"College Grads: Go Forth With Your Future (But First Clean Out the Refrigerator)" / HUFFINGTON POST

After the festivities of the celebration I looked forward to helping my daughter pack up her room in the house she had lived in with four other women during their senior year at college.

"I'll help clean up," I said.

"Its practically finished anyway," said the new graduate.

Famous last four words.

To read story, go here -->  College Grads

"Here is our lovely college graduate," said the proud mother.

Getting the first degree.

The Graduate.

My two favorite Cornellians.

Keep it real.

An Upcoming Family Milestone: Daughter Graduating from College This Weekend

This is Annaclaire's graduation gown. Those are her honor cords. (I am very proud of my daughter.)

A Bloomy Spring

The lilacs are in bloom in Pound Ridge.

Yesterday, I visited a friend who had a blooming dogwood with flowering wisteria wrapped around it's branches. The intertwining of their annual floral love song was magnificent.  

Close your eyes and imagine it.  White blossoms with lavender wisteria dripping from its branches.  So beautiful.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Oklahoma

Message found in the debris in Oklahoma:

Our thoughts and prayers are with victims devastated by the tornado in Oklahoma. We share your sorrow.

Pound Ridge in the 1930s: Catching Sunnies in the Summertime

"In the summertime, we went to the Breuningers' on West Lane to go swimming in the pond alongside the house. And on summer evenings, our family went fishing together. With our red cork on the fishing pole, and a can of worms, we'd go down to the big lake in back of the Marshall Oil office on Salem Road. If we were lucky, we caught a bass. We'd also catch sunnies, perch, and at dusk, catfish. Everybody would eat what we caught for dinner," said Pat Marshall Bartram, a native Pound Ridger. "When I was growing up here in the 1930s, everybody knew everybody in town. If you wanted to visit somebody in the evening, you just went. On Sundays, friends would stop in. They'd come unannounceed, but they were friends, and you thought nothng of it. It was a super way to grow up. It really was." ~ Excerpt from POUND RIDGE PAST: Remembrances of Our Townsfolk, "Pat Marshall Bartram: "Barrels of Oil and Blocks of Ice."

Available at Chubby's, Plum Plums and The Lionhart Gallery in Pound Ridge; Erica's Kitchen in Bedford Corners, and design solutions in New Canaan, Conn. (For more info, go to --> POUND RIDGE PAST or ping me at poundridgepast@gmail.com)

May = Lobster Fest in Pound Ridge

Another thing that makes our town so special:  The Pound Ridge Community Church Annual Lobster Festival. This marks 42 years that folks have been coming out for fresh, live (or steamed) lobsters, Littleneck clams, mussels, fresh corn on the cob ... and, oh, those homemade pies!

It all takes place in the hamlet on
Saturday, May 31, 2014 from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Click here for the Lobster Song

Pound Ridge Community Church
3 Pound Ridge Road
Pound Ridge, N.Y.  
T: 914.764-9000

RX: Seek Spontaneity

Spontaneity ... something I love. I was at my desk and heard honking in the driveway. A good friend was in the area and decided to stop by. Voilà ... instant tea party!

38 Degrees on a May Evening in Pound Ridge

It is 38 DEGREES in Pound Ridge, N.Y. and it's mid-May!!! 
I hope everything I planted on Mother's Day doesn't freeze to death in my garden. :-||

What gives????

New HUFFPOST: "From 'Mommy' to 'Mother' -- A Treasured Transformation"

It's about motherhood, gratitude and beatitude (pronounced "be-attitude," which means "supreme blessedness or happiness.")

To read full story on Huffington Post, click here.

You call this children's play? The stuff has polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone with ethyl acetate plastic fortifiers added.

On a recent trip to the local 5 & 10, I noticed something I hadn't seen since I was a wee one wearing a patch over my eye in some opthomologist's effort to straighten my crossed eyes.

Were those B'Loonies??? 

Raise your hand if you remember this toxic viscous plastic substance that was a children's "toy" manufactured in the 1970s. Bobby? Jimmy? Suzy? Twiggy? Anyone out there remember?

It is highly likely the fumes from the stuff obliterated all memories.

In the event you forgot, let's review "How to Blow B'Loonies":

. Squeeze  a blob of the liquid plastic onto the tip of the provided pink plastic straw.
. Blow gently to inflate the plastic into a bubble.
. Pinch the bubble from the straw so that the hole is closed and the air is sealed inside.

Now let's review what not to do:
Do not blow B'Loonies in an enclosed area. (B'Loonies can impact your breathing and respiratory system. In addition, fumes concentrate inside the straw and light-headedness will ensue.)

So my questions are this:

#1. The smell of the plastic goop is absolutely toxic. Just because it comes in green, yellow, red and blue, doesn't mean it's friendly. It contains polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone, with ethyl acetate plastic fortifiers added. How did this stuff ever get approved as a  toy? 

#2. How many children in history passed out while blowing B'Loonies?

#3. And how many people will admit that they chewed B'Loonies after the bubbles deflated?

#4.  Weren't B'loonies in play about the same time as Agent Orange?  (Is there a connection?)

#5. (I forgot my question.)

B'Loonies were in the hands of children at the approximate period that I remember playing in DNT smoke when "The Mosquito Man" came to our neighborhood to annihilate flying insects every summer.  It was also a time when rogue Slinkies could be used as weapontry.

In any case, B'Loonies are one of the scariest interactive toys ever invented. Along with marbles (which I almost choked to death on when I was 4.) (Not kidding.)