Ruth Bass

Ruth Bass: Bird walks with experts are the best
Our lawn mower used to attract barn swallows in swarms. They would swoop over the tractor, barely missing the driver, while they harvested the insects the machine stirred up in the grass. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Preschool imprints sink deep
So often, you hear someone say, "My mother always told me ..." And whatever it was, it's stuck with that person right into adulthood. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Patience: A virtue in gardening
Never mind the hoe, rake, trowel or twine -- the main thing a gardener needs is patience. Having a garden is not the route to instant gratification.  Full Story

Ruth Bass: 80th season rewarding at ski area
While the rest of us complain helplessly about the weather, ski areas do something about it. Their lifeline is snow, and if Mother Nature fails, they turn on the guns.  Full Story

Ruth Bass: Fanatics like 'solutions' of violence
When we were in Northern Ireland in 1985, we figured we'd be perfectly safe from IRA (not a retirement plan) bombs because peace talks were underway in London, and the major players were supposed to talk, not fight, for a while.  Full Story

Ruth Bass: Patriots' Day reminds us of our roots
For us, Patriots' day brings thoughts of poetry, peas and a place in Interlaken. Now observed on the third Monday in April, Patriots' Day is special for us.  Full Story

Ruth Bass: Archives can include old plants
The archival plant has wintered well. The idea, once summer's hot sun was no longer burning into the kitchen, was to put it back on its November to May spot on the wide sill above the sink. Full Story

Ruth Bass: CDC is serious in campaign against smoking
We had a colleague who tried to prepare his son for driving by taking him to accident scenes, and it may have worked. We never saw a news story reporting that young man having an accident. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Sometimes what's right is what's right
Over and over, stricken parents in Newtown, Connecticut, have heard sincerely sympathetic people say, "I can't imagine what you are going through." Full Story

Ruth Bass: Americans learn how to share space
Most parents at one time or another have accused a child of having "a boarding house" reach. Sometimes the kid just doesn't know any better than to put an arm across Auntie Mabel to get the salt. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Nuts for soup in Carolina all day long
Callinectes Sapidus makes great soup, but she's not a chef. She's an Atlantic blue crab, better known in South Carolina as the she-crab. Getting that soup was a major goal recently in Charleston, but the search was brief. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Nuts for soup in Carolina all day long
Callinectes Sapidus makes great soup, but she's not a chef. She's an Atlantic blue crab, better known in South Carolina as the she-crab. Getting that soup was a major goal recently in Charleston, but the search was brief. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Trombones, umbrellas and theater
We recently encountered, not for the first time, the top two con artists in the world of musical comedy: Harold Hill and Mary Poppins, the one selling trombones to a non-musical community and the other practicing her craft on a needy family. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Wishing for the magical Camelot
Sometimes, a bit of Camelot would be a fine thing. Not all that kingly nonsense about a legal limit on how much snow may fall, but just a few Camelotty things like rain holding off till after sundown. Full Story

Ruth Bass: Knitting isn't just knit one, purl a couple
Five-year-old Hannah thinks grandmothers can fix anything, so she brings along the pink backpack that has a messed-up zipper, a hand-knit hat that mysteriously sprang a hole and a miniature china sugar bowl that she accidentally dropped. Full Story