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
She Finds The Fertility Of Her Garden Both Exhilarating And Alarming
Tasks Of A Summer Day
My gardens are getting that disheveled late-summer look. It\’s not weeds so much as a kind of floppy over-ripeness—stems growing so long that they keel over, flowers going to seed
Has The Well Run Dry?
At least for now, I think it has. I\’ve always believed that there\’s no such thing as writer\’s block; that the more you write, the more you CAN write, and
Dog, Woman, Sheep
Wolfie and I had our weekly herding lesson today. Or rather, he got to do what he wants and knows to do, and I tried to learn to guide him,
Snake At My Back Door
Two steps made of thick slabs of West Pawlet slate, flanked by overgrown bushes of ornamental sage, lead to our backyard. I\’d been smelling a lot of sage on Wolfie
Saturday Morning Delights
The weather changed overnight from chilly to warm and muggy. It\’s not my favorite kind of weather, but it\’s perfect for trimming goat hooves, because the humidity softens them. Goats
Pea Harvest
I picked a basketful of peas this evening, and sat outside shelling them. One and a half hours and many black fly bites later, I had one and a half
Rhubarb Reflections
Sorry about the alliteration. It\’s been a cool, rainy summer here, and as the peppers and tomatoes languish, the rhubarb is going full steam ahead,producing stems as thick as…well, really
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
She Finds The Fertility Of Her Garden Both Exhilarating And Alarming
Tasks Of A Summer Day
My gardens are getting that disheveled late-summer look. It\’s not weeds so much as a kind of floppy over-ripeness—stems growing so long that they keel over, flowers going to seed
Has The Well Run Dry?
At least for now, I think it has. I\’ve always believed that there\’s no such thing as writer\’s block; that the more you write, the more you CAN write, and
Dog, Woman, Sheep
Wolfie and I had our weekly herding lesson today. Or rather, he got to do what he wants and knows to do, and I tried to learn to guide him,
Snake At My Back Door
Two steps made of thick slabs of West Pawlet slate, flanked by overgrown bushes of ornamental sage, lead to our backyard. I\’d been smelling a lot of sage on Wolfie
Saturday Morning Delights
The weather changed overnight from chilly to warm and muggy. It\’s not my favorite kind of weather, but it\’s perfect for trimming goat hooves, because the humidity softens them. Goats
Pea Harvest
I picked a basketful of peas this evening, and sat outside shelling them. One and a half hours and many black fly bites later, I had one and a half
Rhubarb Reflections
Sorry about the alliteration. It\’s been a cool, rainy summer here, and as the peppers and tomatoes languish, the rhubarb is going full steam ahead,producing stems as thick as…well, really