Unboring is not a common word. It is probably not a word at all. But using it to describe the path of my life makes me smile. There’s something new around every corner, something wonderful, and it always plays out differently than I would have thought. I want to share a bit of my unboring path with you: my own way of cooking, gardening, building things, playing, exploring. I want to share observations made, lessons learned, parallels observed. I want to marvel, ponder, stretch, discover, connect. Mostly I’ll stay close to home, on Golden Hill, my little piece of paradise in Virginia, but now and then I’ll travel back in time or away from here.

More than anything, this blog is for my grandchildren, all of whom live far, far away. They are too small to read it now, but I hope that the picture it paints of me, their Oma, will someday give them an idea of what I do (or did) with my time when I am not with them, how I think, play and work, and what’s important to me. It can’t hold a candle to spending time with them, or being near them, but it is something, and something is better than nothing.

Along the way, I hope you (oh how I want to say “Gentle Reader” the way Miss Manners did! that always cracked me up!) glean something useful (maybe a recipe — Chocolate Cheesecake, anyone?) or an idea for your own space (how about a cool chicken coop, garden signpost, stone streambed…) or something fun (like making felt corn on the cob or sawdust glitter) or something to ponder (like the reasons a blind lady would adamantly oppose my keeping two nearly blind dogs or why the hen that is a bully also crows (!) every morning).

Life is full of challenges and richly endowed with wonders that range from practically invisible to wildly spectacular. To me it is endlessly fascinating, endlessly unboring. There never have been and I suspect never will be enough hours in the day for all the things I want to do, see, experience, feel, explore and have fun with, never enough hours to connect with the people I love both near and far. Time goes so fast and so many people waste so much of it. I wish I could have their time, wish there was some way to divvie it up differently, but I can’t and there isn’t. We all get the same 24 hours. I am determined to use mine well — to both soak up and give back as much as I can with the time I have. Life is short (how are my children so grown up already??). Life is unboring (Betty, the pink moth that visited my cottage, confirmed this!). Life is way beyond good — it’s wonderful!!