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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. Got bored with teaching, took up running, and went into higher ed administration. 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.
In the summer of 1972, I wore only prints. This was not a fashion choice. I had a two-year-old and a newborn at home, and I started teaching summer school
The window of my childhood bedroom opened into the inner courtyard of our apartment block in Barcelona, as did the kitchen windows of the neighboring apartments. As I closed my
My childhood was filled with powerful women. At home there was my mother, at school the German nuns, and up in heaven, yet also somehow very close to me, there
For a while now I have been writing twenty postcards a month to twenty people I don’t know in places I never heard of. This will continue until the election,
It’s 100F in Mexico, and dead howler monkeys are falling out of trees. Here in Vermont it’s only 90F, and nothing is falling other than my spirits at these signs
After waking up from the fishy dream I wrote about last week, I leaped out of bed, flew to the pet store, and came home with a Betta. His tiny
In my prime, my life was full of animals. There were ten hens and two goats in the barn, while in the house you couldn’t turn around without some creature
The last time one of my daughters sat on my lap. The last time my father gave me a violin lesson. The last time I ran five miles. I think
In the summer of 1972, I wore only prints. This was not a fashion choice. I had a two-year-old and a newborn at home, and I started teaching summer school
The window of my childhood bedroom opened into the inner courtyard of our apartment block in Barcelona, as did the kitchen windows of the neighboring apartments. As I closed my
My childhood was filled with powerful women. At home there was my mother, at school the German nuns, and up in heaven, yet also somehow very close to me, there
For a while now I have been writing twenty postcards a month to twenty people I don’t know in places I never heard of. This will continue until the election,
It’s 100F in Mexico, and dead howler monkeys are falling out of trees. Here in Vermont it’s only 90F, and nothing is falling other than my spirits at these signs
After waking up from the fishy dream I wrote about last week, I leaped out of bed, flew to the pet store, and came home with a Betta. His tiny
In my prime, my life was full of animals. There were ten hens and two goats in the barn, while in the house you couldn’t turn around without some creature
The last time one of my daughters sat on my lap. The last time my father gave me a violin lesson. The last time I ran five miles. I think