Loose Leaf Notes

1. Today I stopped to smell the roses … in the English countryside.

2. I mistakenly thought I saw a child driving a car (because the driver’s seat is where the passenger seat is in the U.S.). Everywhere I went there were ripe blackberries to pick and the scent of farms. I passed streets with names like Shrub Cote, Priory Way and Tilden Gill.

3. We were traveling from Italy to England, somewhere where they were broadcasting CNN, when I learned about the death of Aretha Franklin.  I was a big fan and marked her passing by posting a video of her on Facebook singing Respect.

4. Along with the video, I commented: I’ve been known to say that I’ll get up and dance to Aretha Franklin’s Respect wherever I am no matter where I hear it. One year I was invited to my Hull MA class reunion and I told my classmate who asked if I was coming that I would if the reunion party DJ played Respect. He did and we all got up and danced!

5. We flew from Genoa, Italy to London the day after the tragic Genoa bridge collapse. If it had been the day before, we would not have been able to make the flight.  Thanks to our hometown friend Jody Rose of Rose of the Winds, who booked our plans, for giving us heads-up and updates about the bridge.

6. While in Europe (Paris, the Italian Riviera and England), I learned which few of my Facebook friends are insomniacs. We were six, then five five hours ahead time-wise here and a few friends were awake and commenting in the wee hours of night/early morning.

7. The bucket list trip has been fantastic but not without the stresses that are inherent in daily life . In this case, it was the wear and tear of long traveling logistics, language barriers, and my computer bit the dust! Technology takes up a lot of our time, but when it’s not working right it takes up more than too much. For a couple of weeks I had to wiggle my netbook power charge cord, prop it up at angles and pray that it would start, before it completely gave up. By the time we were in the Kent countryside, where Joe is one of the teachers at a Teen Meditation Retreat, I had to face the learning curve and use his Mac.

8. Poem written in Italy about travel logistics and relationship: We are a crossword puzzle / When I go down / you go across / but we meet at some point / to make sense of each other / Every word counts / Every blank space / is a mirror to see / ourselves better.

9. The picture above is of Joe and I soaking our feet in Claude Monet’s water lily pond. More HERE. You can also read about our stay on the Italian Riviera HERE and about our two days in London at “Not Your Grandma’s Bangers and Mash” HERE. 

10.  It’s never too late to put flowers on the table / to let the song birds of your childhood / sing like Jericho through middle age / to let them be blue/ and enjoy them when they’re golden / to visit Claude Monet’s garden in spring … Read the rest of this poem HERE. 

11. Ma’am of Madame? In England I’ve been called “My darling.”

12. Heard on a London weather report from a pub TV in London: “Pop your brelly in your bag.”

13. The whole reason for putting the Cinque Terre on my bucket list was that years ago I read Shirley Maclaine’s book about hiking the Camino and entertained the idea of making that month-long pilgrimage someday. The reality is, I don’t have the stamina to pull something like that off. The idea of taking shorter hikes in-between the colorful villages of The Cinque Terre sounded so doable, and I liked the idea of swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in between hikes and eating Italian food. The Cinque Terre is considered the Italian Riviera but unlike the French Riviera, the businesses in the villages are local and family owned… – More from The Hike That Happened HERE. 

____________Thirteen Thursday