by Marlene Bumgarner | Apr 6, 2020 | Aging, Community, Cooking and Eating, Family, Health, Writing
Sheltering at Home, Week One The first week of sheltering at home, I thought “This is great – I’ll have time to do all those things I’ve been putting off. I unearthed a photo album from the 1980s that I wanted to bring up to date for my...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Mar 21, 2020 | Back to the Land, Community, Cooking and Eating, Family, Gardening, Health
Learning New Ways of Being We’ve all been exploring new ways of doing things this week, and I have been gratified to experience the creativity and kindness I have seen from friends and neighbors. Since I am over 60 – way over 60 – and...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Mar 2, 2020 | Back to the Land, Community, Cooking and Eating, Family, Gardening, Health
Back to the Land A friend asked me this week, “What did you learn from living on the land that would help me cope if I’m stuck at home for two weeks with my children?” An interesting question. I of course immediately began trying to work that out....
by Marlene Bumgarner | Dec 15, 2019 | Child development, Cooking and Eating, Family, Grandparenting
Keeping Traditions Alive Two weeks ago I flew to Los Angeles to spend Thanksgiving with my son’s family and to keep a family tradition. I packed my English tart tins and a rolling pin in order to introduce my youngest grandchild to making mince tarts. My son has...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Oct 13, 2019 | Aging, Child development, Cooking and Eating, Family, Grandparenting, Nature
The Pumpkin Patch Adventure This was the week Bean and I made our annual pilgrimage to her favorite pumpkin patch. We’ve been doing this together since she was three years old and now she’s eight and knows the routine quite well. “I’ll start...
by Marlene Bumgarner | May 14, 2019 | Aging, Cooking and Eating, Family
Mama’s Rice Pudding Today is my mother’s birthday. She would have been 99. I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately, and when one day last week remained grey and somber past noon, I began thinking about her rice pudding. When I was a little girl, Mom offered...