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When I was a little girl, the Fair was an event to be savored.  It seemed as if there were a hundred buildings to traverse, a million exhibits to peruse and a thousand rides to enjoy – and hardly enough time to do any of it and still wangle a stick of cotton candy [...]

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The fall garden. Ahhhhhh.

No matter how cruel the summer, how dry and hot and humid, nature invites us back outside again now to remember why we garden; why we go crazy over catalogs in January and nurseries in April – for the chance to reconnect to the sights and smells and pleasures of this [...]

Clean up your room!” Four of the most overworked words in my home. No excuses are accepted, no bribes received. Yet of course, if positions were reversed, and my children happened to glance out of the window at the flower border and the vegetable garden and the back lawn, they might be tempted to utter [...]

When the mercury starts to drop and the nights no longer encourage long lingering coffees on the deck after dinner, the thought slowly begins to dawn on me that we are about to go through yet another winter.  The thought further occurs to me that, as drafty as my old house can be on long [...]

Those that know me well, and are forced on a regular basis to listen to my ramblings face to face, could tell you that I am not a devotee of the words “pre-made”. Whether it’s a sectional vinyl fence in the garden, or pre-formed biscuits crammed in a cardboard tube, I live by the adage, [...]

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix

My name is Marianne.  Not Mary Ann, Maryann, Marion, or even Mary.  I grew up constantly having to spell my name, grimacing when I was serenaded with the theme from Gilligan’s Island, and wondering why my parents couldn’t have settled for something under four syllables like Kate.  It [...]