Always on the Verge

Reflections and connections of a life-long learner.

France: Seconde Parte, Acte II – Luberon Valley and beyond

  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this latest blog post figures to come in at over 50,000. So many interesting things to see that I am going to let the places we visited pretty much speak for themselves.  But before all of that, a few comments on our latest rental – which I do not have pictures of. (It was lovely, just not something that cried to be photographed.) We stayed.. Read More

France: Seconde Partie; Acte I – Côte d’Azur

Just lodged for 10 days in a converted sheep barn in Vence, France.  Had the joy of some fabulous and disappointment of some not so fabulous meals. We were busy enough, but not so much that we succumbed to full vacation mode, as we balanced outings with restful days and evenings. And then there were the mosquitoes…   Where we stayed:               What we ate:        .. Read More

Answer: To Get to the Other Side

“Alex, I’ll take transportation for €44,40”.  The question: Why would someone take the Mont Blanc tunnel? This 11.611 km (7.215 mi) passage links Chamonix, France to Courmayeur, Italy and Italy is where we were headed.  Between us stood a section of the Alps. While the scenery was breathtaking, we were pleased that we were able to go through the mountain rather than over it.   The entire travel time that day was eight hours. Much of.. Read More

France – Partie Un

And the vagabond year continues…  but before going into details for this portion of the trip it might be helpful if I gave a bit of information on the process we used to make our travel decisions. (Process being a euphemism for seat of our pants). First we considered our kiddos: grandson, his parents (our younger son and his lovely wife) and our older son. It was important to get them in our circuit. Next.. Read More

Yeghes Da!

Cheers and good health to all! We have completed our British Isles cruise and I thought a Cornish toast would be a good way to head this latest post. What follows is by no means a comprehensive travelogue of our trip, but it does capture some of the sights and insights along the way.                                          .. Read More

We’re Back!

It has been 17 years (Millennium change/Y2K remember that?) since our last visit…way too long for a city we enjoy. We have made up for lost time by hitting the streets and seeing what’s new and appreciating what we loved about our first encounter with London.                                   And just a few random sightings from our neighborhood:      .. Read More

Watch This Space!

A visual metaphor asking readers of this blog to be on the lookout for some upcoming posts. And, in the literal sense, an empty cupboard that will soon be filled by the people who will be renting our Reno home for the next 12 months. Backstory: This adventure came about quite unexpectedly when we had a request from a visiting UNR professor to rent our Reno guest house for a year. There were some back.. Read More

A Weekend in the Basement

As I contemplated the heading for this post I started to wonder what readers would imagine it contained: a household cleaning task?  a recall of some sort of bizarre punishment?  an attempt at a horror story?  a retreat gone wrong?  All interesting guesses, but the fact is that I spent most of the last three days in the basement at Reno City Hall, working wardrobe duties for Bandaloop: a vertical dance company out of Oakland,.. Read More

The Allure of Fabrics and the Comfort of Friends

What better to do in the spring but take a trip back to the Heartland, in this case Nebraska and Missouri; and along with dear friends and fellow quilters, head out to see what delights the area has to offer? Our host and hostess had a full agenda of activities arranged for us: lunch and a walkabout in a revitalized and historically preserved section of downtown Omaha, car trips to local points of interest around.. Read More