“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

When Louisiana became a state in 1812, the seal was changed from an eagle holding a laurel wreath in its beak to a pelican plucking at its breast to draw blood to feed its ten chicks. The change in the seal by then Governor Claiborne was his way of honoring Louisiana’s Catholic heritage. In an 1812 Catholic prayer book, the Pelican is the symbol of self sacrifice.

My grandmother, Ruth Agnes Stephenson was born in 1906 in Pelican, Louisiana to parents of Scottish descent. This area in DeSoto Parish is known for its hunting and fishing, Hickory trees, and as a Confederate battlefield. Ruth’s father died when she was six years old, leaving the family penniless. Ruth was sent to live in a convent and her mother got a job as a secretary. The convent and its treatment of little children was practically out of a Charles Dickens novel.

The nuns taught Ruth to love sewing, and to mistrust the church. Ruth and her mother were reunited when her mother married a man from Casper, Wyoming. Upon graduation of high school, Ruth got a secretarial job working for the City of Casper. A young, tall, handsome geologist from Houston, Texas caught Ruth’s eye and they were married in 1924. My Grandfather, Harris, the youngest of five children, a Rice University graduate, and a Navy Pilot during WW1, worked for Texaco Oil. The family, which included my mom and aunt, moved every two to three years to exotic places such as the Philippines and Holland.

Ruth had a love of antique furniture and spent her days decorating her homes, sewing all of the curtains herself. Ruth loved entertaining, she was an inspired cook, her search for herbs and fresh ingredients elevated her meals to a life-changing experience. To this day, my grandmother’s curry recipe is my favorite. Growing up, my Dad would use Ruth’s recipe for our yearly curry parties at Christmas time. The curry at our restaurant, General Tanuki’s, was Ruthie’s recipe.

We have a movie of the day that Ruthie christened a Texaco Tanker at the shipyards in Ireland. Ruthie recited the usual poem, starting with; “for thousands of years we’ve gone to sea….” and broke the champagne bottle on the first try. At the luncheon after, the movie shows Ruthie giving a speech after accepting a mink stole and a diamond brooch as a gift from the President of Texaco Oil.

Life was wonderful for Ruth and Harris, while traveling the world they collected antique silver and first edition books. They www had witnessed marriages of both daughters and had four grandchildren. They were enjoying life in Bronxville, New York, playing golf and tennis every weekend. Harris was senior Vice President of Texaco when he fell ill. His stomach pain was unbearable, the doctors thought it was a virus picked up on one of his trips to Panama. The “virus” was actually very aggressive cancer, he lived three months. Ruth was devastated, absolutely destroyed. She couldn’t stand being in the house that she and my grandfather had bought so she sold it and traveled to Switzerland then Thailand. She went back to her Southern roots and bought a house in Sea Island, Georgia. I learned to ride a bike one summer we spent visiting her there.

Friday dinners were at the Cloister where there was a kid’s club. Ruthie seemed happier surrounded by her many friends, near the ocean where she swam and fished and sailed. She continued to travel, this time to Paris and Scotland, where she’d send incredible sweaters from Scotland and dolls from Paris. She’d visit us once or twice a year, coming off the plane with two men’s watches on her arm, different time zones on their faces. Our dog always chose Ruthie’s Ferragamo pumps as his favorite chew toy and her Southern drawl would surface when she would call him a “Varmit.” She moved to Boston to be near my aunt. This gorgeous apartment, one of five, in a deconsecrated church with its stained glass windows, lasted a year then she moved back to New York City.

We would visit in the fall and stock up at Saks Fifth Avenue for school clothes and shoes. One day as we were walking on Fifth Avenue, Ruthie instructed my sister and me to walk ahead because her smoking a cigarette on the street might besmirch our reputations. She taught me to never chew gum in public, not lady like. I had my first lox and bagels with her, her apartment was over the best deli. My first trip to New Orleans was with Ruthie, she was an excellent tour guide. One summer we took buses from New Hampshire to Tidewater Virginia. We saw all of the historic sights and met many of Ruthie’s friends from Texaco days. One of her friends convinced Ruthie to buy a condo in St. Petersburg, Florida. We loved our summer there, we swam everyday in the Gulf of Mexico, we ate the best fried chicken, and we traveled to Cape Kennedy for a space launch. After a year, Ruthie moved back to Bronxville.

