The Miracle Drug Creative skyFriday, 21 February We are nearing the end of a week here in the Perche. The days have developed a gentle rhythm, starting at 6, if I am lucky enough to sleep that long. I waste no time getting dressed as our bedroom above the barn, with little heat
Lessons in Fear Management Friday, 31 January Today is a sad day, not because the sodden weather has merged Paris rooftop and sky into one lump of grey or because it’s too warm by 10°C/20°F for the end of January, but because come midnight the United Kingdom will forsake the
Inward and Onward Friday, 10 January Think back, look forward. That is what January is for, especially one marking the beginning of a new decade. How do my musings from a year ago [https://mf.ghost.io/the-joys-of-january/], for example, appear now? What might these 2020s hold? Out with a bang: sunrise 31
Plus ça change Friday, 13 December Some words and expressions capture a concept so aptly they are untranslatable. Often that's because the meaning conveys a quality firmly grounded in the native culture. Gemütlich for example captures the homey cosiness that Germans need to get through winter, while plus ça change, used
Touring Friday, 29 November They say that just before you die, your whole life passes before you. That has just happened to me but, as of this writing, I am still very much alive. Though still recovering, from a 10-day whirlwind book tour of the US for my novel The Art
Angst Management Friday, 8 November Next Monday I leave on a US book tour for my novel The Art of Regret and it’s fair to say I’m a little anxious. I will be doing six cities—San Francisco, Boston, Wayne, PA, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and Chicago—in 12 days. The
A Novel Look at Paris, II Friday, 25 October The long, unusual walk [https://mf.ghost.io/a-novel-look-at-paris/] I took two weeks ago in anticipation of The Art of Regret's publication* got me thinking about shorter, more pedestrian walks, ones made so frequently you can almost stop noticing all that is going on around
A Novel Look at Paris Wig shop, rue des Poissionniers Friday, 11 October The other day I took an unusual and instructive walk. It's actually a walk I have been thinking about taking since I revisited the Basilique de Saint Denis in 2015 [https://mf.ghost.io/ode-to-a-friend/] because it relates to a
The Spice of Life Friday, 27 September How odd that a trip to the Indian quarter of Paris should make me feel I am really home, that our Berlin life [https://mf.ghost.io/the-best-of-it/] is really over. La Chapelle, as the quartier indien is known, stretches from the Gares du Nord and de
Our Nature Friday, 30 August Summer is winding down. At least I think it is. This past week in Paris the thermometer has climbed to a dog-day [https://mf.ghost.io/dog-days/] 34°C (93°F). But there are also crispy brown leaves piling up on the streets, as if we were
Whose House Is This? Friday, 16 August 2019 Our new house in the Perche may be situated at the end of a track. Our nearest neighbours may be at an invisible distance. But that does not mean we are alone. The habitable space of our property is in two parts. On the left side
Carl H Hintze on the Move Friday, 26 July Some of us humans are happier living away from our homeland. We feel more comfortable where we are less quantifiable, less easily classified. I have recently discovered that this may also be true for pianos. If I was a bit concerned about Tasha the dog’s adjustment
Tasha, a Franco-German Dog in the Perche Getting the lay of the land Friday, 12 July While thinking about how to approach the first entry of this re-christened Paris-Perche Diary, I returned to the beginning, to the first blog I ever wrote in the Paris-Berlin Diary. One paragraph long, it was entitled Back to Berlin [https://mf.
Den 17.Juni und/et le 18 Juin Straße des 17.Juni: "Der Rufer"(The Caller), statue commemorating the uprising; the Victory Column in the background Friday, 21 June Our move from Berlin back to France last week was so aptly timed, so ripe with symbolism, you'd be forgiven for suspecting the dates were
The Best of It Friday, 7 June During our three-week Berlin stint in May, I drew up two lists, one with the preparations for the move mid-June and the other a personal catalogue of what I wanted to get done during this final stretch as a resident of Berlin. Here in Paris this last
Woodland Friends Friday, 17 May When my friend Cathy S was a little girl, she came home from school one day and said to her mother: “I’ve made a new friend.” “That’s nice,” her mother replied. “Who is it?” “A tree.” Not surprisingly Cathy became a poet [http://www.catherinestaples.
When Dreams Really Do Come True Friday, 3 May I grew up on the ninth floor of an apartment building in Chicago. But I dreamt of living in the countryside surrounded by nothing but nature. In my active fantasy world, I would, for example, turn my desk chair over and pretend it was my horse. Off
Or Else Friday, 19 April Much ink, both real and virtual, has already been spilled and I begin this blog uneasily. What more can I possibly add to the outpour? On the other hand how can I write about anything else? I am referring of course to the fire that ravaged the
Chez Moi Friday, 5 April Last Friday we once again survived the 1126km (700m) road trip from Berlin to Paris. This one clocked in at 11.5 hours, despite minimal stopping and some very fast driving on the speed limit-less German Autobahn. The trip never gets any easier. Like other ordeals—a
Tasha the Tracker Anything else out there but the rising sun? Friday, 22 March If we move Tasha moves, though not always in the same direction. She sometimes has her own adventures. During our almost constant travelling [https://mf.ghost.io/why-are-you-here/] these last two months, she has spent a lot of time
Why are you here? The Cloisters, New York Friday, 8 March During my constant movement over the past six weeks (Paris to Berlin to Paris to London to Paris to the US to Paris), I have been asked repeatedly: “Why are you here?” In fact I have been asked it so many times that
A City on Steroids Friday, 15 February We’d been talking about the trip for some time. Ever since our children finally got their belongings out of our cupboards and culled into a heap in our garage and it became clear that if we did not take the mountain to Mohammed, the mountain would
The Joys of January A shadow of myself Friday, 25 January After the immoderation of Christmas and New Year, January is usually a month of resolute plans for a fresh start. A time when we promise to clean up our lives and become better people, when we hold out hope for a personal metamorphosis
Mere Anarchy? boulevard Saint Germain Friday, 11 January Exactly one hundred years ago, January 1919, W.B. Yeats wrote his most famous poem, The Second Coming. It's the one where he talks about things falling apart; the centre not holding. About the blood-dimmed tide being loosed upon the world. I’
En Famille (needlepoint portrait by Catharine M) Friday, 28 December It has been almost two years since Tasha crash-landed into our life. But since we were in India [https://mf.ghost.io/history-repeats-itself/] last December, this has been her first Christmas en famille. And she had to jump in at the deep
