As the country eases its stay-at-home restrictions, I am continuing to spend my days doing the things that make me feel the best: cooking, gardening, and writing. I hope you are staying safe and healthy as we navigate our new normal out in the world. If you need a little break this week, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web…
Read moreA Misdemeanor on the Moonshine Porch
The Facts of the Case:
I own a wicker couch with blue and white floral cushions and pillows. This couch sat outside, undisturbed, at my farmhouse on what is colloquially known as the Moonshine Porch. In the spring, I discovered not twenty yards from the porch, a hole in the ground, belonging to a woodchuck and around which was scattered the remnants of cotton batting. In addition, a torn blue and white floral pillowcase, empty of its batting, was discovered strewn to the side of the hole. As they say in the law, res ipsa loquitor, or in layman’s words, the thing speaks for itself.
Read moreProcrastination Links 05.11.20
What is making you smile these days? Amidst all of the heaviness around us, I hope you are finding moments of joy throughout the long days of quarantining. If you need a little break today, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read moreMy Mother and the Way She Marches
When my mother was a junior in high school, she became head majorette of Warren Township’s marching band. At the first football game, she confidently led the band onto the field for the usual program of patriotic music, and confidently led them back off again. As they marched past the bleachers towards the parking lot, the other majorettes behind my mother whisper-shouted that she’d made a mistake, that she’d led the band off the field too soon, before they’d performed the National Anthem. Without a hitch in her high step, my mother just kept marching, steering the band through a giant u-turn in the parking lot and back onto the field for the anthem.
Read moreProcrastination Links 05.04.20
Old Wives' Lore for Gardeners
Among the garden books I inherited from the wonderful Scott Siekman, the previous owner of our farm, is a slim paperback titled “Old Wives’ Lore for Gardeners”. It’s an odd little book, full of very unscientific advice, unsubstantiated rumor, and sometimes shocking innuendo. Slyly written by Maureen and Bridget Boland, it opens with this caveat: “We are not Old Wives ourselves, being in fact old spinsters; nor are we professional gardeners in any sense. We collected the tips in this book because we needed them.”
Read moreProcrastination Links 04.27.20
As we continue our days of social distancing, I am thinking of all of you who are working, parenting, teaching, and caregiving within the confines of your homes. There is certainly nothing simple or easy about this time. If you need a little distraction from the demands within your home, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read moreA Farmhouse Kitchen Before and After
A little background: my husband and I purchased a small farm in the southern Kettle Moraine region of Wisconsin in 2018 and took possession last July. The property includes the original farmstead, built in 1842 of stone and clapboard. The previous owner updated the kitchen, probably in the late eighties, and it held up pretty well. Nevertheless, the appliances were tired, the cabinets warped, and the mice plentiful.
So last fall, we hired our favorite contractors, brought in a dumpster, and began what can only be called a madcap game of “What’s behind Door #1.”
Read moreProcrastination Links 04.20.20
How are you doing as we enter our second month of quarantining? I hope you were able to enjoy some sunshine and beautiful spring weather this past weekend. If you need a little break from binging on your favorite Netflix shows and working on projects at home, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read moreYou Must Do the Thing You Think You Cannot Do
On a sunny day last August at the farm, our family took a stroll through a wildflower meadow to the Oconomowoc River that skirts the property. My daughter-in-law stepped down the rocky bank just as a snake came poking out of a hole. She screamed and lurched backwards, reaching instinctively for protection from her loyal and rocklike father-in-law behind her. But he was gone, a mirage, an arrow shot from a bow, halfway back to the farmhouse.
Read moreProcrastination Links 04.13.20
Another week of writing, cooking, and walking awaits. I have to admit there is some comfort in my social distancing routine. If you need a little change of pace in your own routine, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read moreVeggies on the Menu
I detest grocery shopping for so many good reasons. The biggest one is that it implies I will come home and cook. Which, until Covid, I had resisted more and more. I would put a bag of lettuce into my cart, move it to the conveyor belt, bag it, put that bag back in the cart, then move it to the trunk of my car, then to my kitchen counter, then into the crisper drawer for ten days and then it went into the trash.
A shameful exercise in tedium, waste.
Read moreProcrastination Links 04.06.20
I’m happy to be back at the farm now that my son and his girlfriend have completed their two-week isolation. And, I’m looking forward to tackling the many spring projects that await us. My thoughts and love go out to all of you who may be sick or lost loved ones during this terrible pandemic. As we all continue to stay at home and do what we can to stop the spread of this horrific virus, take a moment away to enjoy my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read moreHow Betty MacDonald Endured the Plague
Every morning, I wake up, reach for my rectangle of despair, and gaze at the terrifying stories we can’t believe are real. It has become a sick fascination — clicking headlines, gorging on scientific papers, scrolling for hours in search of answers to the shocking number of unknowns about this disease.
I might not be infected but I sure feel trapped.
Read moreProcrastination Links 03.30.20
What acts of kindness, beauty, and compassion have you seen in the midst of the despair and fear we’re all feeling? If you look closely while out on a walk, you just might see hand-drawn and painted rainbows in some of your neighbors’ windows as a way to pass on a little hope and cheer during these scary days. I’m hoping you are able to find some calm and beauty in the days ahead, and, as always, if you need a little distraction, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read moreMy Babies Are Back in Their Coop
I first hatched the idea of finger puppet children four years ago. We’d been up north with the kids for a vacation, and on the last day, during a family photo, we had a big fat ugly argument. When we returned home, I saw a friend post a pic of a finger puppet she had knitted for her grandchild and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to get some new kids.”
Read moreProcrastination Links 03.13.20
Hoping you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy during this time of uncertainty in our world. If you need a little distraction from the ominous news updates, check out my favorite links from around the web this week…
Read moreThe Lost World of Vizcaya
On a recent visit to South Florida, my parents and I visited the fairy tale villa perched on the edge of Biscayne Bay known as Vizcaya. Built in 1916 by International Harvester heir James Deering, using money he inherited from his family's tractor business, Vizcaya represents a decadent mash-up of Italian, French, and Jamaican influences.
To be honest, I was skeptical about seeing an American imitation of a European estate. Somehow, I thought this place would be the 1900 version of Disney’s Epcot. Maybe if Jane Austen had actually slept here,
Read moreProcrastination Links 02.21.20
I am home from sunny Florida and back to the freezing cold of Wisconsin, but happy to be snuggled in the coziness of the farm. I am looking forward though to the warmer temperatures on their way this weekend. If you need a little chuckle, you can read about my journey to Florida with my parents. And, as always, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read moreRoses Are Red and the Plane Is Blue
Happy Valentine’s Day! My husband and I are traveling with my parents this week so they can visit my father’s BFF in Florida. My father is 87 and his BFF is almost 90. On the way to the airport my parents reminisced about the olden golden days of flying. American Airlines served so much pot roast that my parents called them “Pot Roast Air.”
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