The fog was beginning to shroud the mountains to the west. Mars rising, its beacon bright as a full moon lit the backdrop. Christopher and I walked above the Eel River. It meanders through meadows and dairy farms at this point in its journey to the ocean. The evening winds rustled the several lone pine …
My first impressions, primarily through photographs, of our family’s journey together in northern Italy: Trento, Italy: Castle Buonconsiglio contains some of the most significant International Gothic frescoes in the world. The twelve frescoes in the Eagle Tower (Aigle) depict the “cycle of months,” each fresco representing a month of the year in the fourteenth century; …
As I woke the first morning in our new house in Chapel Hill, I wondered how many “first mornings” Doug and I have had since we’ve been married? How many places have we called home? I count at least fourteen houses, almost as many temporary apartments (is two years temporary?), in almost thirty-eight years of …
When I was about nine years old I wanted a room of my own, tired of sharing a bedroom with one of my older sisters (five children, three bedrooms, my oldest sister, Anne, usually had her own room). There wasn’t a space IN the house so I decided to create a room in our garage, …
Reading about elephants in preparation for being surrounded by elephants As I reviewed the more than eighty books I’ve read this year, the fullness of the literary talents displayed by so many authors caught my attention. My reading is eclectic, heavily influenced this year by my trip to South Africa and the desire to learn …
Avenue of Kirstenbosch lined with Camphor and Morton Fig trees In my mind’s eye, the terrain of South Africa is brown: dried grasses; elephant-damaged trees, blackened shadows against the open sky; lichen-covered rock outcroppings; murky ponds with hippopotamus eyes peeking above the water line; rutted and dusty dirt roads; barren mountains rising above the rolling …
We arrived mid-afternoon at Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat, an eco-sanctuary nestled in a valley beneath the Overstrand Mountains southeast of Cape Town. The drive was an adventure in itself: A missed turn on the narrow road necessitated a very careful U-turn by our bus driver; an overhanging branch required one of the retreat’s staff to …
Running and Africa are almost synonymous, at least at the elite level with talented Kenya and Ethiopian runners training at altitude, breaking records, dominating the world stage. In South Africa, the Comrades Marathon is the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon. Held annually in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and …
The walk: Our nature walk was to be an hour, a few kilometers outside the fences of Idube Nature Retreat. Inside the fences, we were protected from this big beasts who are unable to crawl under them. The retreat is part of the Sabie Sands Natural Reserve, contiguous with Kruger National Park, South Africa. The …
The Biltmore Kiwanis 15k road race seemed the perfect opportunity for someone who doesn’t really like races: run through the Biltmore Estate here in Asheville, North Carolina, parts of which are not typically open to guests. The start only five miles from our house. The 15k distance new to me. Early May, the estate grounds …