Notes and Reflections Blog
Cathy is an essayist who writes from her base at Boomerang Creek. Her blogs range from gathering persimmons to thoughts on global pandemics. To share her observations, follow her at “Notes and Reflections".
Epistolary Journeys
When does a lifetime of letter writing begin?

Culinary Journeys with Indian Cuisine
Packing for a trip to London in late November 2016, I tucked along some recipes to share with our niece Kashya who was hosting a multi-generational gathering of Salters from Missouri and Madrid.

Beneath the Pain
With April, the possibility of an early spring snow is always in the air.

History Matters
We cannot understand events of today unless we understand where we have been as a nation and world. History matters.

Where the Crawdads Sing
While I was still living in Missouri, my “Book Club of Two” friend Marjo Price loaned me her own copy of Where the Crawdads Sing.

Baking for Ukraine
As spring gets underway, young people around the world have been moved by the devastating war in Ukraine.

The Power of Words
This April began with thoughts of Eudora Welty, grande dame of American letters.

Wheat and War in Ukraine’s Breadbasket
In Nevada City, as friends planted squash seeds on the night of the March full moon, American History professor Heather Cox Richardson, author of a daily blog entitled “Letters from an American” wrote about the urgency of planting wheat in Ukraine’s breadbasket region.

The Power of Comfort Food
The food community around the world is helping support the Ukrainian people.

How the Light Gets In
As March got underway, snow fell on cedars in the Sierra foothills. It also fell on the beleaguered nation of Ukraine and its brave citizenry.

Hard Times
Mark Rothko—born Marcus Yakovelevich Rothkowitz in 1903—was an American abstract painter of Latvian Jewish descent.

Under a Sierra Snow Moon
In late December, an epic snow and ice event brought life in the Sierra Foothills above Nevada City to a standstill.

Adventures with Chocolate
This week the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Super Bowl XVI in Los Angeles, and Valentine’s Day in Nevada City all got me to thinking about chocolate.

Ping Pong Diplomacy II
As the 2022 Winter Olympics were about to get underway in Beijing last week, I had an intriguing text that took me back forty years to my first trip to China.

The Common Cannellini Bean
One of the simple joys in life is a pot of homemade soup. Winter, spring summer or fall, soup is always a welcome addition to a meal.

Afoot in a January Garden
Gardens take root in the imagination. Some are simple, contained in pots conveniently arranged on a porch. Others are over the moon.

Traveling with Cookbooks
In this time when Delta and Omicron Covid variants continue to have us cooking at home rather than eating out, I find myself traveling the culinary world via the pages of cookbooks.

The Sound of Silence
Silence is a sound that comes with living in a forested world above the snowline. For me, it is an old friend I’ve lived with happily in prior chapters of my life.

Generators, Percolators, and Great English Novelists
English novelist Jane Austen was born the seventh of eight children in the village rectory of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775.

Winter Light, Winter White
This predawn winter morning, icy patches of white still cover regions of the Sierra Foothills above the snowline where we live.