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I was born in Barcelona, where I went to a school run by German nuns, studied solfeggio, and played the violin. When I was ten, my parents and I moved to Ecuador, where I had a number of exotic pets and strange adventures. Four years later, we landed in Birmingham, Alabama. None of us spoke English, and the strange adventures continued. (Many of these appear in My Green Vermont.)
Survived high school. Got B.A. in French and Biology, Ph.D. in Romance Languages (French and Spanish). Gave up the Church and the violin, got married, had two daughters, taught at a liberal arts college in Maryland. Also grew veggies, made bread, kept chickens, milked goats, and wrote for newspapers and magazines. Got bored with teaching, took up running, and went into higher ed administration. Was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and learned to live in a totally different way.
I started My Green Vermont when we moved to that state. For ten years I lived with my spouse, three dogs, twelve hens, two goats, and assorted passing wildlife in a house on a hill, surrounded by fields and woods. In 2014, we moved to a cottage in a continuing care residential community near Lake Champlain. Gave up livestock and vegetable gardening in favor of wild birds, honeybees, a little red dog, and a gray cat.
My Green Vermont is a fertile compost pile made up of stories about the weirdness of growing up in three countries and three languages; portraits of beloved animals, both wild and domestic; and reflections on aging, being kind to the earth, and staying as calm as possible. I hope you will visit often, and add your own stories and reactions.
We saw them right away, walking by the side of the highway between the airport and Quito. He was trotting along on a donkey, wearing calf-length pants, a poncho, a
It was 1954, and we were leaving. We were taking off. We were going to America.* The America we were going to was in the South–Ecuador. I was only ten
It was a long job and hard on the fingernails, but it\’s done. The wattle fence looks like it was made by a drunken, learning-disabled Saxon peasant, but it fulfills
…or my e-mail address, or my username, I\’m going to give up all electronic means of communication and go back to pen and paper. I have been trying to leave
We\’re having leftovers tonight–boeuf bourguignon (which improves with age) for him, salmon quiche (which doesn\’t) pour moi, with a fresh salad from the garden. This gives me leisure to revisit
At the moment, there are three and a half dozen eggs in my fridge. Tomorrow there will be almost four dozen. The girls are out on pasture and enjoying the
Today will probably turn out to be the most beautiful day of 2010, the kind of day that makes all the mud, rain, sleet, snow, and ice worthwhile, because you
…is the hobgoblin of little minds, said Emerson. On the other hand, \”When a job you\’ve once begun, never cease until it\’s done,\” said my father-in-law. Yesterday, in the midst
We saw them right away, walking by the side of the highway between the airport and Quito. He was trotting along on a donkey, wearing calf-length pants, a poncho, a
It was 1954, and we were leaving. We were taking off. We were going to America.* The America we were going to was in the South–Ecuador. I was only ten
It was a long job and hard on the fingernails, but it\’s done. The wattle fence looks like it was made by a drunken, learning-disabled Saxon peasant, but it fulfills
…or my e-mail address, or my username, I\’m going to give up all electronic means of communication and go back to pen and paper. I have been trying to leave
We\’re having leftovers tonight–boeuf bourguignon (which improves with age) for him, salmon quiche (which doesn\’t) pour moi, with a fresh salad from the garden. This gives me leisure to revisit
At the moment, there are three and a half dozen eggs in my fridge. Tomorrow there will be almost four dozen. The girls are out on pasture and enjoying the
Today will probably turn out to be the most beautiful day of 2010, the kind of day that makes all the mud, rain, sleet, snow, and ice worthwhile, because you
…is the hobgoblin of little minds, said Emerson. On the other hand, \”When a job you\’ve once begun, never cease until it\’s done,\” said my father-in-law. Yesterday, in the midst