Over the past few weeks, we’ve had more than our fair share of scenic drives — both highways and hidden roads meandering past stunning vistas or through gorgeous glens.  However, the scenery in these alpine region often suddenly morphs to the dim, yellowish, un-beautiful blocks...

We have encountered stunning physical beauty these past few months — volcanos and vistas, perennials spilling out of window boxes or across meadows, cobbled streets and magnificent churches — beautiful things that are easy to photograph, to capture, to put in an album. But just as...

Good Morning, Swiss Alps! The view from H’s...

Our family heritage lessons continued today with a stop in Heidelberg, Germany — once home to Gigi and Poppy, birthplace of Uncle Donald, and original location of the SuperBleiFrei dance by S and J seventeen years ago, recreated this afternoon. The dance moves will not be on the...

Happy birthday to strongman Davey Gaskins!!

You know that song, “Make new friends, but keep the old…one is silver and the other gold?” I think a new line should be added — “And get to know the old ones better!” We ate our way through a wonderful 2 nights with the Howard family in Brussels with a full...

Shploock. Shlup.  I cringe just a little as the mud closes over the top of my shoe.  It is a slightly delicious, and slightly disgusting, noise as I pull my foot out for my next step.  I try not to guesstimate the varieties of bacteria and feces mixed in there, so I look up and around. The...

The highlight of this week for me has been time spent on just a fraction of the hundreds of miles of public footpaths that stripe the Lake District.  Yellow arrows on wooden posts declare public right-of-way, down roads, along fences, across fields, through pastures, up and down fells and...

Today we tackled the Blenheim Palace hedge maze, featured in The Calder Game. Our dinner discussion included “How is life like a maze?” Some of our answers: * It’s rough when you fall. * You can’t see the whole path ahead, only to the next turn. * Sometimes you get...

As with the Olympics several weeks ago, this week we have been enveloped by the Paralympic Games here in London. We can see the venues in the distance from the upstairs window of the home where we are staying (thank you, Swithinbanks!), the signage around London is everpresent, and the...

J is leading our first Art of Language class, seminar style, based on a journalistic view of last night’s Olympic Closing Ceremony. Apple juice provided....

Vous etes ici. You Are Here. This is a concept we have often struggled with, as a family and as individuals, throughout our lives. We want to live in the present, notice small things, enjoy our time together — instead of constantly thinking of the next big thing, wishing time away,...

As we left the Brittany region of France this morning, we said goodbye to our new friends Rebecca and David. You will find them in the dictionary under Generosity. We are grateful to have been in their company and under their roof! They graced us with an early morning serenade of a French...

I have a collection of extraordinarily wise friends. You are probably one of them. I hope someday to be able to distill wisdom myself, but for now I am content to garner it from them — and attempt to apply it to my own life. In preparation for our trip, my wise friends calmed my...

A great solution to a constant...

I breathe more easily knowing that –though scenery, food, tempers (and temperature!), and resting place all change — our anchor remains the same. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. – Hebrews...

70 years for a good sleeper!

So yes, we screeched to a halt on the highway shoulder, flung open the doors, and gave chase to what we thought must surely be a massive herd of reindeer just over the next volcanic rise. I stopped to take some photos of a mossy stream, and by the time I resumed the hunt, J and the boys were...