It’s Carnavale time in Venice, but today I thought you might enjoy an uncommon glimpse of La Serenissima. Three ways to enjoy magical Venice if you can’t actually be there: Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti novels. The wonderful German TV series based on Leon’s books, available with accurate, readable subtitles on the subscription series MHZ Choice.  MHZ Choice offers amazing Euro-TV […]

Valentine’s Day—and I wish you a happy one—over the years has been “stretched” conceptually to celebrate not just lovers, but relationships of all sorts as well. For little ones, Valentines are all about friendship. And that is the connection with today’s post. Fair warning—it may give you a bit of a knot in your gut at first. Life, […]

The book without words is complete and packaged as a Valentine’s Day gift to our grands. I thought you might like to see the cover and a finished page. I cheated just a bit by using photos from a few past trips. On the left, that’s Jasper hanging out at the Vermont Country Store and […]

Not on the moon, but Monterosso al Mare in the Cinque Terre. One of the best reasons for travel is that it stays with you, a priceless trove of lovely memories from which you can draw any time you want to, even on a snowy winter day. Enjoy.

Preface One of my favorite people these days is a retired teacher and school administrator who was the faculty advisor to our high school class. As with a number of my classmates, we reconnected through Facebook. He and his wife are beyond travelers—they are out-and-out (and apparently tireless) globetrotters. Their recent trip to California, en […]

I know you’re hiding a graveyard somewhere in your bathroom. Probably in the vanity, under the sink. It’s full of all the hair care “product” you bought at the salon, the drug store, wherever. Stuff you paid a mint for and maybe even used a few times. And are likely never to use again. We are all […]

February 6, 2017 update to original post: I’m happy to report that, thanks to Martin Walker’s wonderful Bruno, Chief of Police series, specifically The Crowded Grave, I am no longer suffering reader’s block. If you love a good book set around a police officer, in which the setting is as appealing as the story, you […]

It is great fun to wake up knowing that there’s nothing you have to do, apart having from the “must dos” of everyday life—we all know we need to shop for food and go to the dentist. Family, hobbies, and volunteer jobs can take up good chunks of time. But if you fail to establish some […]

Not long ago, a friend, anticipating  her own and her husband’s approaching retirement, expressed excitement about the possibilities ahead: travel, spending more time with family, cooking together, golfing together. She expressed nary a qualm, however, about 24/7 togetherness. Nor, apparently, had he. Be assured that the following comment is non-pejorative: Round-the-clock togetherness, even in the most blissful marriage, […]