I have not been very active on Hive for a year, especially for the past six months, much to the consternation of the half-dozen people who read my posts with some regularity. The primary reason for my

Have you ever had one of those days when things just keep going awry? Today started out badly because I hadn't slept well. Still, I managed to get several small tasks done around the house before I decided

On Sunday, I intended to visit a new church in a nearby town. They don't have their own building yet, so are using the aging community center. As soon as I walked into the meeting room, I was met by a

On days when I have a morning appointment somewhere, I usually make a smoothie for breakfast so I can drink it in the car. Normally, I start with almond milk and protein powder, or else a packaged chocolate

Sometimes life just keeps moving along at a comfortable pace with nothing unusual happening, and then one day it's suddenly not so stable after all. It doesn't take much to change things: a letter, a phone

It took me 2 1/2 months, but I finally made it through The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. My primary care provider and I fell into a conversation about cancer and

Yes, I'm still alive. But it has been two months since I posted anything. I haven't been in the mood to write. I have been sick at least 4 times this winter (including my current cold) despite taking all

Last week I discovered the winter squashes in our "above-ground root cellar" were beginning to rot, so I baked the remaining nine in the course of three days, ran it all through the Foley food

After my husband's September foot injury (mentioned at the end of this post) I realized I couldn't possibly make all the tomato products I had intended to make in September and October, because tending

I see it has been 18 days since my last post. How did the time pass so quickly? I ponder that question on a regular basis. I was warned that time passes more quickly as we age, and it is certainly true.

Early this morning it was foggy and drizzly, followed by a brief period of partial sunshine, and finished off by hours of low-hanging clouds. It was a classic November afternoon, dull and gray. I felt

This past June, on our anniversary, my husband and I explored a little of the Pine Street Woods hiking area just outside of Sandpoint, Idaho. Today I decided to take another look at it, and try out one

Wasn't life supposed to slow down after the kids left home? It didn't work out that way. I quickly found other ways to fill my days, and now I have three grandchildren nearby. Although spending time with

It seems odd to be writing a gardening post this time of year. We usually get a light frost early in September, followed by a week or two of nights in the upper 30s or lower 40s. Then the nighttime

The garden is finally winding down. It's a bittersweet time of year: I love the fresh produce but by September I am quite weary from all of the effort it takes to tend a big garden. I have pulled up the

(Oops. The title was supposed to be Mid-August Garden and Food Preservation Report.) It's definitely harvest time now! I gave up on weeding quite some time ago, and have not been as aggressively battling

I spent so much time and energy at war against the destructive ground squirrels (as described here and here), other garden tasks were sorely neglected. I finally took the time to trim the tomato plants,

In my previous post I bemoaned the invasion of unidentified rodents in our garden. On my sister's advice, I contacted the local extension office to see if someone there could identify the pests and give

My poor broccoli! Right now I am very peeved: rodents have taken over our yard and garden, and are eating the vegetables I have so carefully planted, watered, and weeded for so many weeks! They nibbled

It's not Friday any more, but as I was scrolling through the posts on my feed, I couldn't resist writing a freewrite for this prompt. When I was a child, my parents planted 'way too many zucchini plants