Good-bye…Hello

I’ve never been very good at saying good-bye. Of course, not too many people are very good at it. After all, good-bye is a word more often tinged with melancholy than anticipation, unless of course one is waving off relatives who have come for a visit and then outstayed their welcome. But [...]

Read Full Post »

Cleaning the Barbeque

When it comes to jobs around the house, I used to think that the worst of them was cleaning the oven. Not so any more. In this age of modern convenience, ovens more or less clean themselves. Yep, we have cast off this miserable chore and replaced it….with cleaning the barbeque.
The barbecue used [...]

Read Full Post »

House Rules

This Sedona house has, (like most houses I expect), its own personality. It is quirky, possibly like its owner who is an artist I believe. I only know her from brief conversations we have had on the phone but she sounds quirky too, a little vague perhaps, a little scattered but I [...]

Read Full Post »

In Praise of Home Economics

When I was in high school, I took Home Economics as one of my optional courses. Home Ec. was one of those courses that you chose because it gave you a vacation from an otherwise brain-taxing day. (Okay, so my choice is what? Latin declension or learning to make cinnamon toast? Bring on [...]

Read Full Post »

Bread

The topic today is bread. Yes bread.
It came up while I was making lunch. I was thinking that the bread I was using for the sandwiches looked, well, a bit impotent. And it tasted slightly sweet. Yuck.
When I was a little girl there were a lot of things we couldn’t [...]

Read Full Post »

Once Upon a Time, Fifty Years Ago

I was eight years old when my mother and father told my sister and me that we were going to live in Canada. At the time, it seemed like just a dream. I hadn’t studied Canadian history or geography at my school in England yet and so the only resource I had was [...]

Read Full Post »

Flipping the Flipping Mattress

Some time ago, my husband and I decided to buy a king- size bed. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. There was plenty of room for it and because our bedroom is large and long, a king- size bed served to minimize the bowling alley look that such a configuration [...]

Read Full Post »

I Iron, Therefore I am

I was thinking the other day that there are things that we just don’t do anymore. Take elocution lessons for instance. Whoever actually spends time learning to pronounce words correctly? There was a time when some of us did just that.
When I was seven years old, in England, elocution was part of our school curriculum. [...]

Read Full Post »

Travelling with the Kitchen Sink

My husband and I are going on vacation in a couple of weeks. While I like the idea of going on a bit of an adventure, I’m not quite at the point where I’m looking forward to it because all I can think about is what I’m going to pack.
In previous years, we have always [...]

Read Full Post »

Stepping up to the Plate

My Aunt died last week. That leaves only one uncle of that generation on my Mother’s side of the family. It is likewise the case on my Dad’s side. Mother, father, aunts and uncles as well as grandparents who are long gone. My sister and I are pretty much left with only two uncles between [...]

Read Full Post »