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
Bisou Loses Three Friends
During the ten minutes or so that it took my spouse and me to decide to move to Wake Robin, we asked the resident couple with whom we were having
Smell Confessions
First thing in the morning, the dog breathes on my face. Even though I brush her teeth every single day, Bisou’s morning breath is a little off. And yet, while
Some Advice On Downsizing
Last spring at about this time I was in the throes of preparing to move to Wake Robin. It was the downsizing of a lifetime, the move before the final
The Crow And I
Isn\’t it funny how we age, not in a uniform manner, but bit by bit, haphazardly? To me, it feels as if a bird were flying around me, brushing me
Fish Hospice
My Betta is in hospice. For weeks he\’s been lying at the bottom of the big vase that\’s been his home for the last four years. His veil-like fins are
Frida Y Yo
On bad days I think of Frida, nailed to her bed by pain, staring up at the ceiling, wondering when her husband, the painter Diego Rivera, a man as round
What Wisdom, Where?
When eating organic/vegetarian/gluten free, working out at the gym, and drinking eight glasses of water a day cease to delay the inevitable, baby boomers console themselves by thinking that, although
Zen and the Recorder
Now that I have entered my eighth decade, I am learning to play the recorder. There is no time to lose, so I practice daily, much to Bisou\’s dismay. The
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
Bisou Loses Three Friends
During the ten minutes or so that it took my spouse and me to decide to move to Wake Robin, we asked the resident couple with whom we were having
Smell Confessions
First thing in the morning, the dog breathes on my face. Even though I brush her teeth every single day, Bisou’s morning breath is a little off. And yet, while
Some Advice On Downsizing
Last spring at about this time I was in the throes of preparing to move to Wake Robin. It was the downsizing of a lifetime, the move before the final
The Crow And I
Isn\’t it funny how we age, not in a uniform manner, but bit by bit, haphazardly? To me, it feels as if a bird were flying around me, brushing me
Fish Hospice
My Betta is in hospice. For weeks he\’s been lying at the bottom of the big vase that\’s been his home for the last four years. His veil-like fins are
Frida Y Yo
On bad days I think of Frida, nailed to her bed by pain, staring up at the ceiling, wondering when her husband, the painter Diego Rivera, a man as round
What Wisdom, Where?
When eating organic/vegetarian/gluten free, working out at the gym, and drinking eight glasses of water a day cease to delay the inevitable, baby boomers console themselves by thinking that, although
Zen and the Recorder
Now that I have entered my eighth decade, I am learning to play the recorder. There is no time to lose, so I practice daily, much to Bisou\’s dismay. The