unlikely textures
The roughness of the world is as sweet as its silkiness. Sweeter even because of all it asks of us. The beauty of something like my repurposed backyard cactus takes more work to find. But it's there. This summer I am rewarded for my care by the sudden starburst of...
what would Virginia Woolf do? Part One
I'm inspecting the inside of the oven door. Yes, it really does need some attention from a single edge razor blade. You see I plan to set my fat-encrusted oven on "Self Cleaning," a process that will require the dedication of four hours during which the house will...
random shrines
"Perhaps because I had no roots to hold me tight to one path or one place, I was free to explore. In the process I have filled each event in my life with as much color, movement, and awareness as it could hold. The quest for home has provided me with incredible joys,...
identity portals
"Many of us have trouble parting with old clothes, toys, or games from childhood, papers from college, single gloves that have long since lost their mates, and empty perfume bottles still heady with scent. We keep them because they still transmit an aura of pleasure,...
liquid music
After so many years of writing about wine I experienced another epiphany yesterday. In the company of 75 gathered aficionados I listened to winemakers and viticulturists talk about their land, their soil, the tender regard they had for their particular slope of eden....
Inside the Flame
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.