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
In Which I Euthanize An Orchid
I brought an orchid home from the grocery store last March, to help with the winter blues. It was an ordinary Phalaenopsis—you know, the ones that look like butterflies in
How I Make Potpourri
One of you read something here about my drying orange peels for potpourri and expressed an interest in the recipe. I will gladly share what I know. But first, a
Spring Training
While the Convalescent napped this morning, I took the dogs to the woods to take the edge off their energies. It was a bright, clear day. The kind of day
The Womanly Art Of Nursing
If you went into the back bedrooms of a Victorian mansion, a century or so ago, you could always find a lurking invalid or two, a child with an earache,
Rites Of Spring
Planted spinach today. Too early, you say? I read somewhere that spinach can be planted in the snow. I tried it once when I was living in Maryland, and the
Small Is Feasible
I\’ve been separated from my laptop for a week, and barely survived the deprivation. I\’m glad to be back. As the spring rush draws near, I\’ve been thinking about smallness
Mud Faerie
Her kind is all over the place in Vermont this time of year.
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
In Which I Euthanize An Orchid
I brought an orchid home from the grocery store last March, to help with the winter blues. It was an ordinary Phalaenopsis—you know, the ones that look like butterflies in
How I Make Potpourri
One of you read something here about my drying orange peels for potpourri and expressed an interest in the recipe. I will gladly share what I know. But first, a
Spring Training
While the Convalescent napped this morning, I took the dogs to the woods to take the edge off their energies. It was a bright, clear day. The kind of day
The Womanly Art Of Nursing
If you went into the back bedrooms of a Victorian mansion, a century or so ago, you could always find a lurking invalid or two, a child with an earache,
Rites Of Spring
Planted spinach today. Too early, you say? I read somewhere that spinach can be planted in the snow. I tried it once when I was living in Maryland, and the
Small Is Feasible
I\’ve been separated from my laptop for a week, and barely survived the deprivation. I\’m glad to be back. As the spring rush draws near, I\’ve been thinking about smallness
Mud Faerie
Her kind is all over the place in Vermont this time of year.