Down Home Blog

A few years back, my adult daughter moved to a toney Virginia suburb, where she found it challenging to live on her modest salary.

Aggressively marketed as important for health and hydration, a mind-boggling array of packaged beverages vie for our attention in the marketplace: sports drinks, energy drinks, fitness waters, vitamin waters—even “designer waters.” That’s not even counting the dozens of varieties of plain bottled water.

To see and hear the advertisements you’d think that before bottled beverages, human beings were unable to manage their thirst or replace the “electrolytes” lost through everyday living.

When it comes to housecleaning, I count myself among the minimum-but-good-enough class of rural dwellers.

You’ll know if you accidentally run into a patch of stinging nettles.

In late March, three weeks after knee-replacement surgery (which explains my lengthy absence from this space), northern New England experienced a record-breaking heat wave.

Among the easiest-to-grow houseplants, Aloe vera will decorate a kitchen shelf with quiet grace, while doing double duty as a self-regenerating first-aid kit.