my green vermont

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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

Dolls

My granddaughter Violette wants a doll for her seventh birthday, and I am giving her one. This is not just any doll, but an American Girl Doll, complete with 18th

Read More »

Haying Season

This endlessly rainy summer, we had started to worry that our fields were turning into woodland before our very eyes. The goldenrod was shoulder-high, the queen anne\’s lace luxuriant, the

Read More »

Time With Puppies

A friend asked me to check on her litter of six-and-a-half-week-old puppies while she went out for a few hours. These are Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, the breed I fell

Read More »

Master Class

A shepherdess from Nebraska came to teach at my herding instructor\’s place today. Not a powdered-wig-and-roses, Watteau-style shepherdess, but a white-haired, weathered-faced lady with a gravelly voice and a herding

Read More »

A Dog\’s Breakfast

I made cheese a couple of days ago, and saved the garlic- and rosemary-flavored whey. Then I froze a few quarts of broccoli, and saved the greenish blanching water. I

Read More »

Lending Books

Some people love to cook for their friends. I like to cook for my friends too, and did so just this morning, in fact. But what I really like to

Read More »

Vermont Scorcher

No, that\’s not an oxymoron. We\’re dying here. It\’s 89 F. Remember, all things are relative. We\’ve had an amazingly cool summer so far, with temperatures barely reaching the 80s,

Read More »

Prayer To The Dog Star

Lord Sirius, who shine at night above the panting planet,Have mercy on the dogs, in these your days.Take pity on the ones chained up in barren yards;Let them have shade

Read More »

My Green Vermont
Latest Posts

Dolls

My granddaughter Violette wants a doll for her seventh birthday, and I am giving her one. This is not just any doll, but an American Girl Doll, complete with 18th

Read More »

Haying Season

This endlessly rainy summer, we had started to worry that our fields were turning into woodland before our very eyes. The goldenrod was shoulder-high, the queen anne\’s lace luxuriant, the

Read More »

Time With Puppies

A friend asked me to check on her litter of six-and-a-half-week-old puppies while she went out for a few hours. These are Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, the breed I fell

Read More »

Master Class

A shepherdess from Nebraska came to teach at my herding instructor\’s place today. Not a powdered-wig-and-roses, Watteau-style shepherdess, but a white-haired, weathered-faced lady with a gravelly voice and a herding

Read More »

A Dog\’s Breakfast

I made cheese a couple of days ago, and saved the garlic- and rosemary-flavored whey. Then I froze a few quarts of broccoli, and saved the greenish blanching water. I

Read More »

Lending Books

Some people love to cook for their friends. I like to cook for my friends too, and did so just this morning, in fact. But what I really like to

Read More »

Vermont Scorcher

No, that\’s not an oxymoron. We\’re dying here. It\’s 89 F. Remember, all things are relative. We\’ve had an amazingly cool summer so far, with temperatures barely reaching the 80s,

Read More »

Prayer To The Dog Star

Lord Sirius, who shine at night above the panting planet,Have mercy on the dogs, in these your days.Take pity on the ones chained up in barren yards;Let them have shade

Read More »