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 ...
O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? - Percy Bysshe Shelley Winter rolls in on a wave of misty white, the fog hanging heavy and cruel over the city. The icy chill penetrates every pore of one’s body and no matter what one does, no matter how many blankets or pairs of socks, ...
Nature bestows her own, richest gifts And, with lavish hands, she works in shifts... - Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, The Four Seasons The summer pop-up shops are closed, windows dark and gathering dust. The streets are emptier without the tourists, and that emptiness is made all the heavier for the recent days of grey skies and intermittent rain. ...
Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils. - Cyril Connolly I simply need some comfort today. We all do. This election has left me drained, emotionally and physically. I’m shaken to my very core, chilled to my bones, and every cliché and platitude in between. Battered and bruised. I mourn for ...
Let them eat cake. – Marie Antoinette While my own parents were making pies with frozen shells and canned filling or cakes from boxed mixes, my future mother-in-law was feeding her family on homemade treats. Apricot or plum halves pressed into sugary, crumbly pâte sablée or rich quatres-quart made with butter, milk, sugar and flour. Simple ...
Summer was a series of random thoughts, urges unencumbered by parental restrictions. The last day of school and we were left to our own devices from then on, basketball in the driveway, hopscotch on the sidewalk, dodge ball in the grass, and kickball in the street were the order of the day, every day. Innocent ...
Bye, Bye, Birdie I'm gonna miss you so; Bye Bye Birdie, Why'd ya have to go? No more sunshine, It's followed you away; I'll cry Birdie, Till you're home to stay. – Lee Adams There was the story of the stolen bicycle, the story of the underwear found hanging on the chandelier, the story of the famous film producer, odd, quirky, adorable, the ...
Morning without you is a dwindled dawn. - Emily Dickinson Up at 5:30, downstairs by 6:30, that is my everyday. Fueled by coffee. Or it should be. Downstairs at 6:30, first clients begin filtering into the breakfast room at 7:15, sometimes earlier, and we jump into action as if someone has flicked on a switch. Sometimes the ...
Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson After a week of chilly, dreary days, heavy granite skies, the wind whipping in circles around the courtyard, flicking leaves across the stones and spattering rain against the windows, battering down onto the cement of the terrace, the sun has arrived ...
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.
