One of my key garden criteria is scent. I love the smell of lilacs, of spice bush viburnum, of roses, petunias & even the dusty, grandmotherly smell of alyssum. I get excited when the hyacinths perfume the air, and when I get a full face of peony. So, you can imagine my excitement when I visited the city recently and kept smelling a wonderful scent. As I took my first stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge, I was surrounded by a nice floral smell. I thought at first that it was t

Lori and I grew up fighting. She always won. It wasn’t so much that she beat me, she stayed steady and let me beat myself trying so hard. Such is the life of the younger sister. Until I got old enough to find a few ways to outwit her – mostly by playing hurt until I could gain an advantage. I think one of the reasons I love ‘words’ so much is how I learned to wield their power in a fight. It’s a double-edged sword. I know. By the time we were young woman, Lori and I both foun

It is that season – when family takes center-stage and leaves the ‘singles’ by the way side. Maybe, like me, your family has moved away or no longer has great depth. I had the blessing of living near my mom and sisters when our family was young and never had to think about where to go on the holidays. One Christmas, we were hundreds of miles away, but after the gifts were opened and the kids were looking at me like “what’s next”, we loaded the family up in the van and drove t