Which would you rather do: A. Get up at 3:30 AM on a Saturday so that you could drive someone to the airport, or; B. Drive into downtown Atlanta during evening rush hour on the Friday of a long holiday weekend? Give me choice A. anytime. Our neighbor needed to get up to New York City and we were happy to take her to the … Continue reading Would you rather….
When Bill and I first got together nearly 30 years ago, we moved almost every 18 months. No, not because the rent was due but because job changes within the same company for me required it. With all of that packing and unpacking we came to an agreement that if we had not used something within the last year then it was not going with us to the new location. I think that we’ll be invoking that rule and a companion one as well, especially once we’re in place.
That new rule, called “Double or nothing” means that anything we buy in France to replace something that we’ve left behind here must do more than one thing. For example, we have two popcorn poppers, an air one and the oil kind. They each do just one thing: pop corn. The ice cream maker you could argue also does frozen yoghurt, sorbet, and sherbet but they’re all just variations on a theme. The juicer juices. The tortilla press makes tortillas. The apple peeler peels apples. You get the picture. Continue reading “Double or nothing”
No, it’s not Christmas yet; in fact, it’s still summer but this title refers to being in-season as in what fruits and vegetables are available from farms nearby now. One of the advantages of living in France, or in Europe in general, is the availability of markets that feature locally-grown produce. When we were in Normandy, northern France, this past May, it was cauliflower harvest time … Continue reading ‘Tis the season
What a question, huh? In our quest to use up the foods that are still here in the house in what we call “shopping the pantry” I came across a box of tapioca, part of which Bill had used quite some time ago when making a fresh cherry pie. I don’t really remember the pie but I know that he didn’t make the tapioca into … Continue reading Tapioca or Jello®?
We’ve moved a lot over the past 30 years: from the Midwest to California to Pennsylvania to Georgia and Florida. Be it north, south, east, or west we’ve always had to say goodbye to favorite places, comfortable routines and of course, friends. That won’t be any different this time when we move across the Atlantic except we’ve already started wishing one set of friends a fond farewell: the birds.
In this part of north Georgia the winters are generally just warm enough that birds who would normally fly further south during those cold months will stay here as long as there is an adequate and consistent food supply. That’s the problem. Since we don’t know if the new owners of this house will want to continue feeding the birds as we’ve done for years, we’re slowly tapering back the seeds we put out. It’s currently still the middle of summer but want to make sure that everyone realizes the food supply is drying up and it’s time to move on. Continue reading “Eating like a bird”
Bill and I used to both work in the travel industry where part of our jobs was to attend consumer trade shows as representatives for our respective companies. At every show one of the comments we consistently heard from potential travelers was their desire to go on a “trip of a lifetime”. They might describe a week-long stay in Scotland with one night in a … Continue reading Live in the moment
Yes, they can can but we can’t can anymore. What? In other words, the downsizing continues and the latest collection to go was all of our canning supplies. Who knew that we had 12 dozen jars, an equal number of lids and rings, cookbooks, a collection of tools, a pressure canner, and even a gas jet burner with giant pots and a cannister of gas. … Continue reading Can you can?
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