by Marlene Bumgarner | Dec 29, 2018 | Cooking and Eating, Family, Health, Nature
I love persimmons, and I have planted three persimmon trees. The first one was eaten by deer before it could bear fruit. The second didn’t like where I planted it, and, after two years of minimal growth, quietly died. When I retired and bought a house in Santa Cruz, I...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Nov 21, 2018 | Aging, Community, Cooking and Eating, Family
Thanksgiving is the Great American Holiday. Even more than at Christmas, family members travel thousands of miles to sit around a lavishly prepared table and eat some variation on the meal that the Puritans and the Wampanoag Indians cooked during their three day...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Oct 28, 2018 | Aging, Child development, Community, Family, Grandparenting
Pumpkins Are the Key My oldest granddaughter, the one I’ve been calling Bean all these years, is now a string bean. She’s seven and a half and tall and active, both in her body and in her mind. Several of her favorite things to do at Halloween happen...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Sep 26, 2018 | Aging, Family, Travel
Green Paper and Binder Clips It didn’t start out as a Great Love. I think that may be the case for many late life loves. Dennie and I began as colleagues, teaching at the satellite center of a small community college. Instructors were expected to publicize their own...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Jul 28, 2018 | Child development, Family, Grandparenting
The Passage of Time I’ve always had an uneasy relationship with time. When I was young, there never seemed to be enough of it. Each year when I was required to select one or two electives from a list of about twenty I anguished over my choices. Couldn’t I take three?...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Jul 12, 2018 | Child development, Family, Grandparenting, Writing
Crazy Weather in Santa Cruz The weather in Santa Cruz has been crazy lately. For the past two days the sun has been bright in the sky by 6:30 a.m. and the temperatures have been in the 90s . . . for this beach community, that is very hot. Then, just when I plan my day...