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
Arachnicide
Every October, just in time for Halloween, the spiders lay siege to my house. These are not the charming orb-weavers that E.B. White immortalized. They are not the wispy critters
The Writing Bed
One day when I was in the depths of my recent shingles attack, I set up the double bed that spends most of its life folded inside a convertible sofa
My Kindle And Other Miracles
Thanks to all of you who sent good wishes both here and by e-mail. It worked: my survival now appears inevitable. Two days ago I left the house on non-medical
Troubles And Tribulations
It is about time I came out of the hole where I\’ve been hiding the last couple of weeks and explained the reason for my silence. I\’ve been suffering from
Canning Jars For The Soul
Although I have never canned so much as a single bean, my kitchen is full of canning jars. Some are squat, some tall, some blue, and some clear. Some have
The Plopping Breed
After flying like a bullet through the late-summer fields, Bisou comes back covered with burrs. They are tiny and sticky and in less than a minute her silky hair forms
A Winter\’s Worth Of Wort
In Vermont, people spend much of the summer preparing for winter. They garden obsessively, and then they can, freeze, dry, pickle and jell the harvest. They scour the countryside for
Good Bread And How To Make It
After my recent post lamenting the decline of bread as a wholesome food, Jaimie sent me a link to a website that offers an older, healthier variety of wheat. I
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
Arachnicide
Every October, just in time for Halloween, the spiders lay siege to my house. These are not the charming orb-weavers that E.B. White immortalized. They are not the wispy critters
The Writing Bed
One day when I was in the depths of my recent shingles attack, I set up the double bed that spends most of its life folded inside a convertible sofa
My Kindle And Other Miracles
Thanks to all of you who sent good wishes both here and by e-mail. It worked: my survival now appears inevitable. Two days ago I left the house on non-medical
Troubles And Tribulations
It is about time I came out of the hole where I\’ve been hiding the last couple of weeks and explained the reason for my silence. I\’ve been suffering from
Canning Jars For The Soul
Although I have never canned so much as a single bean, my kitchen is full of canning jars. Some are squat, some tall, some blue, and some clear. Some have
The Plopping Breed
After flying like a bullet through the late-summer fields, Bisou comes back covered with burrs. They are tiny and sticky and in less than a minute her silky hair forms
A Winter\’s Worth Of Wort
In Vermont, people spend much of the summer preparing for winter. They garden obsessively, and then they can, freeze, dry, pickle and jell the harvest. They scour the countryside for
Good Bread And How To Make It
After my recent post lamenting the decline of bread as a wholesome food, Jaimie sent me a link to a website that offers an older, healthier variety of wheat. I