
Back in the mid 1980s, when I was a newly single mother of four, I went back to work with a nearly blank resume. I took one low-paying job, then somehow landed a better one, as assistant to the young president of a wholesale company.

I couldn’t sleep replaying in my mind the many dire predictions about the future of our food supply. The bees are in trouble, invasive weeds are establishing themselves in new environments, harmful insects and plant diseases are becoming more menacing.

The six week old pullet chick came hopping over to me the second I stepped into the brooder stall. I could not see, at first, what caused her gait to be so uneven. As I reached for her, she darted about eighteen inches away from me and then stopped. Then I saw that the lowest part of her leg was actually dragging behind her.

The houseplant that blooms year-round to add beautiful color inside when the landscape is gray outside is the African Violet. Growing and propagating African Violets is new to me, and I seem to have a knack for it, or maybe just good lighting.