Oh, Christmas Tree
There’s nothing like a holiday to remind us of the passing of time. And there’s nothing like a tradition to remind us of family. Read more
Email this pageHome for the Holidays
In all of my 22 years of living three miles outside of Narrowsburg I must humbly confess that I had never stepped foot inside the Delaware Valley Art Alliance’s Signature Gifts shop on Main Street. Recently, when I paid them a visit, I saw what a fool I had been. Read more
Where the Dead Live
I have a black and white photograph taken in 1909 of my father Sol, who was four years old, his older sister Miriam, a younger brother Joe, his mother Leah, who looks pregnant and angry, his father Jonah, uncle Benny and his sister Rose.
The adults look solemn; the children frightened.
The men are in dark suits, the women in gowns, I wouldn’t be surprised if the clothes were supplied by the photographer. Only the children seem to be wearing their own clothes. It’s a formal, posed studio photograph taken to record a significant moment, perhaps their arrival in the United States. Read more
The Bamboo in the Garden
One evening during my mother’s last stay at the hospital, after we told her good night, my aunt and I walked uptown. On our way, we encountered a man standing outside an ethnic deli. He held out a smudged Styrofoam coffee cup. And I reached in my purse for money. Don’t do that, my aunt whispered. Read more
The validity of winter
April opens my tight-fisted heart
and rattles away all bias
and judgment
against the winter I fought
yet needed so perfectly.
Today the heavy blanket
I stitched feverishly
with chaotic weave
in fierce, breathless resistance
to early darkness,
death, cold, solitude
and change,
I will cast into the rising Delaware
as my wrong accounting…
seeing finally,
in this blessed armistice
conveyed by troupes of daffodils
and robins,
that not one thing can hold firm,
and no one season
holds more wonder
or validity
than another.
Why I Live Where I Live
Meet me on Old Mine Road
near Bevans Church and
I will tell you about
that snowy February day
on the gravel trail
near Van Campen’s Inn,
air, ice fresh,
rock-strewn fields
like whipped cream swirls,
the sounds of foraging
mice, snow crystals
shifting in afternoon sun,
the click of a Nikon
as we pushed knee-deep
through drifts
shooting crumbling
barns and shadows
cast by barren limbs
in late day light.
I will tell you about
the lone house near
the river’s edge
warm with yellow light,
how wisps of smoke
like wind-blown kite tails Read more
Highland Farm: The Next Generation and Calkins Creamery artisan cheeses
According to author Jonathan Swift, the fare of a bachelor is “bread, cheese and kisses.” But the sound of that is delicious to just about everyone, and not in small quantities. The proof? In 2011, the average American consumed 30 pounds of cheese, an amount that has been steadily increasing since the 1990s. Our affection for artisan cheese, made in small batches from local sources, is growing at a pace that exceeds even the growth rate of general cheese consumption. Read more
Shining Brightly Again: Bethany’s Mansion at Noble Lane
Enter through the decorative iron gates that are more than a century old. Wind along the regal drive lined with craggy Norwood maples dressed in their rich autumn reds and oranges. Ahead on the hill is the Mansion at Noble Lane, a 25,000-square-foot luxurious resort and spa that is the dazzling new face of a forsaken post-Gilded Age estate with a curious past. Read more
Hawley Silk Mill’s New Mill Market: A local treasure
Located in the Hawley Silk Mill on Silk Mill Drive in Hawley, PA, the newly opened Mill Market features locally produced food and goods made within 200 miles of the Lake Wallenpaupack region of Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. The market, which opened its doors in June of 2012, also carries a selection of fine specialty products not available locally.
Silk Mill history Read more
