Anna, a former student of mine, is having a baby!  There hasn’t been a baby on my radar for a while so I am excited. I wanted to knit something for the new little person and give it to Anna at the baby shower. Unfortunately, knitting has not been on my radar for a while  Read the Rest…

After a hot weekend, Monday morning was cool and windy. Andrew and I visited St George, the oldest town on the island.  The bus carried us along the north shore of Bermuda and up into the hills where the houses became grander and the roads quieter. From the bus stop at the Swizzle Inn, we  Read the Rest…

A wee quiz: 1. Is Bermuda in the Caribbean? 2.Which state of the United States is Bermuda closest to? 3.Bermuda is a protectorate of what country? 4.Who discovered Bermuda and what country was he from? 5.Which Shakespeare play is set in Bermuda? 6.What are two signature sounds of Bermuda life? Answers: 1.No 2.North Carolina 3.Great  Read the Rest…

You know how people (probably you) complain that Christmas music begins too early — like right after Halloween? If you’re a musician, by the time Halloween has reached its sugar-sated conclusion, you’ve been rehearsing Christmas music since the end of September. And you had to start thinking about it in August. That’s been my life  Read the Rest…

The puppies had me flying out of the Airbnb the next morning accompanied by Stella, barking her head off. Andrew followed with his coffee. “Did you hear the owl this morning?” John asked. Andrew raised his eyebrows. The genuine-ness of the owls not to mention the crickets was still in question. We learned a little  Read the Rest…

Andrew and I (and Stella, the dog) traveled to Walla Walla last week. You might be forgiven for thinking we were going for the wineries but we were not. Neither of us are drinkers. We were there for the Walla Walla sweets and Ancestor Worship, as Andrew says. My father was born and grew up  Read the Rest…

I set Tuesday as the day to go to Durham because rain was predicted and I thought a cathedral would be a better place to spend a rainy morning than tromping around Berwick on the city walls.  My interest in Durham cathedral began with Bill Bryson and was encouraged by Sue. I had read and  Read the Rest…

It must be said at once that the Tweed is a tidal river, not a fabric or some reason to make a joke about rightly silly British place names of which there are hundreds; this just isn’t one of them. Berwick-Upon-Tweed is in Northumberland, in northeast England and two miles from the Scottish border. The  Read the Rest…

Easter morning on Calgary Bay. In my jet-lagged stupefaction, I kept trying to say something clever about this and had to patiently remind myself over and over that it was Calvary that had Easter associations, not Calgary. Our holiday cottage was on Calgary Bay on the isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. Ours was  Read the Rest…

Two weeks into the sunroom remodel—a mere spruce-up, actually—I began musing on what could have made the experience worse. It could have been the middle of summer when the sun room feels 150 degrees in the afternoon. Or it could .  .  . no, that’s about all that could have made it worse. I wasn’t  Read the Rest…