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
November 17, 2008 “Sustainable Fun”
Last winter was an especially cold and icy one in Vermont, and a plague of cabin fever raged across the land. “Never again!” my yoga teacher/herbalist/painter/gardener friend and I swore
November 15, 2008 “The Amazing Apple Smasher”
Left to his own devices, my husband would live in a condo, surrounded by computers and electronic gadgets, and eating TV dinners. Homesteading, going back to the land, living the
November 13, 2008 “Writers in Winter”
I\’m reclining on the “writing couch” in my study. I\’m wearing a long-sleeved fleece top, a ditto vest, thick pants, and two pairs of socks. I am wrapped from the
November 12, 2008 “Why I Write”
I write to get rid of the awful feeling of not wanting to write. Sometimes this reluctance feels like a real illness—am I coming down with something? And it always
November 9, 2008 “Puppy Advice for the First Family”
A working couple with two daughters, a new job and a major relocation has decided to get a dog. What were they thinking? But promises are promises, so to ease
November 1, 2008 “Feeeeed Meeeeeee!”
I can “hear” Wolfie and Lexi saying it all day long. But I\’m starting to grow inured to their pleas. I\’m feeding them four and a half pounds of food
October 30, 2008 “Insatiable, Voracious…”
That\’s what my dogs are. Ever since I fed them their first home-cooked dinner, Wolfie and Lexi have had nothing but food on their minds. With two intense German Shepherds
October 25, 2008 “Complications of the Simple Life”
Dog Cuisine I\’ve decided to start cooking for my dogs. This was not a major, life-altering decision. However, in my efforts, such as this one, to save the world by
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
November 17, 2008 “Sustainable Fun”
Last winter was an especially cold and icy one in Vermont, and a plague of cabin fever raged across the land. “Never again!” my yoga teacher/herbalist/painter/gardener friend and I swore
November 15, 2008 “The Amazing Apple Smasher”
Left to his own devices, my husband would live in a condo, surrounded by computers and electronic gadgets, and eating TV dinners. Homesteading, going back to the land, living the
November 13, 2008 “Writers in Winter”
I\’m reclining on the “writing couch” in my study. I\’m wearing a long-sleeved fleece top, a ditto vest, thick pants, and two pairs of socks. I am wrapped from the
November 12, 2008 “Why I Write”
I write to get rid of the awful feeling of not wanting to write. Sometimes this reluctance feels like a real illness—am I coming down with something? And it always
November 9, 2008 “Puppy Advice for the First Family”
A working couple with two daughters, a new job and a major relocation has decided to get a dog. What were they thinking? But promises are promises, so to ease
November 1, 2008 “Feeeeed Meeeeeee!”
I can “hear” Wolfie and Lexi saying it all day long. But I\’m starting to grow inured to their pleas. I\’m feeding them four and a half pounds of food
October 30, 2008 “Insatiable, Voracious…”
That\’s what my dogs are. Ever since I fed them their first home-cooked dinner, Wolfie and Lexi have had nothing but food on their minds. With two intense German Shepherds
October 25, 2008 “Complications of the Simple Life”
Dog Cuisine I\’ve decided to start cooking for my dogs. This was not a major, life-altering decision. However, in my efforts, such as this one, to save the world by