Life’s soundtrack should be big: Rossini Opera Festival makes a splash
The Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy was over the top! I love watching live orchestras and this one had 5 string basses. 🙂 And the audience was as fun to watch as the opera! I didn’t expect a fashion event. Of course people are well dressed at a fancy cultural event, but there was so […]
Spring is coming. Let’s not give up on hospitality yet.
Forest road in spring green with a blue sky above. Kottenforst, Germany. © Laurel Decher, 2016. Is Migration Our Lot? Lately, I’ve been wondering if migration is our natural lot and living peacefully in one place all our lives a rarity. Cranes are migrating and their calls remind me of spring. The current news shows […]
Hope for February: ESPERANZA RISING and Esperanza Spalding
Hopeful signs: Tiny snowdrops dusting the ground under giant trees bare of leaves under a gray sky. Kriegshoven, Germany. © Laurel Decher, 2016. Hope keeps cropping up . . . Hope keeps cropping up. In February things can look dark in the Northern Hemisphere, but the light always comes. I want to share some hope […]
Skin-colored Felt: Doing Other People’s Cultures Wrong
Skin-colored felt is not easy to find, even if you know what color you’re looking for. My youngest and I are sewing figures for a Christmas nativity scene. So far, we’ve made the palm tree (brown corduroy). Glue overdose means the only original figures are the baby Jesus and the Rastafarian Joseph, named for his […]
What must be said: hardware, broccoli, and love
Last night I learned a dear friend died. She and her husband helped us when our first child was born and were both friends and second parents to us. That’s when she inscribed a copy of THE ENCHANTED BROCCOLI FOREST cookbook: “In our hearts, you’ll always be our neighbors.” The news reminded me about grief, […]
The Power of the Silver Pen: Journals, Photos, and Collections Help Order Our Lives
Marie Kondo’s THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP explores the benefits of de-cluttering at a level I can’t attain but it reminds me that things help us find out who we are. The things I like and don’t like, need and don’t need, are like mirrors that reflect information back to me and help me […]