Category Archives for Uncategorized

HOW TO FIND THE DIVINE IN PARIS: 7 SPIRITUAL SNAPSHOTS My favourite destination is known as the “City of Lights,” and God is called the “Father of Lights.” Merely coincidence? Hmmm, I think not . . . Paris, to me, is heaven on earth! Here are some steps to connecting with the metaphysical while in the […]

TRANQUILITY On a recent Sunday afternoon, I trod the 127 footsteps from the kitchen door down to the old elm tree by the creek—blissful backyard hideaway!—and sat with my husband like the old married couple we are on the lounge chairs he set side by side in amongst the marshy grasses. Wearied from his heavy […]

          STONE-COLD BEAUTY   I visited my beloved Three Graces in Paris one month ago today—got to the Louvre early enough to avoid lines and was outta there before noon. I targeted the Richelieu wing and followed the map through the palace’s grand hallways and airy courtyards to find my stone-cold […]

         FOIE GRAS I’m currently in the grips of a madly lustful affair with foie gras. This will come as no surprise to  readers of my recent Facebook postings from France, in which I detailed several of my trysts with various foods. I flirted with vin, I dallied with saucisson, I fairly threw […]

          AU NATUREL Okay, I’ll admit I’ve had yearnings to be a hippie since the summer of ’69, when hitchhikers between Toronto and Vancouver wandered into Winnipeg’s Memorial Park with their groovy love beads. My tender age and general morality protected me from their bad habits if not their fashion tastes. […]

            RETREAT There is nothing about the word “retreat” matching what I did this past weekend! I mean, sure, I joined the ladies from Temple Baptist Church out in the wilderness (so to speak) of southern Alberta: fifteen of us (and four nursing infants) settled into a great lodge built […]

          RAINFOREST I’m a prairie girl besotted by BC’s old-growth forests. My husband and I just returned from a few days on Vancouver Island, where we walked the rainforest trail near Ucluelet, following along a wooden slatted path raised above the ground and wondering at the mystical beauty. My dreams are now full […]

          TOURISM OR TRAVEL?   It’s settled: I’m off to France in June for three weeks of Gallic culture! I’ve booked the cutest hotel in Paris for four nights; I’ll be meeting a couple of Parisian girlfriends, but I’m also planning to wander for hours by myself—to take in a couple […]

          BREAKFAST I don’t like to eat too early in the morning. Today it was ten before I cut up my usual oranges topped with plain yogurt and salted sunflower seeds, added a cappuccino made from freshly ground decaf beans, and for good measure juiced a couple of grapefruit. I’m enjoying […]

          ISTANBUL Esma is on a crusade for the perfect lamb meatball recipe to take home to her uncle’s bistro in Manhattan and has purchased sacksful of aromatic spices at the market—cloves and paprika, powdered cumin and beads of coriander, crescent-shaped fennel seeds and purple-black pepper with a brass grinder thrown […]