Yesterday Linda Cascio Critelli came to the Grand Island Memorial Library to do a cooking demonstration and to tell stories about her experiences in France, as well as her knowledge of Italian cooking. She was selling a little cookbook, titled Sicilian with a French Accent. It features “deliciously simple cuisine.” She turned the library meeting […]

Today, I am writing about the fun of preparing food and not necessarily following the recipe. I didn’t have pine nuts or basil… but I still wanted to make pesto. I had started experimenting with replacing basil with other greens some time ago. I first started with spinach, which was fun because it made the

For the last month, I have been taking a tree steward class, which was organized by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County and funded by the Buffalo Green Fund. We are being trained to plant and care for young trees. We can do our volunteer work in Buffalo, as well as organize tree projects

It’s time to share more comments and conversation! From the Comments and Conversation post…   thank you for chatting with me! … we continue the conversation! Martha: I missed “E”!! I love your elephants!! Thank you so much, Martha. Just like my dad, I love elephants. Elephants are interesting, complicated animals. They are very large,

On Sunday, April 8th, I went to Grand Island’s spring farmers’ market. It was held at the Knights of Columbus hall. All of this yummy stuffis made locally It is a plain room, but the market itself is magical, with its array of baked goods, eggs, meats, olive oil, vinegar, honey, maple syrup, and other

 It poured freezing rain all last night. By morning, the streets were a slippery disaster. I decided that walking… um… sliding to church was not happening so I stayed home and called it a “lull day.” It was a day to crochet and read and cook. Outside, the landscape looked frozen and not very attractive. The

On January 27th, I went to a wellness fair, sponsored by Grand Island’s small businesses. It was a delightful event, and I wrote about it early in February. Here is a link to that post: all about the wellness fair Every one of the exhibitors at the wellness fair had a prize that could be won.

Joy is defined as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. People find happiness in one another.  I see human faces as a very likely place to find beauty. When I’m feeling sad, I feel much better if I see someone’s smile. So, today, I found an online editor, and I made these collages of

Last Wednesday, the winds howled. As I looked out the window, I could see uprooted trees, trees fallen on electrical lines, broken garbage cans lying in ditches, roof shingles on lawns and in the street, and the list goes on.  Doesn’t that seem like an unlikely setting in which to find beauty? I thought so,

Last week, I heard an interesting historical presentation by John Montague of the Buffalo Maritime Center. So… you’re probably wondering what this has to do with finding beauty in likely or unlikely places. Well… this is a little more abstract, maybe. I would say that finding beauty in history may be finding beauty in an