Author Archives: forstegrupp

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About forstegrupp

Currently I am an English teacher at an independent school outside of Philadelphia. To arrive at this way point, I spent many years in graduate school researching, reading, learning, and studying and finally earned a doctorate in comparative literature from Harvard University. I specialized in medieval orality and literacy. My private interests include baking, knitting, spinning, and gardening.

It has been forever

Posted on May 19, 2022 by forstegrupp

I have been gone so long from this blog. It has continued to exist but other things were more important such as being with family, running for a public office, and working to save democracy from others who would take … Continue reading →

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What kind of fortunes do dogs get?

Posted on July 24, 2020 by forstegrupp

When we get Chinese take-out, we always have several fortune cookies which go uneaten by humans. But our dogs love them. They love the crackle of the cellophane wraps. They love the snap when the cookies are broken. Then they … Continue reading →

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Blooming today in the garden

Posted on June 27, 2020 by forstegrupp
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Spring in the time of COVID-19

Posted on March 19, 2020 by forstegrupp

Spring has come quite early to eastern Pennslyvania. Daffodils are already blooming. Tulips are coming up (unfortunately our beagle thinks he is a goat and eats the emerging shoots). Snowdrops have finished blooming — that happened in late January. Raspberry … Continue reading →

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Never knit one sock and then wait 2 years to knit the second sock

Posted on December 31, 2019 by forstegrupp

This I learned with much frustration, frogging, and reknitting. This pair of socks was started at least two years ago. Starter Husband chose the yarn from the stash requesting a tighter sock leg so the socks would not slip down … Continue reading →

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The Queen of the Tearling series

Posted on December 5, 2019 by forstegrupp

Recently I blew through all three books of Erika Johansen’s Tearling series. The novels narrate how the young woman Kelsea comes to power in the kingdom of the Tearling which is in thrall to the neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne, ruled … Continue reading →

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Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Posted on December 3, 2019 by forstegrupp

Some time in the last few months, I read Naomi Novik’s retelling of Rumplestiltskin, where the little gnome becomes a tall, handsome, emotionally distant elf. He rules a winter kingdom and periodically invades the human kingdom of green growing things. … Continue reading →

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A fast but enjoyable YA read

Posted on September 5, 2019 by forstegrupp

Told in the first person by a teenager whose mother has died and whose father is addicted to opium, Yangsze Choo’s The Ghost Bride depends on the reader’s concern about her future: will she have to marry the ghost of … Continue reading →

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Environmental Panic Attack

Posted on August 22, 2019 by forstegrupp

I just can’t read the news. Everywhere there seems to be some new report about some other environmental disaster. The latest is the fires burning the Amazonian rainforests. Before it was the Greenland ice sheet melting at an unprecedented rate. … Continue reading →

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Buffalo in Yellowstone

Posted on August 20, 2019 by forstegrupp

When we drove into Yellowstone park from the Grand Tetons, we were headed to Mammoth Hot Springs. We drove through Hayden Valley at twilight and saw elk and bison. Even a single buffalo will cause a traffic slow down, so … Continue reading →

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