Will we survive Christmas lunch???
2024
November in the Cinque Terre
The skies are blue, the sun hot, the shadows cold and the nights crisp. The Cinque Terre is settling down for the winter. Shops and restaurants are beginning to shut down. We, and our American visitors, are amongst the last …
November in the Cinque Terre
The skies are blue, the sun hot, the shadows cold and the nights crisp. The Cinque Terre is settling down for the winter. Shops and restaurants are beginning to shut down. We, and our American visitors, are amongst the last …
Halloween is coming!
We live in fear, haunted by the prospect of the imminent budget of the Orwellian-Cromwellian Socialist Crusaders- ‘Let them eat vegetables!’ Cri du coeur. 1789 Just sayin’… These days, a 6am a sleepless night is not disturbed by birds waking …
Halloween is coming!
We live in fear, haunted by the prospect of the imminent budget of the Orwellian-Cromwellian Socialist Crusaders- These days, a 6am a sleepless night is not disturbed by birds waking up and going for a swoop in blue skies. Instead …
Sleepy autumn in the Surrey Hills
One minute we were chopping cucumber and strawberries for a late summer Pimms. The next it was sunflower bouquets and homemade cakes-all to quietly celebrate another birthday, another decade of perfect days slipping into sunsets and starry nights, a new …
Sleepy autumn in the Surrey Hills
One minute we were chopping cucumber and strawberries for a late summer Pimms. The next it was sunflower bouquets and homemade cakes-all to quietly celebrate another birthday, another decade of perfect days slipping into sunsets and starry nights, a new …
Tuscan Bugs
At home with wasps, bugs and the spice of life Whiney Bastard Stripey Bastard Bitey Bastard Blood sucking Bastard I now have a monumental lump on my thigh, matched only by the collection of savage bites inflicted by horse-flies. This …
Tuscan Bugs
At home with wasps, bugs and the spice of life I now have a monumental lump on my thigh, matched only by the collection of savage bites inflicted by horse-flies. This all started a few days ago when I decided …
Ferragosto, starlit wine tasting and Segrettos
The scent of burnt lavender, the itch of the cicada song and the gurgles of the pool.
Ferragosto, starlit wine tasting and Segrettos
On return from our Literary Tour GS and I knuckled down with boxes to be unpacked and the garden to be tamed. GS’s gardening style is ‘slash and burn’ with sloshing of weedkiller and insecticide. Anything with petals is a …
Hope Town, Elbow Cay, The Bahamas- Pirates, Island girls and Conchs
Our feet sank into the sugary pinks sands, footprints immediately washed away by foaming shallow wavelets.
Hope Town, Elbow Cay, The Bahamas- Pirates, Island girls and Conchs
Ever since the wild boar broke into the fence in Tuscany and GS fretted about pigs swimming in our pool I have longed to see the official Swimming Pigs. So, when Capt Tom and Jelaine suggested finishing our US adventure with …
Basking Crocs to rainbow crocks of gold
Extraordinary US never fails to surprise.
Basking Crocs to rainbow crocks of gold
Road trip from New Orleans to Amelia Island and down to Fort Lauderdale Morning surprise in New Orleans I like to sleep with the bedroom door shut, now that the kiddies are grown. I kept them curled up with me …
New Orleans, Cajun/Creole cuisine, Jazz, voodoo, vampires and paddle steamers on the muddy Mississippi.
New Orleans assaults all senses including the sixth.
New Orleans, Cajun/Creole cuisine, Jazz, voodoo, vampires and paddle steamers on the muddy Mississippi.
Cajun and Creole cuisine set fire to good intentions There is so much to see, experience and know in New Orleans. This bloglet is an expose of my, the strangers, ignorance- of cuisine, and of culture both apparent and occult. …
New Orleans, The Big Easy in the Garden District
Pelting rain and violent thunderstorms- taking it easy in steamy New Orleans
New Orleans, The Big Easy in the Garden District
We arrive at New Orleans, back into the humidity and the heat. The city is lush. It is scented with magnolia grandiflora trees. Resurrection ferns coat oak branches, verdant and strong, coaxed back into life by the downpours. Spanish moss drapes …
The Writers’ Retreat, Tennessee
A writers retreat in deepest Tennessee
The Writers’ Retreat, Tennessee
‘Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book’ laughs GS ‘Who said that?’ ‘Cicero- two thousand years ago!’ It’s true there are a lot of us writers about, or perhaps we are just drawn to each …
Sunshine and storms in Key West
Our literary tour starts…
Underwater wine-discovering a mysterious wine in Secret Tuscany
Dreams, underwater wines inspired by shipwrecks and poetry.
Fireflies and Nightingales in Tuscany
Ours was a warm, still spring night with ‘no breezes from heaven blown.’ We stood instead in the dark, amongst the roses and their perfumed air, looking up into the olive grove with its shaggy grass and wild flowers hidden in the dark.
Coffee, cornetti, Tuscan artists and sculptors
Bumping into world class Tuscan artists and the visceral sculpture of Paolo Pelosini
Should you write your memoir?
Don’t even think about it unless you are committed to the level of obsession.
Overnight stop in France Mulhouse aka two Philistines in La France Profonde
Two philistines in La France Profonde
Flashbacks – friend or foe for the memoirist?
Can use of multiple flashbacks exhaust word budget and lead to writer’s block?
Rainy days, operatic owls and the most romantic Cafe in Lucca
There is something lascivious about a Lucchese hot chocolate.
Writing under a pseudonym
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Oscar Wilde