Travel Tuesday: Amsterdam
When I think of Amsterdam I usually think of its airport. I’ve been in it more than a dozen times and it’s hands down my favourite airport (though Charles de Gaulle’s atrium inspired terminals give it a run for its money artistically). It has a stunning fireplace and grand piano lounge. And a library. And … Continue reading
Travel Tuesday
The new house is finally taking shape. And by taking shape I mean the walls are no longer bare. I don’t know about you, but the powdery deadspace of cheap white walls leave me cold. So at the weekend we hung pictures. Paintings done by Bean’s sister. Vintage opera posters I’ve been hoarding. A pair … Continue reading
Par Avion take flight
I have to come clean. I’ve been harbouring a secret. And in the world of full-frontal bloggery, that’s tantamount to sin. I mean, what is a blog if not a license to read and judge a total stranger’s faceless life? So I’ll start at the beginning. * A million years ago, I resolved to do … Continue reading
Darkness & Light
Today, 21 December 2012, in Edinburgh the sun will come up at 8:42am. It will go down at 3:40pm. According to people who know such things, I will have 6 hours, 54 minutes and 33 seconds of day. It is easy to feel panicky this time of year. With shopping and parties and frantic getting-ready-ness. … Continue reading
GiftED – paper sculptures on the road
If you troll about the literary world, you may have heard of Edinburgh’s mysterious sculptures, their delicate carvings found anonymously gifted to libraries and museums. (I briefly mused on the escapades at the time) The beauties were found stashed around cultural venues last year, leaving the city and the literatti abuzz with speculation. Who could … Continue reading
Night of the Dead
Th older I get the more seasonal my life becomes. The perfect Florida orange in January, the first frosty morning requiring wool socks — it’s these transitions and moments that measure out my years. Witnessing the changing patterns of the planet and the movement of the light mark time in ways more profound than clocks … Continue reading
Culzean Castle
When Bean moved jobs last summer, his colleagues gave him membership to the National Trust for Scotland as a parting gift. Every property in their care from castles and gardens to ruins and abbeys is now free for us to visit as often as we like for a whole year. We’ve explored the properties close … Continue reading
Starry : A Tale of Two Nights
One night, I walked the dry river bed out across the desert and to the water’s edge. During the day it is a popular draw in the region, full of locals and tourists; now it is completely empty. The flicker of a bonfire miles away is the only sign of human habitation. I slip into … Continue reading
A land far, far away…
I know, I know. I came back from holiday and got you all excited with a whole week of daily posts. And then I dropped back into the vortex of virtual silence from whence I came, but without the excuse of Asian deserts and pre-industrial landscapes. The thing is, I came back brimming with stories … Continue reading
Bon Voyages…
This weekend my grandmother left the world as we know it. And in her brilliantly stubborn way, she did so exactly like she would have chosen to do so: In her house, with her nails done and with all of her family laughing and telling stories in the kitchen. It went very quickly, too quickly … Continue reading
Que Sera Sara? 