Mom’s Christmas Cookies

If Dad produced odd German spicy treats every year (as my recent post talked about), my mother could be depended on for the kinds of cookies you could give to the postman without imagining his puzzled look. Mostly sweet, best eaten fresh, and decorative. Some were super-sweet, like her “Matrimonials.” She produced decorated butter cookies, of…

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Dad the Baker

It’s no accident that the cold, dark time of year finds us thinking of warmth and family—either enjoying it, or missing it. And nothing represents family quite so much as holiday foods. Which generally means cooking. Growing up, my mother was the cook, but certain things my father claimed as his. Preparing Sunday brunch gave…

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Frog; Cougar; Ranger

I love Nature, really I do. There’s a reason I live in a house with nothing but trees as far as a stone can throw, with neighbors who have wings or wattles or sometimes large teeth. But in my last house, we had a half-barrel pond near the front door, with plants and lilies. The…

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Grandparents’ Day

Happy grandparents day, all. And here’s to the kids, who bring a sense of wonder… and curiosity… and open the door to new experiences… and make for a gift that keeps being opened.

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There be dragons

So, I have this grandson, who was having a birthday. And the kid loves dragons–really loves dragons. So I thought I ought to make him a blanket as I did for his brother a couple of years ago (the brother wanted snakes. Surprisingly cheery, in fact.) And since my town actually has a genuine fabric…

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Blenheim in the heat

A summer holiday in England is always a toss-up. I’ve had summers where even homo sapiens feel the sogginess of hoof and mouth disease, and other summers with dry reservoirs and lengthy hose-pipe bans. This is one of the Augusts when green is but a memory. So here in our holiday home just outside the…

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Noel’s work, continued

The past week saw two kinds of memorial to my husband, Noel King. One was a talk, the latest in a series of “Noel Q. King Lectures” held at UC Santa Cruz. The second was a publication, with Noel as co-author. After Noel died, we started up a lecture series to continue his life’s work…

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The King lecture

Once upon a time there was a man born in India, educated in England, working in Africa, who was hired by a visiting American to help set up a new college and program at the newest jewel in the crown that is the University of California. When Noel King came to Santa Cruz, most of…

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Love for Victoria (& Albert too)

Wednesday we (ie: self and daughter’s family with two small persons) reluctantly extracted ourselves from the farmyard near Thame where we’ve been talking to cows and magpies the past couple of weeks and flung ourselves at London, to insert said daughter’s family onto an aeroplane Thursday morning. A process that proved rather more troublesome than…

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Alma Mater

The University of California Santa Cruz (“The original authority on questioning authority”) is my alma mater, and has continued to nourish me long after she handed me my degree.  Five years ago, I was tremendously honored to be named one of this relatively new university’s “45+5” alumni.  And coming up on the 25th, I will be participating…

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