“Mama, I’ve got some kind of rash!” Scene: it is 2:00 a.m., I am ten years old, and I have broken out in the most magnificent case of hives that has been seen in my family for many a year. My mother helped me cover just about every inch of me with soda/water paste and […]
Category: From Powhatan to Alaska: Cosmic Connections
For when I happen across a parallel between life in my two favorite places
‘Tis the season to be confused
Do you remember back in the Sixties and part of the Seventies, when you and your two older sisters and your two older cousins would enter a month-long state of frothing mania beginning on or around each December first? No, wait, sorry, that was me. Anyway, when we were kids, Christmas was a time of […]
Depression cake
When you see this title, what do you think of? “Depression cake” is a recipe for cake without eggs or milk (some recipes don’t use butter either), that came into use during the Great Depression in the United States. The same goes, apparently, for such modern marvels as mock apple pie, vinegar pie, and my […]
Timing is everything
I have often extolled the wonders of wild edibles in Alaska, including the plethora of berries that come out in the spring and summer, the sea asparagus that covers the beaches in June, and novelties such as Hudson Bay tea, delicious and nutritious in moderation. I had forgotten, however, that central Virginia has its share […]
Meet Bernadette, and also Mrs. Moreton
Having recently returned to Southeast Alaska after three weeks in Virginia, I was pleased to see (from a distance, of course) a lovely Alaskan house spider who, with her gracious permission, I have decided to call Bernadette. I’m sure her husband is around somewhere and that he won’t mind being called Bernie. Maybe I should […]
A tale of two roses
The story of a rose: In the summer of 1983 I signed up to read to blind folks in Anchorage. I met a lovely old lady named Omega, who lived in a trailer south of town, and did not actually want anyone to read to her. What she wanted was company, so for several years […]
Follow the bouncing cat names
My husband and I are new parents again, after all these years. Here’s a closeup of the new kid: Truth be told, I could eat him with a spoon. It’s been about 35 years since I have had a kitten in the house, and the first couple days were stressful. We had to plug up […]
Bicycle dreams
My first memory of wheels is a tricycle I got when I was three or four. I wanted to paint it because it was a little bit rusty. My mother produced a small can of blue paint and a brush, and I went to town. I have often wondered if a bit of parental touching […]
Let’s talk about lettuce
During my growing-up years, “lettuce” meant “iceberg lettuce,” although occasionally my mother would show up at the house with a strange, leathery substance known as “romaine.” While we grew many fruits and vegetables on the place, lettuce was apparently not among them. When a head of iceberg lettuce came into the house, there were three […]
Sunburn
When she was in her early twenties, my sister Mary fell asleep on Myrtle Beach (South Carolina). I am quite fair-skinned; Mary (and Laura too) might be even paler than I am. Anyway, when Mary woke up, she was badly burned (notice I don’t say “sunburned” because somehow that phrase seems to take the sting […]