Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights (detail, including a Hoopoe), ~1500. Yesterday a friend visited me for the first time since her mate died. I was overjoyed to see her out and about. Her stories were hard but necessary. She is still in the confusion of grief - peeking out of the darkness but unsure which direction ...
Some of you no doubt thought, as spring approached, that it is certainly a mercy that he has had over a year to exhaust his infatuation with the micro-lens. But it's not done yet. In fact the blossoms are just arriving! Behold the up-close imperfection of "perfect" Nature. The closer you look, the less beautiful superficial beauty becomes. ...
The weeks have grown steadily lighter. Earlier mornings, later evenings, shorter nights. The hints of spring started in January with winter jasmine, and like a chorus building to a finale, the flowers have come out in steadily increasing numbers ever since. It has not been the most beautiful spring I can remember here, owing to heavy rains ...
Doomed Despair is such a seductive excuse for not taking action, and it is so easy to find. While other people were fretting about gun laws and mourning the young lives lost after the shootings and aftermath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I was mourning the Everglades and the lost legacy of Marjory Stoneman Douglas herself. From ...
Just before Christmas, neighbors A. and P. were talking during dinner about how to make perfect mushrooms. She was having trouble with hers and wanted his advice - that much I caught, of the rapid colloquial French. They were both very concerned that it be done correctly. There is nothing unusual in this conversation in our region. ...
Snow does not often come to our region. Five years ago we missed the last one while traveling abroad, but for a few hours yesterday, white preponderated all else. I took the dog for a walk in the Forêt de Buzet. Most plants were already well advanced into spring when winter finally came to the ...
We are closer in time to the winter of 2056 than to the winter of 1956, but there are still those who remember that earlier year as the worst winter of all, even though it was in some ways one of the mildest on record. It was a year of extremes, maybe much like this one, ...
A soulsearching post in which childless idealist Yours Truly finally encounters first-hand the much-discussed phenomenon of Bullying Tourists can't be patriotic I have never lived in any other place in which I feel such a full-throated accord with the dominant cultural values. Shout it from the rooftops: Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité ! And better, Solidarité. Solidarity. France is far from perfect, ...
Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights (detail, including a Hoopoe), ~1500. Yesterday a friend visited ...
Some of you no doubt thought, as spring approached, that it is certainly a mercy ...
The weeks have grown steadily lighter. Earlier mornings, later evenings, shorter nights. The hints of spring ...