I first noticed the chalk board as I made my way home from a long and sweaty walk one summer day. Perched on a fence in front of one of our neighborhood's loveliest gardens, it said, "Kind words can be easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless." I just loved that someone had [...]
I met a fascinating man on a bench two Saturdays ago and he introduced me to rice pudding porridge. Then, he taught me, like so many others had, about how to LIVE honestly, bravely and joyfully in a finite world. Trent Cole. First, I saw his name on a plaque on 14th Street, then I [...]
If I've learned anything about raising daughters, it's that sometimes you have to meet them halfway. So, I did. Because she lives 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles, and I live here in good old Wisconsin, my daughter, Katherine and I got together for a quick weekend in Colorado where we discovered the Boulder and [...]
I'm certain the 25 pies entered into the third annual Outagamie County Fair pie contest came from a multitude of inspirations. There were sour cherry and apple pies made from grandmother's recipe, neatly scrawled on a stained recipe card. Nature inspired pies like Raspberry Rose and Apple Bud. However, I'm certain mine was the only [...]
Owing to its state slogan "land of 10,000 lakes", I never thought of Minneapolis as a river city. It always seemed like a lake kind of town. But, born, as it was, on both banks of the Mississippi, a river city it is, and I love the history of American river cities, possibly because I [...]
