Originally published April, 2017 by Jill Zeller It is March, 2017. I am in Mozambique—Maputo, the capital city to be precise—at a fancy hotel on the beach. Beyond this deck the Indian Ocean laps the shore like a contended cat at a bowl of milk. My colleagues have left the building on a tour of …
Originally published on 10/8/2010 by Phyllis Irene Radford Rumor has it that those of us born in Portland, Oregon have webbed feet and learn to walk with a flutter kick. Truth be told we have about the same number of inches of rain per year as New York, Philadelphia, or Boston. However, we have more …
A sneak peek at the start of a new blog series about my adventures buying and building on an abandoned farm in southern Chile. NOTE: As moving has unearthed boxes of old journals and photos/slides, I’ve started to resurrect a half-finished novel based on my time owning a farm in remote Southern Chile. And due …
People in Europe do not worry about reusing old stuff. The continent is packed full of old stuff. Every time they dig for a parking lot a tomb or an ancient villa or red figure vase turns up. If people didn’t upcycle, nothing would ever get done. Here’s a superb example from the old quarter …
Roof tiles fascinate me. Robert Heinlein said once that a house’s job, broadly speaking, is to keep off the rain. And to do this you have to have a good solid roof. Terra cotta roof tiles date back a good 4 thousand years or so. You can easily find ones that the Romans made. That …
Revisit with Thor and me an escape to the mountains. Seize the day! Way too much “Life” is swirling around us these past weeks, and today comuter gremlins invaded my blog post-in-progress, so we’ll get back to that new topic next week. (Hint: Moving) Meanwhile, here is a reminder that a getaway to “Be Here …
This is a particularly nice example of shuffling and reshuffling an ancient building. The picture is of one of the gates into Diocletian’s palace, visible at the lower right. As is proper for an emperor, the gate was about two stories high and impressive. Once he was gone, however, the new tenants did a bunch …
When the Emperor Diocletian decided to retire, he built himself a palace on the other side of the Adriatic. This got him out of Rome, where it was hot and dirty and full of enemies, to a sea view in the small town of Split in Croatia. It was modeled upon the Roman military camp …
The reuse of old structures fascinates me. And there is nowhere like Europe for upcycling buildings. They’ve been doing this since the Neolithic. I have seen caves, clearly former dwellings from the far past, converted into car garages. And how about this one: I took this picture in passing from a bus. As you can …
Join me for a celebration of Easter on my first trip through the Greek islands. Back in 1981, I fulfilled a dream to visit Greece, after my fascination with its mythology and culture since childhood. With my partner Jim, I loaded up my backpack for camping on the different islands and mainland. This is part …
[As the title suggests, I am not able to actually revisit South Africa’s amazing Kruger National Park, but I am able to recall my two safari trips there in 2017 and 2018. This is a reprint of my original March 2017 post about my safari escapades.] We rise early, try to chug hot, mediocre coffee, …
The last time I came this way I was only about 5 hours north of Barcelona, in southern France. Everyone said I should go visit it. Unfortunately, Covid was sweeping the world and the European authorities had imposed a 14 day quarantine if you crossed the border. This was unmanageable, so I did other things. …
Lose yourself in the spell of history’s secrets and herbal lore in Sarah Penner’s fascinating novel. I’ve been reading several books selected by the International Pulpwood Queens & Timber Guys Book Club, now that my novel Pause has been chosen as a 2022 title. I look forward to “meeting” Sarah Penner next week via the weekly Zoom …
The Rambling Writer Book Review: THE LOST APOTHECARY by Sarah Penner Read More »
