I wrote the following post in February 2009, two months after returning from my six month sabbatical in Arles, France. I was feeling a bit nostalgic this morning and started looking back through old posts. I didn't have many readers then and the blog (and my writing) was just a baby. At that point, I …
Bleu Part Deux
As I was driving home from the mountains today, I realized that I left off some bleu/blue things that I love. (I could blame it on Moo and Mama Mildred for distracting me, I guess.) Do you ever have the blues? In France, the saying is avoir le cafard- to have the cockroach. Where on …
Blue
Meet Lightening. My advisory mascot. An African Spotted Water Frog. Oui, une grenouille africaine. One of the girlies brought him in to share with the rest of us. While out and about, roaming around in one of my favorite thrift shops, Pennies for Change, I found a treasure. I am a fan of Henri …
One Sip at a Time
After reading the blog, Mr. Van Sickle sent me a copy of his book and asked me to review it. I have to admit that I have not yet written a review. To ease my guilty conscience, I decided to do a giveaway through Amazon. Oui, a free copy to one lucky reader! Click on …
If God’s not a Tar Heel fan…
then why is the sky Carolina Blue? That's a question I've heard most of my life. Actually, I am pretty sure that God has a lot on his plate right about now... hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorists, people who feel so alone that they don't know what to do or who to turn to. Who wins a …
Courage
Photo credit: Tasha Tolliver So, what exactly is courage? I've just spent more than a few minutes looking at definitions of this noun. I believe that if I found just the right one it would have this woman's photo next to it. According to Oxford English Living Dictionaries on-line, courage is defined as: the ability …
Cooking for me
I love cooking for me. I don't have to worry about what I like (basically everything edible) or dislike (basically not much). I can take leftover stuff and turn it into something pretty good most of the time. And I don't care how many dishes I dirty because I don't mind cleaning up. I had …
“Grateful for everything, entitled to nothing”
This is Jim McIngvale. A man I had never heard of until yesterday. AKA Mattress Mack. The Clarion-Ledger ran an article about him yesterday and that's where I found the quote that is the title of today's post. In today's Durham Herald-Sun newspaper, I read an editorial from the Charlotte Observer. It touched me, so …
Continue reading “Grateful for everything, entitled to nothing”
Small things, great things, great love
It is hard to believe. September has arrived. It came in rainy yesterday here in my little corner of North Carolina. Hurricane season. My thoughts continue to be with the people in Texas who lost family, pets, and all of their worldly belongings. Stuff is stuff and can be replaced, but some of the stuff …
Les photos de Fanny
I would like for you to meet my French sister, Fanny. We have been friends since we were introduced by Olivier in... let's see, March 2010 (thank you, Google photos!). Fanny was Olivier's son's English teacher at the collège (middle school in France) in Villeneueve-lez-Avignon. Olivier and I became friends through a website called French …
the sabbatical chef 