When bounteous autumn rears her head, he joys to pull the ripened pear. - John Dryden Pear season arrives and intensifies as hotel low season sets in, as the rhythm slows, and as autumn materializes in a haze of morning brume and a carpet of sodden, fallen leaves. We arrive at the producer's barn-like warehouse after ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
My father planted a lone lemon tree in the backyard. This was about the time that he went on his homegrown produce kick and had planted a small vegetable patch at the side of the house, which eventually would boast big fat red tomatoes and long, slim chili peppers. He worked long and hard on ...
And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby My husband has been bringing me treasures from the garden, fresh mint heady ...
“Oh, I adore to cook. It makes me feel so mindless in a worthwhile way." - Truman Capote, Summer Crossing, 1943 High season. It’s been hectic, to say the least, to put it mildly, and I don’t know where I find the energy. Commitment to the project, to the team, to my own sense of self. Thirty, thirty-five, forty ...
Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. – Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist I really did not think that I would be making strawberry jam this early in the season. Strawberries had just begun making their ...
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.
