Catania, September 22-24 Hot, first impression off the plane. Got off at the wrong bus stop, trudged with bags through a funky part of town, and up steep streets (so that’s why it’s called lug-gage!) until we found our “hidden gem”, Crociferi B&B, where we promptly had tea, showers, and Larry napped. I had been […]
Travels in Madrid-Art
The Museums The Paseo del Arte Pass (€30.50) gets you into three major museums quickly, although we did not encounter big lines. It is good for a year. Let me know if you’re going to Madrid, I have two of them. Spoiler Alert: There is a No Photos policy in all of these museums, which […]
Travels in Madrid- The Food
Naturally, we we planned to eat well, and made a reservation before we left Berkeley for 10:45pm at Astor, a delicious effort by a Spanish woman and her Argentinian husband, with a Peruvian chef who introduced them to a variety of Peruvian cuisine that includes Japanese and Chinese influences. Our menu: a beet hummus, cod […]
Travels in Madrid
Sept 18-21, 2019 Our days in Madrid have been filled with long walks along many narrow streets, wearing our eyeballs thin at the museums, and eating. We’ve been staying in a 4th floor apartment (a good workout) in the Letras neighborhood, where many illustrious writers have hung out(Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Góngora, y otros.) These […]
The Artist’s Ramble
Who has not been enthralled by textures and surfaces? From an airplane window, we marvel at the dendritic patterns of streams and rivers forming wrinkled hills, great alluvial fans streaming from mountain into desert, the rolling rhythm of basin and range, and the strange black mass rising from the ochre-and calcium-rich wastelands somewhere in […]
A day in the kitchen
Rose Apricot Conserves I found these apricots first at the Monterey Market last Friday. They were purple-black on the outside, with a slight haze of fuzz that gave them a silvery sheen. Super ripe, so I knew it was cooking time. At 98 cents a pound I could not go wrong. Except […]
Back in the swing
A few days of wistful, with weather to match-grey and foggy. Our internal clocks have adjusted, as have our appetites. Regular routines, like laundry and shopping, and work have assumed their place. The other day, however, I opened the spice bags, added a touch of Aleppo pepper to the lamb/rice meatballs, and then I removed […]
The last morning
October 10 This morning, another beautiful day dawns, clear and crisp. The weather has definitely turned. Crowded on the rooftop, we say our farewells to the city we all swear we shall revisit. The sun winks on the water, polishes the gold of the Sultanahmet Mosque, silhouettes the Galata Tower, as, off in the distance, […]