It was 1879, and the Civil War had been over just nine years, a war that had devastated the Commonwealth of Virginia as perhaps no…
“Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.” ~Wendell Berry We live in a 1,000-square-foot 90-plus-year-old millhouse…
At a recent grandkid-birthday party, watching the little darlings consume a delicious dark chocolate cake prepared at the local whole foods store, I opined to…
“The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where…
A farmer goes to the bank every week, takes out $100 in ten dollar bills, then stands on the street selling the bills for $9…
When I arrived at Emerson College, in Forest Row, Sussex, England, in 1979, I knew this about gardening: if you buy a young plant from…
“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. That’s for thoughts. There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue for you;…
Just when I thought that my one apron, Old Faithful was all I needed, I found a cute vintage garment I call Miss Priss, the…
For the third time, my husband Donnie and I were making a foray into Holmes County, Ohio, home to the second-largest population of Amish families…
It has been speculated that until recent history, around the 1600-1700s, Western people were not much interested in helping each other. Societies were feudal and…
If you drew a line between Granada and Almeria in southeastern Spain, you would find the tiny medieval village of Picena almost directly between the…
Early in 2009, while the country was swept up in talk of bailing out banks and saving our national bacon, I was on vacation out…