Mary Fleming

What About the Garden

Before - 13 April 2019Friday, 9 April If our house weren’t at the end of the lane, we might have driven right by it. Such were the changes to its outward appearance when we recently returned from a long trip to London [https://mf.ghost.io/mira-cle/]. We had

When Dreams Really Do Come True, Part II*

Moving? Again?Friday, 26 March On Tuesday evening, we walked through the newly opened passage and our hearts fell into our dusty shoes. The long-awaited move into the renovated barn was taking place the next day. Cleared and ready, the space was not. No room for Carl the piano here.

Mira-cle

The Fleming-Kotharis and the ArnolfiniFriday, 12 March “What if she’s late?” Georgina asked when we were planning a month-long London trip to coincide with the birth of her and Amal’s baby, our grand-daughter. An astute point from the mother-to-be. Humans can land on Mars and engineer genes, but

Compelling Motives

Friday, 19 February It felt like we were preparing for a dangerous, perhaps impossible mission. All week long I was amassing staples – oil, pasta, tins of tuna and tomatoes. Closer to departure, I bought perishables and David stocked up on another essential, wine. When not shopping and packing, I was

Overturning Earth

Friday, 5 February “By the end of next week,” our green guru Claire [https://mf.ghost.io/only-connect/] said, “it’s going to look like Verdun.” That was in early November last year. The indoor renovation [https://mf.ghost.io/renovating-mind-and-matter/] of our property in the Perche [https://mf.ghost.

Four Years On

Friday, 15 January If you saw the above photo while still deranged with grief over the recent death of your last beloved lost dog [https://mf.ghost.io/adieu-et-merci/], would you have been able to resist saving her from the pound? If you are normally a responsible, rational adult, the

Looking for the Light

Friday, 1st January For the last weeks, it seems I have been living almost constantly in the dark. I wake and work and walk Tasha before the sun comes up, and often don’t go outside again until the dog’s late afternoon promenade, when the day is well on

The Netflix Life

Friday, 11 December In the sweet and funny 1993 film Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays Phil Connor, a curmudgeonly weatherman sent to small town Punxutawny, Pennsylvania to cover the eponymous event.* A snowstorm retains him in the town and, it turns out, in time: he keeps waking up to the

Only Connect

Friday, 20 November Where would we be, I sometimes shudder to think, if my friend Tala, a second-career gardener, hadn't trawled the internet and found Claire, another second-career gardener. Last year, when we bought Deux Champs [https://mf.ghost.io/when-dreams-really-do-come-true/], our property in the Perche, it came

Darkening Days

Friday, 6 November I got my wish [https://mf.ghost.io/where-its-happening/] and am back in Paris but it’s been a bit of a rough week. The American elections have made concentration on anything else close to impossible. Whatever your political views, it’s distressing to see a nation

Where It's Happening

Friday, 23 October Poor Paris. She has been getting short shrift in this Paris-Perche Diary; Covid-19 keeps getting in the way. First the two months of confinement during which we holed up in the Perche, then the subsequent period when Paris seemed sad and still germ-ier than the countryside and

History Lessons

Friday, 25 September As I was saying last week, before a fire [https://mf.ghost.io/not-the-way-id-planned-it/] interrupted me: Sometimes I look at the barn we are turning into living space out here in the Perche and am surprised it’s still standing. The masons, back from their summer holiday,

Not the Way I'd Planned It

Friday, 18 September Today began like most second Fridays. I woke up and worked on my blog, walked the dog, ate breakfast and worked more on my blog, this one about progress on our barn reconstruction project [https://mf.ghost.io/renovating-mind-and-matter/], as well our growing knowledge of this place

A Precarious Position

Friday, 4 September As a child I dreaded going back to school in September. During the summer my mind softened like overripe fruit and firming it back into academic shape loomed darkly in my psyche. The condition lightened a bit in early adulthood, then got worse again when I had

A Human Hive

Masonic dustFriday, 31 July Our place in the Perche this morning is more crowded than Paris. Or so it seems. We left the eerily quiet city early today in order to beat the heat (37°C/98.6°F) and the hordes of holiday makers expected on the roads at

Awry July

clouds approachingFriday, 17 July Every July my husband David and I have the same exchange. He says: “Summer is now here. Paris will calm down and empty out.” And I reply: “No it won’t. Not until August. July is one big traffic jam.” Unfortunately I am always right. The

Finding the Thread

Friday, 3 July This morning I woke up at 5 to mild panic: I am supposed to write a blog today and I do not have a single idea. After a few minutes tossing and still not even a hint of a plan, I got up, made my coffee, and

Renovating Mind and Matter

Friday, 19 June Our third major renovation project in six years is now underway. After Berlin 2014-15 and Paris 2017-18, it’s the Perche 2020-21. Or so we hope. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from experience, it’s pay no attention to predicted time frames. Neither of

The Taming of Tasha?

The Wild One amid the wild flowersFriday, 29 May On our walk [https://mf.ghost.io/the-miracle-drug/] through the Perche countryside this morning, it occurred to me that Tasha the dog has some striking similarities to Voltaire’s Candide. For those of you who have not read the eponymous novel

From Confinement to Confusion

Friday, 15 May When it comes to French history, I should know better than to rely on the internet. I should know to go straight to my friend Diane A-C. Last entry [https://mf.ghost.io/confinement-part-iv/] I sketched the history of the May 1st labour holiday in France but

Confinement, Part IV

Friday, 1st May It’s May Day, a day to celebrate spring and labour. With nature and work much on my mind this 46th day of our confinement, it’s a timely holiday. Happy spring from my flower bedThe earliest known observation of the day goes back to the 2nd

Confinement, Part III

Life under a Super MoonFriday, 17 April When we still had our Berlin life [https://mf.ghost.io/den-17-juni-le-18-juin/], I wrote about my husband David’s sixth sense, his inner GPS [https://mf.ghost.io/reincarnation/]. At the time I believed this gift was limited to his ability to home

Confinement, Part II

Friday, 3 April “More bubble baths,” I said last December, adding to the list of my resolutions for 2020. I had just walked out of a Neal’s Yard shop in London, where I was stocking up on their heavenly Seaweed & Arnica Foaming Bath ("A restorative bath to

On the Early Days of Confinement

Friday, 20 March Today it is hard to imagine that two weeks ago, when I last sat down to write this blog, my husband David had just flown to the US for a 10-day family visit. That he was planning to come back and immediately get on another plane to

Greek Lessons

Friday, 6 March Sometimes I ask myself what it is about Paris that I love so much. Near the top of a long list is the fact that so many of her buildings and monuments were here hundreds of years before I was born and, barring human folly, natural disaster