Autumn arrives, and I quietly say goodbye to another summer as I use up the last of the strawberries and raspberries that I had judiciously bagged and frozen in July to make fragrant batches of jam. We collect the last of the sweet tomatoes from our garden, along with crisp cucumbers and a couple of ...
I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars. – Og Mandino September 15 is the anniversary of the death of my brother, Michael. It has been 8 years since we lost him. 8 years is a long time and so much happens in ...
“Lives there one with taste so dead, who never to ‘hisself’ hath said, I can’t bear to suck an orange?” and answered, “Guess not!” - Chicago Daily Democratic Press February 18, 1854 (quote from Waverly Roots’ Eating in America) Moroccan-Spiced Orange Slices in Orange Blossom Water Citrus season, that lovely, graceful Florida season sandwiched somewhere between the last of the ...
Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. - A. A. Milne Our apartment takes up about a third of the hotel's first floor (one flight up, overlooking the courtyard garden on one side of the building, street level on the other). Our ...
Where liberty dwells, there is my country. - Benjamin Franklin The rattle of cars across the gravel of the courtyard below floats through the windows on the breeze like the distant roar of ocean waves. The shade washes over me, soothing, cooling, the shutters pulled closed against the searing heat. Voices on the street, the distant ...
I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom. ― Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum My father taught me to use a slide rule. My father taught me the patience, the passion, the precision, the pleasure that goes ...
When I sound the fairy call, gather here in silent meeting, Chin to knee on the orchard wall, cooled with dew and cherries eating. Merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder, Mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you'll be fairies all. - Emily Dickinson "The old cherry ...
Pastry, Petitions, and Politics Part III I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson Summer arrives in Chinon on the first wave of tourists; bicycles clog the courtyard; buses disgorge bedraggled groups weary from travel yet pleased to be in such a charming ...
My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent. - Ruth Bader Ginsburg It was just 3 or 4 days shy of my ninth birthday. I had dreamed of owning a big bike, begged to change my little kid’s small bicycle for an adult-sized beauty, just ...
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision. - James Whistler Suddenly it's light at 6:30 am when I skitter out, arms wrapped around myself to ward off the chill, tiptoeing so as not to make too much noise as I crunch across the gravel, to open the front gate of the ...
I'm Jamie; welcome to the new Life's a Feast!
I run a hotel in Chinon, France, and write about life, culture, modern day living and food.
My passion is to create vibrant and unique experiences.
