Anyone can paint a picture.Unless they don’t have a brush, a canvas, a piece of paper.Anyone can grow a garden.Unless they don’t have land, seeds, a patch of dirt.Anyone can learn to read.Unless they don’t have a book, a paragraph, a teacher.Anyone can make dinner.Unless they don’t have a fridge, a stove, some food.Anyone can…
Tag: blog
Book Review: The Secrets of Florence
Why I was interested in this book: Last fall, my family took a lovely vacation to Italy. We started in Rome, took the high-speed train up to Venice and the ended our trip in Florence (with a final flight back out of Rome). In preparation for the trip, my sister and I had found some…
Above the Clouds I, II & III
I. Let me be above the cloudsjust for a moment;up here, I can breathe.The worries of the earth have to leave me alone.I can’t tend to my garden above the clouds.I can only dream of the roses, peonies & lilacsthat will make my home a glorious altar to the senses.I can’t harvest my vegetables.I can…
Book Review: The Writer’s Table — Famous Authors and Their Favourite Recipes
Why I was interested in this book The Writer’s Table caught my eye as I wandered through Anthropologie on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I really had no business buying anything that day, let alone a coffee table book, but the book’s concept & design were really captivating. I own quite a few art books that…
Book Review: Hamnet
Why I was interested in this book: I think I had heard of Hamnet, the novel, without making any effort to read it for multiple years. As you may remember, I often avoid modern, trendy novels. But, when the stars aligned for trailers of the film and promotion for the run of the play at…
Book Review: A Time of Gifts
Note: I’ve been on the struggle bus with book reviews for the past month or so—not because I haven’t been reading books. On the contrary, I’ve read quite a few good ones lately and I’ve felt rather guilty about not sharing the wealth. A few years ago, I decided that writing reviews on this blog…
Rome, Italy | 2025
When in Rome… I’m not sure any of us actually used that phrase during our time in Italy, but we certainly tried to do as the Romans do in terms of eating, drinking and generally enjoying life during our time en Italia. We arrived on our direct flight from Chicago O’Hare to Roma Fiumicino early…
Cadence of Fall Part II: Making a Joyful Noise
From a young age, I aspired to be an “accomplished woman” like the heroines of 19th century European literature who managed to excel at many disparate talents and interests. I sought to be as well-rounded as humanly possible with as many activities as could fit in a day. I honestly didn’t care about perfection so…
Cadence of Fall | Part I: Cacophony of Sound
Have you ever heard an orchestral melee as the players practice on their own before coordinated tuning? The instrumentalists are probably all playing portions of the same set of music, but at different tempos and times, just trying to hone in on their individual parts. It’s chaotic and nonsense and not particularly pleasant to listen…
Book Review: Mrs. Dalloway
With this review of Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf), I have finally completed the pile of books I picked up a few years ago from The Winding Stair bookshop in Dublin (with the exception of a puzzle book). One of the other titles, How Should One Read a Book, also by Woolf, was a great little…
L.M.Beatty 