Ruthie, my Aunt, and my Mom stayed a couple of weeks with me when I lived in Coronado, California. We spent a day getting lost in Tijuana while shopping for perfume, Ruthie in her riotous Pucci blouse and coral colored pants. We ate fish tacos and hamburguesas in Old Town San Diego and went whale watching at Point Loma. Ruthie bought a mouton coat at Buffums that I have to this day. I felt empowered by my aunt, my grandmother, and my mom during that visit, all four of us alone for one reason or other, navigating our lives with power and dignity.

That trip was the last time I saw Ruthie alive, she died six months later. My children and I flew to Houston for Ruthie’s gravesite funeral, no churches for her. Ruthie had been cremated and her urn was sitting on a pedestal. The officiant had never met Ruthie but proceeded to eulogize her nevertheless. Without any warning the urn fell to the ground, luckily the lid remained intact, no spillage of ashes. The minister scurried to replace the urn to its pedestal and introduced the family member who was chosen to give the eulogy. We all sat in shock at Ruthie’s ability to voice her disapproval from the great beyond.

My Grandmother had a difficult start to life but with incredible grace and fortitude she became a woman of the world. She told me once that she knew that she was destined to be more than a poor little girl from Pelican, Louisiana, and she was.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner that was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband , Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling.

“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

My Dad’s mom, Ida, was born in New York City in 1888, her mother died in child birth leaving her in the care of a nursery maid and the housekeeper. My great grandfather (a railroad executive) remarried a wonderful woman who became a loving mother to Ida. Her childhood days were filled with her studies, she had a tutor who inspired her love of Science, especially astronomy. Ida was very musical, she had a beautiful singing voice and was an accomplished organist. Ida was an avid horse woman, riding sidesaddle on the riding paths near her home.

After the death of her stepmother, Ida became very adept at running a household with the housekeeper and cook’s help, of course. Ida looked at a solar eclipse without proper eye protection in her early 20’s which nearly blinded her. Despite her weak eyesight, Ida joined one of the local hunt clubs and began wearing jodhpurs and sitting astride on an English saddle. As a young woman with many opportunities in life, my grandmother became involved with a philanthropic group whose mission was promoting educational opportunities for women. One of Ida’s volunteer jobs was reading to children at the local orphanage. As a devout Episcopalian, Ida quickly stepped in when the church organist died.

My grandfather, Wilson, an only child, living with his widowed mother, pumped the organ while Ida played at church every Sunday and they fell in love. Wilson went on to Yale for his bachelor’s and a doctorate in geology but that was not enough for Ida’s father to approve her hand in marriage, Wilson needed a job and a home. Wilson spent seven years riding horseback and sleeping under the stars all over Colorado, Texas, and Wyoming working for Ohio Oil. When he was given a company car and a house, Ida took the train with her future mother in law from New York to Wyoming to be married. The two women who left the bustling streets of New York City were greeted by huge tumbleweeds blowing down the wild, dusty streets of Laramie, Wyoming. Luckily, the luxurious Connor Hotel with indoor plumbing and electric lights, was a short drive from the train station.

In 1919, Laramie was still a Frontier town whose site was determined by the Union Pacific Railroad. Cattle and sheep ranches, hunting and trapping, and the oil fields were the primary employers of Laramie residents. After my grandparents quiet marriage ceremony at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Cathedral, cowboys were racing their horses in front of the hotel whooping it up and shooting their guns. My great grandmother was terrified that the cowboys were there to kidnap Ida and Wilson and insisted that Ida stay the night with her. It turns out that there were two newlywed couples in the hotel that night. Thankfully, the Shivaree was for the other couple who were kidnapped and dunked in a horse trough while being serenaded by the group of raucous cowboys.

Married life with an oil man was always full of surprises, the family was transferred every two to three years. My grandfather climbed to the top of the corporate ladder and retired at 65 years old. My grandparents spent their retirement traveling the world, they rode elephants in Africa and drank Sake and slept on futons in Japan. Ida never took to the Western style of horseback riding, she rode her English saddle until her 60’s. She never really learned to cook but loved to entertain and would host lavish dinners.

