Clik here to view.
A Postcard from Lugano
Gandria, Switzerland Just put your feet up on the edge of the glass balcony, lean back and enjoy the breathtaking view: straight ahead is San Salvatore – the signature mountain of Lugano, Switzerland...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Postcard from Lugano II
Lago di Lugano, Switzerland, with San Salvtore beneath the moon. I’ve been absent from posting for a few weeks now, as I was away on holiday and I left most of my writing at home. Most. Last summer I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy Birthday, Switzerland!
Here in Switzerland, today’s Google Doodle is in celebration of our Founding Day, 1291. It is actually the day on which the Federal Charter was written and signed by the three originally united...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Page in History
As a writer I’m constantly absorbing information; I never know when something might come in handy! It may inform my scene with more realism, or infuse a character with a quirk or a background that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mark Twain on Switzerland & the Awful Language of German
This past week I’ve been quite busy getting ready for a big change in our lives: Taking in an exchange (high school) student for nearly a year. She’s coming from Thailand, and wants to learn German;...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Musings about Advent
For those of you in highly commercialized countries (I won’t name names, but the initials are USA, for one…), before Thanksgiving is past, Christmas decorations have hit the shop shelves. Before...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Now on Spotify!
For those of you who are interested, I just thought I’d make a shameless plug for one of my husband’s albums: It’s taken us a while to get it up and running due to the complexities of publishing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Life & All that Jazz
I’ve been silent awhile; sometimes I just need a change of pace from daily writing, and blogging, to retank creative energy. Life has been full in that time, so it’s not as if I’ve been sitting around...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Life & all that Jazz: Flash Flood
Credit: © KEYSTONE/EPA MTI/PETER KOMKA For weeks, my husband and I had marked in our agendas this past Friday as the evening to do a bit of cleaning in our cellar – getting rid of bits & bobs we no...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Postcard from Lugano IV
Greetings from Lugano! Between my last postcard to you and this one, we’ve managed to emerge from the Dark Ages here and get internet in the flat. We’re here for another week, and are being spoilt...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Greetings from the Global Village
Depending on where you are in the world, right now you’re feeling the effects of our global village more or less than others. Here in Switzerland, the Corona Virus is headline news. We’ve had a few...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Food History Undusted: Mac & Cheese
As I recently mentioned, we had problems with kitchen moths; the source has been found (dates) – the jar which contained them also isolated them; I played the jar like a maraca and sang “La Cucaracha”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History Undusted: The Deaf Princess Nun
Princess Alice of Battenberg, christened Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie (born 25 February 1885 at Windsor Castle, and died 5 December 1969 at Buckingham Palace), later Princess Andrew of Greece...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Preparedness
This article* will be longer than usual, but I think it’s an important topic to address. If you’re reading this, you’ve survived the first wave of Coronavirus, lockdown, and have been able to pay your...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Virtual Tour 5: Switzerland
View from Lihn, Switzerland. Taken by Stefan Huesler in March 2005 Today’s tour brings you to my neck of the woods, so to speak: Switzerland. How many mountains we have here depends on who you ask;...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rabbit Holes
Have you ever started what seemed like a small project, only to realize that you’d fallen down Alice’s rabbit hole, ala Wonderland? I was sitting in my library last weekend, and I glanced up at a few...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History Undusted: The Personal History of a Household Apron
Aprons have probably been around since the dawn of clothing; up until the Industrial Revolution, most people only had the clothes on their backs, or at most one additional change of clothing – in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History Undusted: The Age of Revolutions
This past summer, my husband and I rented a motorhome and travelled around Switzerland; we tend to prefer nature or museums to overly-touristy attractions. One of the places we visited was Spiez...
View Article
