Category: The Softer Side

It is hard to believe, but it has been a year since COVID-19 reared its ugly head and put us in lockdown. Though I think it was around several months before that, we were made aware of it, and during that time of ignorant bliss, were totally naïve of the “train” that was speeding at us and…

Last Fall I bought a new bird feeder.  I have quite a collection of feeders, bird seed and suet, in various stages of disrepair in the cellar and because I can’t throw anything out, they are mounting up. A lot of them claimed to be squirrel proof. No such thing!  Occasionally, I would hang a feeder…

Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, I’ve been thinking a lot about my maternal grandfather. His name was Maurice J. Villemaire, M.D., and he served the town of Milton, Vermont, as a general practitioner for 40 years. He was born in 1902, grew up in Winooski, went to medical school at the University…

I do not know about you, but I ‘hate’ to lose something.  I would rather drop it and see it run over by a bus (or in my case, an antique car would be more likely) and know its whereabouts and thus know what happened to it. The other is to give it away, I…

The other day I saw a photo of the car I rode in for the Gypson tour this year. It was BJ Gonet’s 1931 Chrysler, a beautiful car. It was a lovely but cool day and Cousin Hal and I rode in the back with the top down for better visibility. I started out with…

You all probably know I love to garden.  Well, by now I’ve started to put the flower beds to rest for the long winter ahead, but I’ll tell you about my August/September problem. And it turned out to be a BIG problem.  It seems we had a gopher invade our lawn. Well, at least that’s…

I was thinking, the other day, about Covid-19 and what it will be like to be on the other side of this horrible time. Of course, I hope that we will all get to the other side of this virus. Like most things in history at some point our grand or great grandchildren will hear…

Thinking back on the winter chores that I didn’t get done, one thing that is always on my list is ‘photos’. I went through boxes of greeting cards, birthday cards and Christmas cards that seem to have accumulated in the desk. Does anyone else save cards for thirty years or more? In a weak moment…

Happy 4th of July! This day and, really, the past six months have probably been for you and me the most challenging in our day-to-day lives. We’re all self-distancing except for family and close friends. What, the Governor has said we can be in groups of 25 now? At least that gives us the chance…

A few days ago when I turned the calendar to a new page, I noticed something that I haven’t seen in all my years of keeping a calendar. The page for May was blank. There was nothing written anywhere, with the one exception that there was a reminder to give my dog, Dixie, her heartworm…