Prego!
I’m stumbling and tripping my way through an attempt to learn Italian. It’s HARD! And I’m sure that Italian is one of the easier languages to learn—a romance language, lots of words are basically the same in English, plus I was reasonably good in French in high school and college. But I think…
Read MoreGreat Days Out
The British have a cheery phrase “great day out” to describe a day away from the work, errands and chores of the big city, a chance to delight one’s eyes, ears and muscles, where the ratio of greenery and nature exceeds that of concrete and glass. Peter and I have just done so, on two…
Read MoreOne Busy City
London is full of people wanting to voice their opinions, preferably on the street, ideally with flags and banners. Since I enjoy such outings myself, my ears are always perked to hear loud voices chanting in unison. This past week was a basket-full. First was on Baker Street walking south from Hampstead Heath toward Hyde…
Read MoreSettling In, again…a year on
We arrived back in London a little over a week ago—it’s taken about that long to feel fully adjusted to time change (8 hours ahead of PDT). I guess it takes longer as we age. So far the weather’s been windy and cloudy but over the week it’s warmed up from high 40s to low/mid…
Read MoreInternational touristing during a pandemic: Getting There.
Peter and I went to London for 6 weeks a couple months ago. I wrote short weekly notes home to friends and family. Now we’re home, but the trip remains a happy memory. Here are some of the highlights. The trip itself was full of surprises. Doing the online forms for the Passenger Locater…
Read MoreDreamcatchers and masks
A fully vaccinated friend was over for dinner a week ago. Peter and I, also fully vaccinated, are tentatively stepping back into the pleasures of having (fully vaccinated) friends to dinner, and eating at other friends’ (fully vaccinated) houses too. Indoors!! What a treat! It feels so new to have other people in our house,…
Read MoreHow to Chop Down a Tree if You’re a Woman
Endless basement cleaning has unearthed a folder of short essays written by my mother in the early 1950s. They must have been written when she was finding it particularly tedious being a middle class housewife and mother of three young children. The folder also contained seven stock rejection slips from Ladies’ Home Journal, Woman’s Day,…
Read MoreThe Beginning of the End, or?
Or is it the end of the beginning? Maybe it’s just the end of the first phase of our Covid-19 pandemic: the scramble to identify the virus’ strong and weak points, to develop vaccines, to realize it’s a global problem, to stumble as we learn a thing or two about delivery and care, to disentangle…
Read MoreNew Year, Turn the Page
People have lot to say about 2020. Some miraculously spot on; others wildly off target. The best will require barrel time to mellow into vintage nonfiction and fiction. After a year of reading more novels than usual, I’ve gained a lot more respect for fiction as a means of telling the truth. Good novelists are…
Read MoreStuck in the mud?
Time flies when you’re having fun, but not, it turns out, during a terrible global pandemic. But it’s not so much that time has been stuck in the mud for the last eleven months; it’s me who’s lost momentum. My wellies got sucked down, my umbrella blew away, and my jacket’s soaked through. I’m the…
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