Category Archives: Uncategorized

When I was a little girl in the suburbs of Detroit, spring’s arrival was marked by the lilacs.  The blooms perfumed our neighborhood and tinted it with shades of cream and purple.  We wove construction paper baskets in school and … Continue reading →

What a storm system! The strong low pressure system that has been bowling across the central U.S. has brought freezing rain, sleet, snow, and thunderstorms… and often all of those in the same place!  It’s pretty common to get a … Continue reading →

Early in The Long Winter, Pa clearly pays attention to the signs for the coming winter.  He checks the thickness of muskrat dens and notes the patterns of birds flying south.  He talks to his fellow townsmen.  Of course, Pa … Continue reading →

This is still a weather/climate/Laura blog, right?  So why am I posting about the recent study in Pediatrics that investigated the cause of Mary’s blindness? In a word… SCIENCE! I love that scientists can continue to connect their work to … Continue reading →

Laura and her family (both as a child and as an adult) lived a very simple life, close to the Earth.  They raised their own food, built their own things, and reused whatever they could.  But they did not shy … Continue reading →

The change of the year is upon us, and 2012 will go in the books as a year of superlatives.  In many places in the U.S., it was the warmest year on record.  It was a year of extremes, from … Continue reading →

We watched the forecast come together for a good 7 or 8 days.  It looked like a storm system would affect the Central Plains.  It looked like it could be cold enough to snow.  Then it started to look like … Continue reading →

Snow in October is always kind of stunning. It shocks us into the reality that winter is approaching quickly, and that we’d better hurry our preparations before we really get caught. Continue reading →

The Detroit Public Library long has been the home of the handwritten original manuscripts of The Long Winter and These Happy Golden Years.  As a part of my Hard Winter research, viewing the manuscript for The Long Winter was high … Continue reading →

My, what a couple of weeks it has been!  I have so much that I want to share, but for once, I’m going to let the Ma/Mary in me win… I’m going to save my explosion of topics to distribute … Continue reading →