Reading, Writing, Working, Playing

Our trip to Gettysburg in mid-October was everything I had hoped it would be.  We stayed at the Gettysburg Hotel , right smack dab in the mi...

 "...one of the most stupendous scenes in nature" Thomas Jefferson Last week, after the JASNA AGM in Baltimore celebrating Jane Au...

It's been a while since I last posted, mostly because I am in the middle of a couple of big books, and I generally wait until I'm do...

Garden Notes This week's star native is Bee Balm (aka Wild Bergamot). This fragrant perennial comes in lots of colors, has spikey flower...

 I just finished two books that deal directly with slavery--both were gut wrenching, powerful, and left me angry that we are still fighting ...

I just finished H.W. Brands' wonderful bio of U.S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, the top general of the Union Army, an...

January truly is the longest month. The holiday decorations, except the outdoor lights, are put away for another year. Too cold and snowy to...

I didn't do the R.I.P. challenge this year. Not from not wanting to, or not trying. I simply couldn't figure out the logistics based...

  Another chunkster from Jeff Shaara as part of the great American Civil War deep dive,  A Chain of Thunder  details the siege of Vicksburg ...

Erik Larson is one of my favorite non-fiction authors. When I heard that he had a new book out on the Civil War, I knew I had to read it. Th...

It's that time of year again--time to break out the big books for reading during the hot days of summer. I am not a beach or pool gal, b...

I am a long-time fan of the Great Courses and have listened to many courses over the past 20+ years. I first discovered them in my local lib...

Ambrose Bierce, American author and journalist, 1842-1914 I've known for years about  An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge , a short s...