When I sound the fairy call, gather here in silent meeting, Chin to knee on the orchard wall, cooled with dew and cherries eating. Merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder, Mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you'll be fairies all. - Emily Dickinson "The old cherry ...
Pastry, Petitions, and Politics Part III I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson Summer arrives in Chinon on the first wave of tourists; bicycles clog the courtyard; buses disgorge bedraggled groups weary from travel yet pleased to be in such a charming ...
My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent. - Ruth Bader Ginsburg It was just 3 or 4 days shy of my ninth birthday. I had dreamed of owning a big bike, begged to change my little kid’s small bicycle for an adult-sized beauty, just ...
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision. - James Whistler Suddenly it's light at 6:30 am when I skitter out, arms wrapped around myself to ward off the chill, tiptoeing so as not to make too much noise as I crunch across the gravel, to open the front gate of the ...
The greatest dishes are very simple. - Auguste Escoffier Suddenly the anemic rose bush just outside the French windows that lead out to the wrought-iron terrace hanging on the side of the hotel is thick with jade-colored leaves and dotted crazily with buds, the first already bursting in blood red splendor. The wisteria is luxurious with ...
It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. - John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent I met Stephen in Nigeria in 1986. He was a Fulbright professor lecturing in English and creative writing at the University of Ife, in Ile-Ife. I was visiting a ...
All human plans subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe. - Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two Spring had sprung, or so we thought. Gentle sunshine, mild afternoons, the temperature inching upwards and memories of laundry flapping in the fresh air come flooding ...
De toutes les passions, la seule vraiment respectable me paraît être la gourmandise. - Guy de Maupassant “Okay, your turn,” they said, and a dozen pair of eyes slid in my direction. “Tell us about yourself.” I have never been comfortable talking about myself, but here I was, the center of attention, albeit for just a ...
Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade. - Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse It was a tangle of brambles and ivy, a wilderness of sticks and dried grass and odd and unknown stalks of something or other sticking heavenward willy-nilly across the landscape. The old wooden gate pushed open to ...
Did you ever sleep in a field of orange-trees in bloom? The air which one inhales deliciously is a quintessence of perfumes. This powerful and sweet smell, as savoury as a sweetmeat, seems to penetrate one, to impregnate, to intoxicate, to induce languor, to bring about a dreamy and somnolent torpor. It is like opium ...
I'm Jamie; welcome to the new Life's a Feast!
I run a hotel in Chinon, France, and write about life, culture, modern day living and food.
My passion is to create vibrant and unique experiences.
