New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on ...
Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. - A. A. Milne Our apartment takes up about a third of the hotel's first floor (one flight up, overlooking the courtyard garden on one side of the building, street level on the other). Our ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugarplums. - Anthony Trollope I’ve had an unexpected windfall of greengage plums. It rained hard for most of the summer, summer not arriving in the Loire Valley until mid-July. It rained hard and long and the chill ...
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 ...
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.
