Michael Island was tall and lean, and carried himself with the confident ease of a man smart enough to know that he had nothing to prove, and the grace and assurance of a dancer skilled enough to perform. His distinctive blue eyes often squinted with amusement - at least around me - and while he was quick to laugh, it was alway with and never at ( Read more... )

So, yes. In fact I have been on the road lately, why do you ask ( Read more... )

Mountains, Gandalf ( Read more... )

Notice: It really is bigger out here.

Just an hour and a half from where I am sitting now, there is lovely Bed and Breakfast in a quirky Queen-Anne Style house with gambrel roofs and an enormous lawn. At this moment, someone is sitting on the porch, sipping coffee, looking past the wisteria vines to where the robins are searching for their breakfast ( Read more... )

It's an indulgence, pure and simple. No doubt about it, and no excuses. Just an indulgence, justified by the pragmatic reason that I didn't want to fight holiday traffic when I came to the Eastern Shore for T- and C-s wedding. But I know that really, that is just an excuse. It is an indulgence, and not one that I make any apologies for. It is ( Read more... )

I sat on the coast, at a restaurant and lodge at Big Sur, and looked out over the ocean. As I watched the birds dipping down towards the waves, and listened to the low chatter of the other people enjoying their lunch, it struck me astonishing that it had been less than 48 hours since I had woken up in my bed in gritty, urban, East Coast Baltimore ( Read more... )

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano and the Monarch butterflies to their Mexican forest, there is the annual migration by Zauditu to her ancestral homeland. How can I tell that I'm in California? Because when I am here, there is no hesitation when asked, "where are you from?" The answer: I'm from here ( Read more... )

Such a long day. So many things to write about. But after fourteen straight hours of being On. Present. Active. Awake. I will have to be brief about everything and hope to have time to write more about everything later - perhaps tomorrow on the plane ( Read more... )

Seriously, people, you should see this room. It has, in much more reasonable proportions, the cubic feet of my entire first floor in the main room, with a bathroom almost the size of my bedroom at home (sans cat area). Two beds, a comfy couch, two comfy chairs, a table and four chairs....I could live in this room for months quite cheerfully, I ( Read more... )