Here and Now
My husband says I have a binary sense of time: “now” and “not now.” I prefer to think of myself as “exceptionally present.” This trait isn’t necessarily a good thing for a gardener. After all, a lot of gardening is…
At Home in NH
Wilderness Treasures
On a spring day a few years ago, my husband and I went walking the trails in a wildlife management area near our town. The area is a bit overgrown, a place frequented by hunters in the fall. The meandering…
Wintry Mix
Winter makes all activity more deliberate, requiring us to focus on the task at hand, whether it’s bringing water to the animals in the barn or driving.
Ten Things Your Kitchen Could Use
My kitchen at Black Trumpet—and my home kitchen for that matter—is pretty spartan. By modern industry standards, we don’t have a lot of the cool playthings—immersion circulators, combi ovens, tilt skillets, blast chillers, PacoJet ice cream makers—that make a commercial…
Robins’ Alter Ego
Illustration by Carolyn Vibbert Zigzagging across the lawn, singing their well-known carol, and faithfully tending to mud-lined nests on our eaves and porches, robins are among our favorite birds. They signal spring. Here in New Hampshire, we welcome them as…
An Open and Shut Case: Lessons from an Old Latch
Old door hardware can be mischievous, stubborn and just plain stuck.
A House Becomes Home
Twelve years ago, my husband and I went in search of a new place in which to sink our roots. Fate and circumstance drew us to New Hampshire, to a “for sale” sign on a quiet hilltop. I fell in…
A Holiday Tree for Wildlife
During the last thirty years, I’ve lived in three uniquely New Hampshire homes. And in each place, we celebrated the Christmas holiday a bit differently, adding traditions as more children came along, then letting some go as children grew up…
Things That Really Matter
Illustration by Carolyn Vibbert Every year or two for more than a decade after I graduated from college, I loaded most of my possessions into a compact car and moved on to the next likely place. I was seeking a…
Orchard Ladders and Perry Pears
Orchard ladders are beautiful. They’re mirror images of the trees they climb—wide at the bottom for solidity, and narrow at the top to fit between branches. Their form-follows-function design means the rails that hold the rungs have a pleasing, slow…
An old tradition made new again
Everything I know about Judaism, I learned from Fiddler on the Roof and Woody Allen films.
Caring for loved ones
Pawprints in a dusting of snow. A bowl of tuna on the steps. Gone the next morning. And the next. Until one evening, at dusk, she revealed herself—a tabby we called Shadow. She ate our offerings but kept her distance.…
