Stories

Hello, IRELAND!! I have wanted to visit this land of my heritage ever since I was a young girl! In the early 90s, I had three different flight layovers at Shannon airport when I visited Russia and Ukraine; but I never got to exit the airport and explore the multi-hued green squares of land I […]

After a night in Switzerland, we spent two nights in Germany at the apartment of some long-time friends of my husband. They live in Esslingen, outside Stuttgart; one day they drove us to a magical forest playland where we spent hours in sensory delight. Simply put, the Eins und Alles complex is a forest full

Next in my series of artistic delights I discovered while in Europe: Chillon Castle in Switzerland. After we left France, we journeyed by train to Switzerland and spent one night there. A friend of my husband met us at the train station and whisked us off for an afternoon of sightseeing (and an evening eating

We stayed for three nights in a city called Clermont-Ferrand, about a four-hour train ride south of Paris. I know I said I wouldn’t turn these posts into travelogues, but I must mention the bathroom of this place!! This tiny apartment was a study in style and efficiency. Kitchenette, room with slideout bed/TV/desk/coffee table. Sliding

Here is another installment in my series about artistic delights I found while in Europe this fall. The photo below is one I took while marvelling from a train at the Scottish countryside. I’ve seen photos, but it’s breathtaking seeing in person the different shades of green covering the rolling hills. The rolling hills themselves

As promised, here is the beginning of a series of posts with a few photos of images that delighted me in Europe! First stop, England. I promise also that these posts are not meant to be travelogues, where I bombard you with tons of photos and long explanations of where we were and what we

I happened to be there! My husband and I had planned months ago to be in Westminster, London on September 14-18. Then Queen Elizabeth II died, and her funeral was planned for the 19th. So we were present while everything was going on, and that was quite the experience in itself! Even arriving at Heathrow

I have one last treat of a post for you before I take a month off making things! But despair not, I will resume making and writing later in October/early November. Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet signed up for my non-spammy newsletter, please do so. At the moment, I don’t use social media; so my

For my husband’s and my 28th wedding anniversary, we visited the small town of Parrsboro in Nova Scotia. I had hoped to find sea glass at some of the local beaches, but no such luck. Of course, we did get a later start to the day, so we couldn’t search all the places. But that

I recently got to spend a week with my aunt and uncle in California. They live in one of the cities near Palm Springs, so I did a bit of research on the area beforehand. I knew they were in a desert area, but didn’t know it was the Coachella Valley region. I knew about