Pregnancy During a Pandemic

I haven’t really posted about my pregnancy in anywhere completely public until now. I am most of the way through the 5th month, so it’s been a little while and has certainly been a journey so far. It’s been a fairly easy pregnancy, all things considered. Which is probably just as well as it’s also a weird time to be pregnant with your first. There are a lot of things that just are not normal because we’re in a pandemic. The biggest one is that I think twice before stepping inside any business – which […]

6 Months On – And So Many More to Go

I’ve been seeing a few people doing check-ins on their blogs or social media accounts in the last few weeks – so yes, this is somewhat jumping on the band wagon. I went back and reviewed what I wrote back in March to see if it really gave any insight to what I was thinking, and other than being worried about what people would do financially, it really didn’t. (You can read that post here.) What do I remember from March? I remember thinking that we might have a tour program by July. (While this […]

“Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”

My entry point for history was my own family. I grew up visiting graveyards regularly, whether it was planting flowers on relatives graves (some of whom I don’t remember exactly where they fit in the family tree) or trying to find other branches on the family tree generations back, so far back that the graves were often not visited anymore. I can still find baby Daisy because she’s buried so close to Author’s Ridge in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. To put things into even further perspective was thinking about my great-aunt. Born at […]

At the Barre: Day One

Written on April 10th, along side Ballet Barre 1 with Dutch National Ballet: I keep saying I’m going to get back in shape, do ballet barre more often, etc. Now a couple of caveats here: I have always been terrible at exercising at home. Always. Even when I was training in a dance studio 6 days a week. (And that goes for ballet and ballroom.) However, because I was already in the studio 6 days a week, it didn’t really matter because that on it’s own typically kept me in shape. Then I left college […]

Baking and Books

I have been anxiously awaiting Julie Jones’ newest book, The Pastry School. In part because I’m now in love with her pie crust recipe, in part because the custard in her custard tart is actually really good and I had never made custard from scratch before, but also because she makes her pies look amazing! It officially came out in the United States earlier this week, and as soon as I logged into Bookshop, I discovered that it was on backorder. I checked again today – I officially have a copy coming my way! Not […]

Baking in Self-Isolation

When we realized that Stay-at-Home could potentially come down the pipeline, but it wasn’t mandated yet, we decided to make the most of our last trip to Vermont by stopping at King Arthur Flour on the way home. This was the best choice we could have made. We stocked up on various flours: pastry flour, artisan bread flour, high gluten flour. We grabbed some superfine castor sugar so I can attempt some more intricate pastry work while trapped in the house. We grabbed King Arthur’s pre-made cookie dough. (Two more cookies consumed and that will […]

From the Socially Distanced Desk

It seems a little strange how the last few weeks have progressed. On some level, it makes me want to go back and read Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793 all over again. On the opposite hand, I really don’t. Somehow it has become far too relevant. Three weeks ago, we had a large church gathering, during which we had ensured that no one shook hands (it’s flu season anyway), and the deacons deployed hand sanitizer at the doors because it was probably a good call. Two weeks ago, things were sort of ramping up from […]