. So our snow removal company, Langton, is “relocating” it today. It’s time to call in the heavy equipment, much to the delight of Shirley’s little granddaughters who have a closeup view of the operation.
Ten days ago, I brought a new member into the family living in my Abbey. Her name is Shadow, and she is Mom’s cat. For three weeks after Mom had a stroke, Shadow continued living in the assisted living apartment they shared. I stopped by twice a day to take care of her and spend some time. A friend of ours also visited daily. But when I learned that Mom would not be able to […]
Home Sweet Abbey 