It’s March. It’s 3:00 in the afternoon and it’s snowing. Crap. I’m so ready for the Springtime that Seattle is having right now! Enough of this COLD!
My Seattle neighbors called the other day to tell me how much they’re enjoying looking out to the flowers blooming in my yard. Flowers? What flowers? It’s still winter [...]

Snow predicted for Sunday? They’ve got to be kidding. Please tell me they’re kidding. With a predicted low of 32 degrees and a high of 37, snow is certainly possible.
In the meantime, my neighbors in Seattle called to tell me how warm the Spring is and how beautiful the flowers are in my yard.

Hmm. I might find me a cute, little Italian. All the right curves and straight lines. Just my size. Fits into tight places. Agile and responsive. Yah. Sounds good to me!
(I don’t know what YOU were thinking. I was talking about a CAR!)
Before I came here, I sold my Honda CR-V and figured I’d get [...]

There’s just something about having my bedroom window on the ground level, facing the street. At about 5:30 in the morning the recycling truck pulls up and parks in front of my window. They roll the glass-sorting bins holding a building’s-worth of bottles up to the truck and dump them with an alarming clatter. Imagine [...]

I’m pouting. Tuesday morning and it’s 34 degrees outside. Sunday morning I was riding a bike along the sea, wearing a light t-shirt with blue sky overhead and sun on my face. Temperatures were in the 60s, which felt fresh and warm enough to remember the glory of warmer days.
After the dark, cold, wet days [...]

Sun in my eyes yesterday and the day before! Temperatures in the 40s demanded that I mount two wheels and head off along the canal for a ride. Divine. I haven’t been a cyclist for about 30 years so it surprises me how much I’ve taken to this biking. During and after my ride is [...]

This could easily be the next big thing. The new, chic food. All it would take is some hip New York restaurant to put it on the menu and spread the word. Or a Guru T.V. Show Chef to rave about it: The All-American Grilled Mortadella Burger.

You could cut a half inch thick slab of [...]

Getting out at Milano Centrale Metro Station to change from one line to another, I came up the escalator and was faced with this beautiful, colorful, tired doorway. Gorgeous.

January 7, at 40 degrees on a gray day, I bundled up and hopped on my bike for a ride along the canal. Down a ways, with a construction site on the opposite shore, I spotted a calico looking quite content, “meatloafing” on a pallet of concrete blocks. The guy smoking on the balcony beyond [...]

If someone had said to me: “You’re going to Paris for a week, but the only thing you get to wear is what you wear on the plane” I would NOT have picked the following: a bra, heavy opaque tights, black polartec pants (almost sweat pants, but snug), gray cashmere turtleneck, off-white polartec pullover, a [...]

One of my cousins just wrote to me and asked, “What are the highlights of your time in Milan… so far?”
I’ve been mulling it over all day. Hard one to answer. I think the highlights have been mostly little things, little bright moments or little challenges surmounted. Many a gorgeous sight and delicious meal, yes. [...]

Today, I walked into a very dark room, let my eyes adjust, and then marveled at 22 pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s “Codex Atlanticus”. His original drawings. I saw his mind working. Observed his mulling things over. enjoyed the surety of his hand and his line. To be in the presence of the evidence of [...]

Again! I got on the subway. Seated myself. The doors closed, and “Twang!” As soon as the train pulled away from the station, the guy started playing a random riff on his guitar and projected it throughout the train car with an amplifier in his backpack!
I had seen him over the summer, too. Same guy. [...]

I’m smiling, amused. I just walked home in the pouring rain. Gym bag and  groceries hanging heavy from my shoulder. My black-and-white polka dot umbrella amidst the sea of umbrellas. This was no tourist moment. I was just heading home like everyone else, and put my new leather boots on the radiator to dry out. [...]

I just received this notice of cheap tickets to Venice, Milan, Florence (and other European cities) on Lufthansa. Now’s your chance!

A wall along the canal features this singing bluebird and it makes me smile every time. Whether intended or not, it feels “sunny” to me and perks me up. My Grandma would have liked it. Her favorite color was blue.
It’s a blue sky Autumn day in Milano today. Mid-60s. Not a cloud and hardly a [...]

Many years ago a Mexican man named Angel worked for us in the orchard. He lived up the valley on the land of a neighboring orchardist, in one of the one-room, plywood-sheathed homes available. In polite company, they were called “Pickers’ Cabins”; most of the time they were called “Pickers’ Shacks”.
The cabins weren’t much. Quickly [...]

Sitting in my spam trash are 15,201 spam “comments” that have come in since September 5! (Yes. That’s fifteen thousand+.) I’ve managed to create enough filters that I haven’t had to purge each of them individually, but I’ve still had to spend much-too-much time each day clearing out the crap. In fact, I think I’ve [...]

At almost  4 months’ time here (with a few side trips away) I have now gone through a one liter bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and I just bought my second bottle. And by the way, even though I’ve eaten more meat (bresaola and prosciutto! Mmm) and cheese in the last 4 months than [...]

Just had an hour and a half bike ride. A BIG snake crossed my path. Little frogs jumped out of the mud puddles in front of me as I approached. Something rustled in the grass next to me. No muskrats tonight, but the cats all perked up their ears and looked at me when I [...]