I fear I have been doing a bit more reading than usual...

Passionate Serenity

Cozy and warm, restorative and peaceful

One can find peace in so many places if open to it. Sometimes, the right place falls in your lap unbidden and you take up the reins to embrace it. When they stay with you as an integral part of your being, you know you have found a piece of your soul’s place of rest.

Borgo di Vagli, high in the mountains east of Cortona in Tuscany, has a quiet serenity than soothes and uplifts. How fortunate we are that, this time, there was no room at the inn and it was recommended to us as an alternative.

Our terrace - with a 10th century castle ruins in the distance

Only two places in my life have caused me distress. The home I thought I’d grow old at in Ohio and Borgo di Vagli. After we packed the car on that last day before heading to Spoleto for lunch and Rome for the airplane home, we sat on the terrace, drinking in the view. Reluctant to leave, we relaxed into the sensations and sounds enveloping us until tears formed and hearts welled with exquisite pain.

Driving away, traversing the two km of winding dirt roads with heavy hearts filled with longing, we said arrivederci. 

Till we meet again.

Just Saying...

Six feet and counting...

It's getting mighty deep out there! We can't shovel it fast enough.

Windblown and Buried

New England has so much to offer and it never disappoints. Cold and snow plummets down from the Arctic and buries us in fluffy white snow.

The View from Inside the Mind

When one wonders about the minds of visionaries and you land on the incredible art created by Van Gogh’s supposedly disturbed mind, one can only be reminded that no two people see the world in the same way. Some only take in the surface and others see more deeply.

Van Gogh's Starry Night

Time-lapse photography while stargazing in Atacama Desert, Chile

Adhemar Duro Getty Images

Sunflower Glory

In the land of paint and pencils, there are many temptations. All the time. Everywhere.

Pastels tickled all my creative bits when I signed up for a class at our local library taught by Gregory Maichack. I am in love with the luminosity and can't wait to experiment with more flowers, clouds and the ocean. This one, started in the class is after a Georgia O'Keefe painting.

Thank goodness there are a profusion of sunflowers at the farm stands right now. These deep, bronzy red ones I put in my blue vase will be wonderful to paint.

Our Northeast summer has been glorious - a gift of clear skies, gentle breezes and warm weather. Cool nights, perfect for sleeping, are a blessing and we enjoyed them virtually every night.

Even when life throws curves, little glimmers of enchantment remind me that there is so much more to consider in the scheme of things. Thank goodness.

"Life is brief, but if you're brave, it's deep." - Elissa Schappell, author