May 31st, 2024 | Boston, Changes, General, on shipboard, transportation, Travel
It was there on Sumner Street, just a couple short blocks from my home. A fine old steamer trunk that may have been new around 1930. I hadn’t noticed it when I headed out. Who knows in which house it had been stored, in which deep closet or dusty attic. My Godmother...
January 6th, 2024 | Architecture and Design, General, Memory, Travel, United States, visual arts
A fine January 5th, cold, a little windy, just what I would expect in Boston. I had an appointment with Adam at The Charles Realty scheduled for eleven o’clock. Otherwise my day was my own. Old South Old South Church is only a couple doors down from the hotel, on the...
January 5th, 2024 | Family, General, Memory, Travel, United States
The omens were mixed for this trip. I almost missed the exit to 895 as I was driving south on I-95. I headed to the bus stop at long-term parking at BWI, nearly forgetting my suitcase. The Southwest flight took off about 20 minutes after it was supposed to have landed...
October 24th, 2023 | Europe, Family, Friends, General, Health, Loss, Memory, Travel
On Sunday, October 15, I ended the day feeling ill, and was grateful for Tali’s Ayurvedic ministrations. They helped. Monday morning saw some improvement but by evening I needed an early bedtime. Tuesday, we attended to a number of tasks, and right away I realized...
October 22nd, 2023 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, Europe, General, Loss, Memory, Time Passes, Travel
Vilnius—in fact, all of Lithuania—is a constant experience of déjà vu. Or perhaps more accurately, jau matytas. Every day seemed a trip down Memory Lane. October 6 I hadn’t planned to be ensconced in my room at Bookinn B&B by that day, but I had fled the pas...
October 11th, 2023 | Education, Europe, General, Memory, Politics, Society at Large
I expected the village of Žiežmariai to be a quick stop. My target was the church, St James the Apostle, where so many Tomkuses had been baptized, married and seen off to the hereafter. The wooden prayer house those ancestors would have known was replaced in 1924 by...