August 2018 It escapes my understanding why human beings constantly create dichotomies in life, but there it is, the evidence stands plain before us. What's a girl to do? Going through some old photos I hadn't looked at in a long time brought forcefully to mind an issue I usually slap down every time it pops up like a jack-in-the-box from its relegation to the dank recesses of my mental real estate. I'll go to [...]
July 2018 It's high summer in the Bitter North now, when for those few brief months a magical transformation comes to forests that spend much of the year under deep snow. A few years ago on a visit home I betook myself to an area within an hour's drive of where I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I have the good fortune to come from one of the areas of [...]
July 2018 It would have been better by far had I started this blog 30 years ago when people were still oriented to print and reading was still a done thing. But wait ... there wasn't an Internet 30 years ago, silly me! How times have changed. I've just been doing some research on the decline of reading and was surprised to find so much hue and cry issuing forth in the media. It's a [...]
June 2018 Absolutely the last thing that applies to the dozens of temples in Chiang Mai is the phrase, "If you've seen one you've seen 'em all." Nothing could be more diametrically opposed to the truth. Every temple is like a world unto itself with its own character, its own atmosphere, its own aesthetic. Wat Palad sits on the side of Doi Suthep mountain halfway up to the main mountain temple, the pilgrimage site [...]