Because many of you are expecting company for the holidays and looking for things for them to do, I decided to take a page from my book, The Picnic Basket, to suggest a winter picnic. I quote:

“I recall sitting with a friend by a frozen brook in upstste New York one sunny February day. Our lunch was spread out on a log, our snoeshoes leaned against a tree. Above our heads birch branches laced across a brilliant sky. There was no sound but the soft gurgling of the brook beneath the snow and ice and the call of blue jays high in the trees.

“We rested while sipping and spooning hot black bean soup, inhaling the steam and warming our hands on the mugs. A brightly colored homespun dish towel served a our tiny table cloth. On it we placed huge homemade wheat crackers surrounded by spreads, artichoke cheese, veal pate, whitefish and dill. We did not bring wine because alcohol causes body heat loss but we did lace our strong black coffee with a nip of brandy, sipping it with chocolate almond bars for dessert.”

Are you ready for a winter picnic? Or send your guests off with lunch on a bright blue winter day.

Hello all my blog readers. Sorry for the delay in posts on the blog. Right aftrer the last post I was rushed to the hospital for emergency heart surgery.  I’m now in recovery and doing well. However, to be so close to the end of life does have a sobering effect.

I’d like to hear if anyone else has had a moment when they thought life might end.  Were you satisfied that you had done your best?  I remember being happy that I would leave behind loving children. Glad that love would pass on to another generation. I felt like a conduit, having received so much love during my life from my parents and others which hopefully I had passed on.  Love is something one can leave behind, as my mother, Dolly, did, enriching generations to come.