I turned 65 on a truffle farm in Italy—several days into the first international trip I’d ever taken. I told my tour colleagues nothing and enjoyed the synchronicity quietly: that I celebrated a leap into the…
Long after the palaces we saw have blended into single images of artistry and enormity, and long-after color-dense markets and streets churning with motorcycles and rickshaws blur together, I will remember smiles and kindnesses that…
From Delhi, we drove to Jaipur, and several days later, on to Jodhpur, and finally to Udaipur. Able to glimpse some of India outside of what—to me—were all big cities. And I was struck, again…
I miss the tumult—the kinetic, exuberant, brash, buoyant life–the pounding, screeching, dare-devil dodge-em-car/cycle/rickshaw traffic of Dehli and Jaipur and Jodhpur and Udaipur. The staccato Hindi and insistent car horns. The faces and more faces and…
There’s a crawl space under my first-floor condo. It accommodates the slope of the hill on which our four-unit building sits. And somehow—in the way of all small critters who can flatten their bodies to…
A week ago my friend Connie and I set out on an 850-mile Montana road-trip, angling north, then a long way due east, and finally heading back down to Helena. Visiting Great Falls, Havre, Chinook,…
I fell in love there. I fell in love with “there” there—with the city and its offerings and purpose and inhabitants. And my little part in it. I’d been warned away. Told that a stint in…
Turns out that one of the truck/horse rigs that I passed leaving Choteau a week ago belonged to Leslie and her husband. I learned to know Leslie almost 30 years ago when she was a Nevada…
I dropped granddaughter Ella off in Choteau on Friday afternoon—in time to join the small town’s 4th of July celebrations. She anticipated the crafts and food in the park, a parade, a street dance, open houses,…
Here’s a little confession: when I am dying for something sweet—something close to a piece of candy—I’ve been known to buy a bag of marshmallows. Far cheaper than chocolates. And reasonable on the calorie front: Four…