Bedtime Stories: A Boy and a Girl With Reddish Hair

July 26 Marvaõ, Alto Alentejo, Portugal Late last night as we tucked the kids away to bed in the little room we are all sharing in an old quinta in the high granite hills of the Upper Alentejo, Oliver asked my husband to tell him a story.  Ryan closed his eyes for a minute before… Continue reading Bedtime Stories: A Boy and a Girl With Reddish Hair

Happy Birthday, Little One: Kendley Turns Two (From Daddy)

May 18 Bordeaux, France Happy birthday to my beautiful little girl. From the second I laid my eyes on you, I was in awe of you. You have always filled my heart with joy and have given me a lifetime of love in only two years. While you might not understand what we are doing… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Little One: Kendley Turns Two (From Daddy)

Happy Birthday, Little One: Kendley Turns Two (From Mommy)

May 18 Bordeaux, France Today our daughter turns two years old.  To celebrate, we followed our GPS for ages around the sprawling suburbs that spiral off Bordeaux’s ring road until it brought us to Récréa’Land, an indoor gymnasium/fun zone complete with multilevel play structures, slides and several enormous, child-swallowing ball pits.  In the past, we… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Little One: Kendley Turns Two (From Mommy)

When the Sun Shines In Scotland

February 18 – 25 Isle of Luing, Inner Hebrides, Scotland On a late February day in the northwest of Scotland, we had been given a gift.  It came in the form of a radiantly beautiful day, one in which a low-slung winter sun glazed the pastures and seacoast of the Inner Hebrides with a warm,… Continue reading When the Sun Shines In Scotland

Old Stone Homes and the Art of B&E: Umbria, Italy

November 17 – 18 Renzetti, Umbria Italy Culpability is still an item up for debate.  Who was to blame for closing the front door while forgetting the key inside?  The little stone cottage that sits at a turn in the road eleven kilometers outside of Cittá di Castello, was, in that one instant, completely impermeable. … Continue reading Old Stone Homes and the Art of B&E: Umbria, Italy