Category: Learning

  • The Garden that Came with a House

    The Garden that Came with a House

    When I arrived in Maine to view the house I’d found while sifting through properties on the Internet, I already knew it came with a good sized yard. That was the most important piece of criteria outside of being able to walk to town. I wanted enough of a yard to plant a good sized…

  • I Began with the Guest Room

    I Began with the Guest Room

    I’ve lived in many houses in my life, but never an old house — that is, unless one considers the house we owned before the last, built in 1948, old. I’ve always been drawn to old houses and old places. Perhaps for someone who has moved often in her life, the seeming permanence of a…

  • 2020: Glancing back, gazing ahead

    2020: Glancing back, gazing ahead

    Much has changed in the years from 2010 to 2020 and that’s a very good thing. Life isn’t intended to be stagnant.

  • Stay calm and carry on with new perspective

    Stay calm and carry on with new perspective

    If our original plans had gone as expected, we would be on a direct flight home instead of waiting for a taxi outside of John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England. Our “vacation” had been extended a week to ensure that I was fit enough to be on an eleven hour flight. I remember the strong…

  • The President Elect and the crazy uncle at the table.

    Clearly, I should have known that in much the same way traveling can interfere with the simplest goals, the “staycation” we planned for this Fall has effectively proven that a significant change in my daily routine leaves me floundering. Best intentions to get back into writing petered out after a weak four days. To compound…

  • The effect of a cat on motivation and routine

    The effect of a cat on motivation and routine

    If deciding at the last minute to take on a reasonable facsimile of NaNoWriMo was to serve a purpose, it has only taken two days to realize it. Before I was out of bed this morning, mind habitually processing what the day would entail, I recognized the spark of emotion related to motivation. An excuse…