February 2017

Today’s teacher story series focuses on Kayla Fyfe, who teaches dance at the Grand Island Dance Center. Students range in age from two to adult. The staff teaches a variety of dance forms: toddler, pre-ballet, ballet, jazz, hip hop, acro, Broadway, modern, and contemporary. For more information about the Grand Island Dance Center, check out […]

The challenge for week eight of the 52 week photography project is to imagine that you have only one shot left on your roll of film. You have to nail it. Hence, it is called one shot. No deleting. No second shot.  Here is my one shot. Woods Creek in Grand Island, New York. Question:

Yesterday evening, the Western New York Land Conservancy hosted a fascinating event at Grand Island Town Hall. The title of the event was “A Big Night for Salamanders.” The courtroom was full of people who wanted to learn more about salamanders. People came in groups. Some people brought their kids, who asked good questions and

A week and a half ago, I interviewed Nathan McMurray, the town supervisor of Grand Island, New York, for an article that I wrote for the Island Dispatch about a Western New York Welcome Center that will be built near the Whitehaven exit of the I-190. Due to space limitations, I couldn’t put everything into

The challenge for week seven of the 52-week photography project is to tell the story of something that is forgotten. I took several photographs which, to me, have “forgotten” stories to share. There are so many ways to forget. We forget things when we leave them behind. We grieve over those forgotten things. They become

It’s time for a food post. Since I made applesauce today, I figured that I would share the process of making applesauce. As long as you have a large pot and a food mill, making applesauce is an easy project. You start by quartering and coring your apples. For this batch, I used three quarts

Note:  This is an update of a story that I wrote about a year and a half ago about a chair painting project that I did. This was the first piece of furniture that I’ve ever painted. It took me three weeks to paint the chair. After I returned the chair, I wondered what happened

Note: Because I am working on  major news article for The Island Dispatch and because today is my deadline, I am reposting a story that first appeared in this blog on October 15th, 2014. This story is an essay about growing up with an undiagnosed learning disability that I had written for an online writing class. Kids

Note: Happy Valentine’s Day! Thank you for visiting my blog and for the comments. Today’s blog post is a Valentine for you, with photographs of flowers that I took last spring and summer and with sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Shakespeare.  Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall standHenceforward in thy shadow.

Today, I am sharing Celeste Angelo’s story. She teaches fifth grade at Huth Road Elementary School in Grand Island, New York. This is the seventh story in my series about teachers, their work, the things that they share with their students, and the things that bring them joy. I understand that teaching was not your