Hello Fellow Readers, This is the time of year I attend manufacturer showcases premiering new products, mostly paver or block retaining wall systems, which are made of concrete. This is also the time of year that road salt and brine are being used to de-ice our roads. Road salt and br

Hello Fellow Readers, As the folklore goes if the groundhog sees his shadow, they’ll be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, it will be an early spring. I’ve always wondered how we know what the groundhog sees. Low and behold I saw this year’s broadcast of Groundhog Day at Gobbler

Hello Fellow Readers, What a weather pattern we’ve just endured. From snow turned to sleet, followed by zero degrees that turned trees into glass. Then temps rose to the mid-fifties as deluges of rain rolled in. The Jacksonburg Creek, on which we live, became a roaring river overflowi

Hello Fellow Readers, “Seems timely,” wrote Anita from Blairstown NJ in an email this morning with a Rose is Rose cartoon (a syndicated comic strip by Pat Brady.) It starts out with a woman decked in garden cloths and wide-brimmed hat adorned with a pink bow. She’s on her knees up to

Hello Fellow Readers, I had a good laugh when I heard from my youngest brother who lives in Tennessee. Rick texted a photo of his cup of joe with a frothy smiley face smack dab in the middle. “Look at my message this morning in my coffee.” His suspicious sister writes back, “Come on.

Hello Fellow Readers, What a rainy start we’ve had for the new year. Or, should I say continuum of the rainy growing season. It’s worrisome really; our ground is so saturated. And yes, I miss the snow. Though please freeze the ground, Mother Nature, before bringing it on for fea

Hello Fellow Readers, Happy 2019. I hope you all survived the fa la las and indulgences that can come along with ringing in the new year. I’ll admit our recycle bin is overflowing with many trendy colors. We hosted Christmas Eve so most of the bounty came from shared toasts, thank you

Hello Fellow Readers, The Press publishes a New Year’s pictorial issue to provide their staff with a week off between Christmas and New Year’s. I’ll admit I enjoyed the deadline respite too but wish to reach out to my faithful online followers – thank you for being so! As I writ

Hello Fellow Readers, One of the greatest gifts of Christmas is spending time with loved ones. I’ve just returned from visiting lifelong friends that live outside of Austin. First stop was Round Top Texas where Dorothy from my college days lives. She’s an artist with a gallery r

Hello Fellow Readers, About my Christmas cactus… the one that I wrote about early in our tenure of column chats that came my way by adoption from a then husband. The cactus was neglected and riddled with old dead wood. I was able to revive it and it bloomed beautifully for many years,