For many of us, the past few weeks have been all about hunkering down inside and ignoring the freezing world outside. Doing things like finding a warm place on the couch to curl up with a blanket and a book or movie. Cooking hearty food that warms your kitchen, belly, and soul. Putting the kettle… Continue reading Words to live by: Laurie Colwin
On re-reading, and reading extensively vs. intensively
Re-reading seems to be a divisive topic in the reading community. I know some readers who never, or rarely, re-read a book. I’m in the opposite camp: I think re-reading a beloved book is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Last year, of the 62 books I read, 10 of them were re-reads. This… Continue reading On re-reading, and reading extensively vs. intensively
Buddha Park
Today let’s leave behind the below freezing weather in NYC and take a little armchair journey to southeastern Asia. It is late April, we are in Laos, and it’s one of the hottest times of the year. It’s humid. The water fights during Songkran helped keep us cool, but by the time we get to Vientiane we are a… Continue reading Buddha Park
Sunday Night Lunch (Weekly Recap 2.22.15)
This week was packed full of social events and very little reading or blogging. I spent a lovely afternoon with my friend Kristen who was in town from San Francisco. I hosted a happy hour fundraiser for my Cycle for Survival team, and co-hosted a baby shower for a dear friend. For the shower, I baked Devil’s Food… Continue reading Sunday Night Lunch (Weekly Recap 2.22.15)
English Currant Scones
Until my first trip to England in 2013, I had never eaten a proper scone. I suspect many Americans haven’t, until they go to the UK. There must be places in the States making proper scones, but all I ever seem to find is the large, dry, triangle shaped scones, served plain, that are underwhelming… Continue reading English Currant Scones
South American Reading List
Blue-footed Booby – Galápagos Islands by Dave Govoni // CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Graham and I just booked one last adventure before we settle back down into the real world and look for jobs. We’re traveling to Ecuador and Peru, and we’ll be going to the Galapagos Islands, the Amazon Rainforest, Machu Picchu, and hiking the Lares trail.… Continue reading South American Reading List
Sunday Night Lunch (Weekly Recap 2.15.15)
It has been a cold, gray week in NYC. The sun came out for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon, and we took advantage of the slightly warmer temperature by going on a long walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Staten Island Ferry, riding the ferry there and back, and then walking back home. The… Continue reading Sunday Night Lunch (Weekly Recap 2.15.15)
Antique Victorian Valentine
On my first trip to England in 2013, I visited a little secondhand / antiquarian bookshop in Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds called Evergreen Livres. I bought a couple of charming antique travel books, and while I was paying for my books I noticed a very old envelope for sale which, upon closer inspection, turned out… Continue reading Antique Victorian Valentine
Words to live by: L.M. Montgomery
In honor of Valentine’s Day eve, this week’s quote is in celebration of my favorite literary couple of all time: Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe. It’s from the third book in the extraordinarily lovely Anne series, Anne of the Island. Unlike a Jane Austen novel or a Shakespeare comedy, L.M. Montgomery didn’t end the story at… Continue reading Words to live by: L.M. Montgomery
The Wave in the Mind by Ursula K. Le Guin
I added The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin to my To Be Read list after reading Eva’s post about it on A Striped Armchair. I checked out a copy from the library, but after reading the first essay I knew that… Continue reading The Wave in the Mind by Ursula K. Le Guin
Treat yo self
During my recent book purging project and efforts to minimize my material possessions, I scaled my book collection down by about 15%. As a result, I had about 250 books to sell or donate. I donated the majority of them, and the ones that had a bit more resale value I took to Strand to exchange for… Continue reading Treat yo self
Glacier National Park
I’m continuing to work on sorting through my travel photos, and so today I will share some of the ones I took at the breathtakingly beautiful Glacier National Park in Montana. We were only there for two days and two nights, but we packed a lot into our time there. We camped at Avalanche campground. Our… Continue reading Glacier National Park