Welcome to My Green Vermont
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. I got bored with teaching, took up running, and went into higher ed administration. I 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.
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
Chickens On Pasture
We may have blizzards (well, almost) here in April, but that doesn\’t keep the grass from growing thick and lush and green. Today, barely into May, my husband did the
Death Of A Gym
The closest village to us (other than West Pawlet, which is in fact a micro village) is Granville, NY. That is where we do our grocery and hardware and chicken
Slate Hunting In The Snow
My husband and I left the house in a kind of blizzard this morning to go to a nearby slate quarry. I say \”a kind of blizzard\” because although the
The Infanta and I
This is a detail of Velazquez\’s \”The Maids Of Honor,\” a portrait of the family of Philip IV of Spain–you can see him and the Queen reflected in the mirror
The Patio
I am proud that, over the years, I have, by means of newspaper, black plastic, and several tons of mulch, minimized or even eliminated the lawns in the houses we
How I Avoid Going To The Supermarket
I often manage to put off my trips to the grocery store for three or four weeks at a time. My husband goes to a gym near the supermarket, so
The Pond
It all started when Our Forester (you can read about him here) mentioned that he had found a number of alders in the woods at the back of the house,
My First Vocation
When I was very young–long before the German nuns had yelled \”schnell!\” at me; long before I learned to fear other little girls my age; long before the violin, or
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
Chickens On Pasture
We may have blizzards (well, almost) here in April, but that doesn\’t keep the grass from growing thick and lush and green. Today, barely into May, my husband did the
Death Of A Gym
The closest village to us (other than West Pawlet, which is in fact a micro village) is Granville, NY. That is where we do our grocery and hardware and chicken
Slate Hunting In The Snow
My husband and I left the house in a kind of blizzard this morning to go to a nearby slate quarry. I say \”a kind of blizzard\” because although the
The Infanta and I
This is a detail of Velazquez\’s \”The Maids Of Honor,\” a portrait of the family of Philip IV of Spain–you can see him and the Queen reflected in the mirror
The Patio
I am proud that, over the years, I have, by means of newspaper, black plastic, and several tons of mulch, minimized or even eliminated the lawns in the houses we
How I Avoid Going To The Supermarket
I often manage to put off my trips to the grocery store for three or four weeks at a time. My husband goes to a gym near the supermarket, so
The Pond
It all started when Our Forester (you can read about him here) mentioned that he had found a number of alders in the woods at the back of the house,
My First Vocation
When I was very young–long before the German nuns had yelled \”schnell!\” at me; long before I learned to fear other little girls my age; long before the violin, or