In the best news I’ve heard in quite a while, today that international treasure, J.K. Rowling, announced that she was going to release a new book she has written, a chapter or two at at time, every weekday starting today and running through July 10th. It is a children’s story called The Ickabog, and it … More A New J.K. Rowling Book? It’s Just What We Need During Coronavirus Time
Happy socially-distant Memorial Day! As I stated earlier, most of our traditional Memorial Day things are off this year. But I did take a walk in our local cemetery this morning where the VFW had placed flags by the graves of all the veterans, and I looked at them and tried to send a spiritual … More Meatless Monday: Memorial Day
Memorial Day Weekend has a lot of rituals for my family. That weekend is the kickoff for Summerfest, the outdoor summer concert series by the North Carolina Symphony that is one of our FAVORITE summer traditions. So on Saturday night, we and our friends get to Koka Booth Amphitheater early, stake out our place on … More What Are You Doing this Memorial Day Weekend?
I don’t use Google as my search engine due to its lack of privacy protections, but I do enjoy their doodles. There is a particularly fun one today (May 21, 2020) dedicated to the Mbira, a traditional instrument from Zimbabwe. If you click on the arrow, you get an animation that explains a lot about … More Play a Virtual Mbira on Google Today
On Saturday, we had a couple of additions to our spring vegetables available at the Cary Downtown Farmers Market: spring baby potatoes and English peas, the kinds of peas that you actually have to shell. They came from a brand-new natural farm called LB’s Farm. They are just getting started and so didn’t have a … More Meatless Monday: Peas and Potatoes
One of the ways I’ve been passing the time at home in coronavirus-ville is experimenting more in the kitchen. I’m trying new recipes and new techniques, like making my own yogurt. One of the resources I rely on is America’s Test Kitchen, publishers of Cook’s Magazine among other things. I love Cook’s Magazine because it … More Two Weeks of Free Cooking Lessons Starts Today (5/18)
As I’ve written about before, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s YouTube channel is displaying one of his works for free over these coronavirus weekends (in the East Coast Time Zone, from 2:00 PM Friday May 15 – 2:00 PM Sunday May 17). This weekend’s production is the musical Cats. I really like Cats. But you have … More Broadway Blessings 7: Cats!
There is a lot of scary and depressing and frustrating and confusing and even infuriating news right now. But if you look, there are some lovely stories as well. I’ve always been a sucker for engagement tales. So this article from The New York Times about couples who got engaged during this coronavirus time was … More Love Is Not Canceled
After STRAWBERRIES (see my previous post), the thing I’m most excited to get in our local Farmers Market in the spring is ASPARAGUS! It is coming in now, and I’m so excited. Mostly, I just eat it roasted as a side dish. However, tonight I included it in our entree. I found a recipe in … More Meatless Mondays: Asparagus!
The literature classes that I teach for middle and high school students ended this week, and Sunday is Mother’s Day. I decided to acknowledge these two occasions by staying in bed late this morning to finish reading a wonderful book, Circe by Madeline Miller. In The Odyssey, Circe, the so-called “witch of Aiaia,” is one … More Mother’s Day Reading: Circe by Madeline Miller
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