Given the milieu and such, caution seems fitting. Maybe I’m wrong but will just test the water with my toes for now. Yesterday Chef David stopped on his way home from errands and picked up a nice piece of tuna and then made seared fingerling potatoes and an uncomplicated cucumber salad to go with. We flipped on the 2020 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, and … Continue reading 2025 Almanac: Stepping Into the New Year With Due Caution
Not too long ago I ordered a subscription to The New Yorker, the three-dimensional paper version. It’s just one of many gifts to myself in recent years that represent an attempt to regain ‘wholeness’ after the financial ruination that marked the end of my first marriage in 2012. I’m savvy enough to know there’s much from that long chapter I’ll never have, or get to … Continue reading Reflection: The Singular Joys of a Paper Magazine Subscription
Vermont’s namesake Green Mountains, resplendent on a late summer day There were no orcs, dwarves, or elves on this trip. Just one exceptionally bad hotel (the balance exceptionally good) and mainly smooth sailing. We traveled to Vermont chiefly so Chef David and I could visit his adult kids. Mission accomplished, fair to say. The conditions in New England were gorgeous, couldn’t have asked for any … Continue reading Travelogue: There and Back Again, Vermont Style
When I was a young student of archaeology, I recall being gobsmacked by the notion that the curvaceous Tennessee River had changed its course again and again over millennia and the one I knew, the one whose bluff I lived on for roughly a decade and where my kid spent the first few years of his life, probably looked radically different from the river native … Continue reading How a Control Freak Deals With Nature
I have been spending long hours writing, but working on a more ambitious project outside of the blog. It is high time to check in, not quite high summer but sure feels that way. Against all odds, when the atmosphere outside is this oppressive (but not this oppressive), somehow our screen porch has remained a tolerable place to linger over coffee in the morning, iced … Continue reading Sunday Almanac 7.7.24: Summer Is Here
Some 900-plus days into our tenure in coastal North Carolina, and I believe this dog has finally made his peace with the sometimes-oppressive humidity, the stormy nights, rambunctious neighborhood kids, the unpredictable action of the ocean on a good beach day, and all the rest. And while he may not have whole-heartedly embraced all these conditions in his life, like most dogs living their best … Continue reading Reflection: Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever at 11½
It is five of five in the morning and I am hanging my head over the sofa from behind it, about to awaken a sleeping chef until I realize he is wide awake. I am driving him to an early appointment at the doctor’s office in an hour for a little thing, so it is time to get moving. He is not fine, he tells … Continue reading Reflection: The Current State of Things
There are stretches of busy highway here and elsewhere in coastal North Carolina where dwellings long abandoned stand in various states of ruin; some are so far gone an observer must look closely to find any evidence at all of the built structure nature seems intent to reclaim. Nor is it unusual for glossy new shopping centers or prosperous neighborhoods to pop up on either … Continue reading Reflection: Forgotten Dwellings, Untold Stories
I need a vacation from the vacation.” It was The Chef’s answer to me after we wrapped up our Thanksgiving travel, when I asked how he was feeling ahead of his first day back at work, just a few hours away. We had five glorious days off, five consecutive days, where our agenda was possibly a tad too ambitious. Heading over to Asheville to spend … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: Thanksgiving 2023 Is in the Books
A certain ‘smart speaker’ makes quick book purchases a tad too easy, doesn’t she? Open email, flip through the Times book review, ask her to buy it now, and Bam! an exciting new read (or a pile of ‘em) shows up on your doorstep in a day or two. To make matters worse, I happen to be a hardcover snob and relent to a paperback … Continue reading Reflection: Exploring the Deep South (Slowly) With Paul Theroux
Carolina Thinklings 