A Nice Cuppa

One of the greatest things about living in the Northeast is the clear definition and extension of the four seasons. The clear crispness and browning leaves ease us into fall. By winter, the branches are bare and the days are unbearably short. And then the crocuses usher in spring with their sturdy […]

Whenever my parents visit me in New York, my mother and I branch off from my father for a day filled with shopping and eating. We rejoin him each evening for dinner where we try in earnest to eat, but aren???t very convincing. Though we???ve never revealed the secret behind our full bellies, […]

These days, health is everything and the phrase “you are what you eat” is truer than ever before. But, don???t you just get tired of it all sometimes? I mean, eggs were bad for you. Now the good outweighs the bad. Eat fish twice weekly, but here???s the exhaustive list you […]

Until recently, the only things I knew about Delaware were my sister-in-law was raised there, the Duponts reside there and major corporations are headquartered there. I had heard about the beaches from friends, but had never really spent any time there. Then my grandmother purchased a house along the peninsula in Bethany Beach. […]

In Virginia, summer arrives early. Trees bud and crocuses pop out of the ground in late February. By the time April ends, we???ve already had our share of humid days followed by evening thunderstorms. Even so, as with the rest of America, summer doesn???t officially begin until Memorial Day. We don???t […]

Regardless of where you live, whether it???s north or south, east or west, the heat will set in. There will be gloriously hot days where your shirt sticks to your skin, your face is beaded with water droplets and all you can manage is sitting in the shade somewhere with a cool drink. […]

I live in Manhattan and I have to ride the subway to work squished up against and in between hordes of strangers. At the office, like almost every other office building in North America, there is a coffee maker fitted with large circular filters and ground coffee sealed in single pot bags. I […]

I am sitting at my dining table attempting to stare through the clouds and foggy mist that have vanished the tallest buildings in Manhattan. New England hasn???t seen this much rain in 70 years. With moody weather like this, I tend to think back to my first visits to England when I was […]

Shopping in Soho on a warm sunny day is wonderful. The sidewalks are crowded with people from everywhere. Vendors busy themselves selling goods ranging from beautiful art and jewelry to incense and used shoes. The streets are always packed with an intriguing mix of taxis aspiring to speed through and cars sauntering […]

I have been trying to figure out where tea cozies were invented, but there are so many countries with so many stories, it???s hard to declare who actually invented them after all. However, my favorite story (from teastash.com) originates in 17th century Ireland. Legend has it that a farmer was sitting at the […]