by Marlene Bumgarner | Feb 16, 2023 | Community, Family
Happy New Year – A Little Bit Late I started writing this essay on January 2, as I was beginning to feel healthy again after a bout of pneumonia. I had to cancel my Christmas trip to Sorrento, Pompei, and Herculaneum and was feeling pretty down when I received...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Jan 9, 2023 | Family, Writing
Housecleaning Day On Friday my housecleaner came to vacuum, dust, and clean. She comes twice a month and leaves my apartment sparkling and tidy. So why did I spend two hours Friday morning cleaning before she arrived? I’m not a sloppy person. On the contrary,...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Nov 22, 2022 | Aging, Back to the Land, Community, Cooking and Eating, Family, Travel
Back in Calabasas I’m back home again after my 10-day road trip to northern California, featuring book readings, good times with friends, several bags of persimmons, and my 75th birthday. It was a great trip. Here are the Highlights: Because my first stop was...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Oct 20, 2022 | Aging, Child development, Community, Cooking and Eating, Family, Grandparenting
Pumpkin Patch Traditions Long-time readers know that when I lived in Santa Cruz my oldest granddaughter and I enjoyed visiting a pumpkin patch each October. As the years passed, I watched little Bean progress in her relationship with the pumpkins. At first, she just...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Oct 10, 2022 | Family, Good Reads
Cooling Weather – Time to Read As soon as October arrived with relief from the heat wave, I turned to my very tall stack of TBR (To Be Read) books. Soon I was curled up in my reading chair wrapped in a blanket, lost in The Christie Affair, by Nina de Gramont,...