Some of my favorite memories were with “Grandma,” I had a weekly invitation to dinner at her house, her cook always prepared my favorite foods; lamb chops, mashed potatoes, sautéed spinach, asparagus, and chocolate eclairs. We would sit in her bedroom and I would go through her jewelry box, she would tell me the stories of each piece. She had several of her jeweled hat pins made into rings for me. I have her cameo bracelet and brooch that she bought in Italy, several gold chokers, and the creepy ring containing her dead mother’s hair (popular during the Victorian Era).

Grandma was a brave, optimistic woman who always had a kind word for everyone. She witnessed many important inventions such as the telephone, cars, planes, penicillin, helicopters, nuclear bomb, microwave ovens, seat belts, polio vaccine, and the first man on the moon. She grieved over the deaths of her husband and both of her sons, but she lived life to the fullest every single day of her 91 years. I sometimes look in the mirror and see my grandmother, Ida, looking back at me, she is my history.

“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot” – Aldo Leopold

Are you familiar with Phenology? It’s one of the oldest of the environmental sciences, it’s the study of nature’s signs and how that relates to events in weather, plants, animals, and insects. For example, “a halo around the moon means precipitation is coming soon”. Long before weathermen, people had to be aware of nature’s cues to aid them in planning and planting their gardens each season.

Examples include the date of emergence of leaves and flowers and the first appearance of migratory birds. The National Park Service has predicted that the Cherry Blossom Tree peak bloom will be March 22-23 this year, some years the trees bloomed as early as March 15. The Park Service said that the warm start to this year has scrambled the regular development of the cherry buds, with them never actually reaching their winter dormancy.

The Cherry Blossom trees in my neighborhood bloomed the last week of February. The bright yellow blossoms of the forsythia are a harbinger of spring, usually around late March to mid April here in Maryland, they are also in full bloom this week. I was surprised to see a Bradford Pear tree on Maryland Avenue in bloom this week, also. Signs of spring in Wyoming: melting snow, skiing without a parka, mud, and blizzards dropping three feet of snow during lambing season.

My aunt and my mom were gardeners, their flower gardens were peaceful and beautiful. My Aunt’s garden was typical for the Greek Revival townhouses at 2 Louisburg Square in Boston. It was brick on 3 walls which were covered in climbing roses and Wisteria. A fountain took center stage with flowers and ferns everywhere. There is a small, private fenced park in the middle of Louisburg Square that the Mallards consider for their home in Robert McCloskey’s children’s book, Make Way For Ducklings. The park is a riot of color beginning in April with the blooming of Daffodils, followed by Azaleas and then the Dogwoods, a great place to sit on a bench and watch the birds.

Our yard was the bane of my brother’s existence as he had to mow once a week in summer, it took him all morning. My Mother’s garden was a tiny sanctuary in the backyard near the patio. It contained sea shells, crystals and fossils such as petrified wood in addition to a Yucca plant, Day Lillys, Roses, White Sage, and Daisies. She had pots of petunias everywhere on the patio.

They both grew up during WW2 and had a Victory Garden in their Los Feliz , California neighborhood near Griffith Park. Their hilly backyard contained Orange and Lemon trees, and Bougainvillea, which blooms in May. My grandmother had a green thumb so their garden provided most of the family’s vegetables. It was during her childhood years spent in California that my mother’s love of flowers, specifically gardenias began. Traveling in later years with my Mom and Aunt was always an opportunity to learn about the local flora and fauna, one or both would be the animal, flower, tree, or plant guide, they knew all the names. In California the most memorable are the ice plant and the Torrey Pines. In Hawaii, the Banyan and Monkey pod trees.

Red Sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning is an old saying about the weather that my Mom would often recite. She would stand in our backyard, her hand cupped over her eyes, checking the sky for rain. A morning sky that is a deep, fiery red can indicate that there is a high water content in the atmosphere, so rain could be on its way. I learned “clear moon, frost soon” while “moon bathing” on a fall evening as a child, for fun we would “howl” at the full moon. We’d watch the squirrels in the fall, if they lay in a big store of nuts, it would be a hard winter.

