Once upon a time, some friends and I tried to go to Canada for New Year’s Eve. The concept was magical, if a little bit of a logistical nightmare for the dead of winter in the North. Ultimately, due to sickness and a winter storm, the plans were cancelled at the last moment and we…
Tag: travel
Book Review: The Paris Novel
Once upon a time, my best friend and I owned a business. Of the many lovely experiences we offered, Book & Dinner Club was my favorite. Over the course of six weeks, we would host a group of women to discuss a book with a strong focus on food and/or travel and feed them home-cooked…
Lofty Mid-year Bonus-goals
Have you revisited your New Year’s Resolutions lately (or ever)?? In case you somehow missed it, we have arrived in the second trimester of 2024. Mid-May is running our schedules into manic chaos, and the weather (at least in the Midwest) is propelling us outside every moment of the day, tempting us to shirk responsibilities….
Book Review: Seven Days in the Art World
One must not be an art aficionado to know that making art is only one stroke of the intricately complicated masterpiece of the modern art world. Art has inherent value from the moment a piece is started; even if that work is never shown to the public. However, when the oeuvre of an artist does…
Book Review: The Moonstone
Per usual, I bought The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins, during a Barnes and Noble perusal of “the classics.” Hailed on its back cover as one of the world’s first detective novels, I was intrigued and a bit confused why I had never even heard of the title. My interest piqued, I bought it. Of course,…
Centered
The obligatory end of the year blog post reflection. I REALLY waited until the VERY end of 2023 to get this done. In part, because I’ve been convalescing from hip surgery (torn labrum/impingement repair), but to be honest, I’ve just been avoiding looking back or forward. This year has felt a bit out of control…
Book Review: A Season of Second Chances
When a friend loaned me her copy of A Season of Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss, I was skeptical at best. Despite the saccharine description of a chef hosting a book club in a coastal British town (all things that are near & dear to my heart) and a promise that there wouldn’t be too…
Coming Home
There’s an understandable mix—a collection of feelings: a burst of joy, a sigh of relief,a pang of regret, a whisper of trepidation. We go away, but then come to:A return journey or a fresh start—perhaps both. We may venture to a familiar place,but that doesn’t mean we’re traveling in reverse. The sands of time continue…
Dubai | 2023
We entered Dubai somewhat unconventionally by driving across the Al Hajar mountain range that separates Oman from the United Arab Emirates. The drive was long—16 of us in a 17-passenger van plus some of our luggage that didn’t fit in the trailer that we were pulling for six hours—and included an inconveniently-long delay in passport…
Book Review: The Artist’s Way
I am a bit shocked that I hadn’t yet written a review on The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, for how profound of an impact it has had on my life this year. Perhaps that is why—it felt too personal or too close or like I was still in the thick of it, even though…
L.M.Beatty 