Notes on My Life

excerpts from notes on my life

  • An Extraordinary Time

    Today is the end of Christmastime in our house. It is Sunday, our last guests have left. It is time to take the tree down. It’s always a sad thing to do, if only for the obvious reasons, as it is the end of the season that I love, one filled with gaiety, beauty, joy,… Read more

  • Inevitability and Avoidance

    Here we are, in 2023. It’s always lovely, going into the new year, to think of all the good that’s to come, changes to be made, new starts, and new chances. This New Year’s Eve was lovely, spent with old, good friends in England. That all seems so far away from where I sit today,… Read more

  • Aller Retour

    I stared to write this in the car, in traffic, stopped on the autoroute in England. With planes are passing above us, through the car roof we could see them. This must’ve meant we were close to Heathrow and therefore London, which explained why we were dead stopped on the autoroute. Crossing back over brought… Read more

  • News from Nowhere

    Oh what a delight it is to write those words above, whilst sitting in a Georgian kitchen, with William Morris curtains, in the Cotswolds, in England, during Christmastime. I can’t think of anywhere better to be, in this moment. I love this week between Christmas and New Years, and the tradition of doing nothing exceptional,… Read more

  • Inherited Things

    Last night, I had a dream of being home at Christmas. I visited my childhood home and a few other places, some real and some imagined. Of those which I have visited before, there is the area that my home was in, the roads of my childhood and adolescence, a time and place in which… Read more

  • Fool Me Once

    It’s the morning after the night before, well actually its almost 3 in the afternoon. The kids have gone out to do ice skating with their dad and Bonne Maman, and the house is quiet. I would like to put on Christmas music but I can’t seem to get through the task. I’ve straightened up… Read more