January 31st, 2026 | Architecture and Design, Europe, General, History, Travel
A slow stroll across Praça do Comércio, a breath of damp air off the River Tagus, a coffee and a croissant were prelude to the ascent. I climbed first to the Romanesque gloom of Sé and its jewel-box neighbor, Santo António da Sé, then descended to the Museu do...
January 26th, 2026 | Architecture and Design, Europe, General, History, Travel, visual arts
My research on Sintra was inadequate. I knew the train ran from Rossio and that my navigante occasional card would zap me there. I would find a stellar collection of historic sites and walking trails to explore. Buses run from the center of Sintra to distant palaces....
January 26th, 2026 | Architecture and Design, Europe, General, History, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Travel, visual arts
I left the Gulbenkian Foundation astonished, moved, and thoroughly ashamed of what my country has become politically, morally, and culturally. The art I saw returned me to the politics that I had hoped, to some degree, to ignore for a few days. When I was there,...
January 24th, 2026 | Europe, General, Travel
I had prepared carefully. I had my DK Lisbon guide, my lists and agenda, and my My Maps print-outs of where I thought I might go. I packed thoughtfully and even included an F adapter for my electronics. Two, in fact, to be on the safe side. And so many cords. The Uber...
December 12th, 2025 | Boston, Family, Friends, General, Holidays, Loss, Pets, Writing
With the odd nip and tuck, here’s what went out in red envelopes this year. The Annual Greeting I was gonna be granny of the groom! Miles and Holly were to wed on September 6, and I had been holding the date since forever. The couple’s color palette was green...
October 31st, 2025 | Changes, Friends, General, Loss, Memory, Time Passes
In 1921, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)—and the world at large it seemed—was at a turning point. The devastation of World War I had hollowed a generation of artists, of painters and sculptors, poets and musicians. Picasso himself turned forty, a moment when many pause,...