If you like cookbooks, 2017 was a great year. Let’s just say if I was let loose on amazon, I would have needed a new bookshelf. Here are a few of my favorites from the year...
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While I appreciate the break from endless harvests, I do miss the blooms. This year we trialed a handful of double flowering Christmas amaryllis from Van Engelen as a winter bloom. They continue to impress; most bulbs have sent up two shoots loaded with long-lasting blooms....
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My cousin is getting married this year, and he and his fiancee are planning wedding celebrations in both Vietnam (where she is from) and Maine (where he is from). I was so hoping that we would be able to attend the wedding in Vietnam and extend the trip for a few weeks, but it wasn’t in the cards for us this year. A few years ago...
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A few winters ago we took a whole month off and went to Colombia. It was right when Jetblue started flying direct to to Cartagena, so flights were cheap. It was my first time in South America, and it was such a revelation to take short flight in the same time zone and land in a completely different culture. We were there on the cusp of Colombia blowing up as a tourist destination (it actually already begun, hence the Jetblue flight)...
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I am not making any resolutions for 2018. For the last while, my resolutions have fallen into predictable patterns. The categories are always the same - there is the exercise resolution, the dental hygiene resolution, and the be-nicer-to-people resolution. There are the goals to be more mindful, do more yoga, and eat more green things. At the beginning of every year, I end up just adding these self-help tasks to my growing to-do-lists. I’m done with that.
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I have this theory about magical places - they touch your spirit in ways that are difficult to articulate. They are personal. Some magical places have universal qualities that make them special to many; some have unique characteristics that display their magic only to a few. I first went to Joshua Tree in the fall of 2014, and it was pure magic. The combination of open desert, otherworldly flora and no expectations met with mesmerizing oddities sealed it as one of my top places. I have been back twice since the first encounter...
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