Just had an hour and a half bike ride. A BIG snake crossed my path. Little frogs jumped out of the mud puddles in front of me as I approached. Something rustled in the grass next to me. No muskrats tonight, but the cats all perked up their ears and looked at me when I [...]

When I rode along the canal the other day, sure enough, the corn field had been cut bare. There were two men out gleaning, walking up and down each corn row looking for remnants. They had filled their wheel-barrow full. They seemed puzzled about this woman in her hot pink bike top stopping in the [...]

I HAVE made “Muskrat Cacciatore” before, but that was long ago and far away. It was pretty darned good, (yes, it DID taste “just like chicken”) but I think this big guy might be a bit tough. He’s got to be TWICE the size of my head, the granddaddy of them all. There’s a group [...]

Hi. Just a few questions for you about how you wander around on this blog site. Do you use the search box? (Did you even notice that there IS one? It’s pretty subtle.) Do you click on the “tags” in the “tag cloud” at the right on article pages (the jumbled pile of linked topic [...]

When I take the subway home, I hop on the M2 Green Line with “Abbiategrasso” as its final destination, roughly due west of Milano. (The subway train goes south from the center of town, then cuts west.) All this time, last summer included, I’ve seen the name but never seen the town. Wanting both a [...]

I’m not joking when I say that one of my consistent sources of stress here is in grocery shopping. It’s easy to take for granted the comfort of knowing WHAT I’m shopping for and HOW to shop for it. And when I don’t know those two things there’s an absolute and certain anxiety aroused. That [...]

It was the late 1800s in Ireland. Potato crops kept failing and food was scarce. Imagine being a little boy, held in your mother’s arms in the midst of a big commotion as your older brothers, just ages 16 and 17 or so, left down the narrow lane, heading for a new life in America. Those [...]

Crockawaddy Glebe is west of Rosslea, north of Aghadrumsee in County Fermanagh, west of Belfast, Northern Ireland. ”Crockawaddy” is the name of the Townland (a unit of 50-70 acres), and “Glebe” indicates that they had to pay rent to the Protestant Church of Ireland. #1 – The farmhouse at Crockawaddy Glebe (the small, black square in [...]

It was so moving to be halfway around the world from my birthplace, and be greeted with hugs at the doors of my unknown, distant cousins. Family roots are deep and strong. First, there I was sitting in a little coffee shop in Aughancloy, waiting for Tom to arrive. “Are you the lady from America?” [...]

There is something deeply stirring about standing on the farmland of the homesite where my great grandmother, Bridget Manley, was born. I had hoped simply to find the region and share a glimpse of what she saw as a young girl. To meet distant cousins, tour the county and drive up Corr’s Lane to the [...]

I know. Long time no post… I haven’t posted much in the week since I got back from Ireland even though I have a hundred ideas of things I want to write about and post photos of! Oh, the images! Stone Circles, Malin Head, Crana Knits, Crockawaddy Glebe, Thatched Roof Houses, Old Stone Buildings, the [...]