On Friday, November 10, I decided to take a walk down Buffalo’s Riverwalk. It was a bright, clear day, a good day to be outside, experiencing nature and exploring the edges of the city.I started my walk at the marina in downtown Buffalo. In the marina, there are retired battleships and monuments to servicemen and […]

Buffalo’s lighthouse was built in 1833. It is the one of the oldest lighthouses on the Great Lakes.You can find details about the lighthouse at http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/a/wat/light.htmI am hoping to go inside of the lighthouse and take a tour! Maybe on another adventure???

This is Smokey. Sometimes we call him Smokey the Bear. Sometimes, we call him Big Boy. My sister likes to call him Guy.Smokey was a stray cat that my sister Diane fed. One day, he managed to sneak into her apartment. Her cat, Abby, was not too thrilled about seeing another cat in her space.

This is Zoe. She is our modern art cat… black and white, sort of like “op art.”Zoe is a feline alarm clock. She meows loudly at my parents’ bedroom door early in the morning. They usually don’t answer until they are ready to. That doesn’t stop her from making long, involved speeches. She has a

Painting autumnal trees was the theme of artist Jinni Kelley’s watercolor class at Stella Niagara, in Lewiston, on October 12. While at this class, I learned how to use paintbrushes and sponges to give the effect of red, yellow, and orange leaves. Although the class was not painting an actual outdoor scene, our paintings reflected

During my last evening with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, I was offered a ticket to a production of Dracula at Viterbo University. I was very eager and enthusiastic about attending this performance. I had wondered how the Dracula story might be performed as a ballet. I was especially interested in finding out how

Early in the afternoon on September 20, I went to downtown LaCrosse to stand with the Women in Black. Five of us stood on a street corner for half an hour. We silently held up signs with messages that asked for an end to the war in Iraq. The response that we received from passing

The archives at the LaCrosse, Wisconsin, motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration are full of stories of the sisters’ lives from the order’s founding in the mid-19th century to the present. In 1849, a group of third order Franciscans, both men and women, came to Wisconsin from Ettenbeuren, Bavaria, to found a religious

Sister Arlene and a few other Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration were my breakfast companion on the morning of September 19. After the other sisters had finished their breakfast and had left, I asked Sister Arlene what motivated her to enter the religious life.Sister Arlene told me that she went to Catholic schools when she

On Monday, September 18, I had my last breakfast of oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, and homemade apple cider at the Sliwas’ organic farm near Decorah, Iowa. I enjoyed one last visit to the raspberry bushes to pick that wonderful delicacy before I got into the car to head to LaCrosse, Wisconsin.Raspberries and tomatoes are foods that