It might be a cathedral of marble pillars and vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows and glinting gold. Or perhaps an art gallery adorned with murals and mosaics, statues and busts. But no. This is Read More »

From a distance it looked like a plume of thick smoke. Perhaps it was a fire – after all, it was the middle of summer. But no, it was Read More »

Two hundred years ago, on July 18th, 1817, Jane Austen died. Only four people attended her funeral Read More »

My strelitzias have begun to bloom, a sign  Read More »

It sits in an area of peace and emerald green lawns rising from Read More »

Boulders lay strewn about. Patches of snow, softening in late spring’s gentle warmth, loosened their grip on alpine vegetation. And then we saw it: Read More »

Until reading Tea: the drink that changed the world by Laura C. Martin I drank tea every day and didn’t really think about it. But this book and others like it have opened my eyes to issues surrounding tea’s arrival in the West: Read More »

Although Sydney and Hobart were settled decades before Melbourne, the State Library of Victoria was the first free public library in Australia. It opened in 1856. Read More »

Winchester is rich with pages of history and novels from the Iron Age to Jane Austen. William the Conqueror began Read More »

Twice my book group has had expatriate Americans as temporary members, each for several years. Read More »