June 28th, 2021 | Education, Europe, Friends, General, Travel
I learned about the English-Speaking Union at Emma Willard School where, freshman year, our ESU was the tall and soignée Julia. Three years later, I applied to the program; our headmaster, William Dietel, at that time chaired the selection committee. I still remember...
September 23rd, 2010 | General, Travel
It rained during the night. Boughs bow in the colorless light, the flagstones and rock walls are damp and the lawn glows that brilliant, peculiarly English, green. It is our last day at New Cottage and this is a lovely morning. There is, as usual, too much left in the...
September 22nd, 2010 | General, Travel
Nüvi: “In 0.6 miles turn right on road.” Nüvi: “In 1.3 miles turn left on road.” Left to our own devices, we would never have headed down an unnamed macadam track even if we thought that Kelmscott Manor was somewhere in that general direction. Left to a GPS device, we...
September 20th, 2010 | General, Travel
Outside the little flagstoned-floor solarium in this thatched cottage, one of three surviving buildings of the catastrophic fire of 1793, the last of the freesias and dahlias and hollyhocks sway under soft clouds and glimpses of pale blue sky. It is quiet. I hear to...