Editor’s Note: The following essay was adapted from a shorter piece I published on my blog last month. It’s very different from the original.

"One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands and throws one's head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one's heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun – which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Mary Alice Monroe is an active environmentalist, bestselling novelist in both USA Today and the New York Times and one of the favorite authors to visit the USCB Lunch With Author Series.  On May 5^th, a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the Moss Creek Clubhouse will herald her debut of The Butterfly’s Daughter, her latest book which skillfully incorporates the transformational journey of four very different women as they follow the migrating monarchs across the United States to Mexico.

On Thursday, April 21, the CNU Carolinas Chapter is hosting Mary Newsom from Charlotte, NC, at 6:30 pm in the TCL auditorium. She’ll be speaking to Beaufort about the realities of living in, growing and sustaining a vibrant place. Newsom is an associate editor and op-ed columnist for The Charlotte Observer and has been covering growth, neighborhoods, urban design, sustainable development and related topics since 1995.

Last month, on the internet of all places, there was a wicked rumor that my all-time favorite childhood cereal was being taken off the market. The reason the cereal was being removed from supermarket shelves was because it contains a mere 12 grams of sugar per serving. Seriously?! What would Cap'n Crunch be without sugar!? The good news is that the Captain isn't being forced to walk the plank and that Cap'n Crunch is still available. In celebration of this happy news I decided to look for recipes that used Cap'n Crunch cereal as an ingredient. Does anyone else remember the yummy chicken tenders from Planet Hollywood that were rolled in crushed cereal and then deep fried?