One late August it snowed then was 70 degrees the next day. My mother was an amazing teacher of everything great in life, but her love of nature and the miracles that it possesses was probably my favorite. She had an incredible intuition about the natural world that showed in her garden and her love of animals. My Mom spent a lot of time outside in her garden, she would drink her morning coffee there listening to the birds. Happy Hour outside was always a joy with friends in the summer.

My garden in Hawaii was a little weird, I inherited a cactus garden along the driveway that my very young, bike-riding son fell into. The three foot tall poinsettias grew and flowered all year long under the louvered windows in the front of the house. There was a very tall Banyan tree that was planted on the east side of the property for good luck. My children delighted in hiding in the “aerial roots”, probably soaking up all of the tree’s supernatural powers and hoping for a “Menehune” sighting. According to Hindu lore, “the Banyan tree is said to fulfill all our wishes.” The Banyan is said to represent growth, strength, and self awareness, Buddha found enlightenment after sitting under the Banyan for 7 days. There were several Coconut palm trees that a local family would harvest periodically. The husband would climb the trees barefooted with his machete in hand. He would cut several palms off for his wife to weave a basket for the coconuts.

Next came the coconuts, usually about 15 from each tree. The Mangoes were the worst and the best, the best because, free Mangoes! The worst because they grew and ripened and fell everyday from May until October. The rotting mangoes smelled like a bad liqueur and the bees loved it. My four year old daughter was in charge of collecting mangoes until a rash appeared on her hands and arms, signaling an allergy. I was then in charge of mango disposal, our backyard was Pearl Harbor so I would throw the rotten mangoes in the water, the fish loved it.

I wish I had those trees now, I spend $10 on a bag of frozen mangoes at Food Lion for my morning smoothie. We had a banana tree that produced the best tasting bananas that I’ve ever had. I had orchids that grew on the rough bark from our palm trees, without any soil. The two Plumeria trees in my yard provided the fragrant flowers for leis for our guests to the island. My garden was a beautiful, fragrant, waterfront paradise that provided food and entertainment, even the infrequent sighting of a centipede couldn’t ruin the happy times spent there.

Hawai’i really has only two seasons, “summer” between May and October and “winter “ between October and April. The average air temperature in “summer “ is 85 degrees but the trade winds keep it cool. The Islands heat up in August and September, temperatures can reach the 90’s with the humidity. The temperature in winter drops to an average 78 degrees and the rains come, drenching rain. Swimming in winter can be rough at some beaches due to the high surf. Keikis (children) learn about weather from this saying, “if we see a Koa’e bird traveling far, it is a calm day. If there are Kukui flowers on the ground, it is a windy day. If the sky is grey and cloudy, there is a chance of rain.”

For centuries, farmers have taken their cues for planting times from nature. For example; plant potatoes when the first dandelion blooms and plant peas when forsythia blooms. This method of planting illustrates how so many natural events are weather related. Keeping a weather and planting journal is a useful tool in gardening. Phenology is a key component to life on earth. Phenology tracks the yearly changes in precipitation and temperature and the impact on plants and animals. Phenology is nature’s calendar.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner that was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband , Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling.

If you prefer eating organic foods, enjoy growing your own vegetables, and are conscientious about pesticides and the environment, chances are that you have considered keeping chickens. Chickens make an excellent gardening companion, they enjoy chasing down plant destroying insects like grasshoppers, grubs, and beetles. Chickens are ground birds with strong feet that are meant for digging and scratching in search of food. Busy chickens till the soil by turning leaf litter, giving the soil a natural boost.

According to Mother Earth News, over 13 million tons of grass clippings, leaf, and yard waste was sent to U.S. landfills in 2021. Chickens love and will happily eat leaf and yard waste. Chickens lay around 250 eggs a year, Americans eat an average of 263 eggs a year. Pet chickens’ eggs have been proven to be higher in omega-3 acids and vitamin E than factory farmed eggs.

The little town of Limburg, Belgium offered 3 chickens to 2,000 households as an experiment in 2010 to cut down on household waste. Belgian officials have reported that the chickens are a huge success, organic waste has been cut in half and the families have gained a supply of free, fresh eggs. With the price of eggs getting higher each week, people love collecting their own freshly laid eggs from their own backyard chickens.

