— Gertrude Jekyll

This week we had our Maine version of that day. If you didn’t look at the mixture of slush and snow and ice on the ground and only watched the sunrise, felt the warm breeze on your face as you walked along, you could almost picture, or at least almost hope that spring was around the corner. This week marks the 52nd year of the marriage of Jean Felsberg (me) and Don Feldeisen. Don and my relationship with him have been featured in my writing this week. Today we bought a dozen red roses for our table and are planning a special celebration on Monday. It is surprising that so many years have passed so quickly. We are game for some more. They keep getting more and more interesting as we age.
This week in cooking
Bone Broth and Bone Broth Soup

My husband Don was responsible for making the most delicious bone broth this week and then I made an easy soup out of some of it. I wanted to share it with you.
We happened to have access to a lot of bones this week and he filled our biggest pot with them, He filled the pot with water to cover, a few onions, a head of garlic, salt, pepper, a few tablespoons of vinegar (for leaching nutrients from the bones) and set the pot to cook for two days. In the end, we came away with about 8 quarts of beef bone broth. It was savory and beefy. It made our house smell wonderful for two days and also put some much-needed moisture into the dry air. All in all a big win.
You Will Definitely Miss Out if You Never Get to Know This Legendary South Jersey Bayman, One of a Kind, Nicknamed Hodaddy
Would you want your husband called “ho” for short?

First, about the name
I never paid much attention to this strange nickname. Some of his clammer friends, men Don worked with in the bay, began calling him Hodaddy and I figured it was just some form of male bonding weirdness. Probably thinking it was related to a hoe, just another tool for digging clams? Who knows? I didn’t really care what he was called by his male friends — locker room talk, right? Besides, I rarely worried about his morals. Don was and is a good person. And I loved him.