Burnt Chocolate Stories

There's a belief that if you do something for 21 days in a row, it becomes a habit you'll find difficult to break. This applied to exercise mostly and I don't know if that's true for writing posts, but today is the 21st Saturday that I've written a story and posted it on Burnt Chocolate. So perhaps I've cemented the habit. I do know that writing brings me a great deal of pleasure. And at this stage in my life, that's become an important commodity. Since I moved to Saint John's, I've thought about getting a puppy. Steve and I talked about it and decided it probably wasn't a good idea. When we had Annie, a mixture of German Shepherd and Rottweiler and Emma, a mixture of Black Lab, Sharpie and Staffordshire Terrier (pit bull), we were living in a house and could open the back door and let them run. In an apartment, no matter the weather, walking them outside is a necessity. Then, when Steve moved to the care neighborhood, I thought why not? A puppy ...

Barb and Steve - Engaged in 1963 With Steve gone, I've spent a lot of time, this past year, thinking about my part in our relationship. I always believed he was the driving force behind so much of our lives. I listened to, and loved his favorite music performers like Johnny Cash, Elton John, and Sam Cooke who were some of his favorites. Steve often chose the restaurants, movies, vacation spots. He loved and purchased art and antiques, mineral specimens, netsuke figurines and so much more that I also enjoy. But I made some of the major changes in our lives and he accepted and supported anything and everything I suggested or wanted. I was the one who made the connection between Stephen's job at Look Magazine with my relative's marketing company which later became the focus of his career. After eighteen years, I said "The children are all starting their adventures. I want one too. Let's sell the house in Evanston and move." To which he said, "Ok." One y...

I grew up in an apartment and had never lived in a house until we moved to Evanston in 1974, just a few days before our fifth child, Rebeccah was born. I had no idea what to do with the yard, the raised beds, the endless lilac bushes along the fence. With a new baby and four small children, I had the winter to think and plan and learn. While I definitely made mistakes along the way, gardening became a favorite hobby of mine which I shared with my new friend Jeanie who remains close to my heart to this day. Each May, we would go to the garden sale by local gardeners and add to our gardens, a lovely memory. From Evanston, we moved to Long Grove, then a near north Chicago town house, then Dodgeville, then Madison, then Fitchburg. No matter where we lived, I managed to create gardens in small and large spaces. I planted a grove of fruit trees and five perennial circles in Dodgeville, peonies in Fitchburg. The downtown garden was small but held a cone shaped hydrangea and a small stone pat...