As inflation hit all areas of spending, Canadians are supporting urban food security by raising egg laying hens in their backyards. Paul Hughes, director of Grow Calgary, has long been a proponent of urban chickens, he says that families that choose to have hens will improve their household food security. While planting vegetables in your backyard allows people to grow their own food, sources of complex protein are harder to come by, that’s where chickens come in. Their size makes them a good fit for an urban environment. Chickens eat table scraps and a bag of feed is very inexpensive.

An estimated 12 million people in the U.S. now own backyard chickens. The appeal of chickens is that they are relatively low maintenance, they don’t need a lot of land and coops can be purchased on Amazon or at Lowe’s. A small but rapidly growing slice of the American population has become interested in growing and raising food at home, a trend that began during the pandemic and has been invigorated by the shortages it caused. The average price of a dozen eggs in December 2021 was $1.79 compared to $4.25 in December 2022.

My family has been raising chickens for over 10 years, there isn’t a better egg than one laid by your pet chicken. For my effort I get eggs that are far superior to the best organic ones at the grocery store. My chicken’s egg yolks are bright orange as a result of a diet of veggies, herbs, fruit, and organic chicken feed. As Hippocrates said, “food is medicine” and I know exactly what my chickens eat in a day, not the case with store bought eggs.

My chickens are delightful and silly, they are at the coop door every morning greeting me with their cheerful clucks. This flock is two years old and just finished a two month molt, it was sad to see my usually fluffy birds losing their plumage. It was also sad to have to buy eggs for baking. Luckily, the days are getting longer and the girls are laying again.

If you’re considering your own backyard flock, Chesapeake Seed and Feed in Cambridge is the best resource for everything regarding chickens. The owner is knowledgeable and will carry everything out to your car. They stock locally made chicken feed and even sell baby chicks in the spring.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner that was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband , Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling.

On February 2 every year, a groundhog (woodchuck) emerges from its burrow to foretell the weather for the next six weeks. If the day is sunny and the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If the day is cloudy, spring will be early. During the Middle Ages it was believed that animals such as the bear and the badger interrupted their hibernation to appear on February 2. Groundhog Day may have roots in an early Christian holiday called Candlemas, the day that candles were blessed and distributed. It was believed that clear skies meant a long winter. In German folklore the hedgehog was the predictor of an early spring.

On February 2, 1887 the groundhog named Phil, first made his appearance in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Promoters of the festival claim that Phil has never been wrong, records show that Phil’s predictions are historically 40% correct.

The Farmer’s Almanac uses a mathematical and astronomical formula for long range weather predictions. Tidal action of the moon , sunspot activity, and positions of the planets are a few of the tools used to forecast weather. Fans of the Farmer’s Almanac say that forecast accuracy is 80-85%.

Groundhogs have 22 teeth, are vegetarian, weigh 12-15 pounds, losing half their body weight during hibernation, and hibernate alone in a burrow with 2 doors. Groundhogs are swimmers and can climb trees as well as burrowing. Groundhogs play an important role maintaining healthy soil in the woodlands and plains. Groundhogs are extremely intelligent, solitary, habitat engineers that maintain a complex social network through a series of whistles.

There is a Groundhog song written by Helen Slayton Hughes: “We’ll light the big green candle and eat some rhubarb pie, gimme a kiss, it’s Groundhog Day and Groundhogs do not lie”.

Many fans of Groundhog’s Day celebrate by watching the 1993 movie with Bill Murray, while eating “dirt pie”(chocolate pudding topped with ground chocolate cookies). The movie is based on an iconic work, The Gay Science by German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche where a man lives the same day over and over again. Bill Murray plays a cynical weatherman who travels to Punxsutawney to report on the annual Groundhog Day festival. Bill Murray’s character, Phil, lives for the future with his career goals and dreams for success. By not living in the present , Phil gets caught in a time loop, reliving each day until he eventually finds the true value to his life.

Groundhog Day is really just a light hearted holiday that is an excuse for some fun and festivities during the dreary winter season.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner that was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband, Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling.