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It was an October for losers

Three weeks ago, I wrote about a breadless October. A one-month diet regimen. I honestly had no idea how many foodstuffs fall under the Bread category, or how often that category entered my digestive tract! Dear Richard and I decided to try just cutting that one item – in all its varieties – out of our diet. I had heard from a high-flying, banquet-going friend about his loss of 20 pounds merely by giving up bread. We were lulled into a sense of confidence by thinking how easy it would be. But we learned that bread is everywhere – it lurks around every corner. A neighbor, ...

View from Hickory Heights: The full moon

If you live around this area, you certainly cannot have missed the beautiful full moon that has been present for the last few nights. Thanks to John Stehlin, the meteorologist for WICU television, I learned that this moon is called the “Hunter’s Moon”. It was actually a Super Moon this year. He has been a wealth of information about all things meteorological that are going on around here. Just the week before we were able to see the northern lights. I did not know that you had to view them with your camera instead of the naked eye. We have been able to see them for several months ...

Not ordinary blues for Monday morning

Last Monday morning was especially blue – but not for the usual gloomy reasons. My routine road trip to Erie for a doctor’s appointment was particularly eye-opening… and captivating. It was ten a.m. as I drove toward Sugar Grove, home to many Amish families. On the way into town, I passed three separate Amish buggies driving toward Warren. One of the young men waved and I returned his friendly gesture. Heading northwest out of Sugar Grove for Highway 86, I always pass a dozen or so Amish farms. It’s the reason I choose Wellman Road over its parallel route about a mile away. ...

District ignoring pleas of residents

Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a group of people pouring out your soul about something you have researched and prepared diligently to deliver, only to have the group not acknowledge you, not look up, continuing to draw or doodle on the papers in front of them, play on their phones or laptops, basically do anything other than acknowledge that you are speaking or that have they have the slightest interest in what you are sharing, that is how I would describe addressing the members of the board at a school board meeting. It feels like we are fighting against a Good Ole boys ...

Start planning for next spring

What perennials need to be replaced? If you have a plant with a dead center that needs to be dug, the center removed and the healthy part of the plant moved. Likewise are there plants that need to be replaced. My Shasta daisies have not had a good season. Next spring I need to replace them in new amended soil. Don’t be too tidy. Our pollinators need the perennials to hibernate for the winter. Don’t fertilize your plants. They need quiet rest. Fertilizer sends them the signal to grow. Compost is not a fertilizer but a soil amendment that can be placed on the soil around the ...

View from Hickory Heights: Feather beds

I have always loved songs by John Denver. A while back I purchased two CDs of his greatest hits. I knew many of them, but not all of them. Some of the newer ones have become my favorites. I especially love “Some Days are Diamonds, Some Days are Stones”. That song has come to mean so much to me. I remember having days that were diamonds while others were stones. At any rate I survived them all. Another song that I like is “Grandma’s Feather Bed.” While I never slept in a feather bed, I do remember sleeping three in a bed at my aunt’s house. The song says “nine feet high ...