From the Castle Cary train station, we “did a shop” in Street (that’s a town.) It seems to me that we “did a shop” almost every other day. And the washing machine was going 24/7—more about that later. On that first day, Sue took me around Clark’s Village, an outlet mall built on the site  Read the Rest…

When I told people I was spending Christmas with my cousins in an English village, I heard a fair amount of “that sounds magical.” I don’t think my cousins think of themselves as magical even if they do live in a place with things like fairy soap, fairy lights and fairy cakes        Read the Rest…

I crept about my routine at the cold Airbnb, bringing my tea up to my room and putting on the space heater. I had finished Empire of Pain and was into The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Later I met Suzanne on my way out the door. “You’re so quiet,” she commented. “Well.” I didn’t  Read the Rest…

I yelled at the cat. That’s when I knew things had gone too far. It started when I began practicing to sing “Fill the World with Love,” a song from the musical Goodbye Mr. Chips (by Leslie Bricusse). I always get a little choked up when I sing it so I was practicing singing through  Read the Rest…

I used to call “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” the alcoholic’s Christmas carol because of the line about “next year all our troubles will be out of sight.” Pure denial, fantastical thinking. Wasn’t that mean of me? It’s a perfect song for this year and I regret my former attitude.  If you’re not busy  Read the Rest…

I’ve talked about learning to sew for years. I want to be able to make clothes in the colors and styles I like rather than forcing myself into procrustean fashions. This pandemic and the stay-at-home orders (and my lack of work and ensuing free time) has been a boon to me, a self-learner. I’ve been  Read the Rest…

Although I am enjoying my retirement, I do often think about my former students and my life as a teacher because I loved that life. In trying to decide what stories to tell from my teaching days, I came upon a favorite formula: confess a scorching embarrassment, shape-shift something painful into something funny. So here  Read the Rest…

Entering our third month of Sheltering-in-Place here in Seattle, I locate myself in the week by when I last showered: I showered today, I showered yesterday, I can’t remember when I showered or that’s really a funky smell. My hair has entered a new length division where it now looks reasonably good. I love hearing  Read the Rest…

Welcome to Port Wenn! If you are a fan of the series Doc Martin, you’ll appreciate the reference. If you aren’t, read on. We went other places, too. The day began at the cottage in Morvah with the usual tea and breakfast and me asking Sue and Wendy what they remembered from the day before  Read the Rest…

My friend Karla is from Holland, land of liquorice. Black liquorice. If you consider red vines to be liquorice you can stop reading right now even though this post isn’t about liquorice at all. Karla told me they have a saying in Holland “liquorice poisoning.” That’s when you spend all evening (or days) with your  Read the Rest…