The Grand-duc d’Europe
In August 1999, there was a total eclipse of the sun. Living in the Mardyke area of Cork city between the River Lee and the University, I was waiting for the phenomenon. A few moments before the appointed time, early afternoon, it...
The Seasons of Enlightenment
It’s not losing our glasses that causes us the most grief anymore, not even losing our keys or the odd sock….it’s our telephones. Our personal telephones are like our gods, they are called a different name in each religion and each culture, but essentially, they...
When I Am An Old Woman
It is the last Sunday in August on Lake Annecy. It is 38 degrees, and I am alone, sitting at the dining table on the terrace, shaded by a loggia of jasmine, wisteria and clematis, eating my Sunday lunch, before packing my Stand Up...
Move Over in the Bed Baby Boomers, Make Way for Millenials
Woke up this morning worrying about earthworms. In a landscape increasingly covered in concrete, how do they breathe or mate? Without oxygen, worms suffocate. Earthworms breathe through their skin and come up to the surface at night to mate if they feel so inclined....
Up Down!
(PIC from the “Body Language” blog article “The 23 Best Places in Berlin to watch Euro 2016” reproduced by “Slow Travel Berlin.”) Berlin in summertime is dappled….so many trees and the glint of water, and the smell of dog shit and lime blossom. Being winter...
Tapestry
Because the world spins so fast and because he is away often, Himself and myself have ‘planning meetings’ when we sit down with calendar, notebook and diary and get organized, make lists, pencil in dates and discuss where each will be, what each...
Why I Can Say What I Darned Well Please
I have earned my feminist stripes. In jest,with irony, I used to facetiously remark “How would I know/I couldn’t do that…I’m just a woman” and drew upon me the...
I’d Love a Fag. A Short Tale of Friendship
In Berlin, where many old accommodation blocks are built around courtyards, by law, a second staircase is provided for emergencies. Our apartment, on the fifth floor of a century old ‘Altbau’ is three sides of a square in shape. At one side is the...