Cherry tomatoes. I’ve been obsessing over them. Yes, I know I’ve written several blogs about home grown tomatoes, but not one specifically focused on cherry tomatoes. This year’s crop is huge. Usually I’m picking the cherry tomatoes while they are still a red/orange, anxious to pop them in my mouth…

It doesn’t matter how many times I go to a Farmers’ Market it always feels like the first time. And maybe it is the first time I see the fresh mustard greens or the bright yellow squash for sale that particular day. I stop at each booth. I ask questions…

A few months ago I started writing a series of rejection letters to myself. Just for fun, to take the edge off my depression over the extensive number of rejection letters from literary publications that arrive in my inbox, most around the beginning of the month. …

Earlier this week I posted a photograph on social media of one of our sunflowers that had lost its head, literally. One of our recent thunderstorms with high winds must have snapped off the bud. However, this particular sunflower refused to give up. Seeking another opportunity to bloom, it managed…

A gentle breeze caresses my arm as I reach for a cherry tomato. Gathering our summer harvest puts me into an altered state. It’s just me and the smell of the tomato plants and lavender. The chirps of birds and crickets are all I hear until a driver at the…

A summer camp for adults is how I described where I was going to anyone who asked, because I wasn’t sure if I said to Chautauqua, there’d be instant recognition. How do you explain to someone who has never been to Chautauqua what it exactly is? The word itself originated…

It’s difficult to finish things. Jobs. Relationships. Home improvement projects. A manuscript. A writer gets a fabulous idea for a story or a character and then they just don’t know whether they’ve said enough or too much. You work and work at something with fervor, and sometimes energy and enterprise…

Many years ago I had my fortune told. The psychic told me she saw me sitting at a table with another woman surrounded by stacks of books. It sounded like a wonderful future for an aspiring author. …

I’m not real excited about celebrating Independence Day this year. The two words that keep flashing into my mind are Why Bother? If you’re ordering fancy coffee, Why Bother? is a phase to describe a decaf skim milk cappuccino or latte. …