“il faut prendre les gens comme ils sont et non pas comment l’on voudrait qu’ils soient.” (people should be taken as they are and not how they would like to be seen.) Such is the wisdom of Miss Fête des Vendanges.
Vines have been cultivated on the Neuchatel hillsides for over ten centuries, and the [...]
Was a time when visits precipitated calling cards, a hand fan pressed to the lips spoke: You may kiss me, and there was a taxidermist in every hamlet, no matter how small. I’m speaking of course of the Victorian era.
Besides well-mannered guests, the well-appointed Victorian parlour would likely be stuffed with all manner of natural [...]
I’d like to tell you about swifts, a magical bird who turns the European twilight skies into vast aviaries. Some swift facts:
1. Like bats, cave-dwelling swifts navigate by echolocation. They call out and listen for their own echoed answer to find their way in total darkness.
2. Many species glue their nests together with saliva. The [...]
“I am so awake,” Ali says into the darkness. Me too. Late night talk ensues: this weekend marks the halfway point {week 20 of 40} of our time here and as such, the mind turns to evaluate how we’ve been doing thus far.
I had many fantasies about nine! whole! months! to do whatever it [...]
In the museum of Mr. John Tradescant are the following things: the hand of a mermaid…a number of things changed into stone…a picture wrought in feathers…a cup of an east indian Alcedo, which is a kind of unicorn…the passion of Christ carved very daintily on a plumstone…a hat band of snake bones.~ Georg Christoph Stirn, [...]
These days I have been pondering the way one gets hooked into certain responses, particularly in the face of discomfort (a flat writing day, a lover’s spat, uncertainty about seeming pipe dreams, or just plain getting wait-listed for Yaddo–again!).
One could simply not tell oneself the same story, could make a choice to experiment with a [...]
Dorothy Parker (who also inspired this title) said, “The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant–and let the air out of the tires.” The kids are at home by choice this weekend, wheel-less it’s true, but planning an adventure for next weekend…in Milan! Yay!
In response to a few requests [...]
“C’est une fraise qui skie!” (It’s a strawberry that skis!) is what the girl said about the prized figurine she pulled from her pocket, in the hopes that I would ask her about it, so I did. We were waiting for the funi to take us back down the mountain after an afternoons adventure, all [...]
The soothing German voice of the navigation system of Christian’s Porsche layered over the angst-ridden oh-so-American yowling of The White Stripes as we roared through our personal mountain range, the Jura. The morning’s snow looked lovely balancing on the pine branches as we whizzed past.
We were heading to Lausanne, but the truth is we would [...]
As a kid my favorite place to be (besides fighting riptides in the Pacific Ocean) was Disneyland. Nevermind I was later refused admittance because of my inappropriate hair color (something quite fascistic about any place claiming to be The Happiest Place on Earth). At nine, Disneyland was the place to be.
I loved the Haunted Mansion [...]