My eldest son is flying home from Italy today. He’s had a great trip visiting Florence, Cinque Terre, Rome, and Scilla, the town in the Calabria region where his paternal great grandparents are from. He’s kept us up to date with daily photo entries on a shared google photo album. The trip was finally consummated…
Usually, I am unaffected by a celebrity’s death. I think it’s because I do not have a personal relationship with them. I feel sad but have little sense of loss for myself, more loss for the world in which they belonged, especially when the person who died made valuable contributions. But, in the passage of…
The Apples in My Orchard was started on February 23rd, 2017. I’ve been writing almost daily since! It is a reflective, personal blog that discusses some topics with passion and others with lightheartedness. Here you’ll find posts on education, travel, health, family life, nature, conservation, friendship, and lots of poems – some inspired and some…
Happy New Year’s Eve! I hope everyone reading this post has a safe, joyous, and healthy new year! We are at our cabin and I’m editing three essays I wrote, cutting and cutting words to make the delineated amount allowed. I hope to have something to submit by the end of the day! Fortunately, it’s…
I’ve long known what my name means. My given name, Carol, means joyous song. It is British in origin and the female version of Charles. I was named not for these reasons but because my mother had three close friends all named Carol – a popular name, apparently for a girl baby born in the…
A Sanibel Memory Tiny broken shards of shell Strewn across the ground like Broken glass Summer’s breath hot and strong Blows across the beach Making it hard to stand Your blue bucket tips Shells scatter, blown farther than Your little legs can carry you No tears, just laughter, as you Struggle to stay standing in…
At this time of year, as a gardener, my attention is naturally drawn to holiday plants. For years my fascination with Poinsettias, Christmas Cactus, Paperwhites, Amaryllis, and Mistletoe was handled by my ability to teach my elementary school garden club members about these living decorations we bring into our homes each year. By researching all…
Music played a large part in my early life. As elementary students, we were introduced to Orf instruments in third grade, playing wooden xylophones and more as part of our music class. Choosing an instrument came in fourth grade, and I chose the flute, mostly due to my diminutive size. Due to the instruction on…
Ten years ago, during the summer of 2011, my eldest son participated in the National History Day contest with a friend. Let me be clear, they were in the national part of the contest. This meant that they had participated at the district level, the regional level, the state level, and were selected to go…
I thought about not posting today. But, when I considered this, I thought about how hard I’ve worked over the last one and a half years to network with fellow Poetry Friday participants. They have grown to be an important source of support and opportunity for me. Therefore, I knew I had to come up…