March in the Northeast has never been a popular month.  It can be bone-chilling cold or muddy and mundane.  But the warm breezes that come later in March always tell me spring has…

My first crush, Christopher Plummer, died last week.  I knew he couldn’t live forever but I liked knowing he was in the world.  For me, Plummer was and always will be Captain Georg von…

We say next time we’ll go away.  But then the winter happens, like a secret ~ Shaun O’Brien   I’ve made a mental note to make a white wreath for my door next…

“You’re very brave”, my mother told me the day I had to have my fingernail removed at the doctor’s office.  I’ll spare you the details but I had an infection that wouldn’t be…

I adhere to the English tradition of dismantling my Christmas tree on Epiphany (also known as Little Christmas, Twelfth Night and my daughter’s birthday).  My decorations were simple and lovely even if hardly…

This was not the scene of most homes this Christmas.  And how wonderful to have soldiers drop by to help with all the new-fangled  presents.  Mother is missing from the scene because she…

Sledding and ice skating were our premiere activities in the stretch between Christmas and New Year’s.  And usually every other year or so, we received a new pair of ice skates, or a…

I’m thrilled to begin a new year tomorrow.  Just like William Powell and Myrna Loy seem to be, as evidenced by their New Year’s Eve kiss in the image above. But I am…

I’m going to pretend that these fine ladies are good friends despite the slightly secretive look on the face of the woman on the left.  I love the colors in this illustration and the…

Carole Lombard certainly knows how to look festive along with her pretty Christmas gifts.  I used to think it was my mission to spend as much as I possibly could on each of…

Merry Christmas readers! This is an illustration of a sweet brother and sister gathering greens for the holiday.  Sibling love was a piquant element of artist Tasha Tudor’s gentle Christmas artwork and missing…

Last weekend a good friend, her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter, and I had a watch party of the “Fireside Nutcracker” which was an abridged performance of the Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, The Nutcracker. I…