Stephen and I have been walking the trail around the village for the last few months, down from the top of the hill, around the circumference of the valley below Pujols, then back up to the top, and on once again into the village. The …
Right before Covid hit, a friend went to the Metropolitan Opera film of “Porgy and Bess” at a local movie theatre, in a small village in France. She had been planning to attend with another friend, but that friend had made an unexpected trip to …
Imagine this: Eight friends sitting outdoors around a wooden table overlooking the valley below. The table is filled with bottles of wine, a cheeseboard and baguettes, a beautiful wreath of gougere, and a bowl of rillettes (a confit of pork meat). The sky above the …
Several evenings ago, I was working upstairs, and Stephen was preparing dinner downstairs, when he called me to come help him. “What is it?” I yelled, hoping to have time to finish the page I was writing. “Just come!” he said quietly but definitively. So …
Driving to a picnic with some friends, old and new, Genvieve, a seamstress told a story. The day before, a young woman in a wheelchair had come into her shop. She had admired a skirt and top in the window and wondered if she could …
I had what I can only describe as a “big” experience yesterday. Stephen and I visited the Chateau de Boneguil, about 40 minutes by car from Pujols, where we are staying. Boneguil is a fortified castle, built at the top of a rocky promontory, first …
We used to subscribe to both the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, but I stopped reading newspapers a while ago. Nothing good seemed to be happening in the world, and spending an hour each morning on the newspaper felt ill advised. I …
Yesterday, to celebrate his birthday, my husband and I walked the pedestrian trail on the Bay Bridge. From where we began in Oakland to Yerba Buena Island, where the trail ends, measures about three miles. For about two and a half of those miles, we …
I’ve become very dependent on my Zojirushi travel mug to deliver hot tea throughout the day. Unlike Stephen, who prefers his beverages lukewarm, I like mine piping hot. And while most of the mugs I’ve tried are not up to the task, Zojirushi does the …
I was recently asked by Mindful Magazine to create a series of gratitude prompts. I was pleased with the assignment, although gratitude lists are not a strategy I find all that useful. If and when I’m feeling really down, listing what I can be grateful …