Garnets on the Soles of My Shoes: Adirondack Rubies
Judy Brown’s red Subaru Outback has a simple vanity plate. It says “Garnets”. At the end of her road is her sign: “J+J Brown, Garnet Studio”. Garnet jewelry has been a thread through her rich life. Her garnet jewelry is ubiquitous in the Adirondacks, in every gift…
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What I Learned from Skiing and Tortillas
My friend Judi recently broke her shoulder bone. An expert skier, she fell on a very steep slope at Deer Valley. When I saw her finally, back home, white plastic brace wrapped around her shoulder like a shield, I asked her if the Ski Patrol had to…
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Reaching out to Others Through Collage: Excavations and Layers of Lisa Collado
A tiny work at the entrance to Lisa Collado’s exhibit greets visitors with: reaching out to others through collage. As I peered, mesmerized, at Lisa Collado’s work on display at Tannery Pond Community Center —this series of frenetic, almost dizzying, brilliantly colored collages—I could feel Lisa Collado…
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Lessons from an Adirondack Spring
It’s hard to love Spring in the Adirondacks. Indeed, “Spring” is a bit of a misnomer. The season I had come to think of as “Spring”–warm days, lush with the lavender crocus, yellow forsythia and the magenta azaleas—arrives in the Adirondacks but a few days before Summer.…
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My Senior Early Bird Special — on the Mountain
I know I’m late to the party, but I found it. I’m talking about the mid-week season pass at Gore Mountain. I live a few miles away from the mountain and this year, finally, I joined the weekday early morning skiing crowd. I’m 65 years old and…
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Resilience and Resourcefulness in Mexico: Xochilmilco and Oaxaca’s Central Valley
I am in awe of people who can make something out of nothing—salvagers and re-purposers and cultivators, dumpster divers and weavers, farmers coaxing food from the harshest earth, entrepreneurs finding possibility in a world of scarcity. On my recent trip to Mexico I saw this first hand,…
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The Sierra Norte: Walking in the land of the Zapotec
Capulalpám de Mendez is a pueblo mágico perched high in the Sierra Norte, reached by a curving, ascending two-hour drive from Oaxaca City. In these mountains, live people whose original language is Zapotec, not Spanish, who fight to preserve their traditions, and who live with a profound…
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Goin’ Back to School…Oaxaca Style
There is something about a test that, even at age 65, being retired, 40 years after taking two bar exams, LSATs, SATs, GREs and countless other tests, pop quizzes and final exams, still produces anxiety. At least that’s what I felt when I found myself last week…
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