Senior Women Create

Nancy Ellis wrote a delightful collection of autobiographical essays through Story Worth.com. Here’s a segment I love: When I was a child, I was crazy for horses. I read Black Beauty and Flicka. I went to all the western movies. My favorite toy was a stick horse. I treated that stick horse like it was […]

“There’s always something green around me,” says Sandra Main, Head Gardener of Backachers, the Rock Creek Mobile Home Park community garden. “When I moved into the mobile home park in 2013, I took on a problem-patch of ground in Backachers.  I loved the challenge. At the time, my plot wasn’t home to one single worm! Worms, you know, are

The Gold Country Writers went all out for our Halloween costume party. I’m anxious to share the winners’ creative costumes on Bright Ideas. Here you see the 1st place winner: Terry Wicks as “Lady Luck;” Lisa Schliff as a flamingo; and Phyllis Kalbach as a (very timely) suffragette, saying, “Get out there and vote!” Gold

One day, Susan Johnson, her sister, Laura, and Laura’s wife, Jude, decided to go on a 2,878-mile road-trip in Susan’s trusty 2014 Toyota Forerunner. They planned and plotted, then drove away. From September 10th till the 21st, the three women visited Elko, Nevada; Jackson, Wyoming; Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier Nat’l Parks; Livingston, Havre, and

Did you know our local animal shelter, “Placer County Animal Services,” is a no-kill shelter? That means every possible effort is made to find homes for lonely animals. Kathryn Shields has volunteered at the shelter for five years. Four years ago, she fell in love with “Christine,” the beautiful cat you see on the right. Recently, although

As soon as I returned from interviewing Julia Riley, I began reading the murder mystery she wrote. (She has written two, along with six children’s stories—all unpublished and kept in a secret drawer.) Originally, I accosted her because of her prolific needlework. But then, she described her musical history—playing piano, flute, piccolo, and bass flute.

When we first meet someone, we think, Oh, she has a lovely smile …. a new friend …. how nice! Then, off we go, enjoying her company. Since writing Bright Ideas, though, I ask a new friend questions—and the things I discover astound me! Take, for example, Sandy Strautman. Sandy appeared as a newcomer in our

Susan Osborn, Ph.D, M.S.W., says, “My writing time is the happiest time of my day.” I’m sure all you creative women out there understand. Whether you make music, crafts, delicious food, or splash paint on canvas, once you are “in the zone,” time evaporates. Creativity = Joy! When Susan wrote Assertiveness Training for Women, her creativity prompted

In the third grade, Sandra Main’s teacher gave the class an incentive: if a student finished her classwork, she could go into another room where she could listen to classical music while “playing” with art supplies. Little Sandra raced through arithmetic, longing for the inner peace she found at the art table. Feeling an affinity