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
Phoebe Or Phoenix?
In the last post, I told you about the phoebe catastrophe, how I found the nest on the hard slate floor of the front porch, surrounded by three dead babies.
Nest Sandwich
These days, I live sandwiched between two nests: phoebes in the front, bluebirds in the back. Sometimes, when I\’m watching the bluebirds out the back window, if the light is
Bluebird Emergency!
If I really prized my peace of mind, I would lower the blinds on all my windows in the spring and keep them that way until the fall. There\’s only
Fertility Issues
It\’s been touch-and-go around here this spring, because of the extreme weather weirdness. So as soon as the forty days and forty nights of rain stopped for a while this
In Memoriam: The Grand Fiasco
After Lexi\’s wild behavior in agility class, we never tried agility again, despite her obvious talents for it, as demonstrated by her walks on the perilous pier. But I kept
In Memoriam: Lexi And The Long Pier
The minute I found an obedience class, I signed us up. The class was taught by a painfully thin, gravelly-voiced instructor who chain-smoked during the break. She knew dogs, and
In Memoriam: How I Found Her
It was four years after I was diagnosed with CFS, and I was still mourning the professional life that the illness had forced me to abandon. I wanted to do
Last Day
I knew last night that today would be her last day. I made the call first thing in the morning, to get it over with. I showered and dressed and
My Green Vermont
Latest Posts
Phoebe Or Phoenix?
In the last post, I told you about the phoebe catastrophe, how I found the nest on the hard slate floor of the front porch, surrounded by three dead babies.
Nest Sandwich
These days, I live sandwiched between two nests: phoebes in the front, bluebirds in the back. Sometimes, when I\’m watching the bluebirds out the back window, if the light is
Bluebird Emergency!
If I really prized my peace of mind, I would lower the blinds on all my windows in the spring and keep them that way until the fall. There\’s only
Fertility Issues
It\’s been touch-and-go around here this spring, because of the extreme weather weirdness. So as soon as the forty days and forty nights of rain stopped for a while this
In Memoriam: The Grand Fiasco
After Lexi\’s wild behavior in agility class, we never tried agility again, despite her obvious talents for it, as demonstrated by her walks on the perilous pier. But I kept
In Memoriam: Lexi And The Long Pier
The minute I found an obedience class, I signed us up. The class was taught by a painfully thin, gravelly-voiced instructor who chain-smoked during the break. She knew dogs, and
In Memoriam: How I Found Her
It was four years after I was diagnosed with CFS, and I was still mourning the professional life that the illness had forced me to abandon. I wanted to do
Last Day
I knew last night that today would be her last day. I made the call first thing in the morning, to get it over with. I showered and